MiaBella05
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2006
joining in 
Surprised the kids, wife, and my readers w/ a 2 week trip to AoA!(*NEW* 11-7)
- Thread starter FauntleroyFAN07
- Start date
joining in 
FauntleroyFAN07
Commander of Donalds Crew Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2007
yep you really have to take it all in each day at a time.Thank you! I know the girl's teenage years seem to be going very fast. The younger years leading up to "all day school" seemed to take forever! I'm glad that you all are getting out there and doing so much together
A ladies man learning from the master, aye?
of course, how do you think i married UP.
there were a few gems that we enjoyed this trip that we have never eaten at before and really liked.
will of course share them later.
not a problem, thats what we are all here for to give advice and tips from our our travels to help you have more fun on the next trip than you previously have.Thank you very much for the helpful info you've given on my PTR, it makes all the difference hearing good info from the veterans here
i love working the system to our favor.Back to your PTR -
Nice job working Southwest's credid card/points system, very cool. We did something similar back in 2008 for our WDW trip by signing up for the United Airlines CC.
Sounds like the fam did a whole bunch of stuff over that six month span, nice shot from the zip line that you did not take. Awww, I miss being able to throw the girls in the pool like that. Of course when Parker is a teen he may want to throw you!
LOL, nice song by Parker in the car! Nice job ducking the bullet with Candi on that text snafu. And lucky break that you got home before her on the day the ME tags came in!
Can't wait to hear about the surprise and I agree with Parker, those sugar cookies stink.
it is a catchy song, i find myself humming it all the time.
we were in the MK that day, but you will have to find out what happened to make us leave early.
Hey Dan,
I'm all caught up! Looking forward to seeing how the surprise goes. It's fun to read about someone else's surprise for a change and not have to worry about keeping the secret!
thanks, have to see if i can get the video to show, it is about 6 minutes long, but need to try and cut it down and show the highlight.
glad you are joining in and reading with us.
FauntleroyFAN07
Commander of Donalds Crew Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2007
First off, was this trip perfect, not by a long shot, did we do everything we wanted, NOPE, did we make mistakes as parents absolutely...Did we have a great time and live to tell about it, you betcha...will we be going back and do it all again...absolutely.
And here is the start of everything that happened on this family adventure.
Chapter 3. Surprise the kids and wife
You now know the meat of the back story, so its time for the morning of.
I wish i could say it started out like any other morning but it didnt, because this was WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY MORNING!!!!
A few weeks prior I did have trouble sleeping because I was to excited to sleep and for the surprises, but this night i slept great.
Candi and I woke up at 5:45, we woke Noelle about 6:30 and she was dressed and roaring to go...
We woke up parker shortly after and got him dressed in his room, then told him we had a surprise for him.
We presented him with a treasure map (it consisted of a large picture that i took while standing on the kitchen counter and taking an overhead shot of our living room...i then proceded to imput treasure locations on the map where he would find his clues.
The treasure hunt was on. (i have all of this in a video, but it is over 6 minutes long, and cant figure out how to cut out sections of it, so you get the photo journey of this part.)
Noelle even helped out by finding a few with him.
Pretty soon the letters were all gathered out in a row and spelled out a word.
DISNEY
when candi asked him where the clues said we had to go next, he said I dont know.
So she had him grab a marker form his craft drawer, and she wrote DISNEY out really big on the back of his treasure map.
He still said he didnt know what it said, but we could tell he did.
Candi then told him, the map says we need to go to DISNEY.
at this point I would like to say there was lots of jumping around and screaming and joy, but nope, sort of anticlimatic.
We think he didnt believe us, like couldnt figure it out and was just totally shocked, because he then started to act really goofy.
He started out by looking at his map really close to his face, and pointing things out.
Slowly it started to become a reality to him, and it sank in...like i think they are telling the truth.
We told him how we were going...and he then started talking really fast going, airport, airplane, bus, disney world, and laughing.
So was it the jump up and down hang from the chandeliers that we thought we might witness...No but was he trilled and after it actually sank in, asking a million questions about it, and could not stop smiling yes.
NOW was the time to spring the surprise on the wife......
I had the magical express tags in my pocket so i started the tape rolling.
the audio is not that great since she is far away, but you should be able to still hear it and see her excitement...i love it when a little bit in, she starts to wiggle her feet with excitment she is so excited, and if you cant hear her, that is because she is also holding back tears.
that was just the reaction i was expecting from candi when i told her about it.
holding back those tears.
parker and her all excited, we had shown him pictures of the new hotel just because a few months earlier, and candi kept looking at the pictures of AoA just because she loved it so much. so he knew about the hotel existing.
So did candis surprise go off as i expected...YEP.
She smiled, cried, and was very excited.
We then ate a quick breakfast of a coffee crumb cake we got the night before at the grocery store, polished off the rest of the OJ (maybe mixed up as a mimosa) and my grandma was there to take us on the next leg of our journey.
There is a "greyhound" type bus that takes us from cities around our region to the airports...they have a good price for the service they offer and kids ride free. So that is what we did, we left our house at 7:50 with plenty of time to catch the 8:50 bus. we arrived well in advance at 8:20 and just sat in the car with my grandma and chatted till we saw the bus pull up.
Parker loved the bus ride, but wanted to know why we could just use our car and go to disney now....when we explained it would take two days to get there and this was alot faster he kind of understood.
candi and noelle are ready to get the trip started.
loving hugs and kisses are shared.
and then noelle does what she does best try and man handle and take parker down, by grabbing his head and pulling it through the seat to her seat...she was actually hurting him, she can be a bully if she wants to.
It made two other stops along the way and we arrived at the airport at 10:30 plenty of time till our 12:40 flight.
Waiting on the curb for the driver to unload all of our stuff was where i faced my challenge of super DAD.
Candi was pushing the stroller with noelle in it. and carrying her carry on bag. and rolling her carry on luggage
Parker was rolling his carry on bag...what did that leave me with.
parker bookbag with plane stuff in it, my bag with cameras and electronics in it.
and 4 rolling suitcases.
so i threw the two medium sized luggage on top of the two large ones, and put the bookbag on my back with the electronic bag over the shoulder and weaved my way past people and into the lines...there were even 2 guys who complimented me on being able to maneuver all that luggage how i did.
luckily our bag check was right there.
we then head to security where we are redirected to enter the wheelchair line off to the side (meaning bypass about 20 people deep security lines and head to the front of out line off to the side.)
we are through within minutes and heading to our gate.
we grab lunch at mcdonalds and wait for our plane while taking spins on the people mover to keep the kids entertained and baby tossing in the waiting area.
pretty soon we are boarding and ready to take off.
parker wanted me by the window so we switched, i think he was nervouse for the take off.
up in the air, noelle plays with her new toy from grandma and grandpa.
parker colors in his new activity book.
snacks and drinks are served.
noelle got antsy, so her and candi played zoom in on the picture of hte bunny that was by our front door to the house before we left, for about 30 minutes she loved it, and kept her entertained.
pretty soon we were on our decent in florida and saw something on fire as we were getting ready to bank toward Orlando.
until next time, i hope you guys enjoyed.
we are wheels down in FL, and ready to hit the ground running.
and we explore the resort.
And here is the start of everything that happened on this family adventure.
Chapter 3. Surprise the kids and wife
You now know the meat of the back story, so its time for the morning of.
I wish i could say it started out like any other morning but it didnt, because this was WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY MORNING!!!!
A few weeks prior I did have trouble sleeping because I was to excited to sleep and for the surprises, but this night i slept great.
Candi and I woke up at 5:45, we woke Noelle about 6:30 and she was dressed and roaring to go...
We woke up parker shortly after and got him dressed in his room, then told him we had a surprise for him.
We presented him with a treasure map (it consisted of a large picture that i took while standing on the kitchen counter and taking an overhead shot of our living room...i then proceded to imput treasure locations on the map where he would find his clues.
The treasure hunt was on. (i have all of this in a video, but it is over 6 minutes long, and cant figure out how to cut out sections of it, so you get the photo journey of this part.)
Noelle even helped out by finding a few with him.
Pretty soon the letters were all gathered out in a row and spelled out a word.
DISNEY
when candi asked him where the clues said we had to go next, he said I dont know.
So she had him grab a marker form his craft drawer, and she wrote DISNEY out really big on the back of his treasure map.
He still said he didnt know what it said, but we could tell he did.
Candi then told him, the map says we need to go to DISNEY.
at this point I would like to say there was lots of jumping around and screaming and joy, but nope, sort of anticlimatic.
We think he didnt believe us, like couldnt figure it out and was just totally shocked, because he then started to act really goofy.
He started out by looking at his map really close to his face, and pointing things out.
Slowly it started to become a reality to him, and it sank in...like i think they are telling the truth.
We told him how we were going...and he then started talking really fast going, airport, airplane, bus, disney world, and laughing.
So was it the jump up and down hang from the chandeliers that we thought we might witness...No but was he trilled and after it actually sank in, asking a million questions about it, and could not stop smiling yes.
NOW was the time to spring the surprise on the wife......
I had the magical express tags in my pocket so i started the tape rolling.
the audio is not that great since she is far away, but you should be able to still hear it and see her excitement...i love it when a little bit in, she starts to wiggle her feet with excitment she is so excited, and if you cant hear her, that is because she is also holding back tears.
that was just the reaction i was expecting from candi when i told her about it.
holding back those tears.
parker and her all excited, we had shown him pictures of the new hotel just because a few months earlier, and candi kept looking at the pictures of AoA just because she loved it so much. so he knew about the hotel existing.
So did candis surprise go off as i expected...YEP.
She smiled, cried, and was very excited.
We then ate a quick breakfast of a coffee crumb cake we got the night before at the grocery store, polished off the rest of the OJ (maybe mixed up as a mimosa) and my grandma was there to take us on the next leg of our journey.
There is a "greyhound" type bus that takes us from cities around our region to the airports...they have a good price for the service they offer and kids ride free. So that is what we did, we left our house at 7:50 with plenty of time to catch the 8:50 bus. we arrived well in advance at 8:20 and just sat in the car with my grandma and chatted till we saw the bus pull up.
Parker loved the bus ride, but wanted to know why we could just use our car and go to disney now....when we explained it would take two days to get there and this was alot faster he kind of understood.
candi and noelle are ready to get the trip started.
loving hugs and kisses are shared.
and then noelle does what she does best try and man handle and take parker down, by grabbing his head and pulling it through the seat to her seat...she was actually hurting him, she can be a bully if she wants to.
It made two other stops along the way and we arrived at the airport at 10:30 plenty of time till our 12:40 flight.
Waiting on the curb for the driver to unload all of our stuff was where i faced my challenge of super DAD.
Candi was pushing the stroller with noelle in it. and carrying her carry on bag. and rolling her carry on luggage
Parker was rolling his carry on bag...what did that leave me with.
parker bookbag with plane stuff in it, my bag with cameras and electronics in it.
and 4 rolling suitcases.
so i threw the two medium sized luggage on top of the two large ones, and put the bookbag on my back with the electronic bag over the shoulder and weaved my way past people and into the lines...there were even 2 guys who complimented me on being able to maneuver all that luggage how i did.
luckily our bag check was right there.
we then head to security where we are redirected to enter the wheelchair line off to the side (meaning bypass about 20 people deep security lines and head to the front of out line off to the side.)
we are through within minutes and heading to our gate.
we grab lunch at mcdonalds and wait for our plane while taking spins on the people mover to keep the kids entertained and baby tossing in the waiting area.
pretty soon we are boarding and ready to take off.
parker wanted me by the window so we switched, i think he was nervouse for the take off.
up in the air, noelle plays with her new toy from grandma and grandpa.
parker colors in his new activity book.
snacks and drinks are served.
noelle got antsy, so her and candi played zoom in on the picture of hte bunny that was by our front door to the house before we left, for about 30 minutes she loved it, and kept her entertained.
pretty soon we were on our decent in florida and saw something on fire as we were getting ready to bank toward Orlando.
until next time, i hope you guys enjoyed.
we are wheels down in FL, and ready to hit the ground running.
and we explore the resort.
KatMark
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2007
I remember your Hawaii trip and juggling all that luggage and it was just the three of you and no Noelle. You did awesome yet again with the juggling act.
Sometimes the surprise is anticlimatic after all the planning, but Parker sure looks excited on the bus before you hit the airport. And Candi looks surprised too.
Can't wait for the next update.
Sometimes the surprise is anticlimatic after all the planning, but Parker sure looks excited on the bus before you hit the airport. And Candi looks surprised too.
Can't wait for the next update.
lovegrumpy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2007
Can't wait for more.
punkin413
feel the magic, dang it!
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2007
Yay!!!! So glad your surprises went off well.
My friend Anna (same Anna I referred to before) had the same anticlimatic response from her little guy when they surprised him with a Disney trip once. I think he was not quite 4 at the time. They waited until the night before they were leaving and told him they had a surprise for him. Then they sat him down in front of the computer and played videos of pirate stuff at Disney (they were going to the Pirate & Princess Party). They were like, "Do you know what that is???" He rolled his eyes and said, "Disney World." Then they told him they were going the next day. And he got really quiet and then said, "That's not a surprise!" I think in his head he was thinking a material thing. But of course once it was real and they got there, he was thrilled. You never know what to expect with kids!
My friend Anna (same Anna I referred to before) had the same anticlimatic response from her little guy when they surprised him with a Disney trip once. I think he was not quite 4 at the time. They waited until the night before they were leaving and told him they had a surprise for him. Then they sat him down in front of the computer and played videos of pirate stuff at Disney (they were going to the Pirate & Princess Party). They were like, "Do you know what that is???" He rolled his eyes and said, "Disney World." Then they told him they were going the next day. And he got really quiet and then said, "That's not a surprise!" I think in his head he was thinking a material thing. But of course once it was real and they got there, he was thrilled. You never know what to expect with kids!
alwayspooh
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2005
What an exciting day! The surprises went off without a glitch, plane ride seemed pretty smooth which is good for you and Candi. I can't wait to hear all about the hotel and to see the pictures.
pixidustmom
Dreaming of the World
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2008
You have a very cute family. I am looking forward to following along.
MAGICFOR2
Condimentessa
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2005
Fun surprises! I think maybe Parker was afraid to believe it was really Disney, in case he was wrong and would be disappointed. What a cute guy he is!
I love Candi's toe wiggling! How fun you got to surprise her with such a special stay! Everyone looks appropriately excited during the transportation part. Looking forward to more!
I love Candi's toe wiggling!
How fun you got to surprise her with such a special stay! Everyone looks appropriately excited during the transportation part. Looking forward to more!
2xcited2sleep
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2008
Joining in for the fun! You did a great job keeping everything a surprise for so long!! Looking forward to hearing about AoA!
IheartDDuck
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2009
Man, with all that tension building with the surprises for the trip, I'm surprised you got a good nights sleep! I would have been tossing and turning myself.
Crafty Parker acting like he didn't know what it said. LOL.
Nice that the surprise for Candi went exactly as you had anticipated. That must have felt awesome.
Nice Super DAD being able to maneuver so much luggage! Very nicely done.
Crafty Parker acting like he didn't know what it said. LOL.
Nice that the surprise for Candi went exactly as you had anticipated. That must have felt awesome.
Nice Super DAD being able to maneuver so much luggage! Very nicely done.
WDWaddictt
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2012
Subbing in... We are surprising the kids this year with a trip, so I am excited to hear how your trip went...
FauntleroyFAN07
Commander of Donalds Crew Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2007
its the super parent power that we all posses that comes out when needed.
he really did, didnt have the suprise reaction that we were expecting but still was beyond thrilled with everything when ithappened.
she does that alot, she can handle herself thats for sure.
i even had a medium luggage inside one of the big ones to have more room for the way home for souveniours
it wasnt the reaction that we were expecting, but sometimes they just handle it differently.
it was, but like you said his excitment level for everything as we were experiencing it was very high.Sorry surprise was anti climatic, but kids are so hit and miss
Glad he was excited once he believe you guys and glad Candi was so excited
can't wait to hear all about the resort
thanks, resort arrivals and pics are coming up next.
glad to have you reading along.yeah they think a suprise has to be a physical item, and not a desitination or maybe an activity.
thanks, the plane ride was one of the biggest stresses as you never know how the little ones will take, luckily parker is older and good to go, noelle we thought would sleep since it was nap time was wide awake and still did great being bottled up and not allowed to run around and no crying which we were thrilled for.What an exciting day! The surprises went off without a glitch, plane ride seemed pretty smooth which is good for you and Candi. I can't wait to hear all about the hotel and to see the pictures.
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