You're the best parents in the world! I gotta pee! Where's My Tooth? Trip report!

[jenseib]

I'm in too! Great start. What is the LA lovers thread. LOL! Should IO belong? it sounds like the "cool" group to be in. LOL!

[Where'sPiglet?]

Originally Posted by jenseib

I'm in too! Great start. What is the LA lovers thread. LOL! Should IO belong? it sounds like the "cool" group to be in. LOL!

It's a thread for WDW lovers in Louisiana.

[TMWilson7196]

Great start to your trip report. I can't wait to read more.

[mickeystoontown]

Originally Posted by vleeth

Hi,

Followed your link from the LA lovers thread. Hope you are able to pull off the surprise!

Hey fellow Louisiana resident! I hope to get the next installment up this afternoon. It'll include the "reveal".

Originally Posted by 2poohbears

i also followed your link from the LA Lovers thread.
we're planning a surprise trip for our twins, who will be 6 y/o when we go in OCT 09. i'm getting excited already, and reading your trip report is making me even more excited to go back!

I was very worried we wouldn't be able to keep it a secret. Like I said earlier, I made a few slip-ups but was able to recover. Your twins will love WDW!

Originally Posted by Where'sPiglet?

Hi....I also came over from the La thread. I'm always up for a good trip report, and I love CBR and details so this should be right up my alley!

Your dog is SO CUTE by the way...

Thanks for coming over. I am so going to miss the CBR this trip. We had family who thought they were going to come with us to WDW this year and they needed to stay in a value resort. So, we booked Pop. Well, they backed out but we decided to stay at Pop anyway. We're taking the extra money we saved and going to Cirque de Soliel.

I think Oddball is a cutie too!

Originally Posted by retiredkid

Hi Lisa! I'm in too!! I flew in from the Pop Countdown thread.
What a lovely family you have. holy smokes....what does your daughter do in her spare time?? that's one busy little lady.

can't wait to read all about it. I love your writing style.

Thanks for the compliments on the family. In what little spare time my daughter has, she does laundry. That's about all the time she has. She actually talked her leader into letting her come back to the mission three days late this August so she could go to Disney World with us. I am super excited that she'll get to come along.

[mickeystoontown]

Originally Posted by longing2Batdisney

Pre-op tomorrow and surgery at noon on Monday

Good luck today.

[mickeystoontown]

Originally Posted by jenseib

I'm in too! Great start. What is the LA lovers thread. LOL! Should IO belong? it sounds like the "cool" group to be in. LOL!

Hey Jen, It's kinda like the Pop Century Countdown thread I started. But, it has a list of all WDW Lovers who are from Louisiana, where they are staying, etc.

Originally Posted by TMWilson7196

Great start to your trip report. I can't wait to read more.

Welcome aboard!

[mickeystoontown]

My boss is in court so I thought I'd work on my trip report a bit more. Hey, I'm all caught up so I'm not doing anything wrong. But still, you won't tell will you?

I'll start by saying this installment won't include any pictures. You see, when we came home from our trip, I lost lots and lots of our vacation pictures when I connected my camera to my computer. Vamoose! They were nowhere to be found on the camera and nowhere to be found on my computer. Just vanished into thin air. The entire first travel day was lost, many of our arrival day pictures were lost (including the big surprise reveal...thank goodness I have it on video) and some of our Epcot day pictures were lost. Yes, I cried over it for two days. Thank goodness the guy at the camera shop was able to retrieve some of them. Anywhoo!

Let's see......reservation booked, tickets bought, sole ADR made, road trip seed planted, oh yeah.....time to start the sneaky stuff.

The plan was to leave when I got off work on Friday at Noon. All week long, we kept telling Hunter we were going on a long weekend road trip. We didn't really know where we were going, just wherever our car took us.

This really isn't too unusual for us so it didn't throw up any red flags for Hunter. There are times when we say "hey we're going to *** to camp this weekend" or "pack an overnight bag, we're heading to ***".

Hunter was in charge of packing up all his PSP games, his movies, his drawing stuff and the portable DVD player.

I was in charge of packing everybody's clothes and toiletries. I also packed the "snack box".

John and Hunter were in charge of the ice chest and the car itself. They had the oil changed and filled up the car Friday morning while I was at work. John loaded all the suitcases in the car while Hunter was watching television.

When I came home, I put what John and I secretly called the "mystery envelope" in between the driver's seat and the console. John put the ice chest in the trunk. One last "make sure you go to the bathroom" call, one last hug for Mamaw, one last snuggle with Oddball and we were on our way to "who knows where"!

We hit the nearest McDonald's and hit I-20 at 1:38 p.m.

Normally, we leave on a Wednesday evening and are making our way through the tunnel in Mobile, Alabama at night. The only time we ever travel through Mobile is on our way to Disney. This trip, we would be going through the tunnel during daylight hours. We figured this would be when Hunter caught on. Guess what? He fell asleep about thirty minutes before we reached Mobile. Yeah! John called my mother (Mamaw) to let her know that we had made it through Mobile. She really thought Hunter would figure it out in Mobile too.

We make pretty good time across part of the Florida panhandle. Hunter wakes up and we have to make a pit stop. When we travel, we like to walk around a rest area and stretch our legs. Of course, Hunter spies the huge Florida map at the rest area and sees that we are in Florida.

Hunter: "Mama, since we are in Florida, why can't we just drive down to Disney?"

Me: "Baby, you know that we don't have the money to go to Disney after we took that road trip to Missouri and Arkansas. Besides, that's too far to go for just a long weekend."

Hunter: "Man!"

John: "Come on Best Buddy (that's what they have called each other every since Lacey went off to missionary college two years ago), let's get back on the road."

John to me:

We get in the car and decide to drive just another hour or so and find the nearest Jameson Inn. Luckily, we don't have to drive far, just another hour or so, to find one. We check in and once we get in the room, Hunter, of course, immediately turns on the television and starts flipping channels. He stops on the Weather Channel of all channels. Guess what they are doing? The weekend travel forecast. Where are they highlighting? Orlando. AND, they say it would be a great weekend to visit Disney World.

Again, Hunter asks if we can go to Disney. We give the same excuse as before. We get the same "Man!" but then Naruto comes on and his mind is elsewhere.

We don't stay up too late so we can be up and at them the next morning. Plus, we thought if we got up early, Hunter would probably sleep in the backseat while we make the rest of the drive to Disney. Before going to bed, Hunter called his Mamaw to tell her we were in Florida "but we're not going to Disney World."

The next morning, we hit the breakfast bar which, by the way, had a really nice assortment of yogurts and pastries. We took our goodies up to the room to eat while John took his turn getting ready.

After putting our overnight bags back into the car, we were on the road again. We drove several hours and couldn't believe that Hunter wasn't noticing any of the occasional billboards advertising Orlando. He was too enthralled in his newest PSP game. He fell asleep again...probably because his thumbs had had such a workout on the game.

When Hunter woke up, we were in Ocala, Florida. We asked Hunter if anything looked familiar. "Not really." "Are you sure?" "Yeah." Hey, this keeping a secret thing really isn't that hard after all.

John and I knew that we would soon start seeing the green mileage signs saying ** miles to Disney World. So, John took out the camcorder and told Hunter to start doing a trip video for us. We told him to say something like "Hey this is Hunter and we are on a road trip. We don't know where we are going. I guess just wherever the road takes us." After a couple of "practices" (we had to make sure the camcorder was working correctly), I spotted a mileage sign up ahead. John had Hunter start his spiel. Then, I said "Hey Hunter what does that sign up there say?" Hunter looked out the window and said "it says 30 miles to Disney World. Mama, can we pleeeeze go there?"

I told him that we really did know where we were going and handed him the "mystery envelope". He pulled out the Reservation Confirmation to the Caribbean Beach Resort in Walt Disney World. At first, he didn't comprehend it. You could see the minute he realized where we were going.

Hunter: "We're going to Walt Disney World?"

John: "We sure are Best Buddy."

Hunter: "You're the best parents in the whole wide world!"

Then he proceeded to take off his selt belt and bounce all around the back seat. All the while, he was yelling "You guys are totally awesome! "You really got me good!" "You knew all along didn't you!" Then he was talking a million miles a minute....how long are we staying?.....are we really staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort again?.....did Mamaw know?.

By this time, we are turning onto Hwy. 192 towards Disney World when Hunter stops the bouncing and exclaims, "I gotta pee I am so excited!" Hunter would kill me if he knew that I am about to tell you this. No, I won't tell you 'cause it would embarass him. Let's just say I am glad we had an empty water bottle in the backseat.

So, yes, we were able to keep the surprise from Hunter for an entire month! John and I were very very pleased with ourselves. I just wish I hadn't lost the pictures of our travel day and our "reveal" but at least I have the video.

Up next, checking into the Caribbean Beach Resort. ***With pictures!

[mommytothreeboys]

Nice job on the surprise!!

[mickeystoontown]

Originally Posted by mommytothreeboys

Nice job on the surprise!!

Thanks! We were quite proud of ourselves.

[retiredkid]

great surprise!! hope you will share your video.

[mickeystoontown]

Originally Posted by retiredkid

great surprise!! hope you will share your video.

I'll have to see if I can get it uploaded. I am sooo technology challenged. I usually just hand over everything to our 12 year old son and tell him to do it.

[mickeystoontown]

I told Hunter that I had started a trip report and the title. He suggested that I change the title to "You're the best parents in the whole wide world! I gotta pee! Trip Report." That boy is too much! (I did change it 'cause I thought it was cute.)

[longing2Batdisney]

Wow! I love it!!!! great start!!!! I actually cried and laughed (maybe I'm overly emotional right now--nah!! Hunter's response was just precious....

the day was very long our appointments started at 10 am and we were out of there at 3 pm and good thing I brought a snack for Ashton we missed lunch... one of the doctors forgot us in the room (we had to see two docs in the same section -he thought we were there for the surgeron {which we had already seen}...I can't wait for this to be overwith.

I WANT TO GO BACK TO DISNEY AND LEAVE THIS MESS BEHIND...
I know that is not the option; but it is a nice thought (even the beach would be great about now...)

[mickeystoontown]

Originally Posted by longing2Batdisney

Wow! I love it!!!! great start!!!! I actually cried and laughed (maybe I'm overly emotional right now--nah!! Hunter's response was just precious....

the day was very long our appointments started at 10 am and we were out of there at 3 pm and good thing I brought a snack for Ashton we missed lunch... one of the doctors forgot us in the room (we had to see two docs in the same section -he thought we were there for the surgeron {which we had already seen}...I can't wait for this to be overwith.

I WANT TO GO BACK TO DISNEY AND LEAVE THIS MESS BEHIND...
I know that is not the option; but it is a nice thought (even the beach would be great about now...)

Girl, if I were in your position, I'd be emotional too. I'm glad I could make you laugh though.

I hate that the doctor forgot about you guys and it's a good thing you had a snack. My husband always talks about how heavy my purse is but I don't see him complaining when he starts digging around (usually in church...bad boy, but what do you expect from a preacher's kid) and finds some kind of goody in there.

I'm hoping to get my CBR pictures up in the next installment.

Lisa

[lauren_elizabeth]

Looove the trip report so far! I think it's so awesome that yall were able to surprise Hunter with the Disney trip!

Andddd, my mama is from Louisiana! Are you a TIGERS fan?