
As some of you who follow us on Patreon or Facebook already know, we had an amazing opportunity at the end of the summer – at the invitation of Experience Kissimmee – to take the kids on their first ever long-haul flight and enjoy a week’s vacation in Florida, in the Vacation Home Capital of the World®. We had an incredible time, visiting amazing sites, enjoying US-style hospitality and food, and doing the kind of stuff we relish on vacation – outdoors, nature, exciting days and trips, and just spending time together to make memories and learn about new places and people. It’s always those bits in between that stick in family folklore: the pool alarm, the car doors, the bad songs on the playlist, the size of the breakfast fruit, Tess dancing on a carpet because for the first time in her life she had a room to herself for seven nights.
This song was written to reflect the experiences we had on holiday – an adaptation of “House of the Rising Sun” or its original folk title, “Rising Sun Blues”. We were slightly surprised that our hosts, Experience Kissimmee, were happy for us to riff on a song about someone down-at-their-heels in Louisiana, but we quickly realised that’s because they ‘get’ us and see things very similarly – that making the best of life is about finding fun, and having a laugh, and choosing to collaborate and build experiences around sunshine and fresh air and music. We’d like to give a huge shout out to all those venues that we got to visit around Kissimmee and Orlando – so you might spot footage (or references to) Wild Florida, Jeeves Florida Rentals, Universal Orlando Resort™ (our first ever theme park!), Gatorland, the Paddling Center (at the tranquil Shingle Creek), and the Island H20 Water Park. We feel like we only scratched the surface in our time there, and the kids are now determined to get back to the USA as soon as they can! We’ll post some more pictures in the Community pages if people are interested.
Huge thanks to Juliana, Nick and the whole team – with special mention to Keri who came with us on several of our adventures to see alligators, and to Jo who first reached out to us in the dark COVID days of April 2020, when travel of any kind seemed like a tantalising dream, and suggested the idea. And lastly thanks to our lovely friend Sarah and her dad who looked after the cats for us while we were away in August!
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www.experiencekissimmee.com
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LYRICS:
Thomas: There is a house in Kissimmee
All: With a pool, wide skies, and sun
Danielle: And we’ve been there for a holiday
Thomas: We hoped to have some fun
Ben: Now Ella’s scared of ‘gators
Alfie (/Ben): Tess of fast machines
Tess: Our father’s more a rambling’ man
Tess (/Thomas): He don’t like crowded scenes
Ella: Mum abhors her swimwear
Ella: The boys are awkward teens
All: It could have been a dreadful plan
All: To go to Kissimmee…
Ben: Now the home met all our family needs
Ella/Danielle: With a pool where we could dunk
All: We could roam along the waterside
All: We could kayak through the swamps
Danielle: I wish we’d left the children!
Ben: Other things we could have done
Both: When you and I are retirees,
Both: Can we leave the Animals home?
Alfie: Oh, Mother could not zipwire
Ella: Dad wore hideous trunks
Kids: Spent our time doing awe-inspiring things
Boys: While pretending we’re not their sons
Ella: Well, I’m not one bit scared of ‘gators!
Tess: I loved the rides and trains!
Kids/Danielle: Yes, every time we finished one
Kids/Danielle: We had to ‘go again’
Males: There is a house in Kissimmee
Ben: (KissIMMee!)
All: With a pool, wide skies, and sun
All: And we’ve been there for a holiday
All: We got to have so much fun!
All: We got to have so much fun!
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When you guys were in Kissimmee, fl, I would have liked to meet you guys, I seen almost all your videos. I live about 45 minutes east of Kissimmee, ( over by the space Center area ), in Melbourne, Fl,
In awe of this video, really appreciate all the planning that it must have taken
Good to hear you all had a great time in Florida!
But who took the sweet dogs?!
Hi I want to know when is your next video please thank you
i love your videos so much hope your day is going well with your family
Funny ….. have followed your family since COVID began, but never thought you'd visit 25 miles from where I grew up! Great version of the song, and good scenery – only thing you missed was the mosquitos! Keep on keepin' on, all of you.
Thanks for this great song and video. What a fantastic holiday you all had in Kissimmee.
Awesome!!!












I'm so happy for you all that you had a terrific holiday! Rising Sun is one of my favorite songs, and you did good by it with this parody. (Did anyone recognize you?)
Just amazeing!
Pleased you got to go to Florida and enjoy a fantastic vacation together, even finding time to perform for this song. You never cease to amaze me with your continued talent in putting your interpretations of old songs together. making complete sense for the 'now'. Well done and can't wait for the next one as always.


Brilliant as usual guys, almost as good as the original, so glad you're having a great holiday!!

Don't hurry back the political inspiration might be too much for you!!
I can’t believe how you just keep on giving and giving and giving………………brilliant song, as if we’d expect anything else! So happy for you. Looks like an amazing, and very well deserved, holiday. All the best to you all xxx
Another stunning video, they just keep getting better & better.
Glad y’all got to have a Fun Time!!
Just love your clever lyrics and and harmonies and wonderful sense of humour! And if by chance the profits of your terrific music and YouTube channel allow you to have such adventures, then you have earned them! We don’t see all the hours of hard work and practice and creation efforts you must put into your videos!
Well deserved holiday !!!!
that was great marsh family… love your creativity… love your humour and your fun… enjoy the rest of this year… and looking forward to your next song!
Glad you had a great time in the U. S. We enjoyed our stay jn Townsville Australia & our week touring New Zealand.
The way we locals pronounce Kissimmee is "KUH-sim-EE." Glad you had so much fun in the sunshine state! Vocals are top notch as always
Please be king to the kids as they get to choose your care home , so make some more and save the money . Great fun to see all taking part .
Thanks so much for capturing and sharing your holiday fun with us all. You certainly packed a lot into your week long break, and clearly enjoyed it. I love the tongue-in-cheek lyrics and sideways glances between you from time to time; you project a real family, real personalities, not some idealised version, through your musical talent and now acting and stage presence. Like many others, your songs and postings are a very welcome pleasure in these rather beak times politically and economically; we've got to know you all, just like friends, yet we've never met. Thanks again guys!
Love the music, but much prefer the live singing to the 'studio' effect. It's sounding too 'produced' and less natural.
The harmonies at 0:15 are heavenly! Thanks for this wonderful adaptation :).
Fab song
Excellent! Looked to have been a fabulous holiday!
So pleased to see you all, and that you had such a great holiday.Amazing to see how grown up all the kids are now, keep the songs coming, it certainly brightens up the day to hear you.
Apparently you missed the hurricane!
Enjoyed this rendition. 
I live in Tampa and this was great! glad you had fun here!
Aww, that looks a truly awesome family holiday, suitably celebrated in song. So glad you had such a great time, after all your hard work for us during lockdown. x
As usual ……..wonderful! Thank you !
Another brilliant one



#goneblondenow
You could do a good song about Mum’s changing hair style and colours over time
Better
and better the children have the greatest harmony. You can’t be brother and sister voices