Spring in the air, tears in my eyes, oh my will I survive this ride!?!-pg 6&7, 10/22

[jeremysdisneymom]

to my family's 8th trip to our most happiest, magical vacation place on earth! We travel a lot but our hearts always stay with Disney and we are always anxious and excited for the next trip!

I am Erika and am the uber-Disney enthusiast of the family. I love reading about WDW, exploring new Disney websites, and reading about the man behind this magical place-Walt Disney. During the day, I am an accountant/finance manager for an electric distribution company. At night, I used to be the uber-volunteer, until I finally started saying NO!!! I was the head of our elementary school PTO for the past 4 years. I decided last school year that it would be the last---I really needed a break!!! I head up the cub scout pack committee and plan most of the events (very glad that son is heading to boy scouts in December as I need a break from that). Plus, I am on our local hospital board and the credit union board for electric employees. I want to retire some day to Disney World and stand on Main Street with a Mickey Glove waving to park guests as they come in for a day of fun and memories. I think that job would be so much more rewarding than what I do now. My favorite park is Magic Kingdom with Epcot a close second. My favorite character is Daisy.



DH, Tom, is the reason this trip happened. We had a Thanksgiving trip planned last year and he decided to get his EMT certification so he was no longer able to go. So, he graciously agreed that my DS Jeremy and I should go without him. In return, we would go back to Disney at Easter as a family!!! Tom is the workaholic in our family. He works for the sheriff's office by day and is an EMT with our local life squad in his spare time. He is also the cubmaster for our local cub scouts and is the den leader for Jeremy's den. His favorite park is Epcot. He loves staying at Wilderness lodge and favorite restaurant would be O'hanas.



The last member of our family and probably our most cherished is DS, Jeremy. He is the other uber-Disney enthusiast in our family. He wants to be an imagineer when he grows up. He spends countless hours of free time drawing disney things and using his Knex to come up with the next coaster for Disney. He constantly talks about what would make a good land for this park or what the next hotel should be. I know.....I have raised him right!!! He is a very good kid (most of the time---there are times when tweeness comes out and gets the best of me) and a good student. He has really come into his own self this summer. His confidence has grown (Jeremy tends to be the shy kid at school who will let others walk all over him) and he has accomplished a lot in scouts and 4-H. His favorite park is Magic Kingdom. He loves all Disney resorts. His favorite restaurant for now is San Angel Inn. I don't think there isn't a character he doesn't like.



This is Jeremy at the Ohio State Fair. He and three of his buddies won our local safety skit contest and advanced out of regional competition to go to the state fair and compete. He also won grand champion for his 4-H first aid project and competed at the state fair as well. I am not a bit proud...

This would be our third trip as DVC owners. We own at BLT and have stayed DVC at BLT and AK-Jambo House. Jeremy and I stayed at the BW. This trip would be split with 4 nights at the BW (a first for Tom) and 4 nights at AKL-Kidani Savanna view. It would also be our first time seeing the Flower and Garden Festival.

To add some excitement to this report, this will be 4 reports in 1! I know that for those of you who followed along with my other reports you are probably thinking how in the world will she accomplish this when I have a hard enough time finishing one. Well, I am determined......we leave for the next trip in less than 3 months so I am going to finish all of this up before we leave.

The four reports will be this trip, pre-trip planning for our pre-Thanksgiving 3 night Disney cruise and then 5 nights at the world,highlights of a summer trip to Yosemite and San Francisco with a visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum,
and for my Dis friend, MeMom, highlights of a recent visit to Dollywood..And yes, I will color code each one so I know what I am doing.

So, I hope you will join me for this adventure of fun. It promises to be a trip of new things, new rides, and yes, I cried at WDW. Something made me verrrry sad.

Up next:

Will we ever get there?
Will our room be ready?
Does Tom like BW?
A dis meet!

[Poolrat]

Here Girl.

WOW I am first????

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I'm checking in and you may need to check your link in your sig, it's not working properly. I copy and pasted it into a new tab to get it to work.

[eandesmom]

I'm here!

[Kat in GA]

I'm here - and thanks so much for sending me the message that you were starting a new report!!

[MEK]

Cool. There is nothing I like better than one continuous trip report where I get to travel all over the USA with a side of Disney. Great introductions and congratulations to Jeremy for winning such high honors in the 4 H competition. that's awesome!

[SoonerGirl]

Here Erika!!

Those pictures you posted in your intro were gorgeous! Were they from Yosemite?

[jeremysdisneymom]

Originally Posted by Poolrat

Here Girl.

WOW I am first????

Yay, you were first!!! Glad you are here.

Originally Posted by EastYorkDisneyFan

I'm checking in and you may need to check your link in your sig, it's not working properly. I copy and pasted it into a new tab to get it to work.

Welcome!!! Glad to have you. I think I have my siggie fixed It was giving me fits on my computer at home last night.

Originally Posted by eandesmom

I'm here!

Welcome, glad you are here!

Originally Posted by Kat in GA

I'm here - and thanks so much for sending me the message that you were starting a new report!!

Welcome!! You will be making an appearance very soon in this report!!! It was so good to see you and your girls again when we were there.

Originally Posted by MEK

Cool. There is nothing I like better than one continuous trip report where I get to travel all over the USA with a side of Disney. Great introductions and congratulations to Jeremy for winning such high honors in the 4 H competition. that's awesome!

Welcome! Thank you! We are very proud of him. It has been a great summer with all of his accomplishments. I hope I can keep up with all these travels.

Originally Posted by SoonerGirl

Here Erika!!

Those pictures you posted in your intro were gorgeous! Were they from Yosemite?

Hi Michelle! Glad you are here. Yep, that is Yosemite. It is such a pretty national park. It will literally take your breath away. The views from Glacier Point was phenomenal. I have a picture of it on my FB page but it will be in here eventually.

[jeremysdisneymom]

On our Way!!!

How about we get this trip on the road!!! So, I was fortunate enough that on April 5th my boss had given me the day off. I put in a lot of hours when we have major outages. We had experienced a tornado in our service area in March and worked a lot one weekend. Since I am salary, I don't get extra pay for that but every so often he will give us extra days off to compensate.

Jeremy and I got up early and headed to the store for some last minute supplies and cleaned up the car before I even got him to school. Tom was sleeping in since he had been out with the squad most of the night.

By mid-afternoon, I had everything packed and loaded and was anxiously waiting for school to let out at 3:50. Tom picked Jeremy up at school instead of waiting on the bus to bring him home.

By the look of things, I think I had one happy boy when he came home.



Jeremy quickly showered and got ready for the long drive to Florida. They even obliged me with some pictures before we pulled out.





It took a few hours and we hit I75 in Lexington. When we hit Lexington, we know we are in for a long hall as we are on I75 forever!!! I know we stopped at Cracker Barrel in Berea, Ky. This is the customary first stop on all our trips to Disney. We are a Cracker Barrel family. For some reason though, the food wasn't good that night and we all felt a little blah afterwards.

I looked back one time and caught Jeremy snoozing with his Easter present from Mamaw Jo---EB.



Tom and I are becoming pros at driving at night. We make good time and know how to split up the drive so neither one of us get tired while driving. I always take over at the Tennessee rest stop and drive that entire state. But, we hit a traffic backup in Knoxville and rain. I am not kidding when I say that we went 2 miles in 30 minutes! I was getting frustrated and Tom couldn't sleep. I got us around Knoxville in what took forever and Tom took over driving. The rain was getting to me. It was a restless night for both of us and by the time we hit the Florida rest stop, we were exhausted.





We contemplated sleeping at the rest stop for a while but I just couldn't. So I took over driving until we reached Gainesville (I believe that is where we ate breakfast at none other than Cracker Barrel!). Tom finished the drive and before we long we were seeing this beautiful sign.





I think we pulled into Boardwalk a little around 9:30 a.m. Good time, even with all the delays and stops.



I got a nice CM in training. He checked me in but no rooms were ready yet.

So, what do you do when there is no room ready, you have two parks within walking distance, and there is a secret gateway calling your name?

Up Next:

Oh my, this is better than I imagined.
A DisMeet

[cheekypoppins]

Hi I am a sreious TR addict and I just found this,i'm totally in!!!

[jeremysdisneymom]

Originally Posted by cheekypoppins

Hi I am a sreious TR addict and I just found this,i'm totally in!!!

Yay, glad to have you here! I see that you have a trip coming up soon.

[teetee830]

Hi, I'm in it looks like your off to a great start. I live in Indiana and I couldn't imagine driving that all in one night. I'm impressed.

[jeremysdisneymom]

Originally Posted by teetee830

Hi, I'm in it looks like your off to a great start. I live in Indiana and I couldn't imagine driving that all in one night. I'm impressed.

Welcome!!! We live in southern Ohio. It is about a 14 hour drive. Not bad if you do it at night. There is nothing like breezing through Atlanta in the middle of the night....during the day can be a killer!

Glad you are here!

[jeremysdisneymom]

Good Friday, April 6, 2012-continued

I am on a roll, so let's keep this report going!

With our room not ready and time to spare, what better thing to do than show Tom how to use the International Gateway and visit Epcot. This is a pure Disney gem that Jeremy and I just loved on our Thanksgiving trip.

I couldn't wait to get into Epcot as I have always wanted to see the Flower and Garden Festival. The World Showcase wasn't open yet so we headed into Future World.

Look at the pretty colors in the background!





I loved the sand sculpture. We still haven't see Chimpanzee yet.



If memory serves me right, I think we took a spin on Spaceship Earth and looked around at all the topiaries we could find.











The World Showcase had opened so we headed to Mexico to have an early lunch at the counter service restaurant. Tom had never eaten there. We got some chicken tacos and nachos to share. Tom likes a lot of toppings on his tacos so he thought they were just okay. But, he did like it and would go back again. While we were sitting there, I got the text that our room was ready. It was getting real dark while we were sitting there and then very windy. I thought for a moment we were in real trouble since we had walked from the Boardwalk and had no poncho, raincoat, etc. We ducked into the Three Cabelleros in case it started pouring but by the time we came out, it was calm and sun was back out. We were tired and decided to head back to the room.







continued in next post...

[cheekypoppins]

Beautiful pics!oh I wish i was in epcot right now