Can we break our PTR curse?...update 2/27 Wed and thurs plans and more count down

[eandesmom]

adorable pics!

[onescgirl]

Love the 1st day at school pics!

[DisMomAmy]

Cute pictures!!

[JPFamilyMom]

Originally Posted by KathyRN137

Love 'em! You're boys are so cute!
Nice that "the ham" got some special time with Mommy...

Have a great time this weekend and try not to stress too much on the ADRs!


Kathy

Thanks Kathy, trying not to stress, but after the stress from the drive yesterday I think it will help me relax tonight

Originally Posted by that's nice

Welcome to the world of staying offsite!

Make sure you check online at 6am as that is when the system allows the current 180 day ADR to be made. At least that is the way it used to be.

The nice thing is you can get up, make the ADR then go back to bed... if the adrenaline doesn't keep you awake for a week!


Love the pics of the boys!

Yeah that was one of the downsides to booking off property, but for this trip I think it will be minor, we won't book too many table service meals. Just a few. And I'm up at about 5 am everyday

Originally Posted by eandesmom

adorable pics!

Thanks

Originally Posted by onescgirl

Love the 1st day at school pics!

Thanks

Originally Posted by DisMomAmy

Cute pictures!!

Thanks

I can't wait to share the pictures I got today from the walk, we had such a GREAT time. Which totally made up for the drive we had yesterday, I'll share that too, but as a teaser it involves a whole lot of tylenol and tears on my part. We are relaxing in the hotel, and we have a special dinner planned for Jack, he is excited, and he doesn't even know where we are going yet.

[JPFamilyMom]

Well we made it back from our mini vacation in one piece, but just barely

I cut my 80 some odd pictures down to 40 to share with you Can you imagine how many I'll be taking at disney over one week


Ok, well our adventure started out pretty good, the night before Jack fell into slumber pretty easily and allowed me to pack in peace

Then Jack went to school, my Mom, dh, and I went to work, and Joey relaxed at home with Papa and Aunt Bea. Then we did our usual pick up routine and left from dh's work (our last stop usually before heading home).

Ok we were all accounted for, and on our way, Jack was excited for a vacation and a stay in a hotel

Then the trip turned ugly, about 15 minutes into the drive, no kidding, it started, both boys screaming back and forth, they had toys, they had music, and they had special snacks, I was prepared, what went wrong
The screaming, crying, fighting, whining, etc. went on for the entire trip all 3 hrs of it. I arrived in Nashville crying and ready to literally pull my hair out. I just wanted to climb in bed and be done with it. But Jack really needed some time to calm down.
So we watched some Disney and Jack practiced his O's

DH and Joey shared one bed and they were out around 8:30 or 9 pm. I was up with Jack until about 11pm.

Before I forget here are pictures of our room, we stayed in an Econo Lodge, and I LOVE this one because they have a fridge, micro, free wifi.


Then I woke up at 4:30 am, I was so ansy, couldn't sleep, got up laid all the clothes out, and jumped in the shower. We had planned to leave the hotel around 8 am, about 7 am the boys woke up, I got Jacks cereal out and his chocolate rice milk, and Joey and I went to go pick up cereal, pastries, and coffee in the hotel lobby.

Then it was walk time, we were all up dressed and ready to leave on time, and in good spirits


Time for our BIG event...

[JPFamilyMom]

I have to say I was very impressed with this event. It was very well run, laid back, but organized. They really kept our special kids in mind when planning it. They had a quiet area tent for kids to get away from everything, they had bounce houses, they had characters everywhere, resource booths, craft booths, music, just a really fun time, so I'll let the pictures tell you about our day, I did get teary eyed when people spoke, it was such a beautiful day. I'm so glad we got to participate, and I can't wait to attend another walk for autism speaks

Jack stopped at every circle, I forget what was written in them

Then he crossed over from West Tennessee to Middle Tennesee


The boys went to bounce for awhile to get rid of some energy before the walk

We took a picture with Iron Man (this is as close as we could get without the screaming, and the only character we got a picture with)

We also saw these guys all around

Darth Vader was also there, but we really kept our distance from him
But the boys were so excited to see this red guy

But not excited to actually go near him
Mom took pictures with characters though

Then we went to relax before the walk actually started, they liked climbing on the rocks, and Jack actually pick up all the little loose rocks from each rock and put them all together

Here are some other random pictures


continued in next post, I had too many pictures

[JPFamilyMom]

Half way through the walk Jack ran off and headed toward this big world

When we got there I had wondered where our picture was, and while we walked, we saw it, and so I detoured off the course to get a picture

Thanks to the help of my friends at Jason's Deli I made the Grand Club, which meant our team raised over $1,000 for Autism Speaks, I got some nice little goodies for our family:

They also passed out water along the course, and they had a drink and snack stand, all of which was free. It even included gluten free and casien free snacks, and organic fruits. So even Jack was able to eat from the little snack tent
Here is our TEAM JACK

Jack was ready to go home (back to the hotel), so we stopped and got some lunch, relaxed, and then DH took him down to the pool to unwind, he LOVED that idea

I took that from the balcony, I had Joey in the room sleeping (he still needs naps)
Then since it was "Jack's day" we found a mongolian bbq place, Jack's favorite, so that is where our team went for dinner. Jack got his big bowl of steak specially cooked on a special grill. We love it cause he actually eats all his food.

Went back to the room, and everyone settled in pretty nicely for the night, no fights. The next morning we went out for breakfast, we ate at Bob Evan's, I had never eaten in one before, but it was decent food, said good bye to my parents friends and started our long drive home.

Joey was all smiles, which is pretty typical, and he remained that way up until the last 30 minutes of the trip.
Jack started complaining the moment we got in the car, here he is, not sleeping, this is how he grumbles "I wanna go home, I wanna go home"

Well about 20 minutes later he was out, and slept until we stopped for gas an hour and a half later

So the ride home was WAY better than the ride going. We realized we won't be driving to WDW in one day, and we are planning for a lot of stops. I'm looking into getting Jack a trampoline that folds down that we might be able to take with us on the trip to Disney since we are taking out the middle seat. And we have some discussion about some other sensory activities we can do with him as well.

Tomorrow I'll be booking our first ADR, so tomorrow night I'll get on and tell you the time and details...see if you can guess where we plan to dine our first day at WDW.... hint characters will be there

[onescgirl]

I'm glad you had a great trip & enjoyed looking at your pictures!
Congrats on raising $1,000 for autism!!!!

I'm picturing over here me passing you on the road to Disney seeing a cute little boy jumping up & down on a trampoline in your van!

[JPFamilyMom]

Originally Posted by onescgirl

I'm glad you had a great trip & enjoyed looking at your pictures!
Congrats on raising $1,000 for autism!!!!

I'm picturing over here me passing you on the road to Disney seeing a cute little boy jumping up & down on a trampoline in your van!

Thanks

While that would be funny, we would use it when we stop at rest stops and at the house all week. It really works for him during OT and when he visited me at my work.

[jmskinner]

The trip looked fantastic, except for the getting there. What about a DVD player? That got us from Maryland to Texas when Jacob was 3.

Fantastic on raising $1000 . We need to join in on one of those walks.

Hmm, what ADR did you pic? Chef Mickey's or Crystal Palace?

[JPFamilyMom]

Originally Posted by jmskinner

The trip looked fantastic, except for the getting there. What about a DVD player? That got us from Maryland to Texas when Jacob was 3.

Fantastic on raising $1000 . We need to join in on one of those walks.

Hmm, what ADR did you pic? Chef Mickey's or Crystal Palace?

I signed off and realized I hadn't posted what ADR we booked,

Thanks for the comments. yeah we are also looking into a portable dvd player, but we also foresee some fights with that, they broke the last one we had.

I booked ....















Chef Mickeys
Sunday March 13, 5 pm
I have two ressies, one for 7ppl and one for 10 ppl.
In the next couple months I should be able to cancel one. I know it will be an early dinner, but I'm figuring we might skip lunch that day and just snack. Or we'll see, no big plans yet, but I was hoping the early ressie would get us in and out before it gets too busy in there.

[DisMomAmy]

Thanks so much for sharing your walk with us! Looks like an amazing day... even if the trip to get there wasn't so amazing. And congrats on the Grand Club!

Alex would have gone crazy over the Star Wars characters!

Hopefully you picked up some pointers that will help you out for your Disney trip!

And yay for Chef Mickey's!

[Mickey_Mom]

Yay Team Jack!! What a great day! Well, yes, except the drive down but you're already forming some strategies for your Disney drive which is good. I really like the puzzle piece that Jack is carrying too! :

I love Chef Mickey's!!

[KathyRN137]

Congrats on the Walk and surviving the road trip!


Chef Mickey's should be so much fun!

*They have a smaller room off to one side that is a bit more quiet than the main room... ask for that!



Kathy

[JPFamilyMom]

Originally Posted by DisMomAmy

Thanks so much for sharing your walk with us! Looks like an amazing day... even if the trip to get there wasn't so amazing. And congrats on the Grand Club!

Alex would have gone crazy over the Star Wars characters!

Hopefully you picked up some pointers that will help you out for your Disney trip!

And yay for Chef Mickey's!

Thanks, we picked up A LOT of pointers for our trip to Florida. We are putting our heads together for extra planning for the drive there and back. We had originally planned our drive as a split day trip, but later dh said we should do it in one day, now we are back to two days for sure.

Originally Posted by Mickey_Mom

Yay Team Jack!! What a great day! Well, yes, except the drive down but you're already forming some strategies for your Disney drive which is good. I really like the puzzle piece that Jack is carrying too! :

I love Chef Mickey's!!

Yes the puzzle piece Jack carried was VERY cool, we all liked that, but DH wins because he has a place to display it in his classroom. This was ok with me because then others can see it and bring awareness to his students and any adults that enter his classroom.

Originally Posted by KathyRN137

Congrats on the Walk and surviving the road trip!


Chef Mickey's should be so much fun!

*They have a smaller room off to one side that is a bit more quiet than the main room... ask for that!



Kathy

Will have to keep that in mind, but from other TR's I've read I'm hoping we'll be ok with the early ADR and it being not so loud until we are getting ready to leave. Plus he has braved the cafeteria for a whole week now