Island Hopping: A WDW PTR for Sept. 2012-- Link to TR! 10/10

Ok. You sound exactly like me right now! I cross something off a list and then add 4 more things. Even though it makes me nuts to be so crazy, I love the last few weeks leading up to a trip. I haven't had much to do trip-wise over the summer because it all comes down to about the last month.

Now, onto the topic of Facebook....I'm incredibley hard to find on there! If you'd like to be my FB friend, send me a PM so we can find each other! :thumbsup2
 
So much to comment on!

First of all, I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of Kona! We're giving it a shot this year as well. Hopefully it'll be as awesome as everyone says!

The Hidden Mickey book idea is brilliant! I'm sure she'll appreciate all the time and effort that went into it.

I'm so jealous your trip is so close! Ours seems so very far away. I'll just have to live vicariously through your trip report!
 
don't have time to reply to everything, BUT, YAY KONA! You'll thank yourself! The macadamia pancakes are what my dreams are made of!
 
I have never been to Kona but I have heard wonderful things about it! I can't wait to read your review of it.

And that is great Brynn is finally reading!

I hope you can finish up everything you need to do in the next couple weeks. I can't believe you are leaving so soon!
 


Just when you think I've got things settled, I go and change things up again! Really, I'm starting to feel like Sara (Stingbean&Wingnut), but slightly less cool:thumbsup2!

LOL aww I am not cool at all!!!! (Wingnut would probably attest to that in a nanosecond!) :rotfl:

Julia is too cute, not wanting to miss her instructional learning!!! 11 isn't TOO big of a difference, but it sounds like it will make all the difference in her being nervous over missing school!

Oh how we LOVE Kona!!! There are too many delicious things to choose from there!! Such as:

Tonga Toast!



The Samoan!



Macadamia Nut Pineapple Pancakes!



Honestly, we have never had a bad breakfast there! Whatever you choose will be awesome!!

Yay for Brynn reading!!!! That's so exciting!!! :cheer2:
 
I love that Julia doesn't want to miss her instructional learning time. Sounds like leaving at 11 is a good compromise.

The books for the girls sound awesome! I bet they'll love them!

Sounds like the next 2 weeks will fly by! You'll get it all done.
 
FIRST OF ALL! I just wanted to say that over the last week or so I read your last TR and I loved it and your family is fantastic. So, there ya go.

Omg... Julia is too precious. "Instructional learning time"... ?!?! That's amazing. She's awesome.

I love your Hidden Mickey/ride check off book idea! That's such a cute idea and I bet they'll both really love that! (And P.S. I'm not on facebook. :laughing:)

Congrats to Brynn and her reading skills. :cool2: That's wonderful. AND... good luck getting everything done!
 


Just when you think I've got things settled, I go and change things up again! Really, I'm starting to feel like Sara (Stingbean&Wingnut), but slightly less cool:thumbsup2!

First change: Julia does NOT want to skip a day of school. She started acting all nervous when we would talk to her about leaving right when we wake up in the morning, and we finally pulled it out of her that she really doesn't want to miss, and I quote, "instructional learning time:teacher:." I paused a moment to question whether or not she really is my child, and then I told her that we most definitely do not have to leave that early. She can go to school until 11, be counted present, get her instructional learning time:rolleyes:, and feel better about leaving.
Honestly, this kind of stinks. Brandon's not too happy about not getting an early start because he thinks the mornings in a van pass by quicker than the afternoons (and I have to agree that they seem to). Plus, we'll be getting there three hours later with some cranky kids in tow. HOWEVER, I would never want any negative feelings at the beginning of a trip, and I refuse to make my child anxious, so 11am it is.
Because of this, I think I'm scrapping my grocery store trip that I had planned for that evening and instead finding more room to pack as much food and water as possible in our van. It'll be a heavier load going down, but I'm just fine with stopping in the food court for some milk and being done with it. SEE? SEE HOW I'M GOING WITH THE FLOW???:p

Second change: I started thinking last night about the Thursday of our trip when we'll be checking into the Poly first thing in the morning. It'll be an Epcot day, and we will have most likely covered a good bit of Epcot on Sunday. You know how we LOVE:love: all things Hawaiian...and we won't be rushed that morning since we knew we'd have to change hotels and all...and we HAVE to eat breakfast anyway...

SO I BOOKED US A KONA BREAKFAST for 8:50:dancer:!! This will be a new place for us, and we are both SOOOOOOOO excited! The kids eat breakfast well, and this will probably fill us up enough so we can just snack around the world all day. The only problem is that we can't decide what to have!! Any input?? The Samoan looks great, but Tonga Toast is famous! Brandon will almost definitely go with the Big Kahuna, and (duh) we'll get a press pot of kona coffee, but you have to HELP ME DECIDE! Because, as we know, food is extremely important and can set the tone for the day. If you've been there, chime in with your menu choices, please!

So, what have I accomplished since the last post? Almost nothing, honestly. We've been terribly busy, and I don't see it stopping before the trip. I have a pile of things in my room that need to be packed, but there's no organization yet. In fact, I haven't even made Brandon drag out the huge black suitcase yet, which is unheard of with only 2.5 weeks to go :-)eek: just caught my breath there when I typed that!!); I usually have started packing a month out!
I did start printing things out, so that's something, right?? I printed all our touring plans, which seem to get less and less defined since I'm in the "go with the flow" mindset due to necessity. I printed the confirmation from Kingdom Strollers and double-checked our confirmation via email. I ordered and received a new Disney Visa Rewards card, but I've yet to call and confirm that I got it, and I also added some more points since then that I need to add to it. I called the Poly and added a request for top floor with a balcony, but no specific longhouse--I'll let the tiki gods decide that for me!

Have I spent more money? YOU BET:lmao:! I bought a new car seat for Brynn because she was about half a pound away from the forty pound limit for the five-point harness, which I insist my kids have as long as possible. I'm kind of a car seat freak--Julia and Brynn are still in a five point harness, and Sawyer's still rear-facing and will be until he hits that limit (did you know that kids are 500% safer when they're rear-facing??). I got Brynn the same seat that Julia has, which is a Graco Nautilus. It allows you to be in the harness until 65 pounds. There are some that let you go higher than that, but not in my price range! After that, it turns into a plain booster. Brynn's old car seat will go to Brandon's car as an emergency booster.

Yeah, that wasn't off-topic or anything...anyway, my kid's safer for the trip:thumbsup2!

Back to money I've spent...I got some gently used Princess dresses for the girls, and an Alice dress to replace the one Julia outgrew. Brandon got a new lens hood and some sort of lens cleaner...not my area, but I know it cost money. I've also been working on picking up more odds and ends. I had to buy more iron-on transfers; Brandon wants to make us Island Hoppers shirts as a nod to both Magnum, P.I. and this trip, and now I'm going to have to do that because it sounds too awesome NOT to do! We also ended up having to buy a new printer because ours decided not to work at all ever again period.

Brandon's been busy downloading movies for the trip down, and he needs to transfer them to the ipod, which we'll hook into the car DVD player.

If you're not my Facebook friend (and again I say "why the heck NOT?!") then you don't know this already, but I have embarked on creating a Hidden Mickey book for Julia, complete with handy boxes she can check-off as she sees them. I've only listed ones I know we'll be around and am leaving out the ones that would really frustrate her. I honestly didn't know how many hours I'd put into this, and so far it's a TON:crazy2:, but it will be worth it. In the same vein, I'm going to make a book for Brynn with pictures of the rides we'll be visiting so she can have a book to check-off, too!

Speaking of Brynn and reading, SHE'S READING! I put the video up on my FB (ahem!) but can't get it to work on here yet, so sorry! People really underestimate kids on the Autism Spectrum! Yes, she has Asperger's, but she's one of the smartest 4 year olds I know!

Okay, back to what I need to do...this list keeps getting longer, as do the gray hairs I'm getting over trying to get things done! I need to:

finish making t-shirts
finish the books for both girls
find van activities
gather up and activate all gift cards
get change for pressed pennies and toll booths
print out character times and schedules of shows
fix mousekeeping envelopes
get the groceries we'll be taking with us
pack (yeah, no biggie, right?)
go to the dollar store for more cheap ponchos and random odds and ends
wax eyebrows
get a pedicure to celebrate getting it done...if that actually happens

Brandon's rented a new lens and has to pick it up on September 12, so you should be getting some really great photos in the TR!! (You'd BETTER see some great photos for the cost of renting the dang thing!) Also on that day is when Brynn has her special needs pre-school evaluation. We're really hoping the school systems offers to give her occupational/physical therapy so we won't have to pay someone privately. Fingers crossed!

WHEW! That was a lot of rambling! So, to recap...2.5 weeks, barely anything done, freaking out, and need Kona recommendations...got that!?

Wow, you have a lot to do, but as the reigning queen of procrastination, I have NO room to talk...none, zip, nada!

Since you ahve to cut out your grocery run....When we drove down we brought frozen milk from home (to avoid a stop), put it in the cooler frozen (cooler is on wheels which makes it much easier to drag into the hotel and we found that by replaceing ice each day it kept things colder than the room fridges!) along with drinks/snacks and anything else that needed to be cold and it served to decrease the number of stops (as we had drinks and snacks in the car) and it REALLY kept things cold, like REALLY cold!!!

As a mom who has been there with the district...fight, fight fight! Has she had her IEP eval? If it reccomends that she should have ST or OT or PT the school has to provide it!

As far as FB.....find me and I will friend you!!!! hehehehehehehehehehehehe!
 
Aw, how sweet that Julia doesn't want to miss school! You all must have a great school system for a child to actually prefer going rather than leaving earlier for a Disney trip! Impressive.:thumbsup2

Oh sister, I hear ya on the booster seat issue.:goodvibes Preach it girl! If I had it my way, I'd have my 12 year old still somehow restrained.:rotfl: Cars are so dangerous! I don't even like her riding in the front seat but my DH thinks I'm paranoid.

I have to say I'm quite impressed with your go with the flow attitude.:thumbsup2 That's hard for me, to relinquish control on a Disney vacay. I'm just being honest here!:rolleyes: I'm much better than I used to be. Before I was like some tour guide commando all hopped up on about 2,000 cups of coffee. Now I've toned it down considerably and my family loves me again.

Kona! This is one of my favorite breakfasts! I usually get either the Big Kahuna (don't judge me, I don't eat all of it!) or the macadamia pineapple pancakes. Both are scrumptious, like you want to lick your plate kind of scrumptious. My DH swears by the Somoan, he loves anything resembling pork pulled hash. Or is it pulled pork hash? Maybe it's just called pork hash. Whatever.

What is it about planning for a Disney trip that forces (enables;)) us to spend more money? For our next trip, I'm already eye balling a new camera, just for the trip.

Congratulations to Brynn on her reading! Such a big accomplishment.:thumbsup2 I think you're right about Asperger's too! My very dear friend's son has Asperger's and he's one smart cookie!

I'm sure you'll get to that packing soon too. I always feel like the 2 weeks leading up a Disney trip are soooo hectic yet strangely exciting and fun at the same time.:goodvibes
 
You have to love a kid who wants to learn! Totally worth leaving later! Sounds like your preparations are going well...I love checking things off my (completely ridiculous if you ask my BF) list!

As for Kona, it's my absolute favorite place in all of WDW to have breakfast! Tonga Toast is very good, but heavy and SO MUCH FOOD. It's not my first choice. The omelettes are very good, too, but my gotta have it, can't get enough, give me MORE are the Macadamia nut pancakes. Light, fluffy, deliciousness on a plate! I get the pineapple chutney stuff (or whatever it's called) on the side and sometimes don't eat it at all.

Wow, I really waxed rhapsodic up there. Yep, Kona is THAT good!
YUM! I'm drooling here! I'm so excited :).
She totally wants to learn every second of every day, which is awesome.

I feel like there are 9 bajillion things I could comment on, but the first thing I must say is... WE NEED TO BE FACEBOOK FRIENDS! I'm not even sure how this hasn't happened yet, but I sent you a PM because um, dur, no brainer!

Also, that's so impressive that Brynn is already reading! I want to see video, so basically another reason we should already be FB friends!

I am going to be keeping an eye on people's responses about Kona. We are eating there for the first time during our trip for breakfast, and I'm soooo excited! I've been pretty convinced I'm going for the Tonga toast, but there are SO many options I just don't know!

We need a new printer, too! Ours kind of broke.. well, it prints SOME stuff but really, we just need a new one! Another thing to add to my list of crap we need.

I AM SO JEALOUS, 2.5 weeks. That is so so close! :yay:
I AM SO HAPPY that we're FB friends now! I don't know why we didn't think of that earlier:confused3?!
Yeah, our printer was sketchy, but I needed it for this trip! So we ended up getting just a $29 Canon printer/scanner/copier combo thing, and it works great. Printers have really gone down in price...maybe not the ink, but definitely the printers. I could live with that price!

Ok. You sound exactly like me right now! I cross something off a list and then add 4 more things. Even though it makes me nuts to be so crazy, I love the last few weeks leading up to a trip. I haven't had much to do trip-wise over the summer because it all comes down to about the last month.

Now, onto the topic of Facebook....I'm incredibley hard to find on there! If you'd like to be my FB friend, send me a PM so we can find each other! :thumbsup2
Yes, that's me exactly! One step forward, two steps back:headache:. I'll pm you my name...I *think* I'm pretty easy to find.

So much to comment on!

First of all, I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of Kona! We're giving it a shot this year as well. Hopefully it'll be as awesome as everyone says!

The Hidden Mickey book idea is brilliant! I'm sure she'll appreciate all the time and effort that went into it.

I'm so jealous your trip is so close! Ours seems so very far away. I'll just have to live vicariously through your trip report!
Hey, kid. Why aren't YOU my FB friend? Your wife is cool enough to be!:thumbsup2
I hope she thinks that book is spectacular. I am not sure, however, that she'll realize about six hours have gone into it thus-far!
I'm going to do an in-depth review of Kona when I get back--NEVER FEAR!

don't have time to reply to everything, BUT, YAY KONA! You'll thank yourself! The macadamia pancakes are what my dreams are made of!
Second vote for those...they must be good!

I have never been to Kona but I have heard wonderful things about it! I can't wait to read your review of it.

And that is great Brynn is finally reading!

I hope you can finish up everything you need to do in the next couple weeks. I can't believe you are leaving so soon!
I'm so proud of Miss Brynn! She pretty much knows at least through all the first grade standards, and she's not even in pre-school yet!
I know, I can't believe it's so soon, either! (Now give me a freak-out moment!)

LOL aww I am not cool at all!!!! (Wingnut would probably attest to that in a nanosecond!) :rotfl:

Julia is too cute, not wanting to miss her instructional learning!!! 11 isn't TOO big of a difference, but it sounds like it will make all the difference in her being nervous over missing school!

Oh how we LOVE Kona!!! There are too many delicious things to choose from there!! Such as:

Tonga Toast!



The Samoan!



Macadamia Nut Pineapple Pancakes!



Honestly, we have never had a bad breakfast there! Whatever you choose will be awesome!!

Yay for Brynn reading!!!! That's so exciting!!! :cheer2:
Well, if you're not cool, imagine how incredibly UNcool I must be!:rotfl2:
Yeah, it's breakfast time, and you just showed me those pictures. Not fair! I keep leaning towards the Samoan and thinking I'll grab the Tonga Toast another day from Captain Cook's. Did you eat the Samoan? For some reason I'm thinking it was Wingnut? Either way, if you say it's good, I'll believe you! It looks delicious and different...though the green on top may have to scootch over. Can't have anything remotely looking healthy on that plate::yes::!

 
I love that Julia doesn't want to miss her instructional learning time. Sounds like leaving at 11 is a good compromise.

The books for the girls sound awesome! I bet they'll love them!

Sounds like the next 2 weeks will fly by! You'll get it all done.
A few hours difference isn't huge, but I can't stand thinking she's nervous at the start of such a great vacation!
It is already flying by, and it's a little scary/exciting!

FIRST OF ALL! I just wanted to say that over the last week or so I read your last TR and I loved it and your family is fantastic. So, there ya go.

Omg... Julia is too precious. "Instructional learning time"... ?!?! That's amazing. She's awesome.

I love your Hidden Mickey/ride check off book idea! That's such a cute idea and I bet they'll both really love that! (And P.S. I'm not on facebook. :laughing:)

Congrats to Brynn and her reading skills. :cool2: That's wonderful. AND... good luck getting everything done!
Awww, thanks!:goodvibes I'm glad you enjoyed it and are still joining in here after reading all that chaos:lmao:!
Both my girls are amazing to me. I hope they have the best trip ever!

Wow, you have a lot to do, but as the reigning queen of procrastination, I have NO room to talk...none, zip, nada!

Since you ahve to cut out your grocery run....When we drove down we brought frozen milk from home (to avoid a stop), put it in the cooler frozen (cooler is on wheels which makes it much easier to drag into the hotel and we found that by replaceing ice each day it kept things colder than the room fridges!) along with drinks/snacks and anything else that needed to be cold and it served to decrease the number of stops (as we had drinks and snacks in the car) and it REALLY kept things cold, like REALLY cold!!!

As a mom who has been there with the district...fight, fight fight! Has she had her IEP eval? If it reccomends that she should have ST or OT or PT the school has to provide it!

As far as FB.....find me and I will friend you!!!! hehehehehehehehehehehehe!
That is a really great idea! So simple! I really have no idea why that thought didn't cross my mind. Stress, I guess. We'll blame stress.
She's having an arena evaluation on Sept. 12, and from there we'll move on to the IEP. I sent them fifty pages of documentation the other day, and every single specialist noted she'll at least need OT indefinitely, if not PT and ST. We'll see!
I'm horrible at finding people on FB, so I'll just give up now:lmao:!

Aw, how sweet that Julia doesn't want to miss school! You all must have a great school system for a child to actually prefer going rather than leaving earlier for a Disney trip! Impressive.:thumbsup2

Oh sister, I hear ya on the booster seat issue.:goodvibes Preach it girl! If I had it my way, I'd have my 12 year old still somehow restrained.:rotfl: Cars are so dangerous! I don't even like her riding in the front seat but my DH thinks I'm paranoid.

I have to say I'm quite impressed with your go with the flow attitude.:thumbsup2 That's hard for me, to relinquish control on a Disney vacay. I'm just being honest here!:rolleyes: I'm much better than I used to be. Before I was like some tour guide commando all hopped up on about 2,000 cups of coffee. Now I've toned it down considerably and my family loves me again.

Kona! This is one of my favorite breakfasts! I usually get either the Big Kahuna (don't judge me, I don't eat all of it!) or the macadamia pineapple pancakes. Both are scrumptious, like you want to lick your plate kind of scrumptious. My DH swears by the Somoan, he loves anything resembling pork pulled hash. Or is it pulled pork hash? Maybe it's just called pork hash. Whatever.

What is it about planning for a Disney trip that forces (enables;)) us to spend more money? For our next trip, I'm already eye balling a new camera, just for the trip.

Congratulations to Brynn on her reading! Such a big accomplishment.:thumbsup2 I think you're right about Asperger's too! My very dear friend's son has Asperger's and he's one smart cookie!

I'm sure you'll get to that packing soon too. I always feel like the 2 weeks leading up a Disney trip are soooo hectic yet strangely exciting and fun at the same time.:goodvibes
We do have a good school system, but I'm not sure learning is really why she wants to stay...she's a perfectionist, and so far she has perfect attendance. She doesn't ever want to break that, no matter how many times I tell her it has to end someday! See, case in point, she decided that her time to get sick last year was on our vacation:rotfl2:!
See, I'm glad someone else is as much of a car seat fanatic as me! It's important stuff! Cars are just huge, dangerous death-traps to me (cheery, right;)), and I want to keep my kids as protected as possible for as long as possible.
I'm leaning towards the Samoan myself. I'm not sure what kind of pork it has, but I know it has hollandaise sauce and that's enough for me:thumbsup2!
In a way I am happy these two weeks will fly by, but I'm also terrified that I'll forget to do something or run out of time. I obviously love to worry!
 

Hey, kid. Why aren't YOU my FB friend? Your wife is cool enough to be!:thumbsup2
I hope she thinks that book is spectacular. I am not sure, however, that she'll realize about six hours have gone into it thus-far!
I'm going to do an in-depth review of Kona when I get back--NEVER FEAR!

Added! Now I'm a cool kid too!

Looking forward to the review!
 
10 DAYS, GUYS!!! And you know what that means, right??

Online Check-In!

I know I said I wouldn't do online check-in, but I went online just to look at it and was surprised that it was allowing an "island" request! Well, what could it hurt if I just went ahead and requested Martinique and a Pack-N-Play while I was at it.
The fact that it was not showing I had requested a Pack-n-Play already should have been my first clue. It did show I had requested ground floor, so I thought maybe I didn't actually request a PNP in the first place. I clicked that box and the box for Martinique, checked over all the info, submitted it...

And it told me that I had completed online check-in (yay!) BUT none of my requests went through (BOO!) and to call 407-W-DISNEY:badpc:.

PEOPLE. If I had wanted to make a phone call to check on the requests, I would have done it already! But now I was all worried that we'll arrive at night and not have somewhere for Sawyer to sleep, so I made the call.

I am not hard to please. I like to hear a little music and be able to tell the CM on the phone with me is smiling. That is all I ask. Well, Dawn Marie was most definitely NOT smiling:rolleyes2. I was only half-way through my cup of coffee, so I can understand being tired, but I had already dealt with three, count 'em, THREE toddler meltdowns this morning and was in a much better mood than she was!

Basically, she snapped at me that ground floor was already requested (duh, it showed up online), pack-n-play was not so she would oh-so-graciously do that for me (any bets on whether there will actually be one in our room when we arrive??), and that my island requests were there, and how dare I bother her this morning?!? Okay, she didn't really say that last part, but it was totally implied.

Long story short, not bothering with the online check-in again. Obviously I swore it off a couple of years ago for a good reason. And also, Dawn Marie needs some sunshine to brighten that day...but it wasn't coming from me.

Aside from that, where are we with only TEN DAYS until we arrive?

Serious packing has begun. The big black suitcase is permanently at the foot of my bed. I decided this year that instead of packing the kids' clothes all in individual ziplocs that I would get the really big ones and pack all of our clothes for each day all together. ACCOMPLISHED:banana:! I think this is going to work out great--I mean, we won't even have to take out some of the bags because we're switching resorts on Thursday, so no unnecessary clothes will be floating around the hotel room! Hopefully it works as well as I imagine in my "Jennifer is so brilliant"-thinking brain.

I haven't packed PJs, undies, other clothing needs yet, but I'll get to that. I've got to slowly work on the rest of the packing the next few days because OHMYGOSH are we busy until we leave! Ballet/tap, a make-up ballet/tap day for the one we'll miss on vacation, curriculum night at school, Brynn's special needs pre-k evaluation (please-oh-please pay for her occupational therapy!), a doctor's appointment for me (Did I mention that I have raging fibromyalgia myself? I think I forgot to mention that what with all of Brynn's medical stuff. Still on the hunt for some relief that doesn't make me feel weird, which might not happen.), Grandparents' Day...and then the fun stuff like haircuts, pedicure, eyebrow waxing...okay, that might not be so fun:crazy2:.

Our van got all the recalls fixed, along with something or other on the engine that was making it shake. It took two weekends to do it, but all I can say is HOORAY for extended warranty! Instead of $2000, we paid $100, and it drives smoother than it has since we got it (used)! Now, if we can do something about the gas prices, we'll be all set in the automotive department.

Speaking of the van trip, Brandon put nearly 30 digital copies of Disney movies on our old work-horse iPod. We'll plug it into our van's DVD player for the ride down--hopefully that'll bust some boredom!

And speaking of movies, we're trying to watch one Disney or Disney/Pixar movie per day in anticipation! So far, we've seen UP (for the first time!), Wall-E (none of us paid any attention...perhaps it deserves a second chance?), Mary Poppins, the planning DVD, Disneyland Fun Sing-a-Long Songs, Toy Story 2, and we went to see Brave in the theater on Sunday (WONDERFUL!). Oh, and LOTS of Baby Einsteins:rolleyes2.

I finished both of the girls' books--Julia's Hidden Mickeys book, and Brynn's Rides book--and had them bound at the UPS Store across from our house. They better love the heck out of them, because between the two of them I probably spent a full 24 hours researching, typing, and looking for pictures.

So, what am I worried about for this trip?

Two words: TERRIBLE TWOS:furious: (<---that's my kid.)
Julia came out of the womb babbling Shakespeare, and she never had a terrible twos stage. She just eloquently told us what her concerns were and asked us to fix them politely (or close enough). Brynn definitely had meltdowns, but hers were mostly of the emotional-crying-covering her ears kind, and I suspect most of them were related more to sensory issues than about not getting what she wants. If I took away the loud noises/bright lights/yucky texture, she was immediately fine.

Sawyer.
Oh, man.
He is like the tales of two-year-olds that I never thought actually existed.
People have not, in fact, been lying about terrible twos all these years, and obviously my family is not immune to them.
It's not a communication issue with him--he has no issue telling us what's wrong. It's just that when things don't go his way (mainly not letting him move chairs to the sink to play in the water--chairs are now in garage this morning), he does a full-out meltdown: arms flailing, crying, kicking, yelling to get his point across, and nothing can calm him down. He's also in the stage that all my kids HAVE gone through, which is stiffening his entire body when he doesn't want to be put into a car seat, high chair, or stroller...
SEE HOW THAT COULD BE A PROBLEM AT DISNEY!?!?

Other worries, like how frizzy my hair will be and whether or not to bother getting Brynn a GAC, just pale in comparison.

Pray for me, y'all, cause I'm surely gonna need it!

One more important accomplishment before I forget: we totally made Island Hoppers shirts for Brandon and me:cool1:. All our other shirts have been made, too, but that one is definitely my favorite!

Not many more days to update, but I'll try to get some pictures as the packing progress...well...progresses.


 
Sorry you had a not so great experience with online check-in again. Over on the Sept thread I've read that no ones requests have been going through and it says to call. I plan on faxing in my requests (which are already on my reservation) the Friday before we leave. Then, I'll do online check-in the day before we leave. Hopefully that will take care of everything! Fingers crossed!!!

You sure do have a lot going on...and so do I! I can't pack until the day before we leave. It would seriously stress me out to see half packed suitcases everyday. I just need to do it all at once! We won't be wearing our vacation shirts between now and then (they're special and have never been worn), but I still don't like packing in phases. I don't know why it freaks me out. I'm crazy I guess!:crazy2:
 
10 days! I'm so jealous!

I completely agree with you on the pre-check in thing. Last year, when we didn't do it, we got an awesome room with no hassle. The year before, it was much more of a pain. Definitely going to hold off on doing the pre-check in from here on out.

Yay for packing! I have to admit, I'm secretly a huge fan of packing. It just gets me so excited for the trip, and getting everything ready to go makes everything seem so real.

Tomorrow, your countdown will be in the single digits! So exciting!
 
Dancegrl624 said:
Sorry you had a not so great experience with online check-in again. Over on the Sept thread I've read that no ones requests have been going through and it says to call. I plan on faxing in my requests (which are already on my reservation) the Friday before we leave. Then, I'll do online check-in the day before we leave. Hopefully that will take care of everything! Fingers crossed!!!

You sure do have a lot going on...and so do I! I can't pack until the day before we leave. It would seriously stress me out to see half packed suitcases everyday. I just need to do it all at once! We won't be wearing our vacation shirts between now and then (they're special and have never been worn), but I still don't like packing in phases. I don't know why it freaks me out. I'm crazy I guess!:crazy2:

I guess I should have been paying better attention to the boards! I had no idea!
My stress comes from thinking it will take too much time to pack everything, so I make sure to start early. Of course, I hate the feeling of my bedroom being in limbo while the process happens!
 
GrimGrinningStitch said:
10 days! I'm so jealous!

I completely agree with you on the pre-check in thing. Last year, when we didn't do it, we got an awesome room with no hassle. The year before, it was much more of a pain. Definitely going to hold off on doing the pre-check in from here on out.

Yay for packing! I have to admit, I'm secretly a huge fan of packing. It just gets me so excited for the trip, and getting everything ready to go makes everything seem so real.

Tomorrow, your countdown will be in the single digits! So exciting!

I will most definitely not do online check in for the Polynesian portion of the trip.
I love packing, too...no shame!
Can you believe that I didn't think of the single digits thing?! Shows how stressed I must be!
 
OMG. TEN days?!?! This means that you're practically in single digits which means you're basically only a week off which means you're leaving like RIGHT NOW.

I'm so excited for yall!

Okay, does Dawn Marie not realize that she basically has the best job ever? She gets to talk to people about Disney all day. There is literally no reason to be grumpy. And btw, when I did online checkin it told me my requests didn't go through either! Basically the entire process in pointless, apparently. (I didn't ever call either, and look what that got me!!! :cool1:)
 
I'm so excited for you that the trip is so close! The only good thing about being so busy is that the time will fly by until it's time to leave!

I can't wait for the TR!
 
YAY for 10 days!! I am too nervous to do online check in. Sorry for the bad experience. Have fun packing. So exciting!!
 

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