Y.E.S. we are going to the Food and Wine Festival

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Welcome to my very first PTR. The Cast will include my Mom (AKA Grandma or Tina), my Son Riley (age 14), my Son Gabrian (age 3), and myself (Megan). We are going to be in Disney October 27th - November 3rd. I am so excited to plan this trip!!

Riley will be participating in the Disney Y.E.S program in their Marine Biology class. I am not sure if he is more excited about going to Disney or missing school for a week. He is about to start High School this year and I was debating about wether it would be wise to pull him from school but the Y.E.S class helped sway my decision. He has always talked about being a Marine Biologist and I am helping this class will entice him to pursue that Dream.

We are excited to be there during the Wine and Food Festival. This will be our first time going and we have always wanted to. I am starting to save room now so I can eat and drink my way around the world.

Our plan is to leave our house on Friday the 26th (driving) and arrive in Orlando on Saturday the 27th. We have rented a 2 bedroom condo off property. It is called Fantasy World Resort and it looks awesome. We are so excited to have all that room and a full kitchen. It also has some great pools, water slides, and a lazy River for our relaxing days. Some day I hope to stay on Property but until then I think this is a pretty good alternative.

We have reservations for:

October 29th: Le Cellier 1:10 PM

October 30th : T-Rex 3:00 PM

October 31st: Sci-Fi Cafe 1:25 PM

I look forward to meeting everyone and getting help to plan this trip!

Megan

PS...How do I post pictures so I can introduce my family to you?

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Holding

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Well I think I finally figured out how to post pictures. Hopefully this will come out for me.

To introduce the cast:

The first up is my son Riley. He turned 14 in April and I am finding that 14 is no better than 13 . He is very helpful, funny, smart, and lover of all video games. I don't know what I would do without his help with my younger son.

This is Gabrian. He is my super cute 3 year old (yes I do like to space my kids out ). He is such a happy boy and that is curious about everything. He hasn't met anything he hasn't wanted to climb or get into. I have him watching the Disney Junior channel so I can brainwash...er...get him really interested into Disney characters. I want to get my money's worth when we are there. What fun would character meets be if he didn't know any of them.

Here is a side view of my Mom. I will try to find something better of her (maybe even something that shows her face!!). Anywho...she is great. She is my best friend and I can't imagine a day going by without talking to her. Right now she is living in Maine but she is in the process of selling her house and we are going to purchase a duplex in RI. We have put in an offer to the house (it is a shortsale) so now we are just waiting. I can't wait for her to get here.

I sadly cannot find a picture of me. I will try to find one. I really don't like having my picture taken so the pickings will be slim.

I have been brushing up on trip reports and get excited anytime I see anything that mentions the Food and Wine Festival. I wish I could find more pictures of the menus and pricing. I like to plan

This weekend we went to the beach. Gabrian has been asking for a couple of weeks now and I finally caved. We had such a good time that I think we go back next Saturday. The trip also go me thinking that I definitely want to fit Cocoa Beach into our trip. I think the boys (and myself) will have such a good time there. We can finish our day off by having dinner at a restaurant on the beach.

I am undecided on what we should do on Halloween. Should I try to find something going on or is there somewhere the boys could go trick-or-treating. For Riley it isn't such a big deal but I hate to give up a cute costume opportunity for Gabrian. We looked into the Halloween party at Magic Kingdom but it was way out of my price range. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I guess it is time for me to get back to work. Hope to hear from you soon!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hi Megan! Looks like you are off to a great start planning. That's really cool your son is doing that program. Is it a fairly new program? I wish I knew about it when I was in high school. (and that was a loooong time ago )

I think your ADRs are great. I've always wanted to try T-Rex, but I have too many ADRs as it is. I guess we'll save it for next time (we say that every time though, LOL)

Looking forward to more. BTW, I can't see your pictures, but it could be because I am at work. I'll look again from home, but basically just make sure the link to the picture has a .jpg or .jpeg or .gif at the end because sometimes when you copy and paste links, they aren't to the actual picture itself and it won't show up. I know you'll probably figure this out though!

 

[midwesternbelle]

Hey Megan! Your trips looks so fun! you must tell me how the Y.E.S program goes (cute title btw)! I have always wondered if it is worth the three hours! Hehe
Anywho when you go to post pictures you need to click on the little icon that looks like a picture of a mountain and a sun in the editing page. It will then pull up a box and ask you for an image link. Paste the link in the box and your all set! Hopefully that is helpful!

As for your trip... it sounds absolutely awesome! I am planning a trip for this christmas and I have a lunch ressie at Le Cellier as well! The food and wine festival sounds really cool! Hopefully you won't gain TOO much weight on the trip! Hahahaha... thats always a major concern when I go to disney!

Looking forward to more posts!
Ariel

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I want to try and post my pictures again. Hopefully they will come out this time.

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This is Gabrian at his very first Dentist Appointment.

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This is Riley on our Vacation last year. We took a cruise and it was fantastic.

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I guess it didn't work. I will keep trying. I am using photo bucket and I just can't figure out what I am doing wrong.

 

[Motocross Tink]

Hey! Looks like fun, I've always wanted to do the F&W festival! That is so exciting! Don't feel to bad about the pictures, I'm 15 and I still can't figure it out sometimes. (I know, a teenager who is confused about something on a computer. How strange. ) Can't wait to see and hear about everything!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Hey! Looks like fun, I've always wanted to do the F&W festival! That is so exciting! Don't feel to bad about the pictures, I'm 15 and I still can't figure it out sometimes. (I know, a teenager who is confused about something on a computer. How strange. ) Can't wait to see and hear about everything!

Thanks!!! You did give me a great idea though. I should ask Riley if he can figure it out. He is always my go to computer guy in the house

 

[Motocross Tink]

Thanks!!! You did give me a great idea though. I should ask Riley if he can figure it out. He is always my go to computer guy in the house

Haha I'm usually able to do this kind of stuff, but something about photobucket just doesn't connect with me!

 

[midwesternbelle]

Hmm... i see your still having issues with the photos... maybe this will help you:

When you hover over an image this little thing show pop up:

And all you have to do is copy the "IMG" code and paste it right into the posts on the DIS! Hopefully this will help!
Ariel

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Thanks so much Ariel! I am going to attempt this again

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Gabrian

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[Riles_and_Gabe]

Ok...its huge but it worked! This is so exciting!!

 

[Motocross Tink]

Yay the pictures work!!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Riley went on his annual camping trip this weekend with his Dad. I was happy for Riley but sad for me. The house seems quite with just Gabrian and myself. I don't know what I am going to do when Riley goes away to college. I wonder how he would feel about his Mom living in his Dorm room with him.

Gabrian and I did some fun stuff this weekend to keep us occupied. We went to Roger William's Zoo in RI. They have this great interactive site for the kids where there is so much for them to play with and explore. His favorite part was the water sections. Thankfully my friend told me about the fun water and we brought a back up outfit for him. Some smart parents even had their kids in bathing suits. I think we will definitely do that next time.

We also walked around the mall yesterday because it was so hot and we wanted to get into some AC. We had a good time in the Disney store. I want to get Gabrian the Lightening McQueen suitcase but I am going to have to watch and wait for it to go on sale. $35 is just too much for me to spend. I hope I can catch it on sale before our trip in November.

I am going to attempt to put up some more pictures and even see if I can get them to a more acceptable size.

http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg593/ridlee/309.jpg

This is my Mom at Thanksgiving. She is pretty much the best Cook/Baker I know. It's not just me saying it either...everyone that eats her food says the same thing

http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg593/ridlee/022-Copy.jpg

This is Riley at South of the Border on our way to Tampa last November for our Cruise. He loves to try on hats and he also loves to give a thumbs up

http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg593/ridlee/043.jpg

This is me on the shuttle to our Cruise last November. I hate having my picture taken and hate it even more to look at it afterwards but think it is only fair to post my picture too.

Well I hear the boys fighting downstairs so I better get down there. Have a great Monday everyone!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

We are starting to get really excited about Disney in our house. Ok...mostly it is me. The 3 year old still has no idea what is happening and the 14 year old is a 14 year old and too cool to show how excited he is. I have started firming up my budget and need to buckle down to make sure I have enough to eat my way around the world in Epcot.

My Mom has just reserved her scooter for the week. She has a difficult time walking after a short period of time and this allows her to see so much more of the parks. It was only $117 for the week and they will drop it off and pick it up at our resort.

I am trying to decide what to do for Halloween this year. I am not sure if the boys should just dress up for our day at the park or if there is anything fun going on that I can take them to. My other thought is that Riley's Grandfather does not live that far away and maybe we could go trick-or-treating in his neigborhood.

This is a picture of the boys in 2010 when we lived in Salem, MA

This is my other favorite one of Gabrian during that Halloween

I need to start planning what they will be this year. Well at least I still get to choose for Gabrian. I would like to be more creative this year and attempt to make my own costumes this year. My friend has recently become very crafty and she is an inspiration to me. I will have to start thinking about what I could make this year.

I have been tossing around the idea of getting some pins on ebay so the boys could start trading. I also really like the vinylmations but they seem much more expensive and bulky to carry around.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Your boys look so cute in their costumes. I am sure they will be excited about this year's costumes no matter what you pick! That's great you want to try and make your own costume for Gabrian. How fun! I'm sure it'll turn out wonderful!

Have you given any thought to MNSSHP? I guess it is rather late at night and the boys may be tired though. I have never been so I can't say what it's all about but it looks like fun!

 

[Motocross Tink]

Aww! The Nemo costume is to cute!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Our plans are really starting to come together. We are down to 48 days until we leave. Gabrian and I made a countdown calendar yesterday. It ended up costing me way more than I thought. I started off at the dollar store but than ended up at Michaels and spent $17 in stickers. After the $17 I already spent at the dollar store it was a bit pricey.

We have decided to fly instead of drive. We got an awesome price out of Boston. We are only paying $201/pp and that includes the tax. We are flying airtran for the first time so hopefully they are decent. This was nice becuase now Riley wont miss as much school. I think I will still take the same amount of days off. That way I will have the Friday before off to finish packing and clean the house. The Monday after will be a day to recooperate. I would say the only downside be on Saturday the day we arrive we wont get there until 5 pm. We had hoped to get in earlier that day to enjoy the resort and check out the area. Oh well...it is way better than driving for 2 days each way. We will get in early enough to go grocery shopping and meet the delivery person that is dropping off the scooter for my mom.

The other great deal we got was our car rental. My Mom was able to find a mini van rental through Thrifty for $242 for the week. We are beyond excited about this deal. We were resigned to getting a sedan but had really wanted a van. We always feel so bad for Riley as he is getting older because he is tall and is running out of room in the back seat. As for Gabrian it is much nicer for me to get him in and out of the car seat in a van. So now we will be able to spend the week in comfort. In fact my dream is to get a van for myself in real life. I have a Ford Focus and the boys and I are quickly growing out of it.

I joined weight watchers a month ago. I have been doing really great and lost 11 lbs so far. I had been going back and forth on how to handle my eating while on vacation. My original thought was that I could eat anything while away and than get back on track when I came home. As I have been losing weight I realized I do not want to gain back all the hard work I have already done. My plan now is to stay on plan and purchase a weight watchers pedometer that will calculate how many points I have earned through activity so I can accurately calculate how much extra I can eat. I did a trial run to Portland, ME last weekend and it was very successsful. I was able to have treats during the day but kept the eating reasonable. On the day we leave I will go to a meeting and on the day we are leaving I will go to a meeting in Orlando. This will keep me on track and I am hoping to lose weight while on vacation with all that walking.

On our first park day we are going to Animal Kingdom. I am pretty excited because it has been about 10 years since I have been to this park. I dont remember liking it that much but after reading the trip reports it is sounding pretty great. I especially think Gabrian will love it. We have a reservation at Boma for 6 that night. My friend at work cannot say enough good things about this restaurant. He used to live in Orlando and he said that anytime he had people visiiting that is where he would take them there. I am also excited to have an opportunity to check out the resort. From all the reviews it sounds beautiful. My dream is to one day stay onsite with the dining plan. This is one of the resorts I would consider. I may as well dream big

On Monday is our Epcot day. This is the day that Riley has his class with the Disney YES program. He is taking a Marine Biology class for kids that are interested in possibly going into that field for their career. He has talked about Marine Biology for as long as I can remember and I am so glad he will be able to see what opportunities are out there. I am also hoping that this class will make his teachers less upset about him missing a week of school. We are really excited about the Food and Wine festival. It will be our first time to participate. I have a reservation for Le Cellier that I hate to give up but I am really thinking is unneccessary with the festival going on. I think because it is so popular I hate to give it up. We are most excited about Soarin and Test Track.

I think I will take a break here. I need to make some pumpkin muffins for the boys. Which reminds me that I bought pumpkin spice coffee for my keurig and it is delicious. I am so excited for Fall. It is my favorite season and all the pumpkin makes me feel that it is getting closer.

Ok more updates coming soon

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I was able to get some photos uploaded to photo bucket. This is a picture of the countdown calendar.

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Sorry about the hugeness of the picture. I am excited to just be able to figure out how to post it.

I have decided that the boys are going to do pin trading while at the parks. I purchased 26 pins on ebay and 2 lanyards. Gabrian loved his with Cars on it. Riley was not such a big fan. I got the vinylmation lanyard which I absolutely love but he felt was way too girly. I have now ordered him a new lanyward and decided that I would pin trade too so more pins have been ordered. I don't want to think about how much money has been invested.

Here is a picture of the pins I have received so far.

This is Gabrian wearing his lanyard with the pins he choose.

I will be posting what I think is our official schedule...until we change our mind again