Our First Trip as Parents! December 2012 TR - 8/6 OMG a TR link!

Whoa! How on earth did I miss all these updates?!? I'm all caught up now though! :thumbsup2 Also, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

First of all, I cannot believe Calvin is 3 months already! He really is so cute. I enjoyed the three side-by-side pictures of him at 1-3 months. By the way, did I mention he is really stinkin' cute?

Great updates! Your turkey sandwich from WPE had me drooling a little. Your photopass pictures all came out great. I like the picture your mom got of Donald & Goofy looking into the stroller.

Keep the updates rolling! :goodvibes
 
Thanks Karin!
Just briefly checked out your website and it's super impressive! Whenever we make it to DLP one day, i'm going to have to use you as our TA for tips! :thumbsup2

Thanks for checking it out! Whenever you are ready to go to DLRP let me know ;) and you'll have your private guide. :lmao:
 
The 1, 2, 3 month photos of Calvin are simply adorable :goodvibes
Are you going to do one every month until he is one?
Such a cute idea :lovestruc
 
I am loving the updates. Happy 3 months!! It def. goes by so fast. He is too cute.
 


Aww, great 3 month pic! I always love to see each month's progression, because when you compare pics like that, it's unbelievable how much little ones grow in just 4 weeks! :goodvibes
 
Oh my goodness, Calvin just keeps getting cuter and cuter! Great idea with the monthly pictures.

The safari can be quite bumpy. Very cool it was only a five minute wait.
 


Aw man, so no future trips planned?! Hey I never asked, how was NYE in your town?! I bet it was nuts!

NYE is always complete chaos here. They close the strip down between 4 and 6 so that all the thousands of people can stand out there. It makes it really rough for people who work in the casinos because the back roads behind the casinos get flooded with all the other traffic that would normally be on the strip. One year, I worked a photo event at the Bellagio, and although we left around 1 am, we didn't get home until after 3am, and it would normally only be a 30 minute ride. This year we just stayed in and went to be around 10. Kinda lame, but we've done the strip thing before and the parties, and my husbands job as an accountant prevents him from taking the new years day off, or even coming in late. What did you guys do?
 
I love your your idea of taking photographs of Calvin every month, it does go really fast and it's nice to see how much he has grown. My son will be 7 this year and I do it know where the time has gone!


I'm glad you're 100% recovered and are enjoyed being a mom :)

Do you meet up with other moms in your area?

No I don't! I never really even thought about meeting up with other moms. There is another girl that i'm now friends with (used to be more acquaintances but has gone a bit further now) who got pregnant at the exact time as DH and I. Her name is Alicia too and she lives a few blocks away from me. Anyway, we would FB each other every few weeks, asking each other if we were experiencing any of the same symptoms, etc, all throughout the 9 months. We even went into the hospital on the same day to be induced and her room was right next to mine! Her daughter was born a few hours before my son. So we have this cool bond going on and we text each other every other week asking about each others kids, etc. We're going to start walking together once the weather starts to get a little warmer here, but that's really the only interaction I have with another mom. All my close friends are single with no children, and any other friends have children that are way older than Calvin.

Just caught up after the bectic time of CHristmas and New Years. Happy New Years. The picture on your moms face on the two ride pictures, to funny.Nice first day. Did I see someone awake for the last picture? He has grown in the last month.

:rotfl2: Yes he finally woke up! He's grown a tremendous amount in the last month, it's crazy!

Whoa! How on earth did I miss all these updates?!? I'm all caught up now though! :thumbsup2 Also, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

First of all, I cannot believe Calvin is 3 months already! He really is so cute. I enjoyed the three side-by-side pictures of him at 1-3 months. By the way, did I mention he is really stinkin' cute?

Great updates! Your turkey sandwich from WPE had me drooling a little. Your photopass pictures all came out great. I like the picture your mom got of Donald & Goofy looking into the stroller.

Keep the updates rolling! :goodvibes

Happy New Year to you too!

I thought it would be cool to see how much he's grown so I did the side-by-side pic and he looks so much bigger now! It's so crazy!

Thanks for checking it out! Whenever you are ready to go to DLRP let me know ;) and you'll have your private guide. :lmao:

I'll definitely be letting you know. We're still debating if we want to take DS when we take our first trip to Europe, because we'll be doing a lot of traveling and going from town to town seeing things. So if we do decide to take him, it will be when he's older, like 7 maybe? But if he's not coming, we'll go sooner than that.

The 1, 2, 3 month photos of Calvin are simply adorable :goodvibes
Are you going to do one every month until he is one?
Such a cute idea :lovestruc

Hi Linda! Yes! I'm doing it all the way until he's one. I saw it on Pinterest (love that website!) when I was pregnant and just knew I had to do it. I think it's a great way to document how he looks each month..

I am loving the updates. Happy 3 months!! It def. goes by so fast. He is too cute.

Thanks Gina!

Aww, great 3 month pic! I always love to see each month's progression, because when you compare pics like that, it's unbelievable how much little ones grow in just 4 weeks! :goodvibes

It is absolutely insane how much a baby grows within 4 weeks! It's so cool!

Yes! Hopefully soon! And thanks for the info. You explained it well! :)

Love the monthly pictures! He is so cute!

No problem for the info!

Oh my goodness, Calvin just keeps getting cuter and cuter! Great idea with the monthly pictures.

The safari can be quite bumpy. Very cool it was only a five minute wait.

You're telling me! The plan we've always done for KS is to hit there first thing in the morning because of its popularity, so I was pretty sure that we would have to wait a while for it. But was taken by surprise that the wait was only 5 minutes! :banana:

NYE is always complete chaos here. They close the strip down between 4 and 6 so that all the thousands of people can stand out there. It makes it really rough for people who work in the casinos because the back roads behind the casinos get flooded with all the other traffic that would normally be on the strip. One year, I worked a photo event at the Bellagio, and although we left around 1 am, we didn't get home until after 3am, and it would normally only be a 30 minute ride. This year we just stayed in and went to be around 10. Kinda lame, but we've done the strip thing before and the parties, and my husbands job as an accountant prevents him from taking the new years day off, or even coming in late. What did you guys do?

Oh wow! Guess I'll never visit Vegas on NYE, ever! I didn't even think about them closing the strip down. Ugh, I would feel so bad for all the workers. I read about you guys staying in because of your husbands end of the year, end of the quarter stuff that he has to do.

We ended up just staying at home, watched Dark Knight Rises, drank some wine and had our 4-way New Years kiss (we can't leave out Percy the pug! :rotfl2:). Very relaxing and wouldn't have had it any other way.

It's so crazy how things change as you get older. 10 years ago, we were out partying and drinking it up and now I couldn't even imagine it! :rotfl2:
 
***Before moving on, I wanted to add a little video tour of the 1 BR that DH took. I had completely forgot about our video camera so it took a while for me to transfer the video, then convert it, then import it to Youtube, otherwise it would have been posted a long time ago but here is that video:

http://youtu.be/sbkshl4_X6M

And now onto your regularly scheduled program!***

The bus came right away when we got back to the bus stop and in no time, we were back at Kidani Village.

The text I received said our room was 7556 so we made our way towards our room. Goo! Was it a loooong walk! But we did end up making it!

DSC00824_zpsf34462e5.jpg


DSC00826_zps5f9de06d.jpg


DSC00827_zpsc300ec71.jpg


DSC00828_zps03581573.jpg


DSC00829_zps24bf508a.jpg


DSC00830_zps63c0ff96.jpg


DSC00831_zpsf6c0425c.jpg


DSC00832_zps58e35e84.jpg


DSC00833_zps5af6045b.jpg


DSC00834_zps9e1a6081.jpg



Definitely not a 1 bedroom that we had before but the view was great! (Video and room tour video on next update!)

DSC00835_zps9cc57aee.jpg


DSC00836_zpsa12aa76e.jpg


DSC00837_zps2f6169ef.jpg


As soon as we got in the room, DH called Bell Services to have our luggage delivered and was told it would be 30 minutes. So we hung out and decided to watch tv then realized there was no remote anywhere :confused3 so we called housekeeping to request one. Then there was no pack n’play so we had to call again. But this time I called and the woman on the other end said, “Were you the room that just called about the remote?” I told her yes and she apologized for the inconvenience, but she was glad that I called again, because after we called the second time, she noticed that we were from Tulare (didn’t know all our information showed up for housekeeping!:confused3) and wanted to say that she was from Delano – where DH works about 30 minutes from us! We talked about what a coincidence it was and I asked her how she liked working for Disney and she said that she’s always loved Disney. In fact, she met Walt Disney at Disneyland’s opening day because her mom worked for Disney as a seamstress or something. Very cool! :thumbsup2

As soon as I got off the phone, there was a knock at our door and our luggage had already arrived! It took about 15 minutes so that was really nice. And soon after, the remote and pack n’play came too.

The plan was to unpack since that was our home for the next 3 nights, then head over to DHS to catch a showing of Fantasmic and to have a DIS meet! :dance3::woohoo:

 
Your studio (+ view) looks really nice! :goodvibes

Sorry about the remote and pack and play. Remotes seem to be an issue - not the first time we had to call for one either.

And before I forget - I loved the 1 bedroom video! :thumbsup2
 
Lesha, congrats on your beautiful little man! We just had our first baby, too, a boy, born 10/23...I can't imagine bringing him to WDW right now, I'm so impressed you made it there so soon! (I'm also totally impressed by how great you look...I'm still lugging around 20 extra pounds, myself.)

I'm hoping our DS's 1st trip will be in May, so I'm dying to read more about this crazy WDW-with-a-baby thing!
 
Leshaface said:
No I don't! I never really even thought about meeting up with other moms. There is another girl that i'm now friends with (used to be more acquaintances but has gone a bit further now) who got pregnant at the exact time as DH and I. Her name is Alicia too and she lives a few blocks away from me. Anyway, we would FB each other every few weeks, asking each other if we were experiencing any of the same symptoms, etc, all throughout the 9 months. We even went into the hospital on the same day to be induced and her room was right next to mine! Her daughter was born a few hours before my son. So we have this cool bond going on and we text each other every other week asking about each others kids, etc. We're going to start walking together once the weather starts to get a little warmer here, but that's really the only interaction I have with another mom. All my close friends are single with no children, and any other friends have children that are way older than Calvin.

Hi Alicia, when I had my son most of my friends were single or had older children too. There was one lady who I met at the baby clinic where we got our babies weighed who I got friendly with and we started meeting up twice a week for walks and coffee etc. Her daughter is one week older than my son. She is a really close friend now which is great as our kids started nursery and school together. It's really nice to have a close friend with kids the exact same age to share the experience with :)
 
Btw the studio looks great. It's so funny that the housekeeping lady lived so close to your town
 
I wonder what happened to the remote and pack n' play, how bizarre.

You're making me homesick with all these wonderful pictures. I'm sure it was hard going to a smaller room.

I got a great big smile thinking about our meet. :)
 
Both the studio and 1 bedroom rooms at AKL look so awesome. :goodvibes Thanks for posting the video tour, makes me want to stay at that resort even more now. Might have to show my mother that video later in the day to convince her to pick that resort on our next trip. :rotfl2:
 
Cute picture of Calvin! Sorry for the downgrade in room size, but glad for the upgrade on view! Count me in as another who spent NYE after 8PM at home and in bed before midnight.

I have a question for you. You mentioned that you brought coffee and filters. There has been extensive discussion on the AKL thread regarding pods and stuff. I used to bring Mr. Coffee fikters for the machines. What kind did you. use in the 1 br?
 
I've never stayed at AKL, so I'm enjoying all your room pictures!

No remote?! That is odd. :confused:

How lucky that lady got to meet Walt!
 
Your studio (+ view) looks really nice! :goodvibes

Sorry about the remote and pack and play. Remotes seem to be an issue - not the first time we had to call for one either.

And before I forget - I loved the 1 bedroom video! :thumbsup2

Glad i'm not the only one that hasn't received a remote. Even housekeeping sounded shocked that there was no remote. They even had us check all the drawers and look under the bed, couch and tables just to make doubly sure.:lmao: Then the lady told us she was going to send up two remotes for us! Not sure why as there's only one tv in our room! :rotfl:

Lesha, congrats on your beautiful little man! We just had our first baby, too, a boy, born 10/23...I can't imagine bringing him to WDW right now, I'm so impressed you made it there so soon! (I'm also totally impressed by how great you look...I'm still lugging around 20 extra pounds, myself.)

I'm hoping our DS's 1st trip will be in May, so I'm dying to read more about this crazy WDW-with-a-baby thing!

Congratulations to you too! :goodvibes

I was determined to get to WDW soon, especially since we had just become DVC members and from all the stories I had been reading about taking babies to the World at this age, I knew we had to take him before he turned one.

As for the weight - I had only gained a total of 9-10 pounds because I was super sick in the beginning. Then I started walking 3-4 miles every day around 32 weeks because there was no dilation and dr told me to start walking to maybe help it progress. THEN the last 2 months, I was so uncomfortable that I couldn't eat much. 1 cup of food was really all I could hold in my stomach, and even that made me uncomfortably full so I would walk it off :rotfl2:

Yay! Glad you guys will be going in May with your son! He'll be more active than my son was!:cool1:

Leshaface said:
Hi Alicia, when I had my son most of my friends were single or had older children too. There was one lady who I met at the baby clinic where we got our babies weighed who I got friendly with and we started meeting up twice a week for walks and coffee etc. Her daughter is one week older than my son. She is a really close friend now which is great as our kids started nursery and school together. It's really nice to have a close friend with kids the exact same age to share the experience with :)

Btw the studio looks great. It's so funny that the housekeeping lady lived so close to your town

Oh wow! That's really neat that you guys are still friends and that your kids are now going to school together. I think it will be fun to have play dates with Alicia and her daughter soon. I'm pretty sure that our kids will be going to the same school too (since we both live in the same district) so they may as well start getting to know each other now!

I know! It was so neat being able to talk to someone that knows where our crappy little town is :lmao:

I wonder what happened to the remote and pack n' play, how bizarre.

You're making me homesick with all these wonderful pictures. I'm sure it was hard going to a smaller room.

I got a great big smile thinking about our meet. :)

It was really hard going to a smaller room. But it was nice to be able to experience both types of rooms on the same trip.

I loved being able to meet you! :cool1: And your mom too of course :goodvibes

Both the studio and 1 bedroom rooms at AKL look so awesome. :goodvibes Thanks for posting the video tour, makes me want to stay at that resort even more now. Might have to show my mother that video later in the day to convince her to pick that resort on our next trip. :rotfl2:

AKL is amazing! You must show her how wonderful and gorgeous it is :thumbsup2

Cute picture of Calvin! Sorry for the downgrade in room size, but glad for the upgrade on view! Count me in as another who spent NYE after 8PM at home and in bed before midnight.

I have a question for you. You mentioned that you brought coffee and filters. There has been extensive discussion on the AKL thread regarding pods and stuff. I used to bring Mr. Coffee fikters for the machines. What kind did you. use in the 1 br?

I brought the target brand (market pantry) 8-12 cup coffee filters and they fit perfect! Not the cone filters. You made me remember - when we switched over to BWV, my mom forgot to pack the filters so we had no filters for BWV. She ended up doing the Mexican filters (paper towels :lmao:) and that actually worked great too!

I've never stayed at AKL, so I'm enjoying all your room pictures!

No remote?! That is odd. :confused:

How lucky that lady got to meet Walt!

It was neat being able to talk to someone that has met Walt!
 
We had some time to kill before going over to DHS, so DH started taking video of the animals that we could see from our balcony.

http://youtu.be/1UoPDmVzWGY

Then he was supposed to take a video tour of our studio, but got distracted halfway ;)

http://youtu.be/Ptg-ma856CY

Our original plan was to catch the 6:30pm showing of Fantastmic, grab some food at Starring Rolls, then head over to Osborne lights. I had also been texting Pam (Pinkocto here on the Dis) about meeting up at DHS.

Well we made it to the bus stop at 5:15, thinking that would be enough time. :lmao: Yeah right! We saw the bus for DHS leaving as we were walking to the stop. The bus didn't come for another 20 minutes! Okay, I thought. We can make it if the bus hurries. But when we stopped at Jambo house, every one was trying to get on, which meant people were standing. And usually when people are standing, the bus goes a little slower :headache: We didn't get to DHS until 6:20! I know this because I took this blurry picture of the tree as we were walking quickly

DSC00838_zpsca16b84e.jpg


Bag check was LONG. After we checked our bags I had made the suggestion of doing our plan in reverse: seeing Osborne lights, eating, then doing F! and everyone was fine with that.

So we leisurely made our way over to Streets of America. There was one section that was blocked off. Does anyone know why? There were people in there but we weren't allowed in there from either side.

DSC00839_zpsf7d503db.jpg


DSC00840_zps33b4ce1b.jpg


Saw this cool nativity scene

DSC00841_zps152e05e7.jpg


Then came to the beginning of the street!

DSC00843_zps452f6293.jpg


DSC00844_zpsd615393d.jpg


DSC00845_zpsc2bbe7ce.jpg


DSC00846_zps4ef85f96.jpg


DSC00847_zpsa7bfeb56.jpg


We stopped to take pictures

DSC00849_zps3633b38f.jpg


DSC00850_zpsa2b6ef37.jpg


DSC00852_zps36f586b0.jpg


Just to let everyone know, it's nearly impossible to maneuver down the main street because everyone is stopped taking video and pictures, especially when there is a show going on.

Some video:

(video)


17CD4911-1616-49B7-AD27-F264BD072669-186-0000000BD0139C9A.jpg


2D2CC959-276C-4C96-A602-EBAB0C5B2625-186-0000000BD81AE43B.jpg


I was trying to hurry up and catch the end of the song, but it took forever to get my video camera up on my phone. I completely forgot that I got my DH being a Scrooge McCrow :-)lmao:) on camera!

(video)


He always comments on why people clap for firework shows or shows that don't have live people acting. :confused3 ....:rotfl2:

DSC00853_zpsb1c95d14.jpg


DSC00854_zps23c9716f.jpg


745A7BC1-480D-483B-8C1E-7ECAB7355DBC-186-0000000BDD3A690F.jpg


They have Christmas music playing the entire time down there, and there is even snow it one section! It was gorgeous! If you're ever at WDW during Christmas, I highly recommend doing this. It's so amazing to see how much work the CM's went through to do all this.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top