Hi all!!! We're back from 9 days in florida and tired but had such an awesome time. If you happen to have read my PTR, then you know that I just finished treatment in February for breast cancer. We started planning this trip in Dec of 2008.
So now, on with the TR. Cast: me, Chris, a newly minted BC survivor, age 40, from the midwest. DH-Brian, 39, most wonderful of wonderful husbands. Hannah, age 10- not too sure if she can still be a kid at Disney- we'll find out! Donovan, age 7- ready for fun!
I was nervous about Hannah's reaction to the flight. I even got her some anxiety meds because I was afraid she'd melt down at the airport. However, those fears came to nothing because my girl did just fine! Nervous, but she did great.
We left for our trip on Friday, April 23rd. The kids were not too happy that I made them go to school that morning, but I had things to do!!!
DH works nights so he only got about 3 hours of sleep before it was time to pack up the car and pick up the kids and drive an hour to the airport. At noon, I picked up the kids and we headed for CiCi's for some pizza. However, when we got there, we found that the restaurant wasn't there anymore.
On to plan B- there was a Jimmy John's right across the parking lot, so we headed right over there.
I was just too nervous and excited to eat, so was Brian. So we packed up Donovan's food and headed to the airport! Brian must have been excited because he drove and I had planned for him to sleep while I drove, but nope, he was ready to roll!
We got to the airport- on the way I gave the kids a stern warning about not screwing around in the airport or saying anything they shouldn't say
. We made it thru security with minimal effort. The kids did think it was weird that we had to take off our shoes but it all was fine. Then we sat down to wait.
You'll notice the jackets. It was about 60° and rainy at home. Not so at the Orlando airport. Oh, and the green thing on my right arm is my compression sleeve/glove. It's for fluid build up due to having had lymph nodes removed.
Brian refused to get excited about the trip until his booty was in the airplane seat for fear the trip would be ripped out of our hands again at the last minute. Finally his booty was in the airplane seat- here is his excited face:
Here is Donovan's:
Even though Hannah was a bit nervous, she did great! As soon as the plane lifted off, she was so happy. Boy was it ever a small plane though! It was an Express Jet from Continental and it had one seat on one side of the plane and two on the other side. One flight attendant.
We made it to Houston and decided to hit McD's for a snack. There was a long line, so we tried to eat quickly. We started for our terminal, not really realizing exactly how far away it was.
We got our first monorail ride of the trip! The kids were loving it. There were people literally running, so I started to get really nervous and we started moving really fast. I was shocked to see that the clock said 7pm! Our flight left at 7:10!!! Whew! We made it with 10 minutes to spare!!!!
Our flight landed at Orlando at 10:25 and we immediately realized that they have never heard of air conditioning at that airport. Yuck. It was sticky and yucky. I got worried about how things were going to go for the week. Now we had to find the hertz rental car place. One of the employees told us you had to go outside and take a bus to get to the rental place. Nope. It was inside the airport, just down from where we were. Luckily we found it despite the bad info. When we got to the counter I reminded the man that we had paid for a FULL-SIZED car. Can you hear the organ music? Dun, dun, DUN! We ended up with a Honda Civic. As far as I know, they are considered compact cars???? But no one seemed to have the time to help us so we sucked it up, JAMMED our luggage into the trunk, and headed to the La Quinta for the night. Thank Goodness for GPS and the little ladies that live in them and help you find your hotel when you are tired and crabby and going in the wrong direction!!!
So now, on with the TR. Cast: me, Chris, a newly minted BC survivor, age 40, from the midwest. DH-Brian, 39, most wonderful of wonderful husbands. Hannah, age 10- not too sure if she can still be a kid at Disney- we'll find out! Donovan, age 7- ready for fun!
I was nervous about Hannah's reaction to the flight. I even got her some anxiety meds because I was afraid she'd melt down at the airport. However, those fears came to nothing because my girl did just fine! Nervous, but she did great.
We left for our trip on Friday, April 23rd. The kids were not too happy that I made them go to school that morning, but I had things to do!!!
DH works nights so he only got about 3 hours of sleep before it was time to pack up the car and pick up the kids and drive an hour to the airport. At noon, I picked up the kids and we headed for CiCi's for some pizza. However, when we got there, we found that the restaurant wasn't there anymore.
On to plan B- there was a Jimmy John's right across the parking lot, so we headed right over there.
I was just too nervous and excited to eat, so was Brian. So we packed up Donovan's food and headed to the airport! Brian must have been excited because he drove and I had planned for him to sleep while I drove, but nope, he was ready to roll!
We got to the airport- on the way I gave the kids a stern warning about not screwing around in the airport or saying anything they shouldn't say
. We made it thru security with minimal effort. The kids did think it was weird that we had to take off our shoes but it all was fine. Then we sat down to wait.
You'll notice the jackets. It was about 60° and rainy at home. Not so at the Orlando airport. Oh, and the green thing on my right arm is my compression sleeve/glove. It's for fluid build up due to having had lymph nodes removed.
Brian refused to get excited about the trip until his booty was in the airplane seat for fear the trip would be ripped out of our hands again at the last minute. Finally his booty was in the airplane seat- here is his excited face:
Here is Donovan's:
Even though Hannah was a bit nervous, she did great! As soon as the plane lifted off, she was so happy. Boy was it ever a small plane though! It was an Express Jet from Continental and it had one seat on one side of the plane and two on the other side. One flight attendant.
We made it to Houston and decided to hit McD's for a snack. There was a long line, so we tried to eat quickly. We started for our terminal, not really realizing exactly how far away it was.
We got our first monorail ride of the trip! The kids were loving it. There were people literally running, so I started to get really nervous and we started moving really fast. I was shocked to see that the clock said 7pm! Our flight left at 7:10!!! Whew! We made it with 10 minutes to spare!!!!Our flight landed at Orlando at 10:25 and we immediately realized that they have never heard of air conditioning at that airport. Yuck. It was sticky and yucky. I got worried about how things were going to go for the week. Now we had to find the hertz rental car place. One of the employees told us you had to go outside and take a bus to get to the rental place. Nope. It was inside the airport, just down from where we were. Luckily we found it despite the bad info. When we got to the counter I reminded the man that we had paid for a FULL-SIZED car. Can you hear the organ music? Dun, dun, DUN! We ended up with a Honda Civic. As far as I know, they are considered compact cars???? But no one seemed to have the time to help us so we sucked it up, JAMMED our luggage into the trunk, and headed to the La Quinta for the night. Thank Goodness for GPS and the little ladies that live in them and help you find your hotel when you are tired and crabby and going in the wrong direction!!!
No, I did NOT do it. So when she saw the signs for Ron Jon's she was begging us to go there. We kept saying "we aren't going to CoCo beach, we're going to Vero Beach." Finally, I said to Brian "it's only 12 miles off of the road and we aren't in a hurry, so why not?" So we took the exit to head to Ron Jon's, and got off of the "Toll every few minutes" road. This did not make the GPS lady too happy. She kept screeching at us to turn around!! Finally, we were forced to shut her up by hitting the off button. There were so many colorful and interesting shops along the way. It seemed like a lot longer than 12 miles when we finally saw this:
But we were heading to another Happy Place!!!! We had a 1:30 ADR for CRT! Here is what the backdrop at the check in/out desk looked like:
