Too many kids for Disney? We're here!!!!!!

[estherhead]

Pre Trippie:

Ok, ya’ll. I’ve begun the planning for our 2008 trip. I booked our accommodations today so I thought it was time to start my pre-trippie. I’ve been working up to this by finishing my 2007 Trip Report & writing a just dining review (it’s included in the Trip Report, but not everyone wants to read all that, ya know?)

So, since the last trip is over, it is naturally time to begin a new trip because what is life without a Disney trip in the planning? At the end of our last trip we were offered the Bounceback & I actually called & got a couple quotes & we ended up not booking. For a few reasons, one: though we were quite sold on dining at Disney, we weren’t as sold on staying at Disney. Two: we really wanted someone to come with us & it’s hard to get someone from home to commit to coming to Disney in the 10 minutes before you check out.

But we did know before we left that it wouldn’t be but a few months before we had the Disney itch again so I had a little bit of non-buyer’s remorse on our air flight home. However it has all ended well as my poor Disney-crazed & Disney-deprived sister has had to endure my endless Disney talk for the past year while she was busy having a new baby so we’ve decided to plan a trip together. The best time for them is right after Thanksgiving due to her husband’s work schedule. This is also good for our kids (they all go to school together) have the Monday after Thanksgiving off so a 9 day trip would only cost us 4 days of unexcused absences.

As you will see below this is quite the undertaking as between the two of us we have 7 kids under 11. It wasn't our plan, but it is our reality. And they are pretty stinkin' cute, if we do say so ourselves.

Our Cast of Characters for this trip:

Perla: (previously, me!): I chose to be a girl mouse from Cinderella along with my sister as we are two parts to a whole when it comes to planning anything. We adore planning things together. Anything from weddings to kid’s parties to vacations to weight loss. We’re pretty good alone, but together I can’t think of a skill we’re missing. I’m crafty & good with my hands, full of enthusiasm & endless ideas. She is organized, practical, clever with the internet, and excellent with a stretching a dollar. We both are full of energy & smart & (thank heavens) we’re both adaptable (since we have 7 kids). We’re a good team.

Donald Duck (previously Dh): Total Disney-lover. Really up for any vacation I suggest as long as it isn’t with crazy people (yes, we’ve tried that: choose travel partners with care.) Adores spending time with his three girls, loves swimming, currently plays Toontown non-stop with the children. Chose Donald Duck because Donald is a pretty awesome duck, ready for any fun Mickey, Minnie, & Daisy can dream up but he can be a bit cranky.

Mulan: Our eldest: 8 by this trip. Serious, but loves to laugh. The best helper ever.

Ariel: Our middle: 6.5 by this trip. Sunny, sunny person, sings constantly but things hurt her feeling very deeply. She is obsessed with thrill rides.

Boo: (previously the baby) Not walking yet, but days away at the most. Will be 20 months by this trip & I have no doubt a Boo look alike in every way. The most observant baby of all of mine. Even tempered is what I would say she is.

Suzy: See Perla above. In Cinderella it is Perla who proclaims, “We can fix that, we can do it,” having absolute confidence in their skills to make Cinderella’s dreams come true, but it is Susie who picks up the needle & starts making it work.

Milo: My b-i-l, married to Suzy. Did you know Disney had a movie about a linguist? No? Well my b-i-l is not a linguist, but since he actually knows what the difference between a linguist and whatever he is, than Milo is his best fitting Disney character. You can find Milo in Disney by looking for the only man sitting on a park bench with his nose in a leather bound book that is 20 pounds of boring. But don’t think he isn’t a Disney lover. He likes Disney a lot. And he especially loves being with his family in Disney. He likes what is planned to happen, to happen. He loves Epcot and will hold it against me for quite awhile if I make him go see some unplanned, random nature thing at AK.

Prince Charming: 11 by this trip. Is Prince Charming in his school’s production of Cinderella and it is quite appropriate. Loves to be loved & liked. Quite charming. Quite handsome. Teenager before his time. Spends a huge amount of time listening to country music on his headphones & not listening to anything we say. Literally he cannot hear us, when he does hear, he is very useful & helpful & incredibly obedient. I’m not sure I’ve met a more obedient 11 year old boy. While still being independent. It’s a great combo, let me tell ya.

Buzz: 8 by this trip. He is focused on what he is focused on and completely clueless to anything going on in the real world around him. Because of this he is amazingly happy. Wouldn’t you like to be immune to anything happening around you? The negative to this is: he is easy to lose at Disney. Also, like his father, whatever the plan is MUST stay the plan. Happy, but not easy going. Final note on Buzz: he finds it highly amusing to tease the characters, would especially love to tackle one to the ground so we’ll have to keep our eye on him.

McQueen: (as in Lightening) 5 by this trip: Headstrong, hotheaded, and talkative. But super cute. A little bit of a ‘fraidy cat so we’ll have to see how he does in this thrill seeking group.

Jack-Jack: 1 by this trip. Obviously, I don’t know the new baby’s personality very well yet. But in anticipation, I’m naming him Jack-Jack. I have a feeling he’ll be multi-talented.

So that is the whole crew. The adults are all in our thirties and our kids range from 1-11. Perla & Donald have all the girls. Suzy & Milo have all the boys so it should be easy to keep us separate.

Now on to the planning!

I had decided that I would rather rent a villa than stay on property as there is just so much room to spread out. So Suzy & I started our endless search of rental sights. I have a love/hate relationship with finding a Disney villa. They just all start to blend together and this time it really was tricky as we decided we wanted a real hot tub. Many of the villas have spas attached to the pools which aren’t any hotter than the regular pool, they just have jets.

We did, however, at least entertain the idea of staying on property.

The benefits: Could buy the DDP. Have more transportation options if we want to split up more. Early & Late entry. And, at the value resorts in value season it wasn’t too expensive. No parking fees at the parks. Never have to leave Disney property.

The negatives: Have to rent 3 rooms & have the older kids stay together which is a bit nerve wracking since they are young, even if it is connecting, they still have their own exit, and it’s only connecting to one set of parents, putting them more in charge of the kids. No hot tub. No kitchen nor fridge. No living room. No private pool. Loud. No private space. Never get to leave Disney property.

So ultimately we settled on a villa. Guess which one? The Magic Palace in Windsor Hills. A truly magical villa, our own little haven away from the mayhem while still being right there! We won’t have our own private hot tub, but there is one at the clubhouse. We’ll be only 5 houses away from a super cool playground. We have 5 bedrooms, instead of 3 so our kids should all sleep better. We also have a family room, games room, and dining room so we can all spread out. Free high speed internet. Our own pool table, air hockey table, foosball, PS II. Our own TV’s (6 in all.) Plus, we can eat breakfast at home for cheap and pack a lunch (or maybe pack a dinner & eat at a TS for lunch) which will really save us money.

To stay at ASM for the same 9 nights with the AAA discount would be $2233.80. To stay at the Magic Palace is costing us under $2200! So it is about the same as staying in a value for us. And you have to admit, it seems a bit quieter & more luxurious. Even if you add in the $99.00 per family for parking (which that will be under that as we won’t go to a park all 9 days), it is still a pretty good deal for all of the amenities. I also mapquested it and it should take us under 10 minutes to get to Animal Kingdom & 15 minutes to Epcot. I can handle that.

We ended up booking for 9 days. So we probably will nestle in the first few days to avoid Thanksgiving crowds & enjoy relaxing at our wonderful home away from home.

The other thing we began, Suzy & I, is trying to figure out how to pay for all this. We’ve decided to coupon! Long ago I did this but then I lost access to my coupons & quit. Thanks to the Budget board here we’ve started scooping up coupons on a few reputable sites & should start getting them in the mail tomorrow. I’ll keep you all posted on how much we’ve saved. I’m still skeptical but with food costs growing by leaps & bounds, I have to do something!

We also will more than likely take our tax stimulus checks in May and put them back into the economy by buying our Disney tickets. I think Donald & I will buy non-expiring 10 day premium tickets while Milo & Suzy will get 7 day tickets that do expire. Donald & I would like to go back once the girls are over the 54” height requirement to Universal & SeaWorld but still visit Disney a bit.

We’re yet to set a budget for food. But I’m going to try to save as much money as possible in the next 108 days which is how long I have before making ADR’s.
On my short list is:
1900 Park Faire Cinderella dinner,
either O’hana’s or Whispering Canyon,
Rose and Crown or Raglan Road,
Sci-Fi or Prime-time Café
If we have enough money: Le Cellier
Crystal Palace?

I doubt we’ll really eat at 6 places as we won’t have the need to as we can just pick something up on our way home & eat it at our own table in our villa, but those are the places I’m interested in researching and seeing which ones fit into our budget, both our money & time budget. I figure the DDP would cost us $96.00 per day and we would get it if we were staying on site. So I will more than likely work with $100 per day budget. But…. Only for the time we’ll actually be at the parks, maybe 6 or 7 days? So our food budget will probably by $700.00 not including groceries.

I really would love to keep it at that and spend any extra cash I might be able to scrounge together at the Anne Taylor Loft discount store. Hmmm…. Shopping at the outlet malls the week after Thanksgiving? Anyone from Orlando want to enlighten me on what a psychotic idea that might be? Just how bad would it be on Black Friday or Saturday?


Questions to be answered in later editions:

Will I convince Suzy & Milo that individualism is out & matching t-shirts are in?
Will we be able to settle on a definite plan with 2 power planners, 2 non-easy-going followers, and 7 children?
Will now 3 month old Jack-Jack end up with super powers?
Will Boo have a terrible case of the terrible two’s?
Will we be able to wait for NINE WHOLE MONTHS?????????

Stay tuned…

[estherhead]

Perla:
http://inlinethumb54.webshots.com/40757/2260572700092107464S500x500Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2260572700092107464iFXbkI)

Donald:
http://inlinethumb36.webshots.com/38563/2756607040092107464S500x500Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2756607040092107464bqIvoL)

Suzy:
http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/28486/2376794180092107464S500x500Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2376794180092107464WaoxYV)

Milo:
http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/5030/2370013680092107464S500x500Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2370013680092107464WnQDIR)

And our seven kids will tagging along, of course. Mine are all dark haired girls, Milo & Suzy's all blonde headed boys. Super easy to figure out for wait staff. It's almost like we planned it that way, almost.

[sleepingbean]

Oh, I'll be looking forward to watching this unfold! We'll be going with brother and his two girls, our two girls, and my parents!
And it looks like we'll be traveling close to the same time as you guys, so I'll be checking back often :)

Great start!

[sleepingbean]

Oh, and I JUST watched Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House for the first time a couple weeks ago. It was wonderful :lovestruc

We just built a house last year, so it was very painful and fitting to wade through. The wife totally cracked me up. She was so painfully oblivious.
So your current thread title caught my eye!

[estherhead]

Oh good! I wasn't sure anyone would get my title but I just love this movie. Somehow the timelessness of it & the sincere sweetness of it just seemed to fit a Disney vacation. And the chaos! Controlled, of course.

[ILMICKEY]

Oh Yaaaaay!! A new one. I'm in it for the long haul!!!

[estherhead]

So, my little girls are mice in Cinderella at their school. And my nephew, Prince Charming, is Prince Charming. So I decided to donate a cake for all the kids & the poor teachers who have been beyond stressed out as we've had 10 snow days in February, all of them critical practice days. Which meant that practice had to be rescheduled & rearranged. These are my favorite two teachers at the school anyway, and now they are beyond my favorite. 140 kids are in this play. You can just imagine the stress.

So the play was this weekend. One on Friday night & one on Saturday. And guess where I live? That's right. Ohio. And the March Blizzard of history. So it's been cancelled. Those poor teachers.

So, both plays are going to be tomorrow at 2 and then 4 and then we are going to have a party & my cake. Well, since I had an extra day I decided to go all out & spent 6-8 hours on this today.

Every single thing is edible.

http://inlinethumb24.webshots.com/40727/2903932140092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2903932140092107464rBnAxf)

[ILMICKEY]

WOW! That's just beautiful. You are the woman!!

[sleepingbean]

very impressive!
Although I'll miss the old title!

[estherhead]

Can two obsessively planning mice plan another trip to Disney before the first trip is over? Of course they can. You know this is true, if you are writing a pre-trip, and certainly if you are reading a pre-trip, you yourself are an obsessive planner.

So, free dining came out. I swore that this year I would let it go by & miss me. I have a lovely trip planned for early December, after all, and a trip to Yellowstone planned in August. I certainly, absolutely, for sure do NOT need a free dining trip in September. I just simply don't.

And yet.....

I do. It really isn't another WDW trip I need, it's a girl's only trip I need. Now, mind you, my mom, myself, & my sister have lovely husbands. And we are not meek & mousy women. We are assertive. That being said, we generally are accomodating, especially on vacation, to our dh's. And, and this is a key point, we are very money conscious. Two of our dh's spend money themselves, making us restrict our own spending to make up for the waste. And one of them is a bit of a cheapskate, especially when it comes to food. He simply doesn't understand eating out. It seems an idiotic waste of money to him.

So, when free dining came out we girls banded together & decided to abandon men & children for 4 days, 3 nights of freedom. Especially freedom to eat whatever we stinking want to eat at restaurants. And to shop & waste time. Honestly, we couldn't care less if we ever get on a ride (except Soarin'.) This trip is all about female freedom.

Empowerment, sisters, empowerment. Our dh's don't really understand. They are such good men, and they are good to us, so why on earth would we need to abandon them to feel freedom? It may be inexplicable, but it is true.

So they believe us, if not understand us, and my dh has agreed to take vacation to watch our 18 month old baby at home!!! :love: And my dad has agreed to give us $600 as a gift for our airfare!!! :love: So we are going with their blessing & we upgraded to DELUXE dining just to make sure we truly could eat ANYTHING we want.

I may even drink. I know, it's shocking, but it's true. I'm not much of a drinker. There is always such pressure to have the right drink & I always want to keep my wits about me because dh is drinking & there are still children to be watched & a car to be driven. This time, though my sister will be bringing her 9 month old baby, I will have no one to watch, and no one watching me & wondering why I'm getting a sissy drink. I can get a sissy drink if I feel like it. And if only I am drinking I won't worry about the money we are wasting as it is when dh is drinking 2 drinks & I ponder drinking one, then we are paying for THREE drinks which is very expensive at WDW. But one froo-froo drink? Definately within my budget.

Oh I am so very excited. Are there any other people out there who would be excited about such delightful freedom?

I'm excited about something else too. We are staying at Pop, which I've never stayed at. And I am going to be training for a half-marathon so I will have some long runs I'll need to do. I've mapped a little route around Pop & Caribbean Beach resort & am imagining myself getting up in the am & answering to no one, going on a run at Disney. No people back in the room getting annoyed at me. Just me, my mp3 player, and the freedom of running at Disney. No jogging stroller. No family at home waiting for dinner. Nothing important to think about. Doesn't it sound delightful? :cool1:

Here are the places we are planning on eating (meaning we have ADR's already if nothing changes):

Jiko (I've never been to AKL)
Flying Fish (I've never been to Boardwalk)
Artist Point ( LOVE WL)
Boma
Yak & Yeti
Wolfgang Puck Cafe

I haven't eaten at any of these places before.

OK, I'm super excited. I'm gonna have to quit typing because it is making me just a tiny bit nauseous with excitement. Three kids can make a gal a bit giddy at the prospect of escaping.

I'll update ya'll with the "real" trip report updates later.

CAN YOU BELIEVE WE BOOKED A GIRL'S TRIP!!!?????
:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[estherhead]

So, the big news is, other than the second September girl’s trip, Suzy and I have been pinching pennies like you cannot believe.

What I cannot believe is how much time I now spend shopping. For some reason I always equated saving pennies with staying OUT of stores. This makes logical sense. How can you spend money if you are never near a store to spend it in? Well let me tell you, that is a lie! It is logic which in practice is false logic.

It all started with the disboard budget boards. Previously, I’ve scanned them for visiting Disney tips. Like the famous, “Ordering a double cheeseburger and extra bun” tip. Or the controversial, “bring last year’s refillable mug” tip. But I slowly began reading the other tips. And low behold, mind boggling information abounded.

Did you know you can get all your toiletries at CVS for free?

Did you know that you can BUY coupons online?

Did you know that you can feed your family for $40 a week?

Neither did I!

Nor did I know that you can make videos of yourself reviewing things & score cold hard cash!

Nor shop on-line & earn money for doing it.

Shocking, I know. The die hard Disbudgeters will have a heart attack reading this. How could anyone be so misinformed? Well I was. And now I have found mommysavers, thecouponclippers, ebay coupons, coolsavings, thecouponmom, etc. I also have a subscription to my newspapers for the coupons. I save the coupons which are generated after my receipts. I get coupons from friends. I search the wine bottles for coupons. I think you get the idea.

Wanna hear of my success? Hmm, what would you say to 20 free cake mixes? 10 free French’s mustards? FREE shampoo, make-up, vitamins, diapers? It’s been a miracle. I’ve gone from spending $150+ a week to $70-125 a week. And eating WAY better than ever before. Name brand.

I never knew nor understood the high a person can get by walking out of a store with 2 bottles of All detergent, 2 bottles of Neosporin, and razor cartridges ($35.00 value) for $2.00! AND they gave me back $8.00 to use on future purchases. -$6.00 transaction. Oh yeah baby! That was a CVS deal.

Then I was in Kroger’s a few weeks back & bought 6 cans of Hormel chili, 5 French’s mustards, & some other things which I now can’t remember. My total was -$.30. That’s right, they owed me money for buying stuff. The girl told me she couldn’t do that & Reese’s cups were on sale so just grab a pack & give her a dime & I’d be good to go. Boy was my family (waiting in the van) excited to get the Reese’s cups. And Donald was THRILLED to have bags full of free groceries.

The best things is that I have money in the bank to spend on Disney. Suzy (also getting amazing deals) and I have paid off our lodgings & she has bought some of her tickets. I’m planning on spending part of my stimulus check on a Kroger’s gift card which should pay for gas & groceries for 3 months. The other half I will buy our Disney tickets!!!! 230 days away and lodging & tickets paid for. That ain’t half shabby.

PLUS we have our September trip being paid for. Also, I’m going to Yellowstone in July & I’ve got part of the rooming paid for for that! This is in addition to the $1500+ I had to pay for dentistry for my girls. I was sure that would take all my money but it has been easy to swallow with the money I’ve been savings.

This newfounded save money by shopping theory has also drifted into my clothing shopping. I’ve started going way more often. And sometimes I walk out of the store with nothing, if there are no deals to be found. Donald & I took our girls to a deeply discounted store (anyone have a Gabriel Bros?) and taught them how to shop for clothing. They are 6 & 7. We bought them & their baby sister entire summer wardrobes including shoes for $233.00, yes that is for all three. There are a few things we needed to get elsewhere, like I had to buy tights for $2.50 at Wal-Mart for one of the outfits, but in general that was total. I was so excited that I went back the next week while Kohl’s was having a sale & spent $200 on myself. I got so many outfits, including a $250.00 leather lined jacket for $25.00! This is something I REALLY needed as I lost mine last fall & basically didn’t have coat this winter as I wasn’t willing to spend the cash on it. But now with my new shopping habits I have found a cashmere dress coat for $50.00 (originally over $300) and a leather for $25.00!!! Sooooo excited by this all. It’s hard to even type fast enough.

It seems like I pull out my Disney rewards card constantly but instead of putting $250 on it each time I pull it out, I’m putting $10-20 on it each time I pull it out. So more often is equaling a lot smaller.

Yesterday we all went to Wal-Mart as dh had to buy some things for work (on his work card, not our money.) I took in my giant coupon book & just looked for deals. I bought 4 things of gum, 1 box of Bagelfuls, baked beans, and shampoo. The total with tax was under $2.00. My eldest said “$2.00? We’ve never come in here and spent $2.00!” It was very cute. It sounded like she was yelling at me for spending too much.

Whew, anyway, I’m obviously happy with the new budget stuff. We’ve also shut off our cable saving ourselves almost $100.00 per month. We’re using a discount card on our gasoline saving us $.30 on every gallon which has been helping a lot. And we have been paying off our credit cards & now owe less than $2000.00 on a card that has 0% interest for 12 months so we are taking our time since it isn’t doing any harm. Today I’m shopping for cheaper health insurance. Hopefully if everything goes along the same lines as right now we’ll have $1000 cash for Disney, $300 Disney dollars, and everything (excluding house & van payments) completely paid off by our Disney trip in November. What a relaxing trip that would! No money concerns at all. We shall see, eh?

OK, more vacation plans coming up on the next report.

[ILMICKEY]

That is AWESOME! I wish I had the patience to do all that. I am a big bargain hunter (I've been called Frugal), but I can't seem to clip coupons. I really should start huh? Sounds like you have done a GREAT job.

Kudos:thumbsup2 !!

[estherhead]

That is AWESOME! I wish I had the patience to do all that. I am a big bargain hunter (I've been called Frugal), but I can't seem to clip coupons. I really should start huh? Sounds like you have done a GREAT job.

Kudos:thumbsup2 !!

Yes, I, too have always been frugal. Maybe even cheap :rolleyes1 ? But this has been a whole new world to me. I thought it would make me even cheaper & maybe make me kind of obnoxiously not want to spend money in other ways too, as I've seen people like that. My grandmother used to take all the sugar packets on the tables when we go out to eat! :) But so far that hasn't happened. I'm still balanced about spending money on splurges and haven't found myself stealing ketchup packets at Burger King. But ya never know...

I do find myself watching other people in the check-out lines though & thinking, "No!!! Don't spend money on that! You can get it for free this week at CVS! :laughing: " So far I've held myself back from saying it outloud. Let's hope that continues.

Coming up in my next chapter...

How to get ketchup for free :rotfl2:

[estherhead]

It's finally here, the 180 day mark. And guess what???? No NOVEMBER HOURS POSTED YET!!!!! I know, I know people are truly griping about it over there on the other boards. But that's OK. We aren't going to be eating much at WDW sit down places anyway so I'll just patiently wait for the hours to come out.

We won't be eating too many meals there because we have our own house, with our own kitchen, remember?

Here are a few reasons I love have an off property house:

1) your very own pool. This is fabulous as you can go out there & sit & read a book & relax. At public pools I'm always running about monitoring things. At a private pool, I can put floaties on them, put the big kids in charge, and get lost in my book. I'm only there in case of emergency. Plus, with 4 parents, even that easy task is split in fourths.

2) you very own kitchen. Having a freezer & oven allows me to buy french fries, hot dogs, frozen pizzas, chicken tenders, etc. All the junk food stuff we would eat in a food court & on vacation but instead of running & getting it, I just pop it in the oven & chill out. Plus it saves money big time and the kids don't have to sit in a restaurant on best behavior.

3) laundry. Let's face it, you have kids, you have laundry. It's much easier to just do a load every other day than make a big to do about it & take a morning off vacation to do it. Having a laundry in the house takes the pressure off as a mom.

4) my own bedroom. We stayed at All Star Sports last year & it was great. Great!!! But I seriously missed having my own delightful bedroom. The one we are staying at this year has a canopy bed. The luxury of having my own bath & bedroom with NO KIDS ALLOWED on vacation is just too much to bear. And I can't really afford Boardwalk. This allows me that kind of luxury.

5) off property. I realize staying on site allows total immersion in Disney, which is nice, but with a bunch of kiddos, sometimes a run to Wal-Mart is inevitable. Since we're off site, it isn't that much of a hassle. I just pop in the car & I don't feel like I'm ruining my vacation by popping into the store. For me, this is a bonus. I guess this also is the benefit of a rental car too.

6) my own TV. and wireless internet. Call me a geek, I like to have my own remote & laptop with wireless internet while on vacation. Just imagining it makes me all happy inside. 9 blissful days of no Spongebob. Can you feel the muscles in my neck loosening? Can you?

7) money. Although mentioned in the other posts, money, money, money. Having my own car, my own kitchen, my own laundry, store access, etc. save me money in lots of nickel & dime ways. We like to print out menus to our favorites, like Outback Steakhouse, and order from the WDW parking lot. We swing by & pick it up & eat it by the pool while the kids play. This saves us $ by no tip, drinking our own alcohol, no kid's meals, etc. Delightful.


So, enough about all that. I also wanted to say that I got my check from the USA government to stimulate the economy. I got $2100.00. I quickly stimlated the economy by spending $1100.00 of it on WDW tickets!!!! Yipee! They came in the mail yesterday. I got 7 day, water parks & more, park hopping, expiring tickets. Mine is Tinkerbell. Ooooo, were my girls ever jealous. I GOT TINKERBELL.:tinker: :tinker: :tinker: I can feel the pixie dust.

This is one jam packed post, let me tell ya! Here is also our tenative (remember, no hours posted yet!) schedule:

Thursday - shop, unpack, explore - go to bed early

Friday –
6:30 AM Awaken & dress
7:00 AM Out the door (make sure you have your tickets!)
8:00 AM Rope Drop!
Park probably crazy by 2 pm or so, go home.

Pleasure Island for one couple

Saturday - AM: mini golf
PM: AK until 8pm or so

Sunday – MK, leave early afternoon & go to Disneyquest. Eat all together at Cheesecake factory then big kids all stay.

Pleasure Island for second couple.

Monday - All day DHS - Fantasmic

Tuesday – Blizzard Beach

PM Downtown Disney (including DisneyQuest)

Wednesday - AM Epcot Character Lunch at Garden Grill

PM MK 7:00 Spectro and 8:00 Wishes

Thursday - AM off

PM Epcot illuminations 9:30pm - dinner Rose & Crown

Fri - Blizzard Beach

Sat - Home :(


OK, that's all for now. More later.

[5 crazy kids]

Oh, good thread!!!!!
I'm subscribing :cool1:

[estherhead]

Oh, good thread!!!!!
I'm subscribing :cool1:

Welcome, welcome. Maybe we can start a large family support group for our special needs!

[twob4him]

Hi Perla....I came over from the Windsor Hills thread! Now I am just loving your trip report!!! I am only on the first page but I love that you and your sis and family are all going together! Garsh you must be sooo excited! Half the things you are mulling over, I am too! I am hoping to stay at the Villa Oct 30-Nov 9, 2009!! I am saving saving saving too! :rotfl: I am so excited to read about your tips and ideas and plans! OK I am off to do just that! :surfweb: :thumbsup2

[twob4him]

Can two obsessively planning mice plan another trip to Disney before the first trip is over? Of course they can.

CAN YOU BELIEVE WE BOOKED A GIRL'S TRIP!!!?????
:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

::yes:: ::yes:: I am sitting here in amazement! It would never cross my mind to plan a second trip :rolleyes1 with just girls! :yay: :banana:

QUOTE=estherhead;23681426]So, my little girls are mice in Cinderella at their school. And my nephew, Prince Charming, is Prince Charming. So I decided to donate a cake for all the kids & the poor teachers who have been beyond stressed out as we've had 10 snow days in February, all of them critical practice days. Which meant that practice had to be rescheduled & rearranged. These are my favorite two teachers at the school anyway, and now they are beyond my favorite. 140 kids are in this play. You can just imagine the stress.
Oh yes I can...I'm a teacher and that is one undertaking I wouldnt undertake without ending up with an undertaker! :laughing:


Every single thing is edible.

http://inlinethumb24.webshots.com/40727/2903932140092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2903932140092107464rBnAxf)[/QUOTE]
That is one impressive cake you made! Really amazing! :thumbsup2



It's finally here, the 180 day mark. And guess what???? No NOVEMBER HOURS POSTED YET!!!!! I know, I know people are truly griping about it over there on the other boards. But that's OK. We aren't going to be eating much at WDW sit down places anyway so I'll just patiently wait for the hours to come out.

We won't be eating too many meals there because we have our own house, with our own kitchen, remember?

Here are a few reasons I love have an off property house:

1) your very own pool. This is fabulous as you can go out there & sit & read a book & relax. At public pools I'm always running about monitoring things. At a private pool, I can put floaties on them, put the big kids in charge, and get lost in my book. I'm only there in case of emergency. Plus, with 4 parents, even that easy task is split in fourths.

2) you very own kitchen. Having a freezer & oven allows me to buy french fries, hot dogs, frozen pizzas, chicken tenders, etc. All the junk food stuff we would eat in a food court & on vacation but instead of running & getting it, I just pop it in the oven & chill out. Plus it saves money big time and the kids don't have to sit in a restaurant on best behavior.

3) laundry. Let's face it, you have kids, you have laundry. It's much easier to just do a load every other day than make a big to do about it & take a morning off vacation to do it. Having a laundry in the house takes the pressure off as a mom.

4) my own bedroom. We stayed at All Star Sports last year & it was great. Great!!! But I seriously missed having my own delightful bedroom. The one we are staying at this year has a canopy bed. The luxury of having my own bath & bedroom with NO KIDS ALLOWED on vacation is just too much to bear. And I can't really afford Boardwalk. This allows me that kind of luxury.

5) off property. I realize staying on site allows total immersion in Disney, which is nice, but with a bunch of kiddos, sometimes a run to Wal-Mart is inevitable. Since we're off site, it isn't that much of a hassle. I just pop in the car & I don't feel like I'm ruining my vacation by popping into the store. For me, this is a bonus. I guess this also is the benefit of a rental car too.

6) my own TV. and wireless internet. Call me a geek, I like to have my own remote & laptop with wireless internet while on vacation. Just imagining it makes me all happy inside. 9 blissful days of no Spongebob. Can you feel the muscles in my neck loosening? Can you?

7) money. Although mentioned in the other posts, money, money, money. Having my own car, my own kitchen, my own laundry, store access, etc. save me money in lots of nickel & dime ways. We like to print out menus to our favorites, like Outback Steakhouse, and order from the WDW parking lot. We swing by & pick it up & eat it by the pool while the kids play. This saves us $ by no tip, drinking our own alcohol, no kid's meals, etc. Delightful.


So, enough about all that. I also wanted to say that I got my check from the USA government to stimulate the economy. I got $2100.00. I quickly stimlated the economy by spending $1100.00 of it on WDW tickets!!!! Yipee! They came in the mail yesterday. I got 7 day, water parks & more, park hopping, expiring tickets. Mine is Tinkerbell. Ooooo, were my girls ever jealous. I GOT TINKERBELL.:tinker: :tinker: :tinker: I can feel the pixie dust.

This is one jam packed post, let me tell ya! Here is also our tenative (remember, no hours posted yet!) schedule:

Thursday - shop, unpack, explore - go to bed early

Friday –
6:30 AM Awaken & dress
7:00 AM Out the door (make sure you have your tickets!)
8:00 AM Rope Drop!
Park probably crazy by 2 pm or so, go home.

Pleasure Island for one couple

Saturday - AM: mini golf
PM: AK until 8pm or so

Sunday – MK, leave early afternoon & go to Disneyquest. Eat all together at Cheesecake factory then big kids all stay.

Pleasure Island for second couple.

Monday - All day DHS - Fantasmic

Tuesday – Blizzard Beach

PM Downtown Disney (including DisneyQuest)

Wednesday - AM Epcot Character Lunch at Garden Grill

PM MK 7:00 Spectro and 8:00 Wishes

Thursday - AM off

PM Epcot illuminations 9:30pm - dinner Rose & Crown

Fri - Blizzard Beach

Sat - Home :(


OK, that's all for now. More later.

:lmao: You crack me up!!! I love your writing style (and thinkin style :rotfl: )Your itinerary looks great and I am staying off-site for all of those exact reasons. :cloud9: Congrats on your savings and coupons and such....my DH is a diehard saver and uses coupons all the time!:cheer2:

[estherhead]

[: )Your itinerary looks great and I am staying off-site for all of those exact reasons. :cloud9: Congrats on your savings and coupons and such....my DH is a diehard saver and uses coupons all the time!:cheer2: [/COLOR][/SIZE]

Hi!

Thanks for the compliment on the cake. I still feel like the picture doesn't do it justice, it was a super cool cake.

Having a dh who coupons is awesome! Mine enjoys watching me, but gets frustrated himself. I sent him to Wal-Mart with 16 Powerade coupons, his very favorite drink is PowerZero. They were $.75 off coupons & the drink was only $.60 so I thought this would be fun for him. Well, they had their Powerade in 3 places in the store & the PowerZero only in one so it took him 20 minutes to find it. So even though Wal-Mart paid him $2.40 to take his favorite drink out of the store, he still found himself frustrated. He says he doesn't know how I do it. ;)

[estherhead]

Hello all you patient readers. This post really has nothing to do with Disney, but it has a lot to do with my life between now & Disney. I thought you could use an update as to what I am doing to fill in the time between Disney trips.

Well, in addition to working & playing with the kids, I will be going to Yellowstone this summer! It is a 28 hour trip one way and Myself, Donald, our three girls & my parents (not going to Disney, so not listed in the Cast) are going in our Honda Odyssey. Am I crazy? :dance3: You bethca! ;) Boy am I excited. I haven't been on a true road trip in years and I am excited. Mt. Rushmore, St. Louis Arch, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons. We're even going white water rafting!!!

I also am helping a couple plan their wedding. Hmmm, you should read that "I'm putting on a wedding." The week after I get back from Yellowstone. Suzy & I :love: weddings and volunteer about once a year to help a deserving couple put on a $20,000 wedding for $3,000. We do this by offering all our time & experience for free by making the cake, doing the flowers, catering it, etc. It is a super fun hobby, but utterly exhausting. So in the 2 weeks between now & when I leave I must:

Cut out 150 black napkins, make 20 sugar roses, 100 sugar leaves, 150 other sugar flowers, bake, fill & freeze the cakes, make all the favors, and organize all the helpers who will be helping us. It's a bit overwhelming to think of. Also, my niece is coming today to stay for a week and I'm trying to get organized for back to school which is a 6 weeks away. And I'm helping my sister in law with a 50th anniversary party for my in-laws, which my dh is making a video for.

Sigh.

I addition to all that, we are planning a second trip, remember?
:rolleyes:

The trick we're dealing with right now is whether one of us should get an annual pass and DDE card. It's a really tricky decision as it is almost a break even in savings. CONFUSING!

As for the budget, I have been doing amazing with the savings. We've been able to stay under our weekly food budget and that includes all toiletries & cleaning supplies. We've also done all of our clothing shopping at Goodwill & used clothing stores & yard sales. It's amazing how much we've saved. Unfortunately, we've had some unexpected bills which means we're gonna have to go into debt a tiny bit to get everything in. This saddens me as it isn't my style, but I do know how to play the 0% interest credit card game and have decided to go ahead & play. Most of the bills are medical which can come out pre-tax, but even still, it's our money we're talking about. So I guess I'll still be paying for my summer of fun in December/January. :mad: Stupid teeth, eyes, and ears. Why can't my family's vision/hearing/chewing be perfect????

Another big thing that happened to us this summer is our cat had kittens. 5 adorable little kittens. Boo enjoyed these kittens more than you can possibly imagine. She has carried them everywhere. My favorite story though about Boo & the kitties has a second part: Boo loves to collect pretty, special things. If she finds something that sparkles, she will put it in a drawer for safe keeping. We find her binkies in drawers, her cups of chocolate milk go into drawers, cookies that are especially delicious will go into drawers. Anything she truly enjoys, into a drawer it goes for safe keeping.

So where should kitties go? I have found kitties everywhere. In Donald's sock drawer. In kitchen cupboards. In the toilet (the kitties jump out of this one, and Boo gets in big trouble when I see a wet kitty.) Kitties everywhere. We're down to onw kitty now. The others have found homes. So Boo has been trying to carry our big cat around, when she can't find the kitty. The big cat is not amused and will NOT go into drawers. It's all highly amusing for the rest of us. I've had more belly laughs from watchign Boo & the kitties than I've had the rest of the year. Good times, good times.

Well, I really should shower. I'm going to make sure I post photos of the wedding we're doing & of Yellowstone so stick around. And later, of course, I will post a FULL report of our girl's trip. So this really will turn into a triple trip report. In the mean time, don't look for me much as I'll be running around like a mad woman!

[estherhead]

It is early & I've already been awake for two hours. Why? Because just like the Disney commercials, "I'm too excited to sleep!" We leave for Yellowstone today. Well, actually 24 hours from now. We leave at 4 am tomorrow. But still.

I am not packed AT ALL. Our van, which we are taking, is completely trashed. Our finances are a bit in shambles as I've been having banking problems: or should I say the bank has utterly messed up my finances & I've been fighting all week to fix it. So when the call of nature called me at 4 am, I simply could not get back to sleep.

Suzy & I are planning a wedding (wedding coordinating is our hobby) 10 days after I get back from Yellowstone & we spent all day Wednesday meeting with the couple & trying to work out details, ordering flowers, etc. It is completely stressing me out as it's not done so I'll have to take all the plans with me.

Also, Suzy & I are the new vice-president (me) and treasurer (her) at our dad's company. He is semi-retired as of February & she and I are being groomed to take over the company. It really has been quite a bit more work than I anticipated. Why I didn't know that it would be, I'm not sure, since I grew up in the business & knew how much my parents stressed. But hiring & firing people, giving raises (or not giving raises), having meetings where we tell people they aren't doing a good job & could ruin us all, etc. is a bit stressful, ya know? I realize I'm 34, but I still feel 25. And 25 years old is simply to young to be in such a position of responsibility. ;)

Plus, I'm taking my 17 month old on a 2800 mile road trip. :crazy:

Did I mention the 17 month old and the road trip?

Anyway, yesterday I was more than a bit stressed about the week. Planning, planning, planning! Stress, stress, stress! So what do you think I did to calm down? Planned my Disney trip, of course! Duh!

Here's what happened. Suzy & I were testing a recipe for the wedding on Wednesday night when my cell phone rang. The caller ID said, "Disney." I was soooo excited! Disney is calling me. Yippee!

Unfortunately, it was to cancel one of our most anticipated meals: a lunch with Chip & Dale at the Garden Grill. This was the one meal McQueen was most looking forward to. He really wanted to play with Chip & Dale. And the thing about McQueen is, he doesn't forget his disappointment. If he truly had been diappointed, he would still remember that disappointment in November. McQueen simply does not forget anything. Instead he gets all the details wrong of whatever you tell him (he is four, after all) and then remembers the incorrect information forever.

So it was imperitive that McQueen be made happy. And unfortunately, we like to show our kids stuff on youtube so they are pretty familiar with what we are going to be doing, or in this case suddenly not doing. Suzy didn't think not eating with Chip & Dale was an option & wanted to take the easy deal which would be to eat dinner with Chip & Dale. But I had to be all difficult & say I didn't want to spend that much money on a now crowded with all the cancelled lunch people character meal. So instead, I wasted lots & lots of time yesterday researching new plans. And here they are:

27th Thursday -

Arrive in Orlando at 10 a.m.
Pick up rental car
Go to Blizzard Beach
Go shopping at Wal-Mart for supplies
Check into house & explore!

Friday – MK for a few hours till way too busy.

Enjoy our club pool & castle playground
Grill out steak & shrimp & baked potatoes

Go back to MK for Wishes (9pm) followed by Spectro (10pm)

Saturday - AM AK by 8 am for rope drop
mid morning Tusker House breakfast

Sunday – Blizzard Beach AM
Disneyquest. PM

Monday - All day DHS - lunch at Sci-Fi - Fantasmic at 6:30pm Pizza Planet to go on way to Fantasmic

Tuesday – MK & hop wherever we want

Wednesday - AM Epcot

Thursday - AM off
PM Epcot For lunch Rose & Crown, watch Illuminations

Fri - Blizzard Beach
PM off

We decided to do a Tusker House breakfast with Mickey instead of Chip & Dale at the Garden Grill. McQueen took the news well & said, "Mickey is my favorite anyhow." So all is well with the world again. But I certainly won't get as excited next time I see Disney on my caller ID!

We also decided not to buy any t-shirts off the $4.99 sale as we think we'll all be happier buying our own style shirt & just adding the iron-ons to it. You'll have to wait until post-Yellowstone, post-wedding, post-1st Disney trip for an update on that since there will be no time to make any shirts anytime soon! But I promise to post photos.

Finally, we decided that our families would be OK if we schedule this trip in 15 minute increments. I realize to some this seems extreme, but we're talking 7 kids here. And Suzy & I know the parks so well, we feel we can do this & still allow time to look at stores & relax & potty breaks, etc. So we still have planning to look forward to.

Which brings me back to today & the fact that I can't go to Disney until I go to Yellowstone & I can't go to Yellowstone if I'm on the Disboards planning a trip to Disney. :rolleyes:

[Alysa]

How could I not check a pre-trip with Mr. Blandings in the title?
That cake was AMAZING! And I highly recommend the girls trip. We just got back while in the midst of planning our October trip. My Mum, sister and daughter and I all had a blast.
Best wishes for a pair of wonderful trips!

Muriel Blandings: I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin's egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow, but don't let whoever does it go to the other extreme and get it too blue. It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green. Now, the dining room. I'd like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you'll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can't go wrong! Now, this is the paper we're going to use in the hall. It's flowered, but I don't want the ceiling to match any of the colors of the flowers. There's some little dots in the background, and it's these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom. Is that clear? Now the kitchen is to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now for the powder room - in here - I want you to match this thread, and don't lose it. It's the only spool I have and I had an awful time finding it! As you can see, it's practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Jonathan. Oh, excuse me...
Mr. PeDelford: You got that Charlie?
Charlie, Painter: Red, green, blue, yellow, white.
Mr. PeDelford: Check.

[estherhead]

Muriel Blandings: I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin's egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow, but don't let whoever does it go to the other extreme and get it too blue. It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green. Now, the dining room. I'd like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you'll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can't go wrong! Now, this is the paper we're going to use in the hall. It's flowered, but I don't want the ceiling to match any of the colors of the flowers. There's some little dots in the background, and it's these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom. Is that clear? Now the kitchen is to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now for the powder room - in here - I want you to match this thread, and don't lose it. It's the only spool I have and I had an awful time finding it! As you can see, it's practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Jonathan. Oh, excuse me...
Mr. PeDelford: You got that Charlie?
Charlie, Painter: Red, green, blue, yellow, white.
Mr. PeDelford: Check.


HA!!!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Isn't that just like us here on the Dis with our vacations?

Thanks about the cake. I was quite proud.

[estherhead]

Sorry I've not updated everyone recently, but I've been super busy. I mean SUPER busy. First, I'm going to tell you that we went to Yellowstone for 2 weeks, the end of July to the beginning of August. We drove 4300 miles round trip. Whoa. I'm going to give you a little trip report of that in my next post, but here is a little something to keep you interested:

http://inlinethumb53.webshots.com/14324/2748322680092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2748322680092107464EeEsyi)

http://inlinethumb09.webshots.com/29128/2400984690092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2400984690092107464YZdvKE)

http://inlinethumb44.webshots.com/7915/2192849290092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2192849290092107464nfWbcA)


When we got home, I had 10 days to unpack, clean my house (we had fleas when we got home! Yucky. :mad: I'm still fighting that fight) catch up on work, and plan a wedding for 180 people! My sister and I had agreed to be the wedding coordinator for some friends & when we coordinate, we coordinate. I make the cake, I make all the flower arrangements & corsages & their bouquets, we set up everything, and we arrange all the people. It is no joke.

So we worked furiously & this past Thusday I was feeling great & we were seriously on target. Then my baby got so sick I had to take her to the E.R. SHe'd been having abdominal cramping for days & it just got too bad. She would just scream & scream & scream. So 12 hours later, 1:30 am, we finally left the hospital after just a terrible day of testing. We ruled out anything super dangerous, but I still have a sick baby.

And I still had a wedding to do. So Friday, after a bit of sleep, I started back in on the workload. THe wedding was Saturday at 5:30 pm and we got there, with absolutely everything done perfectly. We only had to skip one thing, and it wasn't because of the ER trip. We lost the door hanger to hang a wreath on the door of the ceremony site. Silly us. I've found it now! :rotfl: Maybe I'll hang a wreath on my door with it.

Anyway, it was the most gorgeous wedding ever. Truly amazing & I'm very proud. But all the junk is still in my van & truck and I can't walk. I mean it. Every muscle hurts & my feet hurt & my lower back.

But the most important words uttered the whole night were by Suzy when we got in our vehicles at 10:30 pm (we started at 6:30 am) she called me on her cell & said "Next up is Disney"! :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

Our girl's trip is coming up! Friday in the middle of the mayhem our packet arrived. Yippee. Have I told you the plans for that? My mom, Suzy, & I and her baby are staying at Pop Century and got the free dining which we upgraded to Deluxe. We're eating:

Our first night:
7:15 p.m. Jiko

Second day:
7:30 a.m. Boma
6:25 p.m. Flying Fish Café

Third day:
11:30 a.m. Crystal Palace
5:30 p.m. Artist’s Point

Fourth day:
1:30 p.m. Wolfgang Puck Café

We've never done a girls trip & we are super psyched. SUPER PSYCHED.

So stay tuned for my complete Yellowstone, 4300 miles across the USA & what I learned about my family that will help me at Disney (and could help your family too ;) ) AND all the details of my September four day eating EXTRAVAGANZA with 2 of my 4 best friends, my mom and sister.

NEXT IS DISNEY!

[estherhead]

10 Things I learned in 4300 miles:

1: Preparation is EVERYTHING. There are a lot of people out there, mostly men, who think winging it is the way to go on vacation. Well let me tell you, I’ve traveled since I was a wee babe. Before I can remember even. And it has been my experience that winging it is rarely a better idea than proper preparation. Well, never a better idea.

That was certainly true in this case. We took with us a GPS for our car which we named Sheila. She was a life saver. She wasn’t always right so you had to stay alert, but with a little knowledge and her, you could get almost anywhere. We also had a book called “The Next Exit.” I recommend this book for anyone traveling interstates in America. It tells every highway & every exit & exactly what is on each exit. So no getting off on some stupid exit which has a single Wendy’s 3 miles away from the highway. I LOVED this book & will never take a road trip without that year’s version.

We also had 2 road atlases & a complete itinerary which a general day’s plan, how many hours we would be in the car each day, and where we would stay that night. Because of this, no one every whined. EVER. Not once. I felt like whining once, but what would be the point? I could see in the book I still had 2 hours of driving that day and there was no getting around it. So instead of whining I found something to entertain myself.

Sheila: 97 HOURS in the car!

http://inlinethumb16.webshots.com/39951/2922556810092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2922556810092107464hkHlvH)

2: Entertainment isn’t everything, but it sure is important.

When I was a kid and took road trips I had the following things: One thing of paperdolls, a few paperback books from the library, a notebook & pencil, dice, cards. That’s it. I remember being bored in the car. And I also remember my father telling us lots of stories & playing Zip with us (as in Zip horse, Zip cows, and cemeteries take away all your points) & singing lots of songs. And being bored.

Well, my girls had: Paperdolls, a few paperback books from the library, a notebook & pencil, dice, cards. They also had their own DVD/TV’s that hooked on to the chair in front of them & could play the same movie or individual movies with headphones, a computer with computer games, pipecleaners and a book on stuff to make, balloons & a book on balloon animals, a tin case full of art supplies, scrapbooking supplies & a tin for those. I do not one time recall hearing, “I’m bored.” And we didn’t have to entertain them, though we did play car games just because it’s good fun.

For the adults we also were able to watch movies, play computer games, read books, listen to books we had on our MP3 players, read magazines, etc. Our first day we were in the car 13 hours. We got out a few times to have picnics & see a few sights. But basically, we drove 13 hours from Ohio to Iowa. And no one complained. We were shocked when we got there so quickly.

Bring entertainment. It makes the journey feel like vacation too.

A balloon animal. Hours & hours of entertainment & they scare you to death when they pop!

http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/40646/2223912320092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2223912320092107464EGPRqx)

3: Free isn’t everything.

Ever since I started my couponing, I’ve been very into free. Those are my magic words. I’ll feed my family almost anything if it is free. I mean really, what is wrong with free? But we discovered on this trip that free isn’t always better. We did a whitewater rafting trip which cost us $200 for four of us (the baby didn’t go) and it was AMAZING. Worth the money for sure. Then we did a cowboy show in downtown Cody which was lame to say the least. I could have written this little western play and made it twice as good. And there were like 200+ people there! I just kept standing there thinking of Disney street entertainment and how amazing it is and how lame this was.

One of the cowboys in this photo came to our hotel and sang to us. This was free too. I shouldn’t really say he sang to us as he mostly talked to us. I had to ask him to sing. But these two things did contribute to our trip just the same. And they taught us free isn’t always what it is cracked up to be.

Which just reassures me of what I already knew, Disney is worth it.

Cowboy "actors" in the free play:

http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/40362/2344601250092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2344601250092107464HJebeK)

Our cowboy:

http://inlinethumb19.webshots.com/30034/2493855630092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2493855630092107464qjyBQp)

4: Ice cream makes things better.

We stopped for ice cream many times. We used ice cream stops when people were puking (ice cream for everyone else, Sprite for the puker), when people were cranky, hot, or tired. It is an easy, cheap, and summer reward. It turns a perhaps difficult day of touring back into a family vacation. Ice Cream brings people together. It rocks. If you are at Disney World and the family is getting cranky, stop for a Mickey bar or a Dole Whip. Ice Cream makes everything better.

The nicest ice cream vendor EVER outside the Corn Palace:

http://inlinethumb17.webshots.com/43792/2289540600092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2289540600092107464Kxxnct)

Just wanted to say, beer makes things better too. This was day 2 & no beer had been consumed. No beer on vacation? People started asking questions. And by people, I mean Donald:

http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/43314/2377052440092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2377052440092107464hvzooQ)

5: A day with animals is a very good day for a toddler.

Animal Kingdom isn’t always a family favorite, but this year I know we will spend some time there as our little Boo loves animals. Her favorite part of the whole trip was the Prairie Dogs. It was something that was interactive and unpredictable and right up her alley. She also loved squirrels and buffalo and deer and elk. She would notice the animals way faster than me & just take off towards them. She squealed with delight and clapped and sang. Animals are the bomb. And in November little Jack-Jack will be running around too and if I’m pretty sure he’ll be chasing birds all over WDW right alongside Boo.

Boo meets a coyote:

http://inlinethumb19.webshots.com/36690/2566420570092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2566420570092107464soXlPI)

Boo meets other babies (1 ton babies!):

http://inlinethumb33.webshots.com/41312/2659167900092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2659167900092107464pXMyyE)

Boo meets prairie dogs:

http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/38322/2236148770092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2236148770092107464haUTXy)

Boo meets chipmunks:

http://inlinethumb05.webshots.com/42500/2429030120092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2429030120092107464nINyiH)

[estherhead]

6: If you found something on the internet (or here on the Disboards) that seems really cool & that the whole family really wants to do, it’ll be worth the effort.

Sometimes on vacation you have a big plan for something but then in the moment, it just seems so inconvenient. Maybe your plan before your trip is to get to rope drop every morning but then that seems too hard. Or you are in Tommorrowland & have Fastpasses to Splash Mt. but it just seems like such a long walk and your feet are so tired. So you skip it.

Don’t. Go have some ice cream, and go ride Splash Mountain.

I can’t tell you how many times on this trip we were just “too tired” or it was such a “long drive” and I or Donald made us go and then we were simply blown away by the amazingness. The first time was at Mammoth Cave sight. It’s like a 30 minute drive from Mt. Rushmore & my parents had convinced me that there were better things to see closer & we had already driven so much. But Donald said, “No way. We found this on-line & it is going to awesome. We’re doing it.” He was right. It was a real fossil dig with real Mammoth bones & archaeologists. It was just amazing and worth the drive through beautiful country.

Archaelogists digging for mammoth bones:

http://inlinethumb38.webshots.com/42661/2432773610092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2432773610092107464zLFtyq)

Again in Yellowstone my dad was sick & we were tired & my daughter had been ill too and the baby had fallen at our picnic. We were having kind of a bad day. But I didn’t want to just go to our TV-less cabin and be bored when we had just driven 1800 miles to get here. So I talked everyone into a little hike (we had ice cream first.) It was such a beautiful view we went again two days later with my dad when he was feeling better. It was a true highlight of the trip.

And there are too many other moments to mention. Sleeping is for home & for night. If you are truly tired (you know when that is the case) fine, sleep. But if your family just has a tiny case of the whines, get yourself some ice cream & go do the thing you were looking forward to. It’ll be worth getting up at 7:00 am for rope drop or out at 10:00 pm for astronomy night at the Grand Tetons with 10 telescopes & a bunch of astronomers!!!! That was the coolest thing ever. And I HATE leaving my bed after 10 p.m. But I got to see Jupiter & it’s bands & moons. I got to see stars in the Big Dipper which are actually clusters of stars rotating around each other. And learned lots & lots. Inconvenient? You bet. Worth it? You bet.

The most beautiful waterwall I've ever seen (& yes, I've been to Niagra):

http://inlinethumb44.webshots.com/7915/2192849290092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2192849290092107464nfWbcA)

7: Save money on the food. If it were just Donald and I, I probably wouldn’t say this one, but with a family I think this is a big one. Kids don’t care enough about food to spend too much money on it. My dad took a campstove even though we weren’t camping & we stopped at picnic areas and made hot, cheap lunches instead of fast food or chain restaurants. It isn’t that we didn’t eat out at all, we just were really choosy about it & picked out places that had character & good food and the rest of the time we ate picnics.

A notable one was right inside Yellowstone our first day we got out bearings at a lovely picnic spot next a river. It was so convenient to just eat when we were hungry instead of when we found restaurant. And the kids enjoyed it more as they could run around outside. And I wasn’t stressed as I tried to entertain them. I just sat & watched them play in the cold river while my dad cooked. If I hadn’t had him, I would still say to picnic, we just would have had more sandwiches. Though the campstove was so awesome & easy to use I think Donald & I will either buy one or borrow his when we go on road trips without him. It was a pocketbook & time management & Mommy stress level lifesaver.

Dad cooking:
http://inlinethumb42.webshots.com/42025/2860702890092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2860702890092107464lzXdcg)

Our view while we waited for his quesadillas:

http://inlinethumb26.webshots.com/28569/2142199030092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2142199030092107464mfAoDI)

Getting bang for our buck with a local barbeque. No air conditioning but low price, huge servings, and super friendly locals (in Cody, Wy.):

http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/40426/2198124810092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2198124810092107464EbOfEd)

8: People are miserable when they are too hot. Yellowstone in general isn’t that hot. But the thermal features are very hot and you walk on boardwalks over them under direct sun. And South Dakota was very hot. The only time I thought my family would lose it was during the touring of thermal features around noon & in the Badlands. It was so hot that even though it was neat, it was hard to enjoy. We should have toured those things in the morning or evening. And we should have done it in smaller chunks. Hot people are not happy and stage revolts.

Refer to point number four to revive them. Then continue on with point number six.

The Badlands:

http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/43201/2971255200092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2971255200092107464ANXcCH)

Thermal features:

http://inlinethumb14.webshots.com/42829/2383018190092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2383018190092107464DHsYos)

"The" thermal feature, Ole Faithful. We sat on a log in the shade while we waited. Much more enjoyable than up front with all those people in the burning sun:

http://inlinethumb09.webshots.com/29128/2400984690092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2400984690092107464YZdvKE)

9: Ohio is the coolest place to live.

When I travel I wonder what it would be like to live wherever I am. I ponder the practicalities of living there, where the shop for groceries, where their kids go to school, where they work. I don’t know why, but it interests me. This time was no different except that I didn’t want to live any of these places. Not because the people aren’t friendly or they aren’t gorgeous. But because of natural disasters. There are avalanches, forest fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, bears eating people. I don’t even know. I just know for a huge portion of this trip I was really glad I didn’t own a house there. I’ve never seen a forest fire before. But I have now. I’ve never seen a tornado before. But I have now. I’ve never seen lighting hit the ground right in front of me & the thunder be simultaneous & scare the crap out of me & my kids. But I have now. And the bears and buffalo. They are right there & not at all afraid of you. It would just take an instant and they could eat or gore your child to death.

So from now on, my part of Ohio is the best place to live. In all ways it might not be. There might be (OK, there IS) better shopping, better schools, better scenery in other parts of the world. But I won’t be killed by a tornado, an avalance, or a hurricane, etc. So I’m OK staying here.

No, it's not nighttime yet, and that's no sunset. That's fire. We were covered in ash:
http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/42154/2458695720092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2458695720092107464cnqdZn)

Finally, a rainbow after our harrowing midwest storm experience. I felt like I was Dorothy in Wizard of Oz: BEFORE it turns color.:
http://inlinethumb48.webshots.com/41583/2866305620092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2866305620092107464azyaSK)

10: My family is the coolest. OK, this one won’t help you at all. Actually, number nine didn’t help you either. But this is just an absolute truth now. We drove, on average, 10 hours a day in a minivan with 7 people between the ages of 17 months and 62 years and there was not a single discouraging word nor a single fight. There was simple cooperation and happiness. And laughter. My family is the coolest.

A few random photos:
The Watiki Water park in South Dakota:
http://inlinethumb28.webshots.com/41563/2727830840092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2727830840092107464BikAsj)

A field of buffalo:
http://inlinethumb59.webshots.com/42554/2293107030092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2293107030092107464RibtYU)

Us on a raft in the Snake River:
http://inlinethumb03.webshots.com/43010/2707056850092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2707056850092107464JsetPS)

Grand Tetons:
http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/42470/2749330900092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2749330900092107464LrNAbP)

[estherhead]

Two more:
Wall Drug:
http://inlinethumb41.webshots.com/43496/2996112850092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2996112850092107464tkVgDg)

Old Faithful Inn:
http://inlinethumb61.webshots.com/11964/2606526550092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2606526550092107464jKeyIA)

Donald & I had a big discussion about the Old Faithful Inn as the Wilderness Lodge is based on this. I'm always about the original & the real. So I thought the Old Faithful in was way cool. It's the original and is an original. Interesting wear on the stairs. You can just imagine the stories the Inn has seen. Donald preferred the Wilderness Lodge. Controlled atmosphere is a good thing to him. He felt Disney took the original and made it way better.

[Alysa]

Sounds like you had an amazing time!

[MommyLove]

Subscribed! popcorn::

[estherhead]

Sounds like you had an amazing time!

We did! It was amazing, that's the perfect word for it and it has really whet our appetite for future national park road trips with our family.

Subscribed! popcorn::

Hi MommyLove! Welcome.

So, we're just 17 days away from our girls trip! I called on Friday to verify our dining ressies and to change the final day to San Angel Inn instead of
Wolfgang Puck as we're going to do an extra day at Epcot and I've never been to Pleasure Island so we're going to go there before it closes. So here is how it breaks down:

9/17 Leave bright & early, drive to airport. Fly to Orlando!!! Get rental car. Check into Pop Century. Go to DHS whenever we get there. Stay until our Jiko ADR.

9/18 Get up early & check into Boma. AK at opening. When done go to Epcot. Stay till our ADR & go to Boardwalk. Watch Fireworks from Boardwalk, the bridge next to ESPN. Or just walk to Epcot & watch Illuminations. Or go see 9:00 Wishes.

9/19 MK at opening. Take boat to WL at 5:30. Go to Pleasure Island after dinner.

9/20 Check out. Go to Epcot to finish. Airport by 4:00 p.m. Fly home.


Oooo, sooo excited. :dance3: :cheer2: :dance3:

I cannot believe I'll be in Disney without any kids & without any hubbie. Don't get me wrong, I adore going with them and am sure I'll miss them (a tiny bit) but I'm always the tour director. The idea of going to Disney and NOT being a tour director makes me a little giddy. A lot giddy. Bizarrely giddy.

No cutting up food at restaurants. No going to the potty & wiping butts. No saying no to souveniers. No asking if I can go do something. No poopy diaper emergencies. Sigh. :hippie: :hippie: :hippie: Those butterflies are in my TUMMY!

[ILMICKEY]

Oh I'm so excited for you. I am so bummed Pleasure Island will be closed for my trip. My daughter is turning 21 on the 9th and she was so looking forward to going. Oh, well, we will still be in Disney.

I LOVED your Yellowstone Pics. Looks like you had a wonderful time!

[estherhead]

Oh I'm so excited for you. I am so bummed Pleasure Island will be closed for my trip. My daughter is turning 21 on the 9th and she was so looking forward to going. Oh, well, we will still be in Disney.

I LOVED your Yellowstone Pics. Looks like you had a wonderful time!

Thanks! Too bad about your daughter. That would have been such a nice changing of age thing to do.

[estherhead]

So. Today we had free tickets (through work) to The Ohio State University vs. Ohio University at the actual horseshoe! I'm a lifelong Ohio'er but I've never been in the Shoe. 105,002 people were there today. It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cool1: :cool1: :cool1:

It was another thing on my calendar standing between me & Disney so it was fun crossing it off and it was just plain fun. But as always, our events are quickly turned into dress rehearsals for Disney and today was no different.

Things I learned:

I nor Suzy can wear crocs for serious walking. We have long, narrow feet and skinny toes. It simply doesn't work. She wore them & was not happy, though she likes them at home. So tennies & leather sandals is it for us. We kind of knew that, but she wanted a trial run just to make sure.

Also, don't forget the sunblock. We've been stockpiling all summer so we don't have to spend lots of bucks on it in Florida, yet we forgot it today. I concentrated all day about keeping my arms behind people in their shade and had on a hat. Suzy just fried. And Donald is quite pink as are Milo & Prince Charming. So we MUST not forget the sunblock. MUST NOT!!! :headache:

Also, Donald & I took off from the stadium way late to the car, but we moved along quickly, dodging people traffic and keeping our eyes open for spots to take shortcuts. We ended up in a gorgeous park where there was no one & we could move at our quick pace which got us way ahead of the crowds despite starting behind them. We rock, we walk super fast & stay alert. Watch out Disney, here we come!

All that aside, it was such a fun day, away from our kids & a much better game than we were anticipating.

As for our budgeting, I've been spending $125 a week on groceries. I've gotten that down & our new budget is $112.50 per week which so far we are maintaining. I feel comfortable with it & we're relying a lot more on cash lately. We have almost $400 Disney Dollars (for our November trip) on our rewards card so I feel happy with that & like I don't really need more so we aren't just piling them up right now as I save more when I'm paying cash & not plastic.

Suzy went and bought herself a few things and though I was jealous, I know I have enough and since I'm paying cash, I didn't want to waste precious cash on my 10th pair of capri's. So I'll go with what I have, which believe me for a 4 day trip is plenty! And for our November trip we'll have our matching t-shirts so there won't be any need to spend money on clothes other than that.

Also for this girl's trip (in 11 days!) by budget is $200.00. My mom says she'll pay for some of our incidentals (like some tips or alcoholic drinks) so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do the $200 considering we have deluxe dining and no kids asking for stuff!

Also in our personal finances, my baby got part of her doctor/ER bills today & I think it's going to be around $3000.00 out of our pocket which I'll just have ot pay slowly so I don't think it will effect our monthly budget too much, especially since it's pre-tax. I'm yet to totally figure it out but I think it will be OK & I've been quite concerned with medical bills this year as they've been WAY over what I was expecting to pay.

Finally, we have our 4 day trip paid for (& I have the $200.00 set aside.) For our November trip we have our tickets paid for, our housing paid for, and our airfare paid for. I need to rent a car (I'll do that as soon as we get back) and all our food/etc. With the $400.00 rewards card, I'm assuming I'll need around $600.00 more. So October & November will be all about saving that money.

You can see my grocery stuff on the Budget Board September Grocery Challenge.

Oh, and I went over to Suzy & Milo's house the other day to watch Samantha Brown's Disney while our babies slept. It was such fun & I called Disney DIning (my favorite thing to do) as we thought we might dump Artist's Point for 2 ADR's. But the 2 we really wanted were booked & the girl on the phone was like, "Why would you dump Artist's Point? WHY!?! It's the best place ever." So we just kept it. We were simply nervous as there are mixed reviews as to whether it's worth 2 TS or not.

And I think we won't have a hurricane for our 4 days. Yea!

See you soon with even more GIRL'S TRIP CHATTER!

[estherhead]

So, I've been crying the last two days. Nothing is wrong. I swear. I've been emotional enough that I'm worried I'm pregnant. But if that is so, then I am suing the birth control pill makers! Cause I've been perfect in my usage.

Anyway, Suzy & I had a life altering thing happen to us in the spring. My parents have been working on retiring and we took over their business. I'm vice president, she's treasurer, my dad's business partner is president. Though I felt like I took this seriously, I did feel it wasn't really going to change our jobs so much. My dad is still the major owner of stocks and it was just for legal reasons we made the switch.

Well, we all know (in hindsight) that that isn't how it went down. My dad ended up having some health issues and Suzy & I have really started making some serious business issues. And this week it just caught up with me & attacked me.

Darn it, I'm just a kid. I don't know how to run a business. I can hardly manage my coupons! I know, I know, I'm technically 34, the mother of three, responsible wife and adult. But inside... ya know? I'm a kid. A Disney loving kid.

So. After my stressful week Donald & I of course had a fight. Who doesn't have a fight with their dh after they've had a terrible week at work. That's the way it works. And in the process of making up from the fight (not THAT kind of making up you dirty minds you, talking making up) the subject of my girl's trip just happened to come up as I was concerned (read: guilty?) that Donald was ticked with me for spending money on this girl's trip while telling him that he couldn't spend money on a new computer. So I had to tell him that really I wasn't spending that much as Mom is paying for most of it so the tiny bit that I paid for this in no way equals the $1500 computer he wants.

So to make a short story long: I've obviously been having some guilt about going off to have fun at Disney without my family. Now it's out in the open & Suzy admitted she too has been having guilt. And then she called me back to yell at me for feeling guilty.

So no more guilt. Gosh darn it (more profanity, I know) we REALLY need this trip. Did I mention the crying? The sick feeling in the pit of my tummy?

Did I mention this trip is only FOUR DAYS AWAY????!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

Wanna hear our plan?

Wednesday Get up at 3:30 am & drive to airport. Arrive 9:55 am at Orlando. Get a car, go to Publix, check into Pop.
Go to AK for EMH evening. (or got to AK for a few hours & take a nap)
Go to Jiko 7:15
If we've napped, go to Pleasure Island

Thursday
Go to MK EMH
Leave at 11:00 am
Go to Epcot.
Eat at San Angel for lunch.
Do Countries.
Eat at Flying Fish for dinner.
Monorail back for Wishes.

Friday Eat at Boma for breakfast.
Then park at Epcot.
Do Future World Epcot.
Monorail to MK.
Boat to Artist’s Point for an early dinner.
Bus to Epcot & get car.
Go to Pleasure Island (if we didn't go earlier.)

9/20 DHS EMH
Shop whenever we’re done.
Be at airport by 4:00 pm

Doesn't that sound fun? And I won't have any people depending on me. None. I can't remember the last time no one was dependant on me. And I'm not going to let Suzy or Mom talk about Weight Watchers (we're leaders) or calories, I'm gonna eat all the deep fried crap I want (or as much as I won't think will actually make me ill.) AND I'm not going to exercise. Nope. Just the walking. No running.

Four days. Four days. Four days.

[estherhead]

Hi ya'll!!!! Suzy & I & my mom have been home now five days from our big girl's nights on the town. 3 fabulous nights at Pop Century and 4 fabulous days at 4 fabulous parks.

Why have I waited so long to update this pre-trippie with our scoping out WDW pre-trip? Two reasons. The main one is I started getting ill on our final day at Disney. Of course I didn't realize this and couldn't figure out why I didn't feel rested and rejuvinated. It wasn't until the following night when bad things started happening to my tummy, intestines, and my fever started causing me to shake that it all really clicked. I was terribly ill. Mom still is terribly ill. And my dear little Mulan who NEVER gets sick caught this so she's been home from school the last two days.

The second reason is I needed to finish my out west TR before starting to report on this trip. I will do a full TR with photos but I'm just going to put it in here and I consider it really part of this pre-trip. We learned a lot about our upcoming trip and have a LOT of planning to do.

So stay tuned. More Disney info & tips than you can shake a fist at.

For now I leave you with this: I made tonight Artist Point's portabello mushroom soup recipe (I asked for it & they handed it right over) for Donald tonight. Only instead of using 3/4 cup butter and a 3/4 QUART of heavy cream I used 1/4 cup butter and 1 pint of f.f. half and half. He loved it and I felt like I was right back on Disney property.

So don't forget to ask for recipes for the things you adore. When we go back in November I'm going into Mexico and asking for the shrimp cocktail appetizer recipe.

But more on our Deluxe Dining extravaganza and bringing Disney into my every day life later....

And, of course, much later we'll talk about how this trip impacted our family trip and how it effected our budget.

I've got to stop typing, I must be somewhere in an hour & I'm not showered yet but I just can't stop typing. I love DISNEY! I can't stop typpppp....

[estherhead]

I had to pop on today and tell ya'll a cute story. Mulan has been very ill and today, despite her crying, I made her go to school. I know I'm heartless but it truly was for her own good. She was sooooo bored yesterday that I know she'll be happier in school and I had things to do which did not involve sitting at home, yet again, with a sick girl.

Anyway, on the way to school (I drove her in late, Ariel took the bus so we were alone) I was trying to cheer her up by talking about Disney. I had told the girls we weren't going to add the water parks this trip, and then we did. So I told her our first day we'd be going to BB. She was THRILLED! Then she asked about our house.

Well, I've been holding back that info hoping to surprise them when we got there. So I just told her that is was a super cool house and she would love her room.

She said, "You so did not get us a High School Musical Room!!!!" with as much excitement as I've ever seen.

Dag nab it, when did I lose my princess girls?

So I, of course, said, "No, it isn't HSM. It's princesses."

To which she replied, "Oh. Well that'll be OK I guess. What are the other rooms?"

So much with surprising them with the room of their dreams. Somehow I missed the dreams switching to a bunch of geeky teenagers! She was highly amused that Prince Charming would be in a Winnie the Pooh room. It made her giggle all the way to school. So I guess, in my own awkward way, I accomplished my goal: to stop the tears. But I'll have to modify my expectations of their faces when they see their princess room. It may be shocking in a bad way!

[estherhead]

I'm so conflicted! I want to tell you about our November trip and how much we're planning and that I'm dieting & lost 1.6 lbs this past week and have 5.4 to go and only 7 weeks to lose it so I am working hard on that. And we're saving money left & right. Suzy's dh Milo & my sweetie Donald are both on board and working super hard.

But I can't. Because first I have to give you a super duper report on our exciting girls eating palooza. I just can't let it fall behind. You need to know. It was great.

So our plan updates will have to wait. First you must hear a little story of 3 wild and crazy (OK, as you will see we may be a bit crazy, but we are certainly not wild) girls took on the WORLD!!!

It all start on a dark and foggy morning. Very foggy. At 3:00 a.m. I awakened and quickly realized I wouldn't be going back to sleep. I was just way too excited. So I got up & showered and actually put make-up on. My mom picked me up before 4:00 a.m. and we were off to Suzy's. We grabbed her stuff, woke up the poor baby (who was not amused) and we were off.

Fairly quickly we were immersed in a thick fog. Mom was driving and she wondered out loud why she agreed to that. So we, of course, got a bit lost in the fog & missed our turn. Sheila, sweet GPS that she is, recalculated and had us drive down this crazy, scary dirt road which surprisingly took us exactly where we wanted to be. So we were on the highway on the fast track to the airport when I decided I had to pee.

While I was doing that Mom grabbed some coffee. She had told Suzy & I that she had $800 and we were to blow it on this trip. She would pay for everything. So she went to get coffee & it was senior citizens day or something and it was only $.50. So we had delicious coffee and we still had $799.50 to blow.

The airport (Dayton) ended up being nice. We normally fly out of Cincinnati or Columbus but Dayton was a really nice alternative.

We went through security which is always an adventure when you have a baby. Take off your shoes, all your jewelry, someone has to hold the baby while you fold the stroller & carrier. Oops, now pass the baby on as those shoes must come off. And then reverse the whole thing. Oh lordy. It's a mess. But we did it and once our shoes were tied again and the baby resettled we were off.

Here is where we discovered something that would haunt us the entire trip. When I use the phrase "baby settled" it is very loosely. As Jack-Jack decided that he had no interest in sitting in a stroller. Suzy & I spent a huge portion of this trip holding onto his chubby arm while he stood in his stroller trying to die. And Mom spent a huge portion of her trip holding Jack-Jack while he slept as he had no interest in sleeping the stroller either. It was IRRITATING. Sweetest baby ever. Happy. But would not sit in that stroller for one second while we got from one spot to the other. Argh!

Oddly enough, we had really been looking forward to our two hour flight. We had all bought Nintendo DS's and games to share. So Jack-Jack fell asleep and we spent the 2 hours playing games. It was so fun. And to add to the party all of the people around us were completely drunk. There was a guy sitting across from us who was wild. He truly was wild & crazy unlike us little pretenders. He had wild red hair & had evidently been a sports player of some kind. He said at one point how great it was to be retired. His fellow drunk friend said something about how he didn't think being retarded sounded great. "Retired, idiot, not retarded." Oh dear, how we laughed. We also laughed when he spilled an entire beer on himself. At 8:00 a.m. He was so drunk at 8:00 in the morning he couldn't hold his beer. Oh, and then one of the ladies with them said, "Are we going to a bar when we land?" To which I said, "Uh, yeah."

The other funny thing that had Suzy & I in stitches was my mom REALLY didn't want to be old on this trip. Her goal was to think young thoughts. OK, background: my mom is not an old person, neither in body or mind. She is the youngest 62 year old ever, still in search of her true self. Actually, she may have found her true self a few years ago but she's still coming to terms with it. So basically, she's in her mid twenties. So it was a funny goal. But no matter how young you are, there are still somethings that are just old about you. So she plugged her headphones into her MP3 player and was jamming to John Denver.

But that isn't the funny part. She kept talking to me (I was sitting between Suzy & her) and she was talking to me REALLY loudly. Shouting at me. Just general conversation being shouted. I was talking in a completely normal voice and she could hear me just fine despite the fact that she had headphones in. So you can imagine that I, with no headphones in, sitting inches away from her would have been able to hear her just fine, even if she hadn't been yelling at me. So under my breath I kept making fun of her "youthfulness" to Suzy which had Suzy absolutely rolling. :lmao:

Anyhow, as you can see, we were in a vacation mode. Bring on the crazy drunk people.

We landed at 10:00 , right on time, and were quickly on our way to getting our rental car. We had decided to go cheap & got a car from Dollar. This will not be a mistake we make again. This car was super tiny & a piece of ****. It had no power anything and it simply was awful.

Suzy, Mom, Jack-Jack & the dreaded car:
http://inlinethumb15.webshots.com/38798/2404433240092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2404433240092107464HESrjM)

After squishing ourselves & all our luggage painfully into the tiny tin junk car we were starving. We had simply gotten up too early for our bellies to be full with our 1/2 a banana & FIber One bar (I had to share as others had forgotten theirs.) But we didn't want to eat too much as we had so much to eat at Disney. So we opted to get cheeseburgers at McD's just to tide us over. We ordered 4 cheeseburgers & 3 Diet Cokes. Totally cost? $2.00. What? We kept saying to the girl, "Are you sure you got 4 cheeseburgers & 3 Diet Cokes?" Yup. As we drove out we noticed the "$.25 cheeseburger Wednesdays" sign. I'm still confused about the Diet Cokes. But who am I to complain? $797.50 still to spend! :woohoo:

So, with the use of our handy-dandy GPS (which had found us the McD's, by the way) and more importantly the great sign system, we quickly found ourselves in Disney. When did they make it so you don't have to go on the Beeline express? And when did they rename in the Beachline express?

Into Pop we went. We were there around 11:15 a.m. and I had a nice guy from London check me in. He was great. It was nice to have someone with an accent I truly understood. We grabbed our cards & learned we were in the 50's which I had requested. We took just a moment to look at the walls with Mom and it was nice but we decided to come back and do it justice later as we really wanted to get to AK.

We were parked & trammed (our tram driver was HILARIOUS!!!) bags inspected, & ticketed by 12:15 p.m. We felt that for a plane landing at 10:00 a.m. that was not too shabby to get a car, eat a cheeseburger, check into a hotel & be at a park by noon. Not too shabby at all.

My first thing I was determined to do was find Devine. What does a girl have to do to see Devine?

Anyway, we headed toward Africa & were going to take the paths to Asia searching for her. Here is the first thing we saw on the paths:
http://inlinethumb10.webshots.com/19657/2814855290092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2814855290092107464FkyVcg)

Background: When I was little (I don't remember this trip at all) my parents took us to MK (they were good parents) and I could not tell the difference between real & not real. I kept saying, "Now that's real, right?" on all kinds of things like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea & Jungle Cruise about things which were obviously NOT real. So it has been a family joke forever to say, "Now that's real, right?" whenever you see an animatronic. So we saw these parrots & Mom said, "Now that's real, right?" to tease me. Only ther really were real. It was just a nice entry into the magical world of Disney that so flawlessly integrates real & not real.

Then Pal Mickey wiggled & told us to go down a "secret path." We were the only ones on it & this is what we saw:
http://inlinethumb46.webshots.com/44333/2509623750092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2509623750092107464RJtzZr)

This tortoise was HUGE. You can't believe how big. And you can't tell from my photo. But trust me, this was a big one:
http://inlinethumb62.webshots.com/28861/2860237150092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2860237150092107464mwclYO)

Then we headed to Flights of Wonder. We got there a little early which I recommend as we got to learn about owls:

http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/17350/2658711370092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2658711370092107464FVuXGz)

Then we went in and the show was just OK. It had some highlights, but it wasn't amazing. I wouldn't take my kids. But I did enjoy it. Oh, I had run & gotten FP's for EE. They were for 2:25 p.m.

So we decided to do the Maharjah Trek and then eat some proper lunch. I really enjoyed the Trek & it is a must do for my tiger loving Ariel when we go in November.

How do you like these teeth?
http://inlinethumb23.webshots.com/13206/2915868910092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2915868910092107464JzzUbK)

I loved the theming.
See the cool walls behind him?
http://inlinethumb42.webshots.com/31273/2300859490092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2300859490092107464RWXcfz)

There also was a really neat aviary where you can't really tell there is netting above. It was great, but for some reason I didn't take any photos.

I spy with my little eye monkeys!
http://inlinethumb01.webshots.com/38784/2533287430092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2533287430092107464vvzDSy)

We then ate at the counter Yak & Yeti. I got one counter service Sweet & Sour Pork which came with a giant Diet Coke and a mango pie. Then I used 2 snack services to get 4 eggrolls. This was way too much for the 3 of us. The pork is a lot of food. It was good, though we felt there wasn't enough pineapple and veggies in it. The egg rolls were delicious. The mango pie was very yummy. We also go two ice waters which mostly spilled on the ground. The no lids & uneven ground at AK makes drinks in stroller cup holders quite impractical.

At this point we decided to go use our FP's at EE and then try to catch Nemo. Suzy delayed us (I can't remember why) and we ended up getting behind a scooter convention. Normally, I think the scooters are great. But let me tell you, this was a minimum of 20 scooters travelling together taking up the entire sidewalk with their scooter confusion. Stopping & starting. It was just chaos. So we jetted in front of them & I said, "Come on, Suzy, let's go!" But she was nervous to let Mom find the EE gift shop on her own & wanted to show her. Sure enough, the scooter convention had EE FP's and were all in front of us with the young scooter people helping the ancient scooter people. You all know how this goes. If you need a scooter at all, you won't be efficient in helping other's.

So we opted for the single rider's line & were on the ride well before the scooter group. Naturally, I teared up. I just love roller coasters & the first one I ride at every amusement park makes me tear up. This time did not disappoint. After we got off, I found a sweet family of 3 who were about to get in the 45 min standby line and handed them my FP's. Boy was the little boy excited! I just love spreading Disney magic.

I then ran to get Dinosaur FP's with a plan to meet at Nemo. Well, of course, they started letting people into Nemo before I got back so I took off & ran in front of a lot of people (sorry people) to find my group which was no longer where I left them. We had gotten there at 2:50 p.m. and the show started at 3:15 p.m. and it was none too soon, let me tell ya.

Nemo was SOOOOO good. I had really enjoyed it last year but the Bruce was better. The Marlon was the same singer. Jack-Jack adored this show. He laughed & clapped & laughed. I loved it by itself, but having him there really helped make it amazing.

http://inlinethumb22.webshots.com/40405/2747732160092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2747732160092107464FuCsJY)

After that we took a potty break & headed toward Dinosaur. Mom & Suzy rode while Jack-Jack & I went to Petrifries to get him a water (which we lost most of) and fries. We took our stuff to a bench at Dino & chitchatted with an adorable girl & her Mommy. Somehow I missed my group passing me so we had to call & meet at the area exit. We then decided to skip Lion King and go to sleep. Remember, 3:00 am?

Where will our room be at Pop?
How will we enjoy our first $200 meal?

[ILMICKEY]

Great start:thumbsup2 !!

I so can't wait for my girls only trip. I hope mine goes as well as is sounds yours is going.

Can't wait to hear more!!

Oh, great job on the weight loss. I keep losing it, but I turn around and boom, there it is!!!

[estherhead]

Well, I can't find my notes tonight, irritatingly enough but I have some time so I'm going to go from memory. Watch out, my memory is not always amazing.

So we left Animal Kingdom after having a lovely day there. We were really getting tired & Mom and I were still thinking we might go to Pleasure Island this night. It just seemed like it would fit in best in our schedule. So we went back to try to sleep.

We called Pop and got our room number & tried to park close to our building, which we weren't overly successful at. But we did have a nice walk next to the water, reading the trivia sign and talking about the lonely buildings across the lake. We had asked for an upper floor, lake view room and we got it, kind of. It was fine. We were on the 3rd floor and we could kind of see the lake, through a bunch of trees. Our plan was so that it would be quiet but we were the first room from the elevator so it wasn't exactly quiet. Fortunately we all slept well at night so it didn't really matter. I didn't notice the toilets flushing, the way. Of course we did always have the bathroom door because of Jack-Jack and his enjoyment of splashing in the toilet. And throwing things in the toilet.

Here's a little friend that welcomed us:

http://inlinethumb60.webshots.com/42427/2844117950092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2844117950092107464TkiKys)

And our (see the lake?) view:
http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/38250/2987802470092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2987802470092107464yTxNMA)

I really tried to sleep, I swear. But things were happening in the room, games were being played & Jack-Jack wasn't really sleeping & I HATE taking naps. So try as I might, it just didn't work out. Before I knew it, it was time for our 7:15 Jiko ADR. So we all got fancified and hopped in our icky car and drove to Animal Kingdom Lodge. What an awesome place! We really wanted to explore, but we were right on time so had to go right to Jiko.

They checked us in & gave us a pager so we decided to explore a bit and got two steps away from Jiko and our pager went off. This was a pattern for us the whole trip. So we went back to the counter and a lovely staff began waiting on us hand & foot. The baby was blissfully sleeping so we ordered our appetizers and enjoyed the warm washcloths and our drinks. And looked at the little fountain outside our window and the sunset wall and started letting the tension leave us.

And then they brought us the bread. It came with tandoori butter which was amazing. It was absolutely delish.

Here we are:

http://inlinethumb61.webshots.com/41276/2083956410092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2083956410092107464xrnvWG)

And here are our appetizers:

http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/5924/2888308490092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2888308490092107464pcZpDX)

On the left is Mom's soup. I adored this soup. It is corn soup with Lemon creme fraiche. But I didn't really taste lemon. Just delightfully tasty soup. I would order this for myself. In the middle is my partially eaten kalamata olive flatbread. I ate every bit of this. It is a little salty (the olives) so you see the water with lemon in. They bring the lemons in a little dish which is exactly how I like it. That way people who want lots of lemon (me) and people who don't want lemon can just decide for themselves. And they kept my water filled. It was awesome. Then to the right is Suzy's curried samosas. These were great too, but something I could make at home. But the chutney that came with it was outstanding. And that fabulous bread & butter in the background.

I need to diverge here and say again that we are all excellent cooks & bakers so we judge things based on three basic criteria:

Could we make it better at home?
Could we make it at all at home?
Can we even figure out what in the world is in it?

If we can't figure out exactly what is in it but it is delicious, than it gets higher marks in our minds. So the flatbread & samosas were really quite good, but I could make them pretty close to what there were at home. The soup, bread, tandoori butter, and chutney got much higher rankings as I couldn't have made them at home and am not sure what the spices were in them. I'm really clueless about the soup. I wish I'd asked for a recipe.

And here are our entrees:

Suzy & Mom both ordered the steak with mac & cheese. The steak was such a quality cut, we definately could not make this at home. Nor are we sure we can purchase such a thing were we live. The wine sauce was to die for (my Mom's phrase) and the mac & cheese was good (we make good mac & cheese) and they really liked the combo. I had a bite, but I ADORED my entree so I didn't waste too much time eating their's. It was a Kenyan BBQ short-rib. The pork was so tender. Yummy. And I like the potato stuff served with it. I'm pretty sure I could make something similar, though I couldn't pick out all the spices, and there is no way I could find that unique cut of meat. But I'm going to try a few coffee BBQ recipes this fall & make pork roasts in my crockpot. I really loved this meal. And I loved that the spices were foreign enough that I couldn't figure them out, but normal enough to my palate to interest me but not confuse me.

The appetizers and entrees were 2 thumbs up for sure.

Oh, at some point Jack-Jack woke up and Suzy set him up. We asked for a highchair and she pulled her magical disposable placemat and baby feeding kit out of her bag. She fell in love with these products this trip and felt like a good mom. One of "those moms" that she and I normally brand as first timers who have a giant diaper bags full of safety features. But without our other 6 kids running around she could pretend she was one of "those moms" instead of the chaos moms that we really are.

Jack-Jack, of course, had no idea his mom had turned into a super mom. He just knew he was well rested and ready to eat!

http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/42059/2356526790092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2356526790092107464IToFKu)

Bring on the desserts:
I risked the lavender ice cream which I've had before so I could have the chocolate cheesecake:

http://inlinethumb13.webshots.com/40652/2802612300092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2802612300092107464rAtMsB)

I liked it. I'm still not a huge lavender fan but I would order this again. The cheesecake was very chocolate satisfying, ya know?

And in the background is the pistachio creme brulee. I'm not a huge brulee fan, but I will say that the caramelization on this was perfect. And the pistachio flavor was really good. It you like custardy stuff, this was really well done. Suzy like it a lot.

Something peachy:

http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/41778/2400146630092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2400146630092107464mMpVTf)

This wasn't on the All Ears Menu & I can't remember the name of it but it was peach cobbler with peach ice cream and peach sauce. It was peachy. And OK. Everything was peachy. And nice end to a meal but not necessarily worth the $8.00 if we weren't on the dining plan. Bring on the skoolbread, ya know?

So while we were sitting there indulging in this amazing meal we started wishing our dh's were with us. They would have loved it. And we loved it. I loved this place. I would go there in a heartbeat, if only it wasn't so stinking expensive. And even still, I might go. Really good. We called them and explained in detail what we were eating. Which I'm not sure they really enjoyed. :rotfl: Then we came to our senses and realized we were NOT going to enjoy Pleasure Island. So we paid our tip & gasped over the $200+ bill we didn't have to pay.

And we went to the grocery store. Which I enjoyed. Suzy for some reason was a little out of it (lack of sleep?) and I was glad I had gone with her. I'm not sure she would have found her way out of the store. We also scoped out some gluten free options that Publix carries for our November trip. And I bought a little notebook so I could take notes (which I've somehow lost! :confused3 ) And water, diapers, granola bars, bananas, etc. You get the idea.

Back at the room I dashed and grabbed some caffeine free Diet Coke. Unfortunately, they didn't have that. Which made me sad. I had really enjoyed that last year. So Diet Sprite it was. Bummer. Oh, I had earlier (before AK) had so Coke Slushie. I mixed it half & half with Diet Coke and really enjoyed it. A nice treat.

On my way to the main area:

http://inlinethumb38.webshots.com/30693/2116395110092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2116395110092107464MuDwdx)

http://inlinethumb38.webshots.com/40869/2891351430092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2891351430092107464zAKlzs)

So we all relaxed and slept. This is the only night I remember hearing Jack-Jack and it was only briefly. So evidently he slept well too. :thumbsup2

[estherhead]

So, we had a nice night's sleep. We had set the alarm for 6:18 a.m. Why 6:18? I'm not sure but the truth is, it didn't matter as I awoke at 6:12 a.m. READY TO GO! Guess what? We're at Disney World!!!! And I don't have any kids, so let's get outta this joint.

The plan was to go to MK for extra magic hour and then go to Epcot for lunch and strolling around and then to the Flying Fish for dinner and then fireworks somewhere.

So at 6:12 I was up & in the shower. I was supposed to meet up with a fridge swapper before she left on her airplane. So I hopped to luggage to get a cart & then headed to the 60's where she had the fridge all boxed up. This is the 2nd fridge swapped I've participated in & I enjoyed last years as it was quite useful and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with my fellow Disers.

Unfortunately her dh & son were still asleep in bed at 7 a.m. & her dh was kind of awake so he & I kept making awkward eye contact. You know the kind? Where both of you are trying at all costs to not ever look in the other person's direction except it just keeps happening. I know he could have rolled over but he wanted to see what we were doing, ya know? Anyway she & I didn't chit chat at all & I was back at our room in no time.

Oh, I just want to mention here that the elevator next to our room was broken and made this really scary noise. And for some unknown reason we were always on the broken elevator. You would think it would be a 50/50 process, but I only rode on the non broken elevator one time. So mostly I tried to take the stairs, but with a fridge on a cart, it was the elevator.

So Mom & I arranged things, and then rearranged them, and then again. We put some waters in our fridge. Finally we had it right & I took the cart back and went to get coffee in our refillable mugs. It was 7:00 a.m. and the food court was EMPTY. And this was during free dining! So just like everything else at Disney, if you want breakfast, get it early. I went back to the room & grabbed a Kashi bar & banana from Publix and my clothes for dinner and threw them in a backpack. By 7:30 we were off. I got a tiny bit impatient, not really, but you know how things at the last minute all go wrong? Well we were totally ready & on time & somehow that translated into 15 minutes late. I'm not sure how this happens, but I just know it does.

Anyhow, it didn't really matter. We ended up parking in the 2nd row at the TTC.

Can you believe this spot? This is the view from our car. OK, so not really but practically, we were REALLY close. No tram for us!

http://inlinethumb26.webshots.com/44441/2924140960092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2924140960092107464rVUEAv)

Isn't it kind of sad how TTC is deserted now that we have bag check & other things? It use to just start you off right & you felt like you were at Disney before you even got on the monorail, but now it is just a place to breeze past.

So we hopped on a monorail. There was a bit of confusion as something was wrong with the monorails. Actaully, this was a pattern for us the whole time. Things were just not functioning properly. The monorail didn't work our whole four days. So we got directed to the wrong track and finally ended up getting on the resort monorails. It was a nice little tour & gave Suzy time to nurse Jack-Jac but it made it so we didn't get to MK till 8:10 a.m. (I mean all the way in, through bag check & ticketing, etc.)

Here is Suzy's patience being tested by the 15 minutes late leaving Pop & the LONG monorail ride and then the bag check and the turnstile. Suzy can pick the shortest line and have it take four times longer than the line I'm in. No matter where we are, Wal-Mart or WDW, she manages to pick a line with people who have no idea what they are doing. If you could see behind her sunglasses, she's totally rolling her eyes. :rolleyes:

http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/18118/2582274280092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2582274280092107464XgBTdL)

http://inlinethumb34.webshots.com/30369/2166410520092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2166410520092107464xUKkvD)

Look how festive it looks in the fall:
http://inlinethumb28.webshots.com/43675/2249988770092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2249988770092107464FrLVdY)

We did Winnie the Pooh & Small World immediately as we thought Jack-Jack would enjoy them. He really did but boy was he tired and we practically had to pinch him to keep him awake. We then went to get FP's for Space Mt. & ride Buzz. I went to get the FP's and happened to pass by a cream cheese filled pretzel stand. Who can pass that, eh? Suzy & Mom hadnt' heard of it but we all split it & agreed it's like a Bagelful only with a yummy sugar crust on the outside. Buzz's line went so fast I hid my pretzel as I got on the line. I then shoved the whole thing in my mouth (so much for savoring it!) so I could shoot like a maniac. My score was 14,500 but I forgot to spin the car the first half of the ride. I evidently can't chew, shoot, & spin all at the same time.

Crisscrossing through Fantasyland:
http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/33099/2912471770092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2912471770092107464LdcLMp)

Jack-Jack was still asleep, or maybe back asleep? Anyway Mom & Suzy rode Splash Mt. while I hung out in the completely empty play area. But then the train came above us & he woke up so we checked that out. He thought the train was interesting.

After that we went to ride the new Haunted Mansion (it was a walk on) which I really enjoyed. Really enjoyed. But I was scoping it to see how scary it was for Mulan who HATES thunder & anything else scary. She is bound & determined she ride this even if she has to close her eyes the whole time but even the sounds are too scary, in my opinion, and what is the point of riding a ride that your eyes are closed & Mommy has her hands over your ears?

Then we crossed back to Tommorowland. It was at this moment that Mom realized she would not be gaining weight, even with all the eating we were doing, while on a trip with Suzy & me. We :love: crisscrossing parks. So no line effective.

We went to see Laugh Floor while we waited for our FP time and it was a good show. The audience people were not very cooperative so the CM's made fun of them which is always fun.

So we went & Mom & I rode Space Mt. She enjoyed it and it made her feel young & remember her own mom who loved Space Mt. But she said it did rattle her a tiny bit which made her a tiny bit sad. We reminisced about technology and how cutting edge this ride was when I was little and how blown away I had been with the moving sidewalks. :rotfl:

Then Suzy & I rode (we had baby swapped) and we naturally gossiped about Mom & Dad and how much fun Mom was having but how it was a bit sullied by her not being able to get over how Dad will never do this with her because he just can't walk that much and has too much pride to get a scooter.

By this point, it was time to go to Epcot. San Angel was awaiting us for a noon ADR. Jack-Jack had a bottle on the monorail and was tired again. We were really tuckering the poor guy out. The plan was Suzy was going to run (literally) to Soarin' to get FP while Mom & I changed Jack-Jack's diaper and put him to sleep. By the time we were near the first bathroom, he was already asleep. Poor baby. No clean diaper for him.

So we went to Mexico & were right on time. They gave us a pager & we (not having learned from the night before) decided to ride Tres Caballeros. Unfortunately for the CM, our pager went off as we were climbing on the ride so we climbed right back off. He was laughing at us. Our table actually ended up not being ready, they had accidently paged us, so I sat on the couch behind the host and after about 5 minutes our table was ready. I held Jack-Jack through most of this meal. It was just so relaxing to have him sleep through meals, I didn't want to risk moving him!

Last time I at at San Angel we sat next to the railing which was awesome. This time we were next to the kitchen which wasn't nearly as nice but I could see the mariachi band really well and they played twice while we ate. It was a fun atmosphere.

http://inlinethumb45.webshots.com/44460/2753847260092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2753847260092107464hUzywC)

Prior to getting this, Mom was feeling the marching we had made her endure. I'm mean, we did race her across MK a couple times & then dashed to the monorail, off the monorail, and then to Mexico. And she thought we were on vacation! :lmao: We were hot & tired & bothered. But as soon as she saw these:
http://inlinethumb52.webshots.com/41971/2545503370092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2545503370092107464sDSRUA)

She was feeling ready to go again! I ordered a margarita, she got a Dos Equis, and Suzy got a Diet Coke.

See how much better I'm feeling?

http://inlinethumb52.webshots.com/41651/2909032820092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2909032820092107464oXspVh)

And we got our appetizers. Mom & Suzy both got the shrimp cocktail which they adored. It had tons of shrimp but what they really loved was the cilantro filled salsa-type sauce that the shrimp were in. It was delicious. I don't like shrimp, but I tried the salsa stuff. It was really good. I need to try to make it here, I'm pretty sure I could.

I ordered the empanadas which I really like but the sauce, which was great, was very scanty which them a bit dry. But I would order this again, I just would ask for more sauce.

Hmm, no photos of the appies, sorry.

For an entree I got pork tacos. These were tasty, but I just scraped all the filling out of them as I was way too full on margarita, chips, and empanadas and I simply didn't have room in my belly for tortilla. This filling was really good, the avacado was perfect too.

http://inlinethumb36.webshots.com/44387/2476921210092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2476921210092107464RcUcMW)

Both Mom & Suzy got steaks, but different ones. Suzy got the one with corn and a chicken enchilada. She LOVED this steak, almost more than her Jiko steak. At least equal to it. But the rest was ordinary, but excellent for Jack-Jack. Unfortunately she had mostly eaten it all before he woke up. Oops!

http://inlinethumb14.webshots.com/42829/2849837690092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2849837690092107464JWrkeI)

Here's Mom's steak:
http://inlinethumb06.webshots.com/40773/2041554990092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2041554990092107464OEheEF)

It had salsa verde which she really enjoyed. She pretty much ate the steak and the salsa verde & left wheveter was under that. Like I said, we were getting full.

Too full for dessert? Of course not!

Well, OK, a little too full for dessert. Suay & I both just got ice cream which we really enjoyed. And Mom got a mousse which she said she liked better than her peach cobbler from Jiko.

http://inlinethumb38.webshots.com/41061/2383319440092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2383319440092107464nzURJD)

San Angel is probably my family's number one restaurant in Epcot. I realize it gets mixed reviews, but we love it. So there.

After lunch we went back to the ride & really rode it this time. Jack-Jack LOVED this ride. We love it too. I know it seems kitchy to we Americans, but Mexico really is like that. And I ADORE it. And it doesn't feel that way when you're there. It just feels wonderful. It only feels that way when you try to redo it in America. Anyway, we all enjoyed ourselves.

http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/44070/2295421850092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2295421850092107464kuvbxn)

Up next: How we spent our very special afternoon.

[estherhead]

So our bellies were full and we were very happy. It was time to take Mom on the much anticipated Soarin'. The first time I rode this ride the entire group of people with me burst into spontaneous applause and cheers. All I could think was how much my Mom would enjoy it. Suzy had felt the same way so we were really excited to go.

On our way we passed by this gorgeous fountain:
http://inlinethumb29.webshots.com/40796/2558100200092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2558100200092107464nKiaAV)

Anywhere but Disney this would be something to be stopped at and marvelled at. But at Disney we simply breezed by and hopped into Coke to try out the flavors. I know we enjoyed it, but I don't remember what we tried. Certainly not Beverly!

Suzy and Mom rode Soarin' while I went to see if we could sign up for Behind the Seeds the next day. I'd heard they normally only need 24 hours. Well, low and behold the next tour, which started in 45 minutes, was completely empty! So I used my AAA card & bought 3 tickets.

Then I went to wait for the girls to get off Soarin' and tell them the good news. Here's me trying to sit while not losing Jack-Jack, can you see him?:

http://inlinethumb54.webshots.com/42037/2483634860092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2483634860092107464TLAlAg)

How bout now?
http://inlinethumb58.webshots.com/42553/2429631680092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2429631680092107464oFCXiQ)

So much for me relaxing. It was mainly chasing. That boy can move!

After that we had time for Mom and I to ride Soarin' together. She really did enjoy this ride, but mentioned that with HD at home the film quality was a bit below her normal standards. Later when we went to watch the Canada film (which is new) there was an obvious difference so I do think they'll have to refilm Soarin'. We enjoyed it, though, it really is a great ride.

Then it was time for our tour. Kristie was our tour guide, she was from Nazareth College and originally from Rochester, NY. It took us and hour and a half. The first room was the bug room. The info was very interesting but it was goofy set up with little paper signs. It was at this point, however, that we realized Jack-Jack was in love with Kristie. He watched her every move & laughed & laughed at her every word.

When Suzy would move so he couldn't see Kristie anymore, this is what he looked like:
http://inlinethumb31.webshots.com/39646/2766976340092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2766976340092107464nQCHLb)

We saw the world's hottest pepper, twice as hot as an habanero:
http://inlinethumb09.webshots.com/41416/2225978220092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2225978220092107464zOjMRk)

We opted out of tasting one.

Here is a Mimosa plant. It bends all up when you touch it. Here it is before we touch it:
http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/43242/2113438080092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2113438080092107464VOYBth)

And after we touched it:
http://inlinethumb03.webshots.com/21954/2059118730092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2059118730092107464gPoJTg)

I thought this was a cool plant. But last week I was watching CSI NY with Donald & this plant was the key to solving the mystery. I kept saying, "I know that plant! I learned all about it at WDW." Donald wasn't much impressed.

Here we are with Kristie checking out a single tomato plant that grows TONS of tomatoes. My dad would have loved this tomato plant. He adores them.

http://inlinethumb17.webshots.com/42512/2496412270092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2496412270092107464uCKMUi)

This is a pool full of fish. My mom has gorgeous gardens & a big fish pond. So when Kristie asked us if we wanted to feed the fish we said no. This took her totaly off guard & she said she'd never had anyone say no. We insisted that we had no interest in feeding the fish but she made us. So we fed them. I'm sure it's cool for people who aren't used to seeing a fish feeding frenzy, but Kristie was a bit disappointed in how not into it we were.

http://inlinethumb58.webshots.com/41593/2286533950092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2286533950092107464UDGXut)

We really enjoyed this tour. We took it as we all love gardens and Suzy & my Mom could be professional landscapers. But what took us off guard was how much this tour is about food. It appealed to my foodie side at least as much as my gardening side. I wished Kristie had been a foodie and not just a horticulturist. She really didn't know her food. As fascinating as it is to grow giant food, it isn't fascinating if the giant food doesn't taste as good as the smaller, tender food. And these kind of questions she just didn't know about.

Half way through the tour we had sat down while Suzy nursed. But even still we were tired from the day's walking. So we grabbed some Diet Cokes and found a bench. There were two giant benches with one woman sitting in the middle of one. I asked her if we could join her and we all enjoyed the little break together. She had a cute kid who enjoyed Jack-Jack. Jack-Jack, on the other hand, was interested in the ducks.

http://inlinethumb58.webshots.com/1145/2272992700092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2272992700092107464rhQPUs)

After that we went to see O Canada which has Martin Short and is very nice. We chased Jack-Jack all over this theater. There weren't very many people so we weren't bothering anyone which is good as I had to crawl to chase him under the resting bars. It would have been very bad had it been full of people.

Then we paused to hear Off Kilter:
http://inlinethumb21.webshots.com/15444/2228086570092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2228086570092107464tBohKn)

There was a crazy lady dancing that was absolutely cracking the band up. But she was a bit distracting to me. I couldn't decide if she was drunk, literally crazy, or truly crazy with happiness. But it was bizarre behavior by any count. Off Kilter took me a bit off guard. Last time I saw them, they did 6 traditional Celtic songs. This time they did do a bit of Irish stuff, but they also did Canadian band cover songs, bagpipe style. It was enjoyable, but different than I remembered.

At 5:50 we changed clothes in a UK bathroom. It was almost empty and we easily were able to get freshened up. We hit the boat perfectly and were at the Flying Fish 5 minutes before our ADR (6:25.)

We waited maybe 5 minutes, during which I mostly checked out the candy store next door. Why is the Flying Fish's bathroom in the next door store?

Our server was Mikhail. He took amazing care of us. First we had bread, it was warm & whole wheat with perfectly softened butter. Not as good as Jiko, but good none-the-less. Suzy ordered a Shiraz from Walla-Walla. It was both fruity & dry at the same time which I found a lovely combination. I only had a sip but what I really liked is after a minute or two the taste in my mouth was even better than initially. It was good.

For an appie, Mom got Lobster Quesadillas. She enjoyed the tomatilla sauce and felt the lobster was almost an after thought. That in general it was just a very authentic Mexican dish:
http://inlinethumb54.webshots.com/19765/2479715160092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2479715160092107464GQibGp)

I got the Caesar salad with a parmesan crisp. My favorite part was the parmesan crisp. Mikhail asked me if I knew the secret ingredient, which I didn't. I guessed a few, but I didn't get it right. It was pureed capers in the dressing. It wasn't the best salad ever, but I enjoyed it.

Suzy got the carb cake. She oohed and ahed as she ate this so I know she liked it a lot. But I still say her favorite things was getting a plate that actually looked like a professional chef had done it. "It has a front side & a back side!" she proclaimed. It is nice to eat food that is so presented it has a front "pretty" side.

http://inlinethumb45.webshots.com/17580/2496382280092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2496382280092107464dUMiXP)

For her entree she got the Potato encrusted snapper. This was the best entree of our three. I don't like fish, and I would order this for myself. The wine sauce was really good.

http://inlinethumb47.webshots.com/42734/2824660270092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2824660270092107464xEvixu)

I got steak. It was amazing with the perfect sauce (the white sauce on top) and great fingerling potatoes, you know those potatoes you always look at in the store longingly & ponder what household really has the funds to spend $10 a lb on potatoes?. I also loved the asparagus. The greens, though, were way too bitter. And unnecessary.
http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/41035/2267118220092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2267118220092107464pBHtyB)

Mom got scallops, she said they were cooked perfectly but for some reason was dissatisfied with this entree. The risotto, I personally had a bite, was AMAZING. It was spectatcular. So I'm not sure why, but she just felt like she would have preferred something else. Maybe it was the strange greasy baby artichokes.:
http://inlinethumb09.webshots.com/31496/2920239450092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2920239450092107464xxBSfb)

For dessert I ordered the sorbets. I really only like the fresh fruit & the berry one. The lechee & apple one were yucky. But I was too full to be disappointed:
http://inlinethumb08.webshots.com/40775/2401888320092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2401888320092107464jPPnDA)

Mom got blueberry ginger something. None of us like it. The blueberries were too sour & the ginger was too strong:
http://inlinethumb27.webshots.com/44250/2677721660092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2677721660092107464bAwqqd)

Suzy got the choclate/peanut butter/banana dessert. It was really good. Really, really good. Not a lot of P.B. but it didn't matter.:

http://inlinethumb50.webshots.com/41457/2311166370092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2311166370092107464cPHvoi)

This was a fabulous meal. Truly stellar. The service was impeccable, and the food was all stuff we simply don't have the funds to repeat at home, even if cooking skill wise we could. I can't imagine how much fresh snapper would cost in the middle of Ohio. Or even if it would be possible to buy in my small town. Certainly not a cut like that. Yeah, I just don't have the money to make this meal on my own.

The down side was Jack-Jack was awake for this whole meal and he was a handful to say the least. The only thing that consoled me at all was there was a family sitting next to us that had a four year old daughter who had decided she was a cat of some kind. She was in full character & her parents, despite their best tries, could not pull her out of it. She tried to eat her food like an animal & talked only in animal sounds & crawled around the floor like an animal, the father eventually just gave up & took her outside . So I knew we couldn't be the only ones distracting the poor other diners. This was a very nice restaurant & just look at what we did:

http://inlinethumb44.webshots.com/42603/2466785370092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2466785370092107464yokdIT)

And by we, I mean Jack-Jack. Good thing he is super cute. There is no way I would take my toddler here. But older kids (they are 6 & 8) I think would enjoy it very much.

The next part of our day was a bit on confusion. We were only going to get to see one fireworks display this four day trip & personally I would pick Wishes if I only get one show. So I convinced them to go to the bus. But at 8:00 pm there aren't a lot of buses going to MK from the Boardwalk. So we thought we'd take a taxi. But the taxi driver said he'd have to drop us off at the TTC, not MK. That would not work. So we gave up & went to see Illuminations. We just walked, it was a really short walk.

Oh, but not before I found this Ginormous chair in the Boardwalk lobby. Don't I look skinny in such a giant chair? I LOVE giant chairs:

http://inlinethumb32.webshots.com/42527/2251398290092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2251398290092107464okLTpQ)

We found a spot in the UK & I went to France to get myself a Grand Marnier slushie. I really wanted one. I told Suzy I'd just go look for the drunk people & there would be my slushie. This proved very true. There was one girl though who wasn't drunk but was obviously some kind of professional dancer enjoyed the music. I enojoyed watching her while I waited for my drink.

My drink, by the way, was fab!

Illuminations made me cry. Fireworks always do. Even though I think that globe portion of Illuminations is sooooo boring. On our way out was saw Fireworks off in the distance. Turns out Disney was participating in a fireworks competition and they were practicing. It was cool. We wished we'd been closer. It lasted forever.

http://inlinethumb54.webshots.com/6453/2179537790092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2179537790092107464ZBXmPH)

The entire time we were walking with the masses to the monorail I had to pee. There were lines everywhere to I waited all the way till the TTC! Let me tell ya, that was a relief. Whew. After that we walked to our car. We were so grateful for our close parking spot. I'd been walking most of the time from 6:12 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.!!!!

Back at the resort I was still a bit hyper so I went for a swim and to get my Sprite Zero. By 11:30 p.m. I was asleep.

What a day!

[estherhead]

Ah, morning at Disney. What is better? I awoke at 6:15 this morning but since we didn't need to be anywhere till 8:25 I just lounged in bed playing DS & listening to my MP3 player. This was a nice treat as at my house it is wake up, children on the bus, then baby needs day in, day out. So I truly enjoyed laying there in the silence knowing for a fact that no one needed anything from me. How delightful.

We left POP at 8:10 a.m. and easily made it to our 8:25 ADR at Boma. That includes parking, getting out the baby & stroller, and walking up the strange wheelchair ramp at AKL, and taking the elevator down. So that tells you how close it was in a car!

We waited about 5-10 minutes for our table. We were seated next to the kitchen like at San Angel. Here it was a tiny bit annoying as we were in main traffic & we were getting up & down to fill our plates. Our server was Mike from Rochester, NY. He was fast & friendly but really uncomfortable talking about the tipping, which made me uncomfortable. But he was fine. Very much from NY & NOT laid back. I guess a not laid back server is a good thing.

We were pondering ordering the pressed pot of coffee, as that is how my mom makes coffee at home but the regular coffee served here was fine and we were plenty awake so we didn't need a lot of caffeine. So we just drank the FABOO juice. Oh my goodness this juice was good. Mom kept saying, "This is really good juice," like everytime she took a sip. That was the kind of juice it was. You just had to keep commenting on it.

First I had fruit, amazing fruit. Berries, honeydew, and pineapple. Other than that our favorites were: mini chocolate croissants, pap with raisins and brown sugar, ham with the honey mustard, curry with biscuits. The potatoes and omelet were fine, just fine but not great. I did not care for the hash, I thought it was really dry, and I also didn't like the quinua. It was too much like tapioca, which I dislike. Suazy thought the quinua was fine.

After that we looked all around AKL, which took some doing, mind you. We got lost several times & even asked for help and were misdirected. But I think we saw most AKL highlights.

Vultures & antelope:
http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/42662/2962296180092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2962296180092107464CgLCkT)

"Hey, let's go look at animals and not bring binoculars!"
http://inlinethumb60.webshots.com/41787/2900210330092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2900210330092107464rcoPbh)

After this we went to check out Windsor Hills via Sherbeth Rd. It was not a bad drive at all and we got really excited about our trip in November.

We popped back to POP & played more DS. On our way in we saw that the big camper we'd been parking next to had people in it. So I went to meet them and ask them if they lived in their camper and if so, why weren't they staying at Fort Wilderness. She was very nice and said her dh was a carpenter and they did live in it as they travelled all over the US for his work. They had two boys who she homeschooled. THey were staying at Pop as WDW doesn't offer free dining for campers at Fort Wilderness so every Sept they stay at POP and just park the camper/Semi truck. Mom & Suzy laughed at me but I just had to know the story behind the camper.

After a little rest we went to the Pop Hall to look at the memory boxes and eat lunch. I got kid's broccoli stirfry. Suzy got hummus and pits chips and veggie soup and Mom got a veggie calzone. Or something like that. I don't know. We all got good stuff that we liked. I'll make two comments, the broccoli stirfry was delish, but not really all that much broccoli. We then really needed chocolate. I went off to find a Snickers bar which I did eventually find, but I also bought a brownie which wasn't really very yummy. The Snickers bar was good.

They had messed up our bill so I went to the concierge and they fixed it immediately.

After that we went to MK so we could do the fews things we had missed that we wanted to do. We started with Philharmagic. Mom loved this, better than Soarin'. It is really good. It makes everyone feel like a kid again. Then we went to pirates and we happened across a tutorial right at the beginning.

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Pirates was a bit broken which was disappointing.

We kept getting side tracked by things, first the parade and then these guys:
http://inlinethumb09.webshots.com/17352/2412317390092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2412317390092107464boXnNa)

We had gotten FPs for Peter Pan so we went to do that which was very disappointing as the music was off sinq with the ride. Very strange & not very enjoyable. We especially felt bad for the people in the 30 minute standby line. 30 minutes for this? That is for sure what I would be thinking. I hope it works when we go with the kids.

Then we did the Carousel of Progress which also broke while we were on it. Hmmm, is this a pattern? WDW, what's up? I'm definately taken the kids on this ride, I think they'll like it. Then we did the TTA. After that, it was time for our boat ride. Our boat ride to dinner! We sat inside one of the big boats and it was nice. We were eating at Arist's Point at the Wilderness Lodge.

We stopped to look at Old Faithful and some of the views. This is such a nice resort. I just love it. We then all took turns getting changed in the bathroom while the rest of us just chilled in the lobby. Well, as much as one can chill while trying to keep their eyes on Jack-Jack. He seriously loved chilling in this lobby and really was on the move. Fortunately mostly it was grandparents sitting around who were more than willing to help me keep an eye on him. And he kept looking back to make sure I was there.

Then it was 5:30 and we were the 2nd table seated. We had 2 servers this night which was weird. I really hated that. There were also a ton of babies in this place, I think because of the time. The wait staff was super nice to babies. Unbelievably accomodating to babies.

The only place to give Jack-Jack his own Mickey straw, babies like Mickey too!:
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Mom got a Lodge Fizz. This was super duper. It was like a whiskey sour only with raspberry. I got the riesling they recommended with the venison rolls. It was dry & sweet like a champagne only without the bubbles. I liked it.

http://inlinethumb19.webshots.com/1170/2187498360092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2187498360092107464osXhaR)

The bread was amazing. I could have just eaten the bread.

Mom got the mushroom soup which was so amazing I asked for the recipe which they happily gave me. I've already made it, only I did a Weight Watchers version. Donald is a man of very few words so I didn't get any compliments (trust me, I don't expect any) but let's just say the recipe makes 8 servings and he ate it all between 6 p.m. and noon the next day. I'm gonna say it was a hit! :laughing: I'll probably make it again next week. It's an autumn thing for sure. By the way, mine didn't look this nice. I took f.f. sour cream & flavored it with chives instead of doing sour cream and chive oil. Donald took one look and said, "Why is there some kind of bluish-green goop on this?" :rotfl: I guess garnish isn't needed in my own little kitchen.

http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/40938/2489208290092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2489208290092107464wBLfUF)

I got the venison spring rolls. It wasn't like deer at all. It was perfectly spiced, and really, can anything dredged in sweet and sour sauce be yucky? It had a slaw also which I liked a lot.

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Suzy got the salad with bacon. She said it tasted like a BLT without the tomatoes. Actually, her exact words were, "It's a straight forward salad." Which was exactly what she wanted so she was quite happy.

http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/10598/2878923100092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2878923100092107464stvOGo)

For our main courses, Mom got salmon cooked medium rare. She said it was a good quality fish cooked to perfection. I didn't try it. She wasn't crazy about the pear sauce. She really enjoyed her first bite of potato and commented how good it was so I took a bite and it was weird, which I mentioned. She took another bite and immediatly changed her mind. I couldn't tell exactly what was in them, but definately bits of pork fat. Ick.

http://inlinethumb36.webshots.com/41699/2453905410092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2453905410092107464PnJEgD)

I ordered a buffalo steak, medium rare. It was a little too rare for my taste but I didn't send it back as I wasn't going to eat the whole thing anyway so I just ate the parts that were the way I like, and even then I didn't eat all the perfectly cooked parts. It was exactly like beef. I couldn't tell one bit of a difference. The sweet potatoes and onion jam was fabulous. I really liked this and would order it again in a heart beat, but I'd order it medium.

http://inlinethumb15.webshots.com/11214/2500993800092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2500993800092107464ubFsOZ)

Suzy got the beef tenderloin with wild mushrooms. It was served with a mushroom butter which she adored. She had three steaks on this trip and this was her favorite, the butter of course didn't hurt her opinion! But the mushrooms (I hate mushrooms so I didn't have any, though I did have a bite of the mushroom soup & enjoyed it) were yucky. She also didn't like this chive oil on this, though we all did like it in the soup. The fries were fine with this but she just didn't feel like it added to the dish at all.

http://inlinethumb15.webshots.com/3662/2358886230092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2358886230092107464jQGIuz)

For dessert Mom got the berry cobbler. It was so good & fresh, but it was a shortcake, not a cobbler. I felt like they should just call it a shortcake as then people would know what they were getting.

http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/43009/2923678970092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2923678970092107464GXlvaW)

I again got lavender ice cream, can you believe it? It was served with a hazelnut torte which was like pure melted chocolate in a hazelnut crust. Mmmm, it was my favorite. Just a side note, I use lavender oil to relax me when I give birth & this was so creamy & yummy & chocolaty with just the smell of lavender & it reminded me of the three happiest moments of my life, the births of my girls. Talk about comfort food!

http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/38058/2221741090092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2221741090092107464akLeTe)

Suzy got peach upside down cake. It was un-fooled-around-with. I would have called it, "Peaches in four textures."

http://inlinethumb53.webshots.com/38964/2232296260092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2232296260092107464csjnEi)

My feeling on Artist's Point was that it had strange combinations of food. So it almost was good. So close to good. But the few strange food combinations, the two servers, I dont' know. I can't think of anything to say I didn't like it, and it had the best steak and the best drink of our week. And the only place I was inspired to ask for a recipe. And yet... I was left thinking I wouldn't go out of my way, ya know? So I don't know.

Of the three, Jiko had my favorite atmosphere. Mexico had the second best atmosphere. Flying Fish had the best service. Food? Whew, that is tricky. We had really good food this trip. Amazing, amazing food. How can you make me choose? If I had to choose one to take Donald to, I take him to Flying Fish. Suzy would take Milo to Jiko. And Mom would probably take Dad to Jiko also. They had the best vegetarian options.

Anyhow, after dinner we got on a small boat back to MK which was one of our favorite moments of the whole trip.

Here are some photos:

http://inlinethumb55.webshots.com/12790/2195132860092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2195132860092107464YSHpyh)


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After this, Suzy & I dropped Mom & Jack-Jack off at Pop and headed to Downtown Disney. I'd never been to Pleasure Island and wanted to go before they closed it. So first we went to Goofy's Candy shop to use all our snack credits on making things for our kids and also to buy them souveniers at the World of Disney. We really had fun with no kids. REALLY a bit too much fun.

Then we went to the Comedy Club. It was hilarious. I laughed & laughed and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I took lots of video. But here are the few photos I took:

http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/43521/2477119000092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2477119000092107464EDQUYw)

http://inlinethumb23.webshots.com/41046/2305396870092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2305396870092107464cfUBrI)

http://inlinethumb35.webshots.com/41250/2189336960092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2189336960092107464LtohjR)

After that we went to Adventurer's Club. I had really been looking forward to this. There was a big show going on when we went in which I just didn't find funny. Then I got involved with a show in the mask room. I'm not shy at all so I totally acted my part, but it was just goofy to me. Then they told us the next show wouldn't be for another 45 minutes. I just couldn't take it. I'm old and I'm lame. So we left. I felt like I had had a great no kid time and didn't need more. I guess I'll be like billions of other's on earth who never got to enjoy Adventurer's Club to it's fullest.

We found our car (or tin can) and headed back for a nice, long nap.

[MickeyNicki]

Thank you so much for your Jiko review, we are eating there for my birthday on Sunday and I cannot wait!

And San Angel Inn looks awesome, glad that is on our list for next week too!

[estherhead]

Mickeyniki: I'm so excited for you! You are going to love Jiko, I just know it! I wish I could go back there right now instead of eating my "didn't feel like cooking" dinner that I just ate! ;) Of course, the meal I just ate had only about 300-400 calories in it & I'm pretty sure you better plan for more calories than that at your Jiko dinner! :cool1:

As for San Angel, if you have a margarita and sit back & relax and enjoy the atmosphere you'll adore it. If you expect the best American-Mexican food of your life, you won't. This is authentic Mexican food (almost) and not the tex-mex that I think most Americans expect at a "mexican" restaurant. That is why I think there are so many negative reviews on here. But I've been to Mexico & other than the cheese (which I think you just can't really duplicate outside of Mexico) I think it is fairly authentic. When we were in Mexico I remember a lot of fish & steak and I have fond memories of picking fresh avacados of a tree (while an evil goose chased me) and I think those memories are fairly well represented in this restaurant. So think Mexico & not Don Pablos and you'll enjoy it.

Have a great trip!

[estherhead]

I call this part 1, but in reality it is the only part. I have no notes for this day & very few photos. I was in a terrible mood. In retrospect I realize I was sick this day and I spent the next 4 days at home with unspeakable things happening in my tummy area. At the time I thought I was cranky because of lack of sleep and missing my sweet little Boo. But I cannot be held responsible for the incompletenss of day 4's TR.

So, as I recall, we awoke & had to pack. I went down to the main area to check out & pay our bill (with Mom's money) and get a cart so we could put the fridge on it. Upon arriving at luggage this is what I saw:

http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/23076/2927369250092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2927369250092107464wQxGRf)

Boy was I not happy. Don't send a cranky woman to Pop luggage on a Saturday morning. But there was some guy screaming at luggage services so I was at least proud that I wasn't him. And somehow (I'm yet to really figure the whole line system at luggage out) I didn't have to wait in line. As I was snapping this photo a nice guy (his tag said manager) asked if I was needing help. I said I needed a cart & handed him my driver's license and he went & got me a cart. I guess WDW loves me even when I am cranky.

So Mom & I packed up the fridge. And all our other stuff & we all went back down to the godforsaken luggage area as there was no way we could cram ourselves back into our lovely little rental with all the luggage and enjoy our ride around Orlando. So we needed to do "curbside" check-in & let Disney take our luggage to the airport.

Again, somehow the Disney gods were smiling upon us & we ended up in line behind just one family. The mom of the family had left her baby at home with Grandma so she could enjoy time with her older kids. She was seriously loving on Jack-Jack and I felt guilty missing my little Boo so much when I had been gone less than 3 days and she had been at WDW for 10 days! I could never survive 10 days without Boo. After talking a bit I ran to get some Diet Coke, yeah, I know it's bad in the a.m. but sometimes I'm just a bad girl, deal with it! Chemicals & acid rotting my teeth & insides, blah, blah, blah.

Can you see how cranky I was? I'm so rebellious when I'm cranky.

As soon as I got back it was our turn & it was amazingly easy. Off we went.

On the way to DHS I was complaining about how much I hated the park. There's no shade and it's ugly and my least favorite Disney park, etc. Mom laughed at me and said it couldn't possibly be that bad.

So we parked and got another good tram driver (not as funny as at AK but still a good driver) and got through bag check & ticketing no big deal. Then we were in the park. And crazily enough, we were greeted by a bunch of trees and nice landscaping. And it was kind of cute. Which Mom had to point out. Landscaper that she was.

We went to see if there were any FP's for TSM which there were not. I'm not sure what time this was, maybe 10:30 am? But it was an extra magic hour day so that added to the crowds. So we didnt get to ride TSM which should have added to my crankiness, but actually I really wanted to experience it first with my family so it was fine. Then we did the Backlot tour which said there was a wait but there wasn't. I hadn't done this in a long time and I really enjoyed it. I wished I'd had a bit more time in the prop room, we just walked through quickly and it looked interesting.

At Catastrophe Canyon, though, I got absolutely soaked. Don't soak cranky people, ya know?

OK, I don't exactly remember this whole day very well. We watched a Jedi Academy to see what we should do to have a better opportunity for our kids to get picked. We ate lunch (Mom & I had some kind of argument/disagreement here) and we did the Disney: One Man's Dream. This was the highlight of my day. I'd never done it before & I found the whole thing very inspirational. It made me really love Walt & his amazing optimism. And we did some other stuff. Maybe. I'm not sure. Oh, and we were trying to find the rest of our souveniers for our kids.

We couldn't find everything we wanted so we left and went to find more shopping at the outlets. We were following Sheila's directions but we had the name wrong so we ended up just finding it on our own as Suzy kind of knew where she was going & once she let her intuition lead us we found it no prob. Unfortunately, so did all of the rest of the tourists arriving in Kissimmee this Saturday. And most of them were terrible drivers. There was construction and terrible, terribly slow terrible, drivers everywhere. Finally, we were inside and the outside mayhem of construction and hideousness melted away and it was a very nice outlet mall. I'll be going there next time for sure. Suzy might be able to tell where & what it's called. I can't recollect.

There was a Disney store which I scoured thoroughly and ended up only buying a scrapbook. I also went to a Carter's store and bought Boo an adorable outfit (which she looks adorable in.)

After this we continued our quest to find a bookstore. Sheila directed us to a "Barnes & Noble" which ended up being a Waldonbooks. I guess Barnes & Noble recently bought them out & Sheila got confused. Waldonbooks was not what we wanted, but it would have to do. Here I bought a Hidden Mickey book which I'm looking forward to using in November. I scoured this store for a map of the Disney area that included the housing areas under 192 and could not find one. Irritating to say the least.

By that point we decided it was time to go to the airport which was relatively crowded. We stood in the loser's line for large groups & families since we had Jack-Jack with us. The family in front of us had about 15 people who were from Chile & there was some confusion as passports were handed out, etc. It ended up not taking nearly as long as I was expecting. But still, I was longingly looking at the lovely empty security lines for non-family oriented travellers. Surely Suzy could handle her baby, stroller, car carrier, and three bags alone, right? :lmao: Oh & don't forget taking your shoes off & on with said baby, bags, stroller, etc. Stupid. Mothers should be exempt from the shoe thing. They should have a special Mother Shoe Scanner so moms with babies don't have to take off their shoes.

Oh, I think we ate before we did security. You guys would know. Is Burger King before or after security? See why I need notes? It's in the details. My blurry, ill brain just couldn't keep track of the details. Anyway, we ate. It was nice. We talked about our trip and Walt Disney.

Then we boarded our plane & flew home. It was an totally easy, breezy flight. I was half afraid our luggage wouldn't be there when we got home. But Disney came through for us and there it was! Yeah for us!

Off to our real car. Thank God for a real car! Mom hit the unlock button on her key chain. Can you imagine? Automatic locks! Yippee! Our luggage fit perfectly in the back! I mean for goodness sake, it was only for 3 nights! It's not like we had a ton of luggage! Then when I went to pay, I hit a button and my window magically went down! I love real cars. :woohoo: :lmao: :woohoo:

So we drove home. And I climbed blissfully into bed where I promptly spent the next few days. Gross. Mom & Suzy got it a few days later. Triple gross.

So, bottom line? Girl's trips rock. We should have done this years ago. And WDW rocks. I just love it and can't wait to go back in 7 weeks!!!

Which is why I have to end this right now so I can get back to my previously scheduled PTR.

Prepare yourselves, preparation for our family trip will be flying at you left and right. DUCK!!!

Tye dye t-shirts, iron-ons, budgeting, scheduling & rescheduling. It's flying your way starting tomorrow!

[ILMICKEY]

Great report! It sounds like you had so much fun. I am 10 days from my girls trip and hearing yours makes me even more excited. I'll get over and check out your pretrip report for your next one!!

[ILMICKEY]

Okay, where is it? :confused3

[estherhead]

Great report! It sounds like you had so much fun. I am 10 days from my girls trip and hearing yours makes me even more excited. I'll get over and check out your pretrip report for your next one!!

Okay, where is it? :confused3


It's coming, it's coming! I know you're leaving soon so you're probably trying to get your Disney fix! I just suddenly got really busy. Be forewarned, I'm also changing the title. It's time for Disney-mania to truly begin.

[estherhead]

:wizard: The trip mania has begun around here. The pressure is building and the countown calendars have been begun. To celebrate, I began repainting my daughter's room. Ha! OK, so it may have been a stupid idea and it certainly has added some stress to my life but it'll be so cool when it's done, right?

So here is how my 5 weeks till Disney breaks down:

This week: Finish (or mostly finish) painting the girl's room, Bake and deliver a wedding cake (I'll put a photo for ya when it's done), work at work, go to my in-laws over the weekend.

Next week: Shop for all our "Mickey presents", make all the iron-on t-shirts, sort summer clothing out for Disney & sort out winter baby stuff to sell on e-bay (extra $ never hurts, right?) Have a Disney meeting to perfect the itinerary with Suzy & Milo and all 7 kids (well, Jack-Jack & Boo don't care, but still.)

Week 3: Start wrapping Mickey presents & Ziplocking (yes, it's a word!) each person's outfit & present & itinerary. Make sure we have enough luggage.

Week 4: Start collecting non clothing items to pack and finish the above stuff. There will probably be a shopping trip in here.

Week 5: Start totally panicking & being irritated at Donald for no reason except he is handy to blame for stress. Clean house, do all laundry, throw a graduation party for Milo who will actually have his PhD IN HIS HAND!!!!! How exciting will that be?

And then, we leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the current first 2 days of that:

Wednesday: Pick kids up at school with van all packed. This is a family tradition. It's so exciting to be wearing your official matching "We're going to Disney" t-shirts (Prince Charming, Buzz, Lightning McQueen, Mulan, and Ariel all go to school together so the t-shirts will have an even greater impact that normal!) and then have your Mom show up 10 minutes early to pick you up while all the other loser kids in the classroom whose parents don't love them watch you leave. :laughing: :wizard: :laughing: I know, it's evil but it just appeals to me greatly so we always do it.

Then we'll drive to my in-laws to spend the night. This will take some expert packing as I'm not going to drag all of our luggage into their house so I'll need one carry-on bag that holds our pj's for that night, our outfits for the next day, and our stuff for Blizzard Beach the next day. Blizzard Beach? That's right, people, I said Blizzard Beach!

Thursday: Get up at 4:45 and get ready and drive to airport. Check-in, security, hang around aimlessly chasing the baby and trying to play my DS while chasing the baby. 2 hour flight. Get our rental car from National Emerald Aisle (hopefully better than the cheapo people we rented from) and drive to DISNEY!!!!!!!!!

This is the point that I don't have totally worked out yet. We are signed up for the Royal Carriage Swap #3. I have my arrangements with the girl who we are getting it from but they are a little sketchy as I didn't know how long it will take us to get off the airplane & get our car & we probably will eat lunch. She, on the other hand, is packing & will be taking the magical express at 12:30. So there is a 1 1/2 hour window for us to meet and we just haven't totally nailed down how we're doing that yet.

After all that is said & done, I will be dropping my family off at Blizzard Beach. Then I will be going to Wal-Mart to buy the following list of food. Prepare yourselves. This is gonna get scary!

Groceries

30 Lunchables turkey or ham
8 boxes of Caprisun $20.00
48 bottles of water $10.00
2 12 packs caffeine free Coke
1 12 pack Coke Zero Cherry
1 12 pack Coke Zero
3 bags Tostitoes (one Baked)
2 bags Plain Lays
3 bags Fritos
6 bags Baked Chips
3 boxes Cinnamon Bagelfuls
1 Reg. Bagelfuls
Frozen Blueberry Pancakes
Paper Plates
Coffee
Creamer
Splenda
Paper Cups
Paper towels
Toilet Paper
Napkins
Salt & pepper
A-1
Maple syrup
Salsa
Southwestern or regular chicken strips
Sour Cream
16 Smoothies
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 big bunch String cheese
5 lb bag potatoes
2 things Sliced apples
Bag of apples
2 boxes Uncrustables
Ziploc baggies
Tupperware containers?
2 bags Chips Ahoy rainbow
Skittles
4 things of Hershey’s FunSize
Gum
1-2 box Kashi Trail Mix Bars
2 Fiber One Chocolate Bars
7 steaks
Cooked bacon
Cooked sausage
5 dozen eggs
Spray butter
1 dozen bananas
Grapes
3 gallons 1 % milk
1 gallon whole milk
Throw away sippy cups
Slim Jims
Hotdogs
Hotdog buns
Ketchup
Mustard
French fries
DiGiorno 2 Cheese & 1 Pepperoni pizza
3 lbs Hamburger
3 pkts Taco Seasoning
Refried Beans
Shredded lettuce
Cheese
Black olives sliced
Jalapenos
Chicken nuggets
Taco shells
Flour tortillas
Beer
3 Caesar Salad kits
1 big bag Premarinated chicken
3 bags Frozen birdseye rice
Crab legs
Cocktail sauce
35 calorie bread
Ham
Popcorn
Cashews
5 cans green beans
Birdseye broccoli with cheese
Laundry detergent
Fabric softener
Lysol Wipes
Dishwasher Detergent
Box of 120 Diapers
Wipes
Shampoo
Conditioner
Kid’s shampoo

You can see why I can't have my family with me as it will be tricky to fit all of this in a vehicle without any people in it! I also, depending on what kind of vehicle we end up with from National, may drop off my luggage at Windsor Hills clubhouse before shopping.

How many grocery carts do you think this will be? I'm hoping only 4. Then I can go in & fill 2 up with all the paper goods & drinks & chips & baby care stuff. I'll buy that stuff and check out. Then come back in with 2 more carts and get all the other stuff, including frozen & refrigerated. That's my hope.

Suzy & I grocery shop ALL THE TIME! So we really want to not have to do it too much on vacation. I'm sure we'll have to run back for fruit & alcohol, but those are the kinds of trips men don't mind making.

Anyway, so with groceries in hand, I'll drive to Windsor Hills & check-in and empty everything out. Check-in is at 4:00 but I'm hoping to be done with everything by around 3:30. We'll see. So I'll drop off the food, pick up the luggage from the lobby & drop it off at the house. And then go pick up my family from Blizzard Beach between 4:30-5:00 p.m.

By this time, Suzy & Milo's plane will have arrived & Suzy & her family will unpack all the groceries and make dinner.

Suzy & my goal is that by 6:00 p.m. kids are fed and swimming, groceries bought and put away and we are starting to unpack the suitcases. By 7:00 p.m. we need to be beginning chilling as our first day in Orlando is a TRIP TO MAGIC KINGDOM!!!!!!!!!!!! :yay: :yay: :yay:

So we need to be in bed early. Forget about the kids being in bed early, I'll be exhausted!

I know the above plan doesn't seem very vactiony (yes, it's a word!) but I swear, for those of us travelling with 7 kids, it is important to have such things dealt with before the trip part begins. And my family will feel very vacationy as they'll have spent the day on the beach. And I will have gone grocery shopping without any babies. And that is a good thing.

Coming up: Photos & experience of our tye-dying mickey heads!

[houseful of boys]

O.K. I finally registered and can post for myself.:yay:

I'm subscribing (Hopefully, if I have figured this out correctly)

[houseful of boys]

O.K., after changing my options I'm trying to subscribe again.:confused3

Sorry for hijacking your thread for DISboards 101 ;)

[houseful of boys]

:cool1:

[estherhead]

WOW!!! I thought the day would never come! Houseful of boys is none other than the gorgeous & famous mother of four, Suzy! Let's give her a giant Disboards welcome!

As for the hijacking, it was hilarious. I didn't even understand fully what I had written & naturally it got favorable comments which had I any clue what I had said, I would have responded to.

Once we are back & I begin the official TR we'll now all benefit from both Donald & Suzy's comments & their correction of my narrative. It helps, I assure you.

[estherhead]

Today is the day. My "before Disney I must" things are all done. From here on out it is all "before Disney I will if I can." That is such a great day when it happens. I have no more wedding cakes to bake. No more events to plan (though I still have two to attend.) It's so exciting. We spent the night with Donald's family last night & they are all HUGE Disney fans but haven't gotten to go in a few years. It seemed like every time it was quiet someone said, "So, Ariel, what's your favorite ride in Magic Kingdom?" "Mulan, what are you most looking forward to?"

Anyhow, before tonight was over they were asking when we could all go together. Donald & I am not planning on another Disney trip next year as we really need a beach vacation, but of course I can already see the writing on the wall when free dining comes around next April. We'll see.... Help me with my resolve to resist Disney just one year!

Wait a minute... who am I talking to here? You all aren't going to help me with such a thing. I need a "no more Disney" support group. :grouphug: I swear my f-i-l might even pay for part of it. How will I resist? HELP.....

Oh, I also wanted to say that I woke up Friday morning at 5:45 am and couldn't get back to sleep as I had my first Disney nightmare! Don't you love Disney dreams? :cloud9: Even Disney nightmares are better than normal sweet dreams. So, in my dream we were in Animal Kingdom (all 11 of us) and there was a new show instead of Festival of the Lion King it was a Cirque show. We really wanted to see it but every time we got there it was closed for the next showing. We tried 3 times! Walking all the way from Asia each time. Anyway, the kids were so upset and it was so horrid by the third time that I woke up in a panic. As soon as I was awake I thought, "I'm going to Disney World!" and then I couldn't sleep. :rotfl: I can't tell you what a mess the kids would be if this dream actually came tru.e :eek:

Did I tell you that I bought a new suitcase? I think we have everything we need for packing. I hope, at least, we'll really see when we start packing. I promise I will post photos of our tye die & the presents for my girls so far on Wednesday. I keep promising the tye-die but I don't have Suzy's. I'm going to have her bring me her shirts on Tuesday & take photos & then I will give a complete story of how we did in our crazy tye-dying.

Also, we'll be making our iron ons this week & next. So prepare, the photos and info will start coming very soon.

Yippee! It's finally time for packing lists. :cheer2:

See ya in a few days with some real info & photos. For now I'm off to make sure my stroller swap is all in order.

[estherhead]

:cool1:

Love the ticker & LOVE what it is saying!

[estherhead]

The Disney mania begins in our household with t-shirts. T-shirts being bought, t-shirts being ironed on, & new for this year: t-shirts being tye-died!!!

We had a lot more to coordinate with so many more of us to clothe, and such a huge variety of sizes. 12 months to a men's large. Not an easy task. One thing Suzy & I knew we were interested in was the tye-die Mickey shirts from the Disigns board on here. So we bought white t-shirts, which was no small matter in Ohio in October. They had switched to long sleeved shirts and it was quite difficult to find all our sizes in a short sleeve shirt. The good news was, they were only $3.00 a piece when I did manage to find some. I also bought 3 packages of different colored dyes as we had 11 shirts and 11 people's taste to satisify and saturate.

We all headed over to Milo & Suzy's and prepared for a crazy evening of crafting with children. Have any of you crafted with kids? I'm sure you have. Well let me just say, it is a lot more fun in theory than in person. In magazines & articles it sounds so simple and easy, enjoyable for the whole family. In person it is absolute mayhem and dirty and messy and not entirely successful. Milo said he had tye-died in high school and his shirt had come out tye-died at all. But completely red. Everyone else had nice colorful swirled shirts. His was all red. It was an omen.

So after dinner we began. We sowed our Mickey heads in the middle of each shirt (only Suzy & I did this) and it took us about an hour to do the 11 together. Mulan helped on her own shirt but felt that sowing was just too hard for her after that one shirt. Then we rubber banded them to death to protect the little mickey heads. Then we gathered everyone around the table to have them twist them into pretty little spirals and rubber band them some more.

This seemed to be too difficult for Milo and some of the kids and Suzy & I ended up doing quite a bit of rubber banding in addition to our t-shirts and the babies' (who obviously couldn't do their own.) After things were pretty much in utter chaos and rubber bands had been fully secured around twisted shirts we started mixing colors. Donald hadn't fully listened to the instructions and also were really afraid of using too much dye and then the kids wouldn't have any. But more about that later.

Once I had all the colors mixed and the men were mostly out of the way, the true chaos began. Having never done this before we had all the kids & dye gathered and no newspapers and only one bucket to squirt into. It really should have been one person at a time. But we had 5 anxious children to have their turn, 2 impatient men, and 2 babies who love to get into everything. So three+ people ended up squirting at once which meant colors were squirting everywhere.

Suzy & I and the babies' shirts were last and there was limited dye left. So we just used whatever colors were left and hoped it would all be fine.

So... how did they turn out? Let's just say I used a lot of bleach to get true mickey heads on mine. And Milo's is very strange. At least it isn't all red. But I think overall they are great. And Donald loves his. He wears it all the time. Pretty much every day as soon as he gets home from work. Lightening McQueen has worn his to school as well. So I think they are going to be a big hit.

Here they are:
http://inlinethumb48.webshots.com/41199/2388983160092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2388983160092107464iOBLWl)

Mine is the purple mickey head on the far right. Not the colors I would have chosen but it looks pretty nice. Milo's is the green mickey head next to mine. It looks OK in this photo but if you take away my shirt from being on top of it, it is mostly white with blotched that look kind of like mold. Plus it is an x-large and too big for him.

Suzy's is the sleeveless with the purple mickey head at the top. She loves hers. Donald's isn't in here as he was wearing it ;) . And the rest are misc. kids. The babies' are onsies instead of t-shirts. Boo's is a little more masculine than I would have liked but at least it has a pink mickey head.

So, bottom line? We might do these over someday. I still like the concept and in restrospect it was an OK evening. But I will certainly not be adding tye-dye to my list of super fun things to do. It's on my maybe OK list of things to do.

I'll be posting our other groups of t-shirts later. The only other complete group we have is the Minnie/Mickey day. The girls are in bright blue, the boys in grey:
http://inlinethumb10.webshots.com/10185/2326586130092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2326586130092107464cAIiHQ)

I think these are great and though they aren't all the same color, they are all the same theme. And they are really nice. Plus, I like the masculinity of the guys being in grey and the girl's in a pretty color. We got them off disneyshopping when they had their t-shirt clearance.

[Leleluvsdis]

Can't wait to read more!!! I love your shirts!!!

[estherhead]

Can't wait to read more!!! I love your shirts!!!

Ahhh, thanks!!! We'll be posting more photos as more shirts get done. We just got the baby's t-shirts in the mail today so we can start ironing-on this weekend. Yippee!

[estherhead]

Ready? We have agonized over this, agonized! Months of agonizing. How many of you (you know who you are) look at Tour Guide Mike & Touring Plans for EVER ahead of time. Have to get those ADR's, right? And to get those you have to know where you'll be. So with that in mind, here is our schedule.

And for any who are reading this & going the week behind Thanksgiving, no stealing it! We want the parks to ourselves. Ya hear?

Thursday – Arrive in Orlando
Go to Blizzard Beach (Perla & Donald's family only as Suzy & Milo don't get in till afternoon.)
Go shopping at Wal-Mart for supplies (while my family is still at Blizzard Beach)
Check into house & explore!

Friday – Magic Kingdom for Fantasyland & Frontierland. Get here at ROPE drop. The thinking behind this is twofold. One, who doesn't want to go to Magic Kingdom your very first day to WDW? Two, it's the day after Thanksgiving so MK should have been packed yesterday, not today. We'll see if this last theory holds water once we're there.

Date night: Suzy & Milo

Saturday – Animal Kingdom - our only day here so we'll have to make the most of it.

Date night: Perla & Donald we're going to Cirque du Soleil! I'm so excited as we've never been & I've always wanted to go. I was kind of going to surprise Donald but Milo stole my thunder. It wasn't going to be a big surprise, just here at home I was going to tell him. So I can't tell if he's excited or not but I know he'll love it so pre-excitement doesn't really matter. We haven't been to theater (even circus theater) in a VERY LONG time. Then we're eating at Raglan Road.

Sunday – Blizzard Beach
Stake out a great Beach spot. Daddies take big kids to wild rides. Mommies play with babies on beach.
Meet in Lazy River. Go home for lunch.

Disneyquest. Don’t try to do big stuff, just mess around on the arcade games. We girls will probably go shopping instead of really hanging out in here as we'll have the babies & can't have strollers so we'll be chasing them around a crazy arcade. I can't imagine that being fun for very long! Dinner is back at our house. We're having steak tonight! And not expensive Disney steak eiter.

Monday - Our only DHS day so we'll have to make the most of this too. We're planning on being here from rope drop to close so on our schedule we have race around, race around we'll have to see with the babies. Suzy & I may end up taking some chill time somewhere in the shade.

Tuesday – MK day but not together
This is the day we girls meet Tink. Then we'll do Tomorrowland & Adventureland.

I'm thinking we'll go home to bed after such a full week. But if everyone still wants to race around Disney we might go to DHS or Downtown Disney again.

Wednesday – Epcot for Future World
Home for a nap/swimming
Go to MK for: Spectro at 7:00 pm, Wishes at 8:00 pm

Thursday – Epcot for lunch at Rose & Crown
World Showcase & Illuminations

5th Fri - Disneyquest at opening for all the cool big games. Blizzard Beach again for just the beach aspect, or chill at our own pool. It's our last day at Disney so we'll want to relax probably.

6th Sat - Fly home :sad2:

So that's our big schedule

It does seem big, doesn't it? My family claims they want to se the world, see the world, see the world. They claim they don't want to lay around. So I'm trusting them. They've vacationed enough. They know what they like. Personally, I'd like to go lay next to the beach & read book after book. I'm tired. But if we were to go to the beach right now I wouldn't be laying around reading book after book. I'd be chasing a toddler around trying to get her to stop eating sand. And then I'd spend the rest of the day sweeping up sand inside our beach house and making 6 small, healthy meals.

So, might as well run around Disney. At least it won't be so painful being so close to a beach and not getting to lay down. Plus, Donald says he's gonna take me on a 15th wedding anniversary trip next year for a whole week with NO KIDS! Yippee! And I'll get to relax when we get all those snow days in January & February.

And in the mean time, I'm gonna work my butt off for the next 3 weeks to get my life & family prepared & ready to go. And then I'm gonna work for 10 days to have the mostest, magicalest, Disneyest vacation ever.

In closing, as a side point, I was hoping to weigh 139 lbs by Disney. I had given up on this goal as I've been eating pretty healthy & not losing weight. But my entire family has spent the week puking (yeah, it's been a great week, thus the desire for a nice kid-free beach vacation) & I'm at 140.2 lbs today. So, I'm going back to the drawing board & am going to start reaching for my goal weight again starting tomorrow (or maybe Monday as Sunday is football day & we all know that means eating.) Cause now I'm only 1 lb away!

[estherhead]

Bring out the lists, baby!!!! Packing mayhem has begun. I cleared my pool table of all clutter (because what is a pool table supposed to be used for if not to keep all of your clutter?) And instead filled it up with Disney clutter! Yipee! Disney packing has started.

http://inlinethumb48.webshots.com/2479/2691503760092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2691503760092107464cZqmUc)

Here is the list as it stands now. Hmm, what's missing? Oh! Clothing! :rotfl:

I don't have that all sorted out yet & I don't normally put it on any lists. I don't normally forget clothing so I don't worry about writing it down. This is just stuff I very well might forget.

Electronics:

Cell Phones
Phone Chargers
Laptop & Cords
Blue DVD carrier with DVD's & PS2 games in it
Power Strip
Nightlight
Blue Camera
Silver Camera
Video Camera
Nintendo DS & cords & games
Waterproof one time use camera (still need to buy)
Small screwdriver

Toiletries:

Sunscreen, babies 3 bottles of quick spray
Sunscreen, adults 1 bottle of quick spray
Post Sun lotion
Shampoo
Shampoo for kids
Conditioner
Brush
Comb
Pony Tail Holders
Hat for everyone (Bonnet & water hat for baby)
Hair Claws
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste for us
Toothpaste for kids
Floss
My make-up
Q-Tips
Sunless Tanner
Razor & blades
Band Aids
Children's Tylenol
Tylenol
B.C. Pills
Zicam
Vitamin C
Pepto
Bug Spray
Body Glide
Moleskin
Chapstick

Park:

Rain ponchos
Autograph book?
Autograph pens (retractable Sharpies)
Quarters (2 for every penny)
Pennies (pre-1982)
Lots & lots of sunglasses
Baby wipes
Diapers
Pin lanyards
Hand sanitizer, 2 bottles
Hand Fans
Stroller fan
Baby carrier
Stroller
Stroller cover stuff (clips)
Stroller drink carriers
Watch (need batteries)
Glow sticks
Glow in the Dark stuff
Hidden Mickey Book
Pressed Penny list
Pressed Penny book

Paperwork:

Itinerary Packet
Kid's itineraries
Pens
Notebook to TR notes
Ticket/card holder
Disney tickets
Photocopies of tickets
Printed confirmation numbers
Driver's License & copy of license
Rewards Card
ADR's

Pool/Water:

3 swimsuits for me
3 swimsuits for each girl
Yellow Mesh Sling for Baby
Swim wings for Baby
Water shoes for everyone
Inflaltable pool toys
Waterproof Spray on sunblock

House:

Coffee cups (4)
Propel Drink Packets
Granola Bars
Gum
Goldfish
Clothes pins
Variety of Ziploc Baggies
Postcards stamps & labels
AA batteries
antennea ball for our rental car (still need to buy)

So that is what I have so far. In addition, I also have presents for the two big girls each day. I'm going to get the baby somethings also, like books & stuff to entertain her at the house but I'm not going to wrap them. I'm just going to buy a gift bag to use every day & every day I'll put the gift for that day in the gift bag with tissue paper. I'll work on that later. In the mean time here are the big girl's:

http://inlinethumb22.webshots.com/43541/2090283820092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2090283820092107464PbAwuG)

I bought them little things, like journals & pens, and big things like HSM Barbie Dolls. I probably spent $50.00 on them. A bargain in my opinion as they feel very fulfilled and don't ask for very much because they already got a wrapped present & once at the parks they are very distracted by the rides & shows! Only at Downtown Disney do we run into wants, but really, I have wants at DTD. Isn't that what it's for?

The negative is these really took up more room than I was intending. Half a suitcase! Yikes. With that & the carseat we don't have a lot of room. Good thing you mostly need shorts in Orlando! :yay:

Wanna know what else I did today? Made t-shirts! I spent the morning printing them out which went really well. The baby was cranky all day. Once I met Donald at work where we have a professional shirt press for making t-shirts :yay: , lucky, I know, we got started actually making them. We had 17 to make today. It only takes 45 minutes but the baby literally cried the entire time! You can imagine how stressed out this made me. So you will forgive me for forgetting to take a photo of all the finished shirts together. But here are our immediate family's:

Star Wars for DHS. Hoping to get a kid or two in Jedi Training Academy:
http://inlinethumb26.webshots.com/10201/2346572200092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2346572200092107464qdtWVF)

Up close:
http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/41473/2140691930092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2140691930092107464yzlToa)

Our Peter Pan day, only the Peter Pans all went to my sister as the boys are wearing them. You only get to see Tinkerbell & Hook:
http://inlinethumb33.webshots.com/43232/2423917030092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2423917030092107464MiPXRe)

We bought the Tinkerbell ones. Only the Hook one was made.
http://inlinethumb42.webshots.com/35561/2823229910092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2823229910092107464uHJiJc)

http://inlinethumb30.webshots.com/43165/2851705860092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2851705860092107464oMMTZA)

So there ya go. That is what I did today. I feel accomplished. I wish the baby wasn't cranky. I really wish the baby wasn't cranky. And I'm hoping she gets over the super crankiness before 3 weeks come & go. Really hope!

I also decided that in 2 weeks I'm going to start the whole family on a vitamin C & echinacea regime. I really don't want colds & we seem to be cold magnents this fall.

Any other tips? Anything I'm forgetting? Our final t-shirts will be coming up soon, I hope. I had to order some more red ones as I didn't have the right ones. I also still have to make more tye dye shirts. But Donald wants to do that so I just need time to wash them & sow the Mickey heads on & he will do the dirty work. Probably this weekend. Though with tailgating I don't seem to get a lot accomplished on weekends.

OK, I gotta go as I have work tomorrow & the cranky baby is still awake at 9:30 p.m. Darn cranky baby. :mad: Dag nab it. She's poopy too. Cranky & poopy. Is there a worse combination? :eek:

Gotta go...

[estherhead]

This is the first trip I've taken without the DDP in a couple years. Because we're staying offsite, it obviously wasn't available. Plus, it's much cheaper (well, not cheaper than getting the DDP free) to eat some meals at our Windsor Hills home. We have these all planned out, mostly breakfasts & dinners since at lunch time we'll be in the parks. And even for lunch we're planning on packing quite a bit of food in with us.

What we're hoping for here is cheap. But we don't want it to feel cheap. So here is what I'm planning on eating personally. Donald will, of course, eat whatever he feels like. And certainly would never be crazy enough to plan out what he was planning on eating before we got there.

Animal Kingdom:

Pork Eggrolls (you get 3 so I would share with the fam.)

That’s probably it. We’re eating at Tusker House for breakfast at 10:30 am this day so I can’t imagine wanting more than this. I might not even get this!

Hollywood Studios:

Backlot Express:

The Grilled veggie sandwich. Suzy got this our last meal on our girls trip & it was truly delish. Here’s a photo:

http://inlinethumb62.webshots.com/43261/2932167180092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2932167180092107464OvKoUW)

But we aren’t really planning on eating there. We’re eating at Pizza Planet which pretty much has pizza. Oh well.

We’re also eating at Sci-Fi which I know gets terrible food reviews so I have low expecations. But more than likely I will think it is just fine as I love McD’s fries & cheeseburgers so I obviously have low standards. I think I’m going to share an Oreo milk shake to share with my girls. I'll probably only have a sip or two. And order either a cheeseburger or grilled chicken sandwich with fries.

Epcot:

School Bread at Norway
Chocolate Croissant at France
Baklava in Morroco
Half rotisserie chicken with 2 sides at Sunshine Seasons
A margartita & a grand marnier slushy. I’ve had both of these before & been wowed by them.

We’re also eating at the Rose & Crown. Not sure what I’ll get there. Lots of good choices for food. But I think I would like to have a Bailey’s Trifle for alcohol/dessert. That looks GOOD!

Magic Kingdom:

If I don’t get to go to Sunshine Seasons then I will get the ½ chicken at Cosmic Rays. It’s such a good deal for a family. And probably a bowl of chicken noodle soup. The 3 girls & I could easy turn that into a whole meal.

A cream cheese pretzel
Ham & Cheese croissant at Main St. Bakery & maybe a French toast loaf there?

A turkey leg, which I’ve never had. I really want one as these seem to be a good family value too. If I bring in chips & drinks for the kids we could all have a meal for $5.75!

Then Donald & I are going to Raglan Road. I think I might go all out here & have an appetizer & entrée. But probably not dessert. We’ll just see how it goes. Donald & I might share something, tho I don’t like scallops or prawns so that will make him sad. I might get the serious sirloin steak here. It isn’t too expensive & it looks yummy. Course that is just sitting here tonight. Who knows what I’ll want when I’m sitting there with all the great smells & atmosphere.

But I do think I will be both money & Weight Watchers driven. Not that I diet while on vacation but this trip isn't really about decadence. That was what the girl's trip was about. This trip is about having lots of energy to spend with my girls. And not spending too much more money!

Mmmm, off to look at food porn to see if I'm missing any yumminess that I really want and have forgotten about (or not ever heard about!)

I'm going to make more t-shirts today so I'll post pics later!

[labdogs42]

I'm joining in now, too!

[estherhead]

Hi labdogs! I went over & looked at your scrapbooking. LOVED it! I'm planning on going on a crazy scrapbooking palooza when we get back. I'm like 7 years behind. I have been collecting stuff all summer & have about 6 empty scrapbooks & stuff to put in them.

I'd like to try the digital ones too so I may be hitting you up for tips. I've done the little 10 page books at CVS this summer when they were on sale & I did enjoy it, but I wasn't very good at it.

[estherhead]

Last night Donald & I tye-dyed. Our last Disney shirts are done. It really is going to happen.

I'm be super excited if I could breathe. Wouldn't breathing be nice? The baby's been sick. Donald's been sick. Ariel's been sick, and finally me. I stopped being able to breathe about 2 hours ago. Shoot. I was hoping I would escape the true cold. I always get allergies for the entire fall, but I was really hoping to escape the real deal. But I guess not.

So deep thought is out. Cold medicine is in.

That aside, we're less than 3 weeks away. We're almost 2 weeks away. It's EXCITING!

2 things panicked me a little today. The first is the double stroller swap I'm in lost my stroller! :scared1: Oh dear. But I'm in another one now. Not as perfect, but much better than nothing. Thank goodness I'm not just out of luck. I would be really panicking if I thought I had to rent a Disney stroller at those crazy prices!

I bought two of these for our strollers. They came today & I love them. We'll see if I feel that way after 10 days of actually using them.

I also wrapped the girl's presents & we tried all our clothes on so we're fairly set. I'll just have to throw in their good jeans & shoes the last day. And the baby & Donald aren't packed. But the big girls & I am for the most part. Or we could be totally packed within an hour. Good enough is what I say.

I've tried on all our t-shirts. The Tinkerbell ones really do nothing for my figure, but they'll make my girls happy. For me, I look like a serious mom in it. A big, blob kind of shape instead of a nice, girly shape. But the others are nice.

Our final t-shirts are really cute. They have our names on them, though, so I took a blurry photo for you.

http://inlinethumb45.webshots.com/43244/2367497760092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2367497760092107464kXDGvi)

And an up close one of the cute faces. We each have our own look. :love: these. And I love the fit.

Donald, I & our girls
http://inlinethumb24.webshots.com/12055/2171807490092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2171807490092107464ZiAMqW)

Milo & Suzy:
http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/21707/2122834050092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2122834050092107464VCzVVt)

Also, I've been doing some couponing. Here is what I bought this week for $70.00! What I would have spent on just the 4 Mega packs of diapers & the beer, I got this whole table worth of stuff.

http://inlinethumb11.webshots.com/42826/2244872780092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2244872780092107464mYnJFe)

9 boxes of cereal, 12 rolls of cereal, 4 packs diapers, beer, lots of baking stuff, etc. LOTS OF STUFF! Let me tell ya. I was psyched.

And finally, the title. We're not very good at this, I've discovered. Our Mickeys just end up looking like hearts & then we have to bleach them. But it's the best we can do, ya know? What's a girls to do? At least we enjoy it.

Here is the Mickey head traced on in pencil. Even this is harder than it looks. The t-shirt keeps moving & it is hard to get it right.

http://inlinethumb60.webshots.com/43963/2292197670092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2292197670092107464oeeXOd)

Here is the Mickey sown and starting to be gathered:

http://inlinethumb28.webshots.com/42523/2081848700092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2081848700092107464QOxjEB)

Here it is gathered all up:

http://inlinethumb42.webshots.com/43497/2354074820092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2354074820092107464uOwJDB)

Here it is swirled & rubber banded:

http://inlinethumb06.webshots.com/35845/2999995820092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2999995820092107464jqyUXr)

Here are the 5 items we did last night, 3 of them are Mickey:
http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/41970/2169756310092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2169756310092107464UlqQDv)

Here is the Mickey rubber banded, dyed, & wrapped:
http://inlinethumb21.webshots.com/43988/2358113170092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2358113170092107464MwoyWE)

Here is Donald using the die over our bucket:
http://inlinethumb62.webshots.com/35389/2978395900092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2978395900092107464tJYiVA)

And a close up of his work:
http://inlinethumb22.webshots.com/22357/2142593600092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2142593600092107464TEPyIf)

And me in my frumpy Yellowstone fleece shirt. Not in Florida here!
http://inlinethumb10.webshots.com/777/2426131580092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2426131580092107464FBunhp)

And here they are wrapped in plastic:
http://inlinethumb44.webshots.com/18603/2777374160092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2777374160092107464ThUfWi)

We let them sit for 24 hours.

I went to rinse the dye out & look who I found in the dryer with the warm towels!

http://inlinethumb62.webshots.com/42237/2115865600092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2115865600092107464fgCkDy)

And here is me deciding not to wear gloves while I rinsed the shirts & consequently turning my hands completely blue. I'm turning into Violet from Willy Wonka!
http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/42307/2674333860092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2674333860092107464hriKev)

And here are my tools to make Mickey heads since they don't turn out with the straight dying.

http://inlinethumb15.webshots.com/14/2917758350092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2917758350092107464vxpvog)

Print & cut out a Mickey head shape & trace with bleach, it's starting:
http://inlinethumb29.webshots.com/4444/2052357640092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2052357640092107464vYdLQL)

Working more:
http://inlinethumb05.webshots.com/42948/2411725960092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2411725960092107464pRIdJq)

The maroon one done (Milo's):
http://inlinethumb32.webshots.com/35295/2659825990092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2659825990092107464EgXdZG)

The bib:
http://inlinethumb44.webshots.com/42027/2323217480092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2323217480092107464LwwAbH)

The blue one (Donald's):
http://inlinethumb27.webshots.com/41818/2227029360092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2227029360092107464jFdreL)

If you want to do this project, it's pretty easy. But for us, we weren't good at it. Oh well. It was fun.

And now I'm off to sleep before I say something I regret.

[houseful of boys]

Well, I can tell you're doped up on medicine, you didn't post the picture of your cup holders :lmao: . So which shirt will Milo choose????? His first one or the second one? I appreciate the effort but poor Milo will not be the best dressed out of our bunch no matter which shirt he wears. :rotfl:

[estherhead]

Well, I can tell you're doped up on medicine, you didn't post the picture of your cup holders :lmao: . So which shirt will Milo choose????? His first one or the second one? I appreciate the effort but poor Milo will not be the best dressed out of our bunch no matter which shirt he wears. :rotfl:

Shoot, I forgot the cupholder photo! Stupid medicine. Here it is:

http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/43498/2321488510092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2321488510092107464jdwFUg)

I didn't take a photo of my actual one, as this one is so cute & full of all the things we'll be needing. Though I don't think I'll be leaving money just sitting out in the open like that. :laughing:

Donald said he would take the blue blob shirt. Where the Mickey head just became a total blue blob. I swear we are doing this just like the official directions. Tie dying just isn't our thing.

There is a guy Donald works with who told him yesterday he used to work at a tie dye shop in Key West. Hello? Why didn't you tell me this before? Didn't you know we would need the help. He said he'd come over next time and show us how it's done.

But for this trip, Milo is just going to have to look like a goomba with Tie Dye Mold on his shirt. We gave it our best shot.

As for my cold, I feel a lot better today, though breathing is hard. I woke up at 1 am & had the worst ear ache ever. I took 5 Tylenol, one at a time from 1-2 am, until the pain went away. And a Mucinex. I was worried that I would wake up this morning and have an actual infection, but I think it was just pressure. So today I'm off to work & a normal day.

[mlraabe]

Oh My! If I had time to write pre trip report - ours would sound about the same! You sound more like my sister than my actual sister (although I still love her lots!). Although you have planned far more out than I have. I keep saying to DH that the past two times we were even packed by now. We just rented our house!!! With good reason - the house we originally wanted 10 months ago was booked, then after some searching we found a wonderful house called .... Magic Palace - booked (wonder who?). So we decided since there were so many other available we would wait to make a great deal and we did - 6 BR with everything from game room to pool and hot tob for .... $840 all inclusive, taxes and pool heat! We did have better luck with the royal carriage though - so far ours is still around.

I think we will try to tie dye this weekend. I will be prepared for a real mess with my crew and the rest of the trip goers around!

Can you believe it is almost time?!!!!!:yay:

[estherhead]

Oh My! If I had time to write pre trip report - ours would sound about the same! You sound more like my sister than my actual sister (although I still love her lots!). Although you have planned far more out than I have. I keep saying to DH that the past two times we were even packed by now. We just rented our house!!! With good reason - the house we originally wanted 10 months ago was booked, then after some searching we found a wonderful house called .... Magic Palace - booked (wonder who?). So we decided since there were so many other available we would wait to make a great deal and we did - 6 BR with everything from game room to pool and hot tob for .... $840 all inclusive, taxes and pool heat! We did have better luck with the royal carriage though - so far ours is still around.

I think we will try to tie dye this weekend. I will be prepared for a real mess with my crew and the rest of the trip goers around!

Can you believe it is almost time?!!!!!:yay:


Aww, so sorry we stole your house! I guess I'm glad we starting booking so early, otherwise you would have grabbed it first. That's an awesome price you got on your house, though, so you might be glad we got it first too! :banana:

I'm OK on the stroller now. I've been moved to #2 and I only lost 1.5 days. My girls are big & don't really need a stroller except as a safe haven when the crowds get too overwhelming, as a place to store our stuff, and when we want to move quicker than their little legs can carry them. So it really is OK that we won't have the stroller the first day & a half. Maybe it's even better.

It was just a panic attack being so close to our trip. I really hope everyone is responsible from here on out, though. I don't want to be the person who discovers it's lost!

PLEASE tell me how your tie-dying goes. I'm interested to see if you have better luck than us with the Mickey heads.

[estherhead]

OK, here is a non-Disney (kinda) thread.

We're 8 days away from leaving. I'm trying to pretend like I'm not interested in Disney while totally obsessing about it to my dh & Suzy. I wake up in the middle of the night with Disney nightmares & then am sick to my tummy. Paranoia, I tell ya, paranoia.

In an attempt to pretend like I only care about my family & am enjoying and embracing the snow & freezing temperatures today, I made a simple turkey dinner. So what follows is my own "Rachel Ray" chef's hat version of Turkey day in 30 minutes (& low in fat & calories too!) But it takes 60 minutes to bake.

Ingredients:

Honeysuckle marinated turkey breast (these are on sale now & often go on sale buy one get one.) The one I used was Lemon Pepper

1 small can pumpkin
1 container light Cool Whip
1 box instant sugar-free cheesecake flavored pudding
1 reduced fat graham cracker crust
pumpkin pie spice

2 cans green beans
1 can 98% fat free cream mushroom soup
1 small can Durkee onions

Chicken flavored Stove Top
1 apple
frozen minced onions
1 can chicken broth

1 box Betty Crocker Yukon gold mashed instant potatoes



Directions:

Put thawed turkey breast in a oven safe dish, cover with foil & bake at 325 degrees for 60 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie:
Whisk 3/4 cup skim milk with pudding. Whisk in can of pumpkin and 3 tsp pumpking pie spice. Whisk in 1/2 the tub of Cool Whip gently. Pour into pie shell. Top with remaining Cool Whip & refrigerate.

Green Bean Casserole:
Drain the green beans. Mix them & the soup in a glass pie plate with 1/2 the onions. Top with the other half of the onions. Pop into the 325 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Stuffing:

Peel & mince the apple. Throw into a saucepan with 1/4 cup of the frozen, minced onions and a tbsp of water. Heat & soften the apple & onion. Follow the directions on the box for liquid, although I always replace the butter with chicken broth. Then add the stuffing & seasoning. Fluff.

Potatoes:

Follow the directions on the box (I make both pouches for my family of 5 & it is barely enough.)

Pull out the turkey & beans. Pour the liquid off the turkey into a saucepan. Add 1 cup chicken broth to it. Sage, salt, & pepper to taste. Make a slurry of 1 tbps cold water & 1/2 tbsp cornstarch. Boil the broth & once boiling, add the slurry. Gravy!

There ya go. I started tonight at 3:50. I was done working on it at 5:11. I just kep the stuffing & potatoes warm. I then sat down & helped with homework & did a little thing for my mom. Then the timer went off at 4:40 & I pulled out the beans & turkey. I made the gravy & we sat down to eat before 5 o'clock!

My kids proclaimed it the best meal they'd ever had. :rotfl:

OK, so now that I'm done being a little homemaker (I'm a pretender) let's get back to the important things.

**************************************

I finished all the t-shirts for real today. I had made a mistake on one of Donald's & had to re-do it but that is done & they are all in our possession & on our official packing table.

I called Alamo to see if I could use the kiosk since I bought from Hotwire. The answer was: Yes! Skip the line. Yippee!

I checked out the pricing of parking for ten days at the airport. $54.00 in the economy lot. Not too shabby.

I told work I needed my vacation money next Tuesday. Weeee! Vacation money!

I transferred all my reward dollars to my rewards card. $376.00! Let's get to spending, eh?

I pulled out my hair color & highlights. I'll do that tomorrow. I pulled out my sunless tanner (darn sunless tanner! Why do I have to be so stinking pale that it ruins the family photos if I don't use it? Totally hate it.)

I pulled out all the make-up/toiletries I'm taking & put it in my travel bag which is now sitting in my bathroom to be used for the next week.

I bought 2 pairs of jeans that actually fit me so I won't be uncomfortable if it is cold down there.

Which, total side note, but I've been a little bit crazy with checking the weather every day. As if the simple act of typing in www.accuweather.com would miraculously make it 80 degrees & no rain the whole time we're there. As if, somehow, with the thinking of happy thoughts (any happy little thought?) I could will the weather to be perfect for us.

But since pixie dust doesn't actually work in the real world :scared1: , I bought the jeans. Suzy bought 2 pair also. Yes, I freely admit it. There was a big sale. We're suckers for the big sale. One Levi's none-the-less! Buy two pair & get an extra $10 off. It made my bill for two pair $58.00 (that includes tax.)

I also bought Wall-E!!!! Yippee! :woohoo:

Wanna hear about my deal? CVS totally rocks.

OK, I had 2 ECB's to start this whole game.

I went in Sunday on my way home from Bible-learnin' ;) I stopped & bought 4 8 packs of Duracell batteries at $5.99 each. They had buy 2 get $5.00 off coupons. I used two. I also bought 2 Soft n Dry deodorants for $2.99 which had $.55 off coupons on them. So I spent $20.04 on the 4 packs of batteries & 2 deodorants. They gave me $19.00 ECB's back ($15 for the batteries, $4 for the deodorant.)

I then went in yesterday & got a L'oreal fancy-schmancy face lotion. It was $15.99 & they gave you $15.98 in ECB back. I used my Duracell ECB's ($15) and only spent $1.06 on the lotion. And got $15.99 back.

I then went in today & they had a deal that if you spent $20.00 on Coke (3 12 packs for $10) you could get Wall-E for $9.99. So I bought Wall-E & 6 12 packs of Coke Zero (I :love: Coke Zero) for $9.44! ($20.00 + $9.99 - $15.99 - $4.00) I thought it should be $10.00 flat by my math, but I just did what the computer told me & it was 9.44.

So the final for everything?

32 batteries
1 fancy schmancy face cream
6 12 packs of Coke
2 anti-persperants (of my favorite kind!)
Wall-E

= $30.54

Say it with me all you budgeters: I :love: CVS!!!!!

Also wanted to say that Sunday night we had a special Disney game night. My mom took the babies (who destroy board games.) We played Magic Kingdom game. I ADORE that game. And Disney Trivia DVD Scene-It. It was super fun. We also had brownies which I cut into mickey heads & Suzy turned into fancy desserts with chocolate syrup & little balls of ice cream. It was a bit thrown together but I thought it was rather lovely. And we all got along really well. Not one meltdown. Even though there were winners & losers. The winners didn't gloat. And the losers didn't complain. Go TEAM!

OK, now I have to go & do important non-Disney things. And try to get them all done so I can leave them all behind. And stop being a pretender.

Goals for the next week:

Watch Pocohantas (never seen before :eek: )
Watch Wall-E
Watch Toy Story
Finish laundry
Pack

Stay tuned for my next "I don't care about Disney but secretly care about nothing else" post.

[estherhead]

Just a little update to say we've been working hard at getting in the mood. In addition to only listening to Disney music in my van for the last two weeks, I've also been watching Disney movies. So far we've seen quite a few things I'd never seen before:

Cars: I thoroughly enjoyed this. I loved Lightening McQueen. I just really enjoyed this. The reason I had never seen it was because I really don't understand Nascar & I thought it would be all about that. But I obviously forgot who Disney was. Naturally it was all about the personalities and catching flies with honey instead of vinegar. How could I be so foolish?

Pocohantas: Can you believe I'd never seen this? I love history too. I was just afraid it was going to be so not historically accurate that I wouldn't be able to stand it. Or too much like Brother Bear, confusing and abstract. But again, I was wrong on all counts. It was good. And though not accurate it didn't do them a disservice. It didn't paint the English as bad & the Indians as good or vice versa. I liked Cars better.

Bolt: But even more than Cars, I like Bolt. Really liked Bolt. The opening scenes were very action packed. And the cinematography was amazing. I got a tiny bit concerned that Bolt was a bit too much like Buzz Lightyear in his delusions. Even Ariel leaned over & said, "This is just like Toy Story 2!" But then it switched and was a dogs are great & a traveling across America movie. I love road trip movies. Definitely glad I saw this at the theater, though I could not get the audience to clap. I clapped, but no one else did. Oh well.

Then we just finished watching a movie I had seen, Wall-E. I truly love the message of this movie. The earth is not doing well because greedy businesses are ruining it & only humans bonding together and taking over will save it. And it is worth saving. I liked this environmental movie a lot better than the penguin movie morale which seemed politically driven. Wall-E is not about that. It's about doing any little thing you can no matter what. Breaking the mold. Not staying on the little lines. OK, so I like Wall-E. ;)

And that is what I've been doing. Two negative things happened today. I lost some of my photos to a broken hard drive. :sad1: SUPER sad about that but trying to get over it. It isn't like I lost all my photos or my house burned down which happens to people, ya know?

The other negative is Mulan has a fever. Am I allowed to say darn it on this board? Do you know how hard I've been working? I scrubbed all germs from this house on Thursday. They've been on a strict vitamin C/multi-vitamin regime for the last week. We've Zicamed. We've anti-bacterialled. We've washed hands. I'm hoping she has what we all already had. But if not, then darn it!

Tomorrow we pack. Donald just packed 7 pairs of short, 2 swim trunks, 2 pairs of sandals, and some jammies. I have to drag all the stuff I have set aside in the basement up here tomorrow morning (maybe tonight) and then we will pack. Depending on how it goes we may ship any overflow to the UPS Store on 192. We'll just have to see how it goes. This is me: :dance3:

On a final note, we had a little dinner at a local restaurant tonight for Milo. He got his PhD and didn't want a big fuss, just a little fuss. Well, we insisted on the little fuss, not sure if he wanted it or not. But let me tell ya, getting a masters & PhD degree while having/raising 4 boys has not been a walk in the park & Suzy & he have made a lot of sacrifices, cried a lot of tears, taken a lot of Tylenol these last years. A little fuss needed to be made. His parents prepared beautiful speeches. He got sweet cards from his kids & wife. And I made him a cake. Tomorrow, I'll post photos of the event.

And tell you how the packing is coming with Boo destroying everything as I pack??? I leave you with that cliff hanger:

Can Suzy & Perla pack with Boo & Jack-Jack ripping everything apart?????
Will the screaming and crying make them go insane?????
How many times will Perla yell "No!" at the top of her lungs????

Stay tuned........

[estherhead]

It's finally here. Monday of the week we leave. I have this nagging nausea that simply will not go away. That is always the case when I go on vacation. I think it is silly. It is only 10 days of my life, it's in the United States, a fairly safe country & one where I happen to speak the language relatively fluently. There are Wal-Marts everywhere so I can't forget anything huge.

Why am I so freaky about leaving?

Normally this is the point where I stop being excited & Donald's excitement kicks in. But his has kicked in & I still have mine. Maybe it is the added factor of Suzy & Milo coming. Maybe it is because we had such an amazing time last year. Maybe it is because we really need this. I don't know. But I'm excited.

And I'm packed. Yipee! Photos of luggage corner:

http://inlinethumb16.webshots.com/41487/2736436680092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2736436680092107464fPzqiy)

Here is inside one bag of chaos:
http://inlinethumb17.webshots.com/29200/2187624440092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2187624440092107464HeOhHn)

Is that a refillable mug I see? Going back to Disney? Shocking. No worries, we're not staying at a resort, member? So I can't cheat. It's just my everyday coffee mug & there is no way I'm living without it. So don't kick me when you see me. I'm not stealing coffee from Disney in my 2007 mug, I swear.

And I didn't have to scream bloody murder to get it done. Boo actually fell asleep. I got up early yesterday & sorted all the clothing out & put it in 2.5 gallon Ziptop bags. By the time she was up & getting into stuff I had the clothing done. Mulan & Ariel raced around like crazy throwing all the random things into suitcases & I zipped up so she couldn't destroy. Then I left & went to my religious services (and CVS, "bought" more free batteries) and came home on a mission to get the laundry done. :laundy:

It's done! The last load is in the dryer. I even sorted the socks. That made Donald do this: :eek: :faint: :thumbsup2 . I never sort socks. He couldn't believe it.

Then the baby took a beautiful nap right when I was getting ready to pack the miscellaneous stuff. Perfect. So with very little fighting, yelling, bickering, etc. we are basically packed. I even got the kid itineraries done which Mulan is really excited about. She is a planner just like her Mommy. :hug: :hug: :hug:

Today I will do the toiletries & load my MP3 player with books to listen to & go to the library to get a few magazines and books. I'm a library girls & always grab free stuff before I leave. One time on a cruise I dropped the book I was reading into the pool. Bummer since it was a library book! They didn't even make me pay for it when I brought it back. Said it happens all the time. :sad2:

My goodness, I'm hyper aren't I? Wouldn't you be? Hmmmm? Did I mention we are going to Disney & I am packed?

So, I promised a few photos of Milo & his graduation feast. Here are two. I didn't have permission from his extended family to post their photos so I didn't want to post too many.

Here is Milo & Suzy & the cake I made for him:
http://inlinethumb41.webshots.com/42344/2942023520092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2942023520092107464hIAZnp)

And here is part of the fam looking at the great scrapbook his mom made of his childhood accomplishments.

http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/28388/2947354670092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://family.webshots.com/photo/2947354670092107464ACPMgp)

His parents both had sweet, sweet speeches written out that they read. I was surprised they could get through them without crying & I think they were too! All in all it was very nice. It was a little short as Mulan had a fever and was shivering & kind of a mess (yes, we were terrible parents & dragged her out in the freezing cold with a fever!) And the other kids were a bit rambunctious to say the least. I guess Jack-Jack had been a handful all day so Suzy just wanted to get home and put him in his crib. But really all of that just verified why it was such a huge accomplishment. He got a Ph.D. with all of that going on around him! Amazing focus.
**********

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OK, back to Disney. I had a very proud moment last night. Boo has been having some language problems (I'm meeting with someone today to see how severe.) And one things she really struggles with is names of people. She has been comprehending more & more and she finally knows who Mommy, Daddy, Mulan, & Ariel are. Finally. But other names are generally not of interest. Well, last night I was working on the kid's itinerary & my computer had a Mickey Mouse image on it. I showed her him for the millionth time & said, "Mickey Mouse!" About 15 minutes later a Disney commercial came on with Mickey on it & she came rushing over to my computer all in a tizzy pointing & jumping & then said, I swear she said this in her little jumbled way, "Jabber, jabber, MMMjabber Mouse!" My baby knows & can say Mickey Mouse. :mickeyjum :mickeyjum :mickeyjum The pride I feel. :rotfl:

Signing off for now. I'm leaving you with one of my favorite photos from last year's trip:

http://inlinethumb44.webshots.com/26475/2403558940092107464S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2403558940092107464VFfmSr)

[estherhead]

We're watching Toy Story! Boo's first time. She is loving it. Ahhh, eating popcorn & Koolaid while watching Toy Story, my favorite movie of all time. Poor Mrs. Nesbit.

Mulan came home from school sick today :sick: And here is a photo of Donald trying to deal with his sinus headache and pretend it was something other than a new cold:

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo145/estherme12/CIMG3208.jpg

And here is my gorgeous kitchen that he spent 2 hours cleaning from top to bottom last night. We put this in about 2 years ago. Yup, we're the coolest. Did it for about $5,000 dollars.:

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo145/estherme12/CIMG3209.jpg

We also lost power for about 2 hours today. It is a vacation ritual for us to lose power the week we leave. Even in the summer. Don't know why but we rarely lose power except when we are packing for a trip.

As soon as we had power back I spent an hour making my mom a card. She is really sad that we are taking her grandchildren away for over a week. So I made her a calendar with stickers of their little faces, one for every day. I thought it turned out cute. Thanks Cricut!

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo145/estherme12/CIMG3211.jpg

http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo145/estherme12/CIMG3210.jpg

[stitcharoo]

good thread! :surfweb:
i can't believe you're leaving in three days!
wow!
i bet you are so excited!
:love:
we're leaving in less than a month and we just started our PTR! =]

[estherhead]

good thread! :surfweb:
i can't believe you're leaving in three days!
wow!
i bet you are so excited!
:love:
we're leaving in less than a month and we just started our PTR! =]

I know, I started my PTR a little early. But I was so super excited, ya know? And now it is FINALLY here. Finally. Hopefully my TR will help entertain you while you wait for your trip to be here. I know I've been scouring the TR's this past 2 weeks. Right now I'm looking at the food porn thread #3 while looking at Allearsnet.com menus. :rotfl:

Have you started packing yet? Ooops, don't answer that, I'll go find out on your PTR!

[missstcroix]

I have to hear the trip report!!! HAVE A GREAT TIME! Loved reading this!

[estherhead]

I have to hear the trip report!!! HAVE A GREAT TIME! Loved reading this!

Welcome!!! And thanks. You just never know if people will really care about your story, ya know? At least on the Dis you know there are a few people who share your Disney obsession. :cutie:

We're 26.5 hours away from leaving. But who's counting?

[estherhead]

It's 4:40 a.m. & I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd come say hi. :wave2:

The weather is so nice we went to Blizzard Beach yesterday after the MK got crazy. Today we go to AK & then if the rain holds off we'll go to B.B. again tomorrow. I've already teared up twice from happiness. Once ar rope drop when we got our pixie dust & again on Splash Mt. Ahhh, Disney.

We've already had a little bit of excitement around these parts but you'll have to stay tuned for all the details....