DH - You are NOT allowed to read this at all!! No Peeking!
I mean it! No peeking at all!
Alright. Now that we've gotten rid of him, we can get on with the details!
Let me first introduce the travelers for those of you who haven't been lucky enough to tag along on any of my other PTRs or TRs.
DH - Dan - During this trip we are celebrating Dan's 32nd birthday. He works at the fire department in our town and this will be his second birthday since we've moved away from all of our family and friends back in MI.
DS4 - Corbin - We're also celebrating Corbin's birthday this trip. He shares a birthday with his Daddy and thinks it's cool that Daddy's "numbers" make his number.
DS2 - Carter - Carter is my VERY laid back (most of the time!) child. Pretty much everything is "otay" with him which is great!! He loves all things Disney and has the same excitement each visit as he had his first time (if not moreso!).
Me - Lynn - I'm the "planner" and love that job! I try hard to make sure every minute at Disney is the happiest and most productive (maybe that's not the right word) possible so we're not "wasting" time. I work at the fire department as well.
DF (Dear Friend) - Sandy (aka Uncle Sandy)- Sandy works with my DH Dan at the fire department. Sandy and his wife have been wonderful to us since we've moved here and couldn't be more happy to have them as friends.
DF - Angie (AKA Auntie Ang - Auntie Ang is Uncle Sandy's husband. They share our love for Disney which is great. This will be our first trip all together. We tried to plan one together last year but plans changed for the newest member of their family.
Samantha Joyce (AKA Sami Jo) - This will be Sami Jo's first trip to Disney. Ang and Sandy adopted her from a dear friend of mine back in MI at the end of Febraury. She will be five months old on her first trip and we're so excited to be a part of that!!!
So...now you know who's coming on the trip. I guess I should tell you when we're going. We're going July 14-19,2009. I've already talked to Dan's boss about the time off. Why did I talk to Dan's boss??? Because NO ONE but Ang and Sandy know about this trip besides me!!!! It's a SURPRISE!!!! I can count on you to keep the secret right??
Right???
Ok good! That's what I thought!
So my "plan" at this time is to have help from our wonderful nanny (who's taking time off to get married the week after our trip!) to get everything packed during the day without Dan knowing a lick of ANYTHING going on!! I think I can get this done! I plan on coming home on my lunch hours the couple of weeks before to try and get things done without him knowing about anything going on.
Then, the day of the 14th, I'll take my lunch and come home to pack our van. I'm going to cover everything with a blanket in the back of the van and tell him it's part of his birthday present. Hopefully this will keep him guessing and throughly confused on our drive. We're about four and a half hours from Disney so it isn't too bad of a drive for us.
He'll be home a little after 5 and I'll have "plans" for us to go to dinner in Savannah or Jacksonville for the night (Sav is about half an hour away and Jax is about 2 hours - both are in our direction of Disney which is perfect!). This way he won't worry about where we're going or hopefully figure anything out too quickly.
Knowing my children, we'll have to stop someplace for dinner and to go to the bathroom along the way. I'm going to make a little certificate to give him when we actually stop for dinner (probably drive through to save time) showing that he has three days off!! I think that's when he'll put everything together about where we're actually headed!!!
Thanks to Tracy, we're renting a three bedroom condo for us to all stay in. I'm thinking we're going to go check in and get into our room. Then there will be a knock on the door from our visitors. Not only will we be AT Disney on their actual birthday (7/15), we'll be with Auntie Ang and Uncle Sandy AND Sami Jo!! Does it get any better than that?????
Now, I plan on doing most of the work while Dan's out of town at the NASCAR race over Memorial Day weekend in Charlotte, NC with Sandy. I'm hoping to pull lots of snacks and stuff like that out and get them packed into totes. I know I can't do too much since we'll still have about six weeks before our trip. Uncle Sandy might have to take Dan golfing or something before we leave so I can try to get packing done.
I think I'll be able to pull this all off. We have a free dining trip planned for Sept (PTR coming soon for that one!) so he won't think it's weird that I'm picking things up along the way for Disney. I'm most worried about getting him in the car and on the road without him figuring it out! The drive is going to feel like 20 hours!! The boys are pretty easy going and won't realize, until we're like into FL, where we're headed. I expect a full out freak out session once they realize where we're going for their birthday!!
I also have to have Corbin's "friend party" the weekend before we leave so that he doesn't miss out. He's decided on a sports theme this year and I already bought all the treat bag stuff at Walmart on clearance after Easter. The only other things I need are the paper products, juice and cake and we'll be good to go with that! We've talked about having the party here at the house so that's the perfect excuse to have the house all sparkly clean before we leave (a vacation "tradition" in our house!).
We've never been in July before but do live in the South so we're getting used to the hot and humid weather. This trip I'm trying to take it a little more slowly, spending time at the pool and possibly a water park.
Because I'm just a budget shopper in general, I try to make our Disney trips as reasonable as possible as well! I already mentioned that we're staying in a condo so we'll eat there for some meals. My boys are up generally by 5:30 in the morning so they eat early breakfasts thus making the condo very helpful. We have APs so no tickets needed. Other than the condo and gas to get there, our only other expense will be food while we're there.
Up next, our tentative schedule!!!!
Here's the "Table of Contents" for the lists right now...
Page 7
Post 105 Trip Plan - Current
Page 8
Post 106 To Do List
Post 107 To Buy List
Post 108 Time Line
Page 10
Post 140 Updated Trip Plan
Post 141 Updated "To Do" List by Day!
Post 142 Updated "To Buy" List
Post 143 Updated Time Line
Page 11
Post 160 Surprise revealed!
Page 14
Post 197 Arriving at the Condo
Post 198 Breakfast at Chef Mickey's
Post 199 Birthday Morning at MK
Post 200 Tom Sawyer Island
Post 201 Afternoon at EPCOT
Post 204 Countries at EPCOT
Post 206 Morning at DHS
I mean it! No peeking at all!
Alright. Now that we've gotten rid of him, we can get on with the details!
Let me first introduce the travelers for those of you who haven't been lucky enough to tag along on any of my other PTRs or TRs.
DH - Dan - During this trip we are celebrating Dan's 32nd birthday. He works at the fire department in our town and this will be his second birthday since we've moved away from all of our family and friends back in MI.
DS4 - Corbin - We're also celebrating Corbin's birthday this trip. He shares a birthday with his Daddy and thinks it's cool that Daddy's "numbers" make his number.
DS2 - Carter - Carter is my VERY laid back (most of the time!) child. Pretty much everything is "otay" with him which is great!! He loves all things Disney and has the same excitement each visit as he had his first time (if not moreso!).
Me - Lynn - I'm the "planner" and love that job! I try hard to make sure every minute at Disney is the happiest and most productive (maybe that's not the right word) possible so we're not "wasting" time. I work at the fire department as well.
DF (Dear Friend) - Sandy (aka Uncle Sandy)- Sandy works with my DH Dan at the fire department. Sandy and his wife have been wonderful to us since we've moved here and couldn't be more happy to have them as friends.
DF - Angie (AKA Auntie Ang - Auntie Ang is Uncle Sandy's husband. They share our love for Disney which is great. This will be our first trip all together. We tried to plan one together last year but plans changed for the newest member of their family.
Samantha Joyce (AKA Sami Jo) - This will be Sami Jo's first trip to Disney. Ang and Sandy adopted her from a dear friend of mine back in MI at the end of Febraury. She will be five months old on her first trip and we're so excited to be a part of that!!!
So...now you know who's coming on the trip. I guess I should tell you when we're going. We're going July 14-19,2009. I've already talked to Dan's boss about the time off. Why did I talk to Dan's boss??? Because NO ONE but Ang and Sandy know about this trip besides me!!!! It's a SURPRISE!!!! I can count on you to keep the secret right??
Right???
Ok good! That's what I thought!
So my "plan" at this time is to have help from our wonderful nanny (who's taking time off to get married the week after our trip!) to get everything packed during the day without Dan knowing a lick of ANYTHING going on!! I think I can get this done! I plan on coming home on my lunch hours the couple of weeks before to try and get things done without him knowing about anything going on.
Then, the day of the 14th, I'll take my lunch and come home to pack our van. I'm going to cover everything with a blanket in the back of the van and tell him it's part of his birthday present. Hopefully this will keep him guessing and throughly confused on our drive. We're about four and a half hours from Disney so it isn't too bad of a drive for us.
He'll be home a little after 5 and I'll have "plans" for us to go to dinner in Savannah or Jacksonville for the night (Sav is about half an hour away and Jax is about 2 hours - both are in our direction of Disney which is perfect!). This way he won't worry about where we're going or hopefully figure anything out too quickly.
Knowing my children, we'll have to stop someplace for dinner and to go to the bathroom along the way. I'm going to make a little certificate to give him when we actually stop for dinner (probably drive through to save time) showing that he has three days off!! I think that's when he'll put everything together about where we're actually headed!!!
Thanks to Tracy, we're renting a three bedroom condo for us to all stay in. I'm thinking we're going to go check in and get into our room. Then there will be a knock on the door from our visitors. Not only will we be AT Disney on their actual birthday (7/15), we'll be with Auntie Ang and Uncle Sandy AND Sami Jo!! Does it get any better than that?????
Now, I plan on doing most of the work while Dan's out of town at the NASCAR race over Memorial Day weekend in Charlotte, NC with Sandy. I'm hoping to pull lots of snacks and stuff like that out and get them packed into totes. I know I can't do too much since we'll still have about six weeks before our trip. Uncle Sandy might have to take Dan golfing or something before we leave so I can try to get packing done.
I think I'll be able to pull this all off. We have a free dining trip planned for Sept (PTR coming soon for that one!) so he won't think it's weird that I'm picking things up along the way for Disney. I'm most worried about getting him in the car and on the road without him figuring it out! The drive is going to feel like 20 hours!! The boys are pretty easy going and won't realize, until we're like into FL, where we're headed. I expect a full out freak out session once they realize where we're going for their birthday!!
I also have to have Corbin's "friend party" the weekend before we leave so that he doesn't miss out. He's decided on a sports theme this year and I already bought all the treat bag stuff at Walmart on clearance after Easter. The only other things I need are the paper products, juice and cake and we'll be good to go with that! We've talked about having the party here at the house so that's the perfect excuse to have the house all sparkly clean before we leave (a vacation "tradition" in our house!).
We've never been in July before but do live in the South so we're getting used to the hot and humid weather. This trip I'm trying to take it a little more slowly, spending time at the pool and possibly a water park.
Because I'm just a budget shopper in general, I try to make our Disney trips as reasonable as possible as well! I already mentioned that we're staying in a condo so we'll eat there for some meals. My boys are up generally by 5:30 in the morning so they eat early breakfasts thus making the condo very helpful. We have APs so no tickets needed. Other than the condo and gas to get there, our only other expense will be food while we're there.
Up next, our tentative schedule!!!!
Here's the "Table of Contents" for the lists right now...
Page 7
Post 105 Trip Plan - Current
Page 8
Post 106 To Do List
Post 107 To Buy List
Post 108 Time Line
Page 10
Post 140 Updated Trip Plan
Post 141 Updated "To Do" List by Day!
Post 142 Updated "To Buy" List
Post 143 Updated Time Line
Page 11
Post 160 Surprise revealed!
Page 14
Post 197 Arriving at the Condo
Post 198 Breakfast at Chef Mickey's
Post 199 Birthday Morning at MK
Post 200 Tom Sawyer Island
Post 201 Afternoon at EPCOT
Post 204 Countries at EPCOT
Post 206 Morning at DHS
The plans look great! Spending both of those gift cards will be a blast!
So I have to decide what to put in the basket on a budget. With this being a surprise and all, I have to be careful about how I do this. I've already figured out that I will pay for the condo next month when I pay the bills - I don't think he'll notice if everything comes out around the same time. 
We still had a great time and some day I really want to get to AKL!! I'll have to stop over on your PTR and see what you have up your sleeve! Don't plan too much (coming from the over-planner herself!). It's amazing what the Disney air will do to anyone - Disney lover or not - and create it's own magic! 
) before we leave for the trip how about we stay at AKL?". Of couse he's thinking in Sept and I'm thinking July because that's where my brain is right now. So I told him that was crazy staying in the middle of nowhere in the hottest part of the year. He got a very puzzled look on his face and was like what?? So I told him that maybe it wouldn't be *that* bad in Sept but it would still be pretty hot.....
So I guess that means we need to save for another 
(Can you tell I'm really wanting the Poly but just can't swallow spending that amount of money on a hotel????)
