3 Years in the Making: Our return to WDW...with diapers! SAD NEWS 7/1 page 41

[Lovemy3babes]

I'm not a costume person really either. But Seth looks adorable! Love all of your parade video and pictures Dawn!

 

[happenin2you]

I'm with you and many of the other posters on the costume front. They're expensive to buy and it really bothers me that there are rarely "normal" costumes for women. They're either super revealing and make the wearer able to pass for someone who works for tips, not a waitress, either, or they're really silly like a mustard bottle. Why can't there be a happy medium? Rant over.

I love that you made Seth that cute little costume. Very easy to deal with. And the parade photos look great. I'm really starting to think about investing in a DSLR, but I'm kinda worried about portability issues. When we vacation I usually leave my purse behind and my hubby carries around my ID in his wallet and I carry our camera. Maybe I'll just wait until I'm pregnant. That way I can practice with it during that time and be able to tote it around in the stroller, since I'll have to carry so much other stuff anyways. Thinking out loud again...

Can't wait to see if Seth's costume was guessed correctly.

 

[Eventer98]

Love the parade pics...gets me excited for our fall trip! We aren't costume people either...when we did the party in 2010 Ty was Jack Skellington and Ray and I just wore Nightmare Tshirts. Ty wants to be Jack Sparrow this year! Sad your trip is ending....

 

[happenin2you]

Just wanted to let you know I just started a trip report for my Alaskan cruise we just got back from, if you have time to check it out! The link is in my signature

 

[Poolrat]

Great picture of the headless horseman.


Seth looks like he is having so much fun with his glow stuff

 

[dawz1026]

The parade is so cool. I do not remember seeing it when I went in 2001. It was my honeymoon and we arrived late so maybe I missed it. So much fun! Seth must be bigger since the trip.Time flies doesn't it?

 

[hlrababy]

I love your picture of the Headless Horseman! Still can't believe we missed the parade! Ugh!

You know I loved Seth's costume. I wanted to guess, but since I already knew what it was I knew I shouldn't! haha

 

[punkin413]

I believe he's Christopher Robin's note, left for Pooh. Very clever (and most of important, easy) costume!

DING DING DING!!!! Correct you are! And for having the correct answer, you win....bragging rights!

I don't think we're going to dress up for MNSSHP this year either. One year when we dressed up we were way too hot, and then the next year was freezing! We can't seem to win!

You guys got great seats for the parade, and it was really fun to watch your video! Can't wait for Sept when we get to see it again!

Yeah, I don't do hot for sure. And add in the diaper factor and a "real" costume wasn't doing it for me!

I loved the parade pictures. I can't wait until our trip in Sept. I already have my tickets.

Seth is such a cutie.

Such a fun party!

Pretty view fromt he Wilderness Lodge dock. I love the wooden walkway from the pool area to the dock.

We're doing MNSSHP again this year. Jill got our tickets a couple of weeks ago.

Nice pictures of the ghosts. Good job, Ray!

Me too! It was bittersweet on the way to the party that night b/c I knew that would be the last time we took that beautiful walk to the boat dock this trip.

Yay for MNSSHP! Such a fun party.

I thought I was the only person who didn't like costumes. Glad to hear I'm not. That parade does look great. Makes me want to go back so badly!

Yeah, not to be a party pooper but they are more of a pain than they are fun, at least for me. I hope you get to go back soon!

Great updates and pics! I love the look of that Halloween parade too, I hope I get to see it someday, my plan is definitely to go in the Fall next trip.

It's a GREAT parade - I hope you get to see it too!

I am not a huge parade person but I would love to see that one one day. I love the pictures of Seth with his glow jewelry. He looks like he's having a great time.

If you're going to see a parade, this one (or the one at MVMCP, which is very good, too) is an awesome one to see!

Wow! What a great picture of the Headless Horseman! The Boo to You parade is one of my favorites, too! So much fun!!!

Ray did a good job with the picture of the Headless Horseman. It doesn't seem like he's going that fast but all the pictures always seem blurry, so I was happy with that one!

The Boo to You Parade looks like so much fun! Especially when you have glow jewelry like Mr. Seth!

It IS so much fun....one of my favorites! And glow jewelry definitely helps.

I was actually really nervous about coming up to y'all! But I'm glad I did! It was great to meet y'all! Seth is so cute! We had arrived about 2 hours before we saw you at the boat ramp so it made the start of our trip!

Well, I'm so glad you did! Glad we helped in some small way to make the start of your trip a good one. And I hope you had a great time for the remainder of the trip too!

I'm not a costume person really either. But Seth looks adorable! Love all of your parade video and pictures Dawn!

Thanks! I hear ya - they are just too much to worry about most of the time!

I'm with you and many of the other posters on the costume front. They're expensive to buy and it really bothers me that there are rarely "normal" costumes for women. They're either super revealing and make the wearer able to pass for someone who works for tips, not a waitress, either, or they're really silly like a mustard bottle. Why can't there be a happy medium? Rant over.

I love that you made Seth that cute little costume. Very easy to deal with. And the parade photos look great. I'm really starting to think about investing in a DSLR, but I'm kinda worried about portability issues. When we vacation I usually leave my purse behind and my hubby carries around my ID in his wallet and I carry our camera. Maybe I'll just wait until I'm pregnant. That way I can practice with it during that time and be able to tote it around in the stroller, since I'll have to carry so much other stuff anyways. Thinking out loud again...

Can't wait to see if Seth's costume was guessed correctly.

I've always said that Halloween is an excuse for girls to dress like tramps and get away with it.

Our camera isn't small, that's for sure. I usually carried it around my neck but with that you run the risk of hitting things (like the stroller) with it. Oh, and I can't tell you how many times I've hit Seth in the head with the darn thing (oops). I'd definitely recommend practicing before you have to deal with the camera AND a little one. But the pictures are sooooooo worth it!

Love the parade pics...gets me excited for our fall trip! We aren't costume people either...when we did the party in 2010 Ty was Jack Skellington and Ray and I just wore Nightmare Tshirts. Ty wants to be Jack Sparrow this year! Sad your trip is ending....

I think costumes are fine for kids who aren't in diapers....it's just that I didn't want to deal with taking a costume off during a diaper change. Oh, and as long as they're not too hot b/c who wants to walk around Florida in a hot costume??? Good luck on the Jack Sparrow costume!

Just wanted to let you know I just started a trip report for my Alaskan cruise we just got back from, if you have time to check it out! The link is in my signature

Oh, fun! I'll def. check it out!

Great picture of the headless horseman.


Seth looks like he is having so much fun with his glow stuff

Thanks! I was happy with it. And Seth LOVED the glow stuff. I have to remember to get some for the 4th of July to keep him entertained!

The parade is so cool. I do not remember seeing it when I went in 2001. It was my honeymoon and we arrived late so maybe I missed it. So much fun! Seth must be bigger since the trip.Time flies doesn't it?

It's such a great parade! He is getting SO BIG, saying new things every day and making us laugh so much! I'm going to post some recent photos of him in the next update.

I love your picture of the Headless Horseman! Still can't believe we missed the parade! Ugh!

You know I loved Seth's costume. I wanted to guess, but since I already knew what it was I knew I shouldn't! haha

Thanks! Maybe you guys can go back in a year or two and catch MNSSHP again? I hope so!

 

[punkin413]

First off, congrats to Glenn whose guess was correct about Seth's costume for the party!

For those of you who didn't see his response, Seth was the "backson" from Winnie the Pooh (the 2011 movie). If you haven't seen the movie, it's actually very cute. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it as much as I did. There's a scene where Christopher Robin leaves Pooh a note that says, "Gon out, bizy, back soon, C.R." Since Pooh can't read, he takes the note to Owl, who interprets it to say that Christopher Robin has been kidnapped by the backson ("back soon"). Everyone lets their imaginations run wild and they imagine this horrible creature who has taken Christopher Robin and part of the movie is them trying to rescue him from this imaginary monster.

So that's what his costume was. Simple but cute.

Before I get to my FINAL update, I thought I'd share some recent pictures with you since some of you have commented on how Seth has probably grown so much since the trip (in other words, I'm a slow TR writer! ) He was 13 months old during this trip and he's now 21 months. Crazy!!!

Seth recently got his first haircut. Yes, I realize that his first official haircut actually is documented in this TR at Harmony Barber Shop, but this is the first one that had a purpose. Check out that bed head!

This is what it looked like when it was tame. I loved the baby curls but they were getting hard to manage, plus he looked like he had a mullet sometimes.

He did okay. I had to hold him in my lap and Ray had the iPad playing Toy Story for him. So he'd zone out for awhile and watch the movie, and then he'd realize that the stylist was doing something to his hair and he'd cry for like 5 seconds, then he'd be fine again.

Big boy with this hair cut.....

We took him to Toys R Us afterwards for a treat for being a good boy.

These are pictures of him playing in the water (the water toy was his prize from Toys R Us) later that afternoon....

I love this picture....he looks like Emperor Palpatine!!!!

Playing patty-cake with Daddy....

In trip news.....

I got our tickets for our next trip today!!!!!

We are doing a different sort of trip this time. First off, our dates are May 18-26 of next year. It will be me, my mom, my sister-in-law Terrie, and her son Josh. We have to wait for Josh to get out of school (he'll be a junior in high school) so that's why we're leaving on 5/18. And Ray's sitting this one out. He's over Disney right now, which I get. But I'm not! Anyway, we're staying off site b/c we are doing IoA part of the trip, too, and with 4 adults and 1 toddler it's just cheaper and easier to get a condo.

The first set of tickets you see is mine and Mom's. We purchased a 3-day base ticket for Disney and then I'm going to IoA one day while Mom and Seth relax at the condo. We were going to do MK, DHS and EPCOT. I got the tickets from Maple Leaf Tickets, and when they arrived I realized they had given us a 4-day ticket instead of a 3-day. I called them to see what the deal was and was informed that they had a sale right now where you get the 4th day free. SCORE!!! We have a "down" day planned, so if we feel like it, myself, Mom and Seth will head over to AK for maybe 3 or 4 hours on that day and use the 4th day of our ticket!

The second set of tickets is Terrie and Josh's. They are doing 2 days at IoA and 2 days at Disney. As of right now they want to just go to EPCOT both days. Whatever floats your boat!!!

So now we just wait. We can make our dining reservations in mid November so I'll be working on those in a few months. It should be interesting with this mix of people! 340 DAYS!!!

Continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=45161445&postcount=570

 

[punkin413]

Okay, on with the TR.....

So we had just seen the fabulous Boo-To-You parade. We made our way towards the hub to get a spot for Hallowishes and decided to park near the Walt/Mickey statue on the left side. I got Seth out of his stroller so he could play a bit while we waited for the show to start.....

We weren't there 5 minutes when I heard an ear-piercing shriek behind us and I turned around to see this.....

I know that pink dress! Some of my favorite ladies! Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella....love them! If I had I could play a character at WDW, I think I'd pick Anastasia. They are always so hysterical....what a fun job! Alice is my favorite Disney character but they are just so much fun!

We got in line to meet them and got a few photopass pictures. They were reading Seth's shirt and were baffled by it. I told them what he was and Lady Tremaine said, "Yes, well, we wouldn't know that, would we, since we don't watch children's movies!!!!" in her most snooty voice.

And of course they made a huge fuss over Ray, telling him he was handsome and asking if he was single.

We re-claimed our spot after our encounter with my favorite ladies and it wasn't long before the fireworks started. Right before they started a guy dressed as Darth Maul and his son as Yoda asked if they could squeeze in next to us. He was from Brooklyn and I loved his accent! This was their first time at WDW and the little boy was so cute!

Remember....again, no tripod, so these pictures are not even half as good as they could have been. Be patient with me. Ray took over 500 pictures (yes, 500), so I'm only posting some of them. It's still a lot though!

Continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=45161451&postcount=571

 

[punkin413]

Again, Seth loved the fireworks!! Not one single whimper from him. I hope he likes them again on the 4th when our neighbors go nuts with fireworks!

Continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=45161469&postcount=572

 

[punkin413]

My little buddy! I could just pinch those cheeks right off. He doesn't look like such a baby any more!

Here comes the finale!

These fireworks are awesome! I love the music and the way they reflect things off the castle....just super cool!

After Hallowishes, we decided to head towards Tomorrowland since we hadn't been there yet during the party. Looking back down Main Street....

We stopped on the way in front of the castle for some photopass pictures. I love the castle at night!

Once we got to Tomorrowland, we decided we were thirsty and I went to get us some frozen drinks. Ray told me he was gonna head over to the dance party near the Carousel of Progress with Seth while I went to get drinks. The CM that helped me was really sweet. I wanted a Coke slushie and Ray wanted one mixed with blueberry and cherry, so on Ray's she made the top look like a Mickey head with the blueberry slushie. I was gonna get a picture, only when she put the lid on it smushed it. Oh, well!

Continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=45161480&postcount=573

 

[punkin413]

Okay, so here's one of my absolute favorite memories of the trip. I got our drinks and I headed over towards the dance party, but around the back way like you're going past Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and the Carousel of Progress. I found our stroller, but no Ray and no Seth. So I put the drinks in the stroller and started looking around. There was quite a crowd gathered over at the dance party and I headed that way. Finally, I saw a tiny little blonde head bobbing up and down in the crowd. Ray had Seth on his shoulders and they were totally having a blast, dancing like fools at the dance party! It was SO CUTE!

Here's the video of them, but I wish I would've had the camera out as I approached b/c they were totally into it then. By the time I started filming they had calmed down a bit. Please watch this....it's soooooo flippin' cute!



Did you hear the guy next to us? He said, "He looks real excited," talking about Seth. At this point it was probably about 9:45, WAY past his bedtime, so he was kind of in a daze. A cute daze though!

We just sort of meandered through the park, seeing all the characters from afar and enjoying the atmosphere. There's Donald and Daisy in Fantasyland....

Cindy's carriage....

The lighting at the Haunted Mansion was awesome!

As we were passing through Liberty Square, we noticed a photopass CM with a camera on a tripod which was pointed at a plain brick wall. I knew something was up with that, so I asked her what the deal was. She said go over by the wall and we'd find out. Here's what the deal was!

How super cool is that???

I played with the graphics some. Here are the rest and another pose too. I love the ones of us looking scared. And Seth is just kind chillin' (probably just trying to stay awake!).

Around 10:30ish we decided to call it a night. We were all tired and poor Seth was a zombie. On the way out I saw this guy as we passed through the hub. First time I'd ever seen him!!! I so wanted a picture but the line was LONG and we were ready to go, so I just snapped one as we went by.

Bye, my beloved, beautiful castle!

Bye MK scarecrows!

Bye spooky train station!

See ya real soon!

Continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=45161496&postcount=574

 

[punkin413]

Spooky train station from the front....

So long, Mickey!

I was sad as we left MK that night, but I try not to get too down when our WDW vacations come to an end. One of my favorite quotes ever is by Dr. Suess: Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened. I really try to remember that in most instances. And definitely with WDW trips. I count myself to be incredibly lucky to have gone to WDW as often as I have. Not many people can say that they've been lucky enough to go more than once or twice. So I just count my blessings and start planning the next trip instead of crying over the one that's ending!

Seth was out by the time we got on the boat...poor little guy. So he didn't get to see this, which was a very cool thing to see from the boat on the way back to WL!

Ray decided to leave his mark on the boat. And let me just say, we aren't ones to vandalize property. But this was a sticker easily removed and Ray felt (and still feels) strongly about the passing of Mr. Jobs, so he just went with the urge to leave his mark.

Last time we'd walk back to WL on this beautiful path....

Night swimming....

I took some more pictures of the Villas lobby before I went up to the room...

I love that this picture says, "Rooms with running water for people who love to be clean."

We all passed out as soon as we got back to the room. The next morning it was time to pack up and leave. Seth doesn't seem too sad....still playing with the curtain!

After we packed the car, we headed to DTD for some last-minute shopping and lunch. Of course we had to get some snacks from Goofy's to eat on the road....

Seth checking himself out in the crazy mirror.....

Continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=45161509&postcount=575

 

[punkin413]

Treats at Goofy's.....

My good boy letting his mommy shop....

We split a salad and the chicken fettucine alfredo at Wolfgang Puck Express for lunch. I forgot to take a picture of the salad.

Then we headed out. Right after we got to the car Heather texted me and said they were at T-Rex having lunch. By this time it was pouring (the ONLY rain we had the entire trip....we were SO lucky!) so there was no way we could go over there to see them. I'm sorry Heather!

Bye, Disney World....I love you!

15 minutes later I looked down to see this....

He did awesome on the way home....slept a good bit of the trip. We stopped to grab some dinner at some point (at Chick Fil A, I think) and he watched Nemo after that.....

About halfway home we were talking about the trip and I looked at Ray with a horrified look on my face when I realized that we FORGOT TO RIDE THE TRAIN AT MK!!!!!! How in the world did we do that??? Seth LOVES trains (which he calls "choos") and we didn't ride the flippin' train. Yeah, parents of the year. Good grief, I still feel bad about that!

When we got to Atlanta it was about 7:00pm. This was a Friday so we were concerned about traffic, but it should be all gone by 7:00, right? WRONG! They had just started the new Peachpass program (a/k/a the program where you have to pay to use the HOV lane that EVERYBODY here hates and doesn't use) so we couldn't using the HOV and traffic was HORRIBLE.

WELCOME HOME!!!

So that was our trip! It was good, it was bad, it was memorable!!! But mostly it was AWESOME. Seeing Disney through my little guy's eyes is just unbeliavable, and I can't wait to get him back there. Especially now that he'll be 2.5 years old....he's gonna love it!

Thanks so much for reading and hanging in there with me over the last 8 months! I enjoyed "talking" with you and am so glad some of my "old" dis friends are here, and that I've made some new dis friends as well!

 

[Happy Elf]

Great fireworks pictures! MNSSHP is so much fun! We are hoping to do it in Oct. 2013. I know the kids would love it!

I had to laugh at Seth with the towel...the Dark Side was with him at that moment! Too funny!

It's great to view WDW through your kids eyes!

Now I need to go back and catch up on all the stuff I missed!

 

[CandleontheWater]

I can't wait to see Hallowishes again this year! Everett loves the music and we have to listen to it everyday during lunch. He's got it pretty much memorized, and its pretty hilarious to hear him singing along, especially when he does he evil laugh.

I'm so glad you guys are getting back to the World again soon. I thought I remember you saying it would be a while, but May will be here before you know it!

The last packing day is always the worst, but I'm glad you at least got some yummy treats at Goofys to make you feel better.

Looking forward to reading your next PTR/TR!

 

[shannon47142]

oh my gosh what a fantastic night at the party!! You have some amazing photos!!! Seth looks so grown up in the "right now" pictures! Thanks so much for sharing your trip memories!! Your future trip sounds fun as well! oh- I love the qoute from Dr Seuss!! What a great saying esp for the end of our trips

 

[nowellsl]

Great report Dawn! Your fireworks pictures are GREAT

 

[micandminforever]

I have enjoyed reading your report. Your pictures have me all excited about my trip in Sept.