1 Summer, 2 Coasts, 3 Kids...Ready, Set, Go!

Not much to say about Day 2. We have tickets to MNSSHP for this day. It is hard to imagine going to a Halloween party on Labor Day, but it was our only chance. So, we have our tickets. We are planning to hit the park as close to 4 as possible. Probably grab something to eat and prepare to enjoy the party. I want to see characters. The kids...not so much. They want to ride rides and trick or treat. I think the rule is whoever pays for the trip gets to decide. :confused3 Right?

The rest of the plans for the day are still open. We have heard getting to Typhoon Lagoon is getting more difficult due to DTD construction. Jacob wants to do DisneyQuest, which is DTD so we would still have to deal with the construction. If he were to do the WP he wants Blizzard Beach. Marissa prefers swimming with sharks at TL. Chelsea is petrified of TL's wave pool after getting knocked down last year. We were both pretty scraped up after that. I would be ok never to see TL again. I didn't get to see much of it. We went on one slide and spent the rest of the time in the wave pool or lazy river. We did more slides at Blizzard Beach. It is so hard when you only have a partial day. Last year, we did Blizzard Beach, then Typhoon Lagoon, then DisneyQuest...all in one day! Never again. Noone felt we got to stay in one place long enough to really get a feel of it. I didn't like DisneyQuest. Maybe during one of my resting times, Jacob could take Chelsea to DisneyQuest. Because his fun train has no breaks.

I started putting together my binder. I am printing the QS menus for each theme park and the snack stands. That way we have a good idea of where to eat. I have done AK so far. It will be hard to agree on that day. We all like Restaurantasaurus last year. We were really hungry. I was verging on hangry. So, it was nice to sit in the cool and eat. We all got the burgers. This time, Jacob would want Flame Tree. Marissa thinks it would be way too much food. I agree, so maybe we can only use 3 meal credits and share. Jacob could get the ribs, and we could get to 1/2 chicken plates. Jacob would eat his ribs and half of my chicken and the girls could share a half chicken. The kids were excited about the dessert that was included, until they saw the selections. They aren't chocolate mousse fans, or banana pudding, or pretty much everything on the dessert menus at the QS places.

Today, I will attempt to print out MK. I am not looking forward to Epcot. :scared1: So many menus!

Marissa graduates today. :woohoo: Another one done. She got her straight A's again. We are so blessed to have moved to this city. Where we moved from Spanish was the only foreign language you could take. She has loved being able to do Japanese. She is a little mad that we didn't move here by Kindergarten. She would have loved to have done the Japanese immersion school. We have a Japanese, French and Spanish immersion school (they are hoping to add a Chinese immersion school). By the 4th grade all of the classes are taught solely in the language chosen. She would have loved that. She still got to do 4 years of Japanese and then that is what her major is going to be. I am so thankful she got a financial aid that pays all of her tuition and fees for the next four years. It was a total relief. More Disney money.

 
Yesterday was a long day. Marissa graduated from high school. She was the 11 o'clocks top story so I have proof she graduated. The news did a special story about her and her dad. Her dad is in Afghanistan and she was pretty disappointed that he was going to miss her entire Senior Year and not see her graduate. Plus all the relatives that came to see Jacob graduate last year, weren't coming to see her graduate this year. Which was good news for my side of the family because there would be enough tickets for them to come see. Anyway, her dad had contacted the school about seeing if they would be able to allow a Skype session during the graduation. Well, the school contacted the school district and they thought, "Great, free publicity!" So, they did everything they could. They contacted the news station. They gave us all of our tickets up front. Usually, you get 2 free tickets and then can buy 4 more...so 6 that would be guaranteed the same floor at the theater. Then once everyone had a chance to get those (takes about 2 weeks), anything left over, the student can go and buy 1 more ticket per day. They sold out rather quickly. Last year, our tickets were spread amongst the three levels. This year they called me and asked how many tickets. I had already gotten my first 6. I told them that we could do the 1 at a time like everyone else but they insisted, so they sent home 5 more tickets and they were all in the orchestra section. I guess that was good. It started to feel more like a "look how great her dad is" event rather than a "hey, Marissa you are graduating!"

So, she has practice yesterday afternoon. Carey, Marissa's step mom and is pretty great, was frantic. She couldn't get a good wifi connection and the Skyping wasn't working. The news station called while we were talking and they wanted to interview Marissa after she walked across the stage. She was in the very last row, so they graduate first. Carey told them that it might not happen because she couldn't get it to work. Well, that didn't make them or the school district happy, so after graduation practice was over, they worked on it for a few more hours. It was up and running. However, not without glitches. The generator went out at his base like 10 minutes before graduation started. She was sweating. I also didn't mention that her son was graduating from 8th grade and she was missing it to do this for Steve and Marissa. Her son said he was ok with it. Anyway, the generator was only down for about 5 minutes.

Graduation went on without a hitch. Her graduation party started at 9:30 pm and I was allowed to pick her up at 3:30 am this morning and I still made it to work by 7 am. I am living on Advocare Spark today. Yay energy drink!

I watched the news segment and it was ok.

http://www.kezi.com/sheldon-grad-receives-special-gift/

Hope everyone has a great day. I will be looking forward to seeing my bed again tonight and not having to be up early in the morning.
 
Denovagirl said:
Wow! What a day! Congrats to the grad! You need a rest! ;)

It was a great day. Trying to get some rest but the activities never seem to stop. Marissa was invited to 3 grad parties yesterday. She ended up going to only 2. Chelsea had dance studio photo shoot the last 3 days. Today I am driving to the Coast to see my Dad. Hope you and your family has a wonderful Father's Day.
 

It is 39 days until we leave for Disneyland. I should be so excited. I should have everything under control. I don't. The woman that is working on the group rates at the hotel still hasn't gotten the information for us so we can reserve a room. :furious: :mad::headache: I am beginning to think this trip isn't going to happen. The group tickets are through her as well. I should just go to the LMT site and book whatever I can. Or see if Park Vue Inn has anything left. I am so done with waiting.

73 days till we leave for WDW. :banana: :banana: This trip is under control and on schedule. 13 more days until I make FP+ reservations. Pay off date is 28 days. I have countdowns for everything.

I am still in the process of printing off menus. I only have MK left. We keep going back between Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. There were tons of slides we didn't even see at Typhoon Lagoon. I just don't know which to do.

Park Plans:


Sunday - Hollywood Studios
Monday - Water Park, then Magic Kingdom (MNSSHP)
Tuesday - Epcot
Wednesday - Animal Kingdom
Thursday - Magic Kingdom
Friday - Epcot
Saturday - Hollywood Studios
Sunday - Leave (early flight)

Maybe we could do the other water park later in the week and just go to Epcot or HS in the evening. Why am I making this so hard? Actually, I can't do the HS in the evening, because we have an ADR at 50's Prime Time for lunch. Maybe we could make the Epcot day on Friday a Water Park day and just go to Epcot in the afternoon or early evening. It has EMH that evening so it would be open until 11. That might be what we do.

 
Wow. Frustrating! I would do as you said, and just go ahead and see what you can find and book yourself. That is just nuts. Doesnt sound like I would want to room around the same area as someone so unorganized anyway, I'd just kinda do my own thing, lol.. :rotfl2: You're a saint for putting up with it thus far!

Your park plans look good. Afraid I have no advice on the waterpark situation though, we don't feel the draw to them at all because our kids are a little young and we have the top rated water park in the country close to us, so we would never give up a park day to go to one... but they both look fun, so I wouldn't stress, Id vote for the one you haven't gone to before, even if you missed some stuff at the other.
 
Denovagirl said:
Wow. Frustrating! I would do as you said, and just go ahead and see what you can find and book yourself. That is just nuts. Doesnt sound like I would want to room around the same area as someone so unorganized anyway, I'd just kinda do my own thing, lol.. :rotfl2: You're a saint for putting up with it thus far!

Your park plans look good. Afraid I have no advice on the waterpark situation though, we don't feel the draw to them at all because our kids are a little young and we have the top rated water park in the country close to us, so we would never give up a park day to go to one... but they both look fun, so I wouldn't stress, Id vote for the one you haven't gone to before, even if you missed some stuff at the other.

My kids love Schlitterbaun. I loved it the 2 times I went. Even though nothing will come close, they really like the wdw ones.
 
I like Typhoon Lagoon better mainly because I'm not really big on hearing christmas music outside of the winter months.
 
My kids love Schlitterbaun. I loved it the 2 times I went. Even though nothing will come close, they really like the wdw ones.

Wow! How'd you know? Lol.. Yea it's pretty fun, especially since it's like a few parks in one. I'm
Sure when our kids are older they'll be asking to go to the WDW water parks too, kids are so drawn to water. But until they can both swim well and are both tall enough for some of the slides I'm keeping it off the table! ;)

I'm not a huge fan of being in water all day, so I really have zero desire to go to one. I barely like the pool, a quick ten minute dip and I'm done.

But I can see the draw and fun in it. I do think the themes are cute!
 
Denovagirl said:
Wow! How'd you know? Lol.. Yea it's pretty fun, especially since it's like a few parks in one. I'm
Sure when our kids are older they'll be asking to go to the WDW water parks too, kids are so drawn to water. But until they can both swim well and are both tall enough for some of the slides I'm keeping it off the table! ;)

I'm not a huge fan of being in water all day, so I really have zero desire to go to one. I barely like the pool, a quick ten minute dip and I'm done.

But I can see the draw and fun in it. I do think the themes are cute!

I am not a pool person or water person either but they love it. If we still lived in Texas we wouldn't go to any other water park than Schlitterbaun. Jacob got to go last year for graduation. Marissa was looking forward to go but then her granpa told her she had to pay for half the airfare which Jacob didn't have to. So she is bummed. Living in Oregon, there aren't any amazing waterparks so we have had to lower our standards. So compared to waterparks here, wdw ones are great. You are lucky, your kids won't want to go probably to wdw.

Hope you are having a great weekend.
 
I like Typhoon Lagoon better mainly because I'm not really big on hearing christmas music outside of the winter months.

I vaguely remember the music at Blizzard Beach. I guess I am good at tuning things out. I am still 50/50 as to which park. I really think we might have to do both...two different days though. Thanks for letting me know about the Christmas music. Since we are doing Halloween this trip and Christmas if we go to Blizzard Beach. I just may have to take the kids to Liberty Tree Tavern and celebrate Thanksgiving while we are there. Just do all the Fall / Winter Holidays in one week. Happy New Year hats for the fireworks? :idea:
 
I think I would be going nuts with the lack of planning for the DL trip.
Sounds like you had a good plan for the WDW park, I can make my fp+ on saturday. I have no plan yet. I didn't even know EMH changed till I saw that you said it on D's ptr.
 
I think I would be going nuts with the lack of planning for the DL trip.
Sounds like you had a good plan for the WDW park, I can make my fp+ on saturday. I have no plan yet. I didn't even know EMH changed till I saw that you said it on D's ptr.

Hello. Welcome. :) I do have an update about the DL trip, but I was waiting till I was home so I could post pictures. Work bans photobucket, so I can't do it from work. I am trying to figure out FP+. I get to make mine in 4 or 5 days. I hope the change to EMH didn't result in plans being changed for you. I couldn't imagine having to change ADRs at this point in time.
 
Just stopping in to say hello... :)

D~
 
I finally caught up!

Your plans for the World look great.. So sorry about DL... that must be driving you INSANE!!! it would with me!!

I hope it all gets worked out soon so you know what to do for DW!!! :hug:
 
Just stopping in to say hello... :)

D~


Thanks for stopping by. I am about to go over to your PTR next.


I finally caught up!

Your plans for the World look great.. So sorry about DL... that must be driving you INSANE!!! it would with me!!

I hope it all gets worked out soon so you know what to do for DW!!! :hug:

Thanks for stopping by. I am hoping to be able to do a full update on Sunday (after all the dance madness ends). Chelsea has dance recital tonight and tomorrow. I will be so glad to have some time off from dance classes. :woohoo:
 
I am having such a fun time planning these trips. I will be leaving for DL in 31 days. :dance3: There are a few things I want to have for the DL trip.

I would love to get the Kingdom Keepers (book 1 and 2, maybe 3) on CD. We got a couple of the Narnia ones from the library last trip and it made the drive down to Disneyland so much more fun. Hopefully, I can find them on CD at Amazon. I also need to purchase Photopass +. They still call it that at Disneyland and it costs $70 to pre-order. I have wondered if I really need to do that, but I didn't with the high school trip and I have exactly 1 poorly taken ride photo...that is it. So, I need to do the photo pass thing.

We have had massive rain storms the last couple of days. Marissa tried to go to Taco Bell with a friend yesterday. They ended up getting drenched. I asked Marissa if she was trying to acclimate herself for WDW. She said it was actually humid yesterday too, so she did feel like WDW (although it was only in the high 60's).

I live 2 miles from where I work. With school out and dance over for the year (as of this coming Saturday), I am going to start walking to work. It means I will have to leave the house around 6:30 am, but I can do it. Trying to get my body and feet ready.

I will make a more detailed post on Sunday (after all the dance madness). With pictures too. I bet you all didn't know that I knew what a picture was. That reminds me, I will have to charge my camera so I can take pictures tonight of Chelsea at her dance recital tonight.
 
I am having such a fun time planning these trips. I will be leaving for DL in 31 days. :dance3: There are a few things I want to have for the DL trip. I would love to get the Kingdom Keepers (book 1 and 2, maybe 3) on CD. We got a couple of the Narnia ones from the library last trip and it made the drive down to Disneyland so much more fun. Hopefully, I can find them on CD at Amazon. I also need to purchase Photopass +. They still call it that at Disneyland and it costs $70 to pre-order. I have wondered if I really need to do that, but I didn't with the high school trip and I have exactly 1 poorly taken ride photo...that is it. So, I need to do the photo pass thing. We have had massive rain storms the last couple of days. Marissa tried to go to Taco Bell with a friend yesterday. They ended up getting drenched. I asked Marissa if she was trying to acclimate herself for WDW. She said it was actually humid yesterday too, so she did feel like WDW (although it was only in the high 60's). I live 2 miles from where I work. With school out and dance over for the year (as of this coming Saturday), I am going to start walking to work. It means I will have to leave the house around 6:30 am, but I can do it. Trying to get my body and feet ready. I will make a more detailed post on Sunday (after all the dance madness). With pictures too. I bet you all didn't know that I knew what a picture was. That reminds me, I will have to charge my camera so I can take pictures tonight of Chelsea at her dance recital tonight.

Wow, wish the photopass cost that much at WDW ... lol
 




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