"Think of the Happiest Things" - How This Trip Was Born

[stagemomx3]

This spot saved for my Disneyland Pre-Trip Report/Trip Report Index
Travel Dates December 2-6 2008

You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!
Music: Sammy Fain
Lyrics: Sammy Cahn

Think of a wonderful thought
Any merry little thought
Think of Christmas, think of snow
Think of sleigh bells off you go!
Like a reindeer in the sky
You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!
Think of the happiest things
It's the same as having wings
Take the path that moonbeams make
If the moon is still awake
You'll see him wink his eye
You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!
Up you go with a heigh and ho
To the stars beyond the blue
There's a Neverland waiting for you
Where all your happy dreams come true
Every dreams that you dream will come true
(Micahel) Come on Nana
When there's a smile in your heart
There's no better time to start
Think of all the joy you'll find
When you leave the world behind
And bid your cares good-bye
You can fly! You can fly!
You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!
[Bells sound]
When there's a smile in your heart
There's no better time to start
Think of all the joy you'll find
When you leave the world behind
And bid your cares good-bye
You can fly! You can fly!
You can fly! You can fly!
You can fly! You can fly!
You can fly! You can fly!

INDEX
Ch. 1 Why Start a Pre-Trip Report Now?
Introductions or The Cast
Ch. 2 How This Trip Was Born

[stagemomx3]

"Think of the happiest things
It's the same as having wings"- Peter Pan

April was a rough month! I felt as though layers upon layers of stress were laid upon my shoulders. Some days it was hard not to burst into tears over the tiniest thing. The first layer- April is State Testing Month, which puts everyone at work on edge. Since Special Ed is one of the sub categories of students at my school that has failed to meet Annual Yearly Progress the last two years, SpEd has been under the gun so to speak to get our kiddos to pass the test. How is it that seemingly intelligent, rational people fail to grasp the irony of this situation? Hello if they could pass the state tests they wouldn't be in SpEd! For those of you who don't work in education I'm sure it's difficult to imagine just how emotionally draining two weeks of high stakes testing is to not only the students, but to the staff as well.

Here are some of the supplies and snacks I purchased for my testing group. The Diet Pepsi is for me of course.



The good part of a 3 hour testing window every day was I had lots of time to work on my March 2008 WDW trip report.

The second layer of stress- my own children and state testing, and looming decisions about schooling next year.



I tend to over think things and get myself worked up needlessly over what might happen, so I spent the month of April driving myself nuts over the boys and school issues. I don't know about others and homeschooling, but I hit these periods of time where I question my decisions and wonder if homeschooling is really the right choice. Sometimes these questioning periods pass quickly sometimes they linger for awhile. This time around was one of the lingering variety.



Third layer of stress- the house we are building.



April 30th was the deadline for our construction loan and it was looming. The problem? Our septic system. Due to our soil being classified incorrectly our permit read "summer install." We were reassured back in November not to worry about this that it didn't really mean that. In hindsight we should have spent the extra money to challenge the soil classification, but we didn't.

Any one of these would be enough to push me to the edge, but all three of them together kept me in a perpetual dither any time my mind had a moment to catch hold of one of them and freak out. What kept me sane was to hold onto my happy thought of our trip to Disneyland in December.

Whenever I found myself drowning in a sea of stress Disney was my life raft. I would climb in and drift away on happily vague planning thoughts. Thus my pre-trip, that I hadn't intended to start for at least another 4 months, was born.

[Danauk]

I can totally relate to that! I teach in the UK and last week was national testing for my age group. I have a lot of special needs kids in my class, yet am still expected to get a high percentage of national average grades. It isn't going to happen! I think I might start on my pre trip report for August!! Lovely house BTW!!
I hope you have fun planning.

[stagemomx3]

Originally Posted by Danauk

I can totally relate to that! I teach in the UK and last week was national testing for my age group. I have a lot of special needs kids in my class, yet am still expected to get a high percentage of national average grades. It isn't going to happen! I think I might start on my pre trip report for August!! Lovely house BTW!!
I hope you have fun planning.

I always have fun planning!

[stagemomx3]

"Oh come now Prince Philip. Why so melancholy? A glorious future lies before you - you, the destined hero, of a charming fairy tale come true. Behold - King Stephan's castle. And in yonder top most tower, dreaming of her true love, the Princess Aurora. But see the gracious whim of fate - why, 'tis the self-same peasant maid, who won the heart of our noble prince but yesterday. She is indeed, most wondrous fair. Gold of sunshine in her hair, lips that shame the red red rose. In ageless sleep, she finds repose. The years roll by, but a a hundred years to a steadfast heart, are but a day. And now, the gates of a dungeon part, and our prince is free to go his way. Off he rides, on his noble steed, a valiant figure, straight and tall! To wake his love with "loves' first kiss"! And prove that "true love" conquers all! AHAHAHAHAHA!" -Sleeping Beauty

One of the things I love most about being the writer of the pre-trip and trip reports is that I control the media. Therefore my family is at my mercy on what pictures and stories I choose to share about them. I try to be fair and include most of the unflattering stories about myself, but I can assure you there will be far more pictures of everyone besides me.

Here we all are on our last Disney Trip at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. If you can't find us amongst all those characters, don't worry about it, there will be plenty of other pictures to see what we look like, to follow.



Cast-

Me: Michelle 37



DH: David 40



DA or Dear Aunt: Aunt Pat 64



DD: Daisy 12 this trip will be to celebrate her 13th birthday November 28th.



DS: Joey 11



DS: Adam 10



That's it, the cast for our December 2008 Disneyland Trip. This will be our third trip to Disneyland and we are excited to go back there after our first trip to Disney World in March.

Here are the kids right before we left for the Disney World Trip

[MomofCKJ]

Signing on Michelle! I have only been to DL once, back when I was 10, and my memories of it are quite sketchy! It will be cool to read about it through your report!

Allyson

[julezdisney]

Hello, Michelle! I'm already planning BEYOND our upcoming trip so I can certainly see why you'd start your PTR now!

And I see you are a DLR vet- please give me dining suggestions in my PTR if you could be so kind. I am having a hard time deciding on Chip & Dale vs. Minnie & Friends for breakfast on the last day. Also having trouble deciding on Goofy's Kitchen. My kids will be 5-1/2 and nearly 7, is the trek from the monorail to there far? Thanks for any input and I'll be following along with you until December!

[DangerMouse]

Alrighty, I'll hop on board for the ride! Although I have to admit two things sucked me in and they weren't even DLR related: (1) your lingering thoughts on homeschooling (we're a homeschooling family); and (2) your house building project in Washington State (we are planning on moving to the Olympic Peninsula as soon as our house in Phx sells, and my dh wants to build his dream house there).

So, do you mind a slight derail so I can ask where in WA you live and/or are building?

I promise to talk about DLR too, really I do!

[stagemomx3]

Originally Posted by DangerMouse

Alrighty, I'll hop on board for the ride! Although I have to admit two things sucked me in and they weren't even DLR related: (1) your lingering thoughts on homeschooling (we're a homeschooling family); and (2) your house building project in Washington State (we are planning on moving to the Olympic Peninsula as soon as our house in Phx sells, and my dh wants to build his dream house there).

So, do you mind a slight derail so I can ask where in WA you live and/or are building?

I promise to talk about DLR too, really I do!

I don't mind a slight derail. We live and are building in Enumclaw, we are about an hour east of Seattle, about an hour away from Mt. Rainier.

I should warn you that at this point I am not a fan of building your own house!

[stagemomx3]

Originally Posted by julezdisney

Hello, Michelle! I'm already planning BEYOND our upcoming trip so I can certainly see why you'd start your PTR now!

And I see you are a DLR vet- please give me dining suggestions in my PTR if you could be so kind. I am having a hard time deciding on Chip & Dale vs. Minnie & Friends for breakfast on the last day. Also having trouble deciding on Goofy's Kitchen. My kids will be 5-1/2 and nearly 7, is the trek from the monorail to there far? Thanks for any input and I'll be following along with you until December!

Alright I'm heading over to check out your ptr. I'm not sure how much help I'll be we've only done the Storyteller's character breakfast, and the monorail wasn't running the last two times we went.

[stagemomx3]

Originally Posted by MomofCKJ

Signing on Michelle! I have only been to DL once, back when I was 10, and my memories of it are quite sketchy! It will be cool to read about it through your report!

Allyson

Glad you are here Allyson! I'm going to enjoy reading about your solo trip.

[Bloodhound]

Hi our group is going to DLR Oct24th - 31st 2008 Im in for the ride an try to learn a few things as well. Thanks

[stagemomx3]

Originally Posted by Bloodhound

Hi our group is going to DLR Oct24th - 31st 2008 Im in for the ride an try to learn a few things as well. Thanks

Our you going to the Halloween party? We had so much fun the year we went. If I could spend every Halloween at Disneyland I would.

[Bloodhound]

Originally Posted by stagemomx3

Our you going to the Halloween party? We had so much fun the year we went. If I could spend every Halloween at Disneyland I would.

Yes we are planning on it.....have you seen any TR'S with pictures from the Halloween party?

[stagemomx3]

Originally Posted by Bloodhound

Yes we are planning on it.....have you seen any TR'S with pictures from the Halloween party?

No, but I haven't really looked. I have a few, but they would require me to scan them. Which is something I intend to do at some point but I'm not sure when?