1st trip as Mr. and Mrs. (lots of pics!) Updated 9/29: TR Link Posted!!

[Dancegrl624]

When I booked our ADR's around the 60 day mark, there was NO availability at LeCellier OR CM. Then, pixie dust was sprinkled on me on Friday with online dining and I got both (about a week before!). So, don't give up if you really want it.

 

[stacikristine]

When I booked our ADR's around the 60 day mark, there was NO availability at LeCellier OR CM. Then, pixie dust was sprinkled on me on Friday with online dining and I got both (about a week before!). So, don't give up if you really want it.

That's awesome! As far as ours go, Michael was a whole lot more excited about Coral Reef than Le Cellier So I guess it's a good thing we had to reserve there instead. And I was talking with him about trying to get into 'Ohana, but he said he'd just assume stick with Kona b/c he saw something he really wanted to try there. So it looks like we're good!

 

[ibedancin824]

Heyy i had trouble with what I wanted but then I keep calling and got what I wanted so keep trying if you want to get something different!!!

 

[khertz]

Congrats on doing so well with your ADR's! Just out of curiosity, why did you opt for the phone reservations rather than the online system? Did you find it easier to do it that way? I'm still debating when I'm going to do when it's time to make ours. Luckily I have a little while to see how the online system goes before I make a decision. I'm sending some pixie dust your way that you are able to score some last minute Le Cellier reservations!

 

[crocko]

Woohoo!!!

Yay for getting good ADR's. From what I've been seeing, Kona looks like a great place to eat!

I've been to Coral Reef....not a big fish fan, but man! the food there is very good.

 

[stacikristine]

Heyy i had trouble with what I wanted but then I keep calling and got what I wanted so keep trying if you want to get something different!!!

Thanks. Yay for getting the places you wanted! I think we've actually decided we'll like these places even better. We're really happy with all of our ADRs now!

Congrats on doing so well with your ADR's! Just out of curiosity, why did you opt for the phone reservations rather than the online system? Did you find it easier to do it that way? I'm still debating when I'm going to do when it's time to make ours. Luckily I have a little while to see how the online system goes before I make a decision. I'm sending some pixie dust your way that you are able to score some last minute Le Cellier reservations!

Thanks! We're really happy with how they turned out--even if they weren't our first picks! I'm renting points from a DVC member...and there's a glitch in the system where DVC members/renters can't make ressies 90+10. They can only do 90 days. So I pretty much had to call. If I were you, I'd get online at 6:01 Eastern time and make as many as possible online. And then if you have questions or need additional help, you can call at 7:00 Eastern time. Good luck!!

Woohoo!!!

Yay for getting good ADR's. From what I've been seeing, Kona looks like a great place to eat!

I've been to Coral Reef....not a big fish fan, but man! the food there is very good.

Thanks!! We were really happy with them! I asked Michael if he wanted to try to change from Kona to 'Ohana and he doesn't...we really like the Kona menu. I'm glad you liked Coral Reef. I've read so many mixed reviews...but the atmosphere seems beautiful!!

 

[jenjolt]

SO happy to hear you guys are happy and excited about your ADRs...I had some pixie dust sprinkled on me and I got everything I wanted with excellent times I have been checking online and tweaking here and there but I'm very excited!!!

I can't wait to hear more about your plans...going back to catch up on all I have missed!

 

[princess_momma]

Hi!! I just read through your entire PTR!! All 29 page!! WHEW!! I loved it though! You seem so fun, I'm sad that we are missing each other by a couple of weeks!!

I LOVE DOI!! I have gone the past 3 years just because I love it. The first one was Princesses on Ice and that was my favorite. It showed quick stories of all the princesses and was jsut AMAZING!! For Sleeping Beauty they even had this HUGE dragon come out that really breathed fire and spit it all over the ice...it was so cool. Last year I went to Finding Nemo and this past year (my first year actually having a kid there) was the Incredibles. Sadly, they won't be back where I am any time soon but I looked and they are having one in Orlando when I am there. While we are free that night, I don't really wanna drive to the arena and then be all tired the next day! Oh well!!

I love all your pictures and how in love you and your DH are. Its so cute.

 

[stacikristine]

SO happy to hear you guys are happy and excited about your ADRs...I had some pixie dust sprinkled on me and I got everything I wanted with excellent times I have been checking online and tweaking here and there but I'm very excited!!!

I can't wait to hear more about your plans...going back to catch up on all I have missed!

Thanks! We're really excited! Oh yes--your other trip is coming up soon, isn't it? That is SOO exciting!! It's getting closer and closer--finally

Hi!! I just read through your entire PTR!! All 29 page!! WHEW!! I loved it though! You seem so fun, I'm sad that we are missing each other by a couple of weeks!!

I LOVE DOI!! I have gone the past 3 years just because I love it. The first one was Princesses on Ice and that was my favorite. It showed quick stories of all the princesses and was jsut AMAZING!! For Sleeping Beauty they even had this HUGE dragon come out that really breathed fire and spit it all over the ice...it was so cool. Last year I went to Finding Nemo and this past year (my first year actually having a kid there) was the Incredibles. Sadly, they won't be back where I am any time soon but I looked and they are having one in Orlando when I am there. While we are free that night, I don't really wanna drive to the arena and then be all tired the next day! Oh well!!

I love all your pictures and how in love you and your DH are. Its so cute.

Thanks for reading!! Aw...that would have been so cool if we were there at the same time! DOI was so neat. That is awesome that you've been so much! I think we'll wait to go again until we have kids. But we enjoyed it as adults too! Thanks--we are so in love. and I love it

 

[princess_momma]

Hey!! Also I LOVE LOVE LOVE your binder pages!! Do you have any of the templates or anything saved you could maybe pm me? They are so fabulous.

 

[stacikristine]

Hey!! Also I LOVE LOVE LOVE your binder pages!! Do you have any of the templates or anything saved you could maybe pm me? They are so fabulous.

Thanks! They were a lot of fun to make! I would love to share...but they're made in InDesign. Do you have Adobe Creative Suite? Or at least InDesign? If so, I'll for sure pass them on!

 

[princess_momma]

I don't unfortunately. My computer situation is all screwy right now...I'm rarely ever home so I cancelled my internet and so really can't do anything on my personal computer (which is my dad's old computer and I'm pretty sure it may have one of those) and the computer I am on now and pretty much always is at work and they have NOTHING!! *tear* I liked them so much!

 

[stacikristine]

I don't unfortunately. My computer situation is all screwy right now...I'm rarely ever home so I cancelled my internet and so really can't do anything on my personal computer (which is my dad's old computer and I'm pretty sure it may have one of those) and the computer I am on now and pretty much always is at work and they have NOTHING!! *tear* I liked them so much!

Sorry! I'd love love love to share them if I could...but they can't be opened in any program besides InDesign. I'm really glad you like them though! What are your dates again?

 

[princess_momma]

Its okay!! No worries!!

I'll be there from 9/10 to 9/16.

 

[stacikristine]

Its okay!! No worries!!

I'll be there from 9/10 to 9/16.

Almost 2 months to go!

 

[stacikristine]

First of all, here’s the long-overdue camp re-cap I promised:

We took our youth to a Church Camp in Oklahoma. I came to this same camp for the first time when I was 3 months old!! My parents were sponsors almost every year when I was little. I think I’ve only not gone about 8 years. So this place is special to me.

It was neat being on the other side of things, though. I absolutely loved the kids that came with us. Only a handful were actually kids from our youth group, but all of the kids just meshed so well together. And we had NO PROBLEMS! Let me repeat that: We had no problems! This is huge. No teenage girl tiffs, no guys obsessed with taking girls on icee dates, no pranks (Michael announced in the parent meeting that if there was one prank, the student would be sent home—thank goodness), no cliques. Nothing. It was so good. These students were precious. I’m so thankful I was able to go and spend the time with them.

Here are a couple of pictures of the week:

The Theme was ECHO. As in echoing the truth from one generation to another.

The speaker’s name was Ed Newton. Check out his podcasts. He’s an incredible speaker! The kids LOVED him!

The Common Ground Band led the music for the week. They were awesome! They came and ate lunch with us one of the afternoon, and they were truly genuine guys. The drummer hung out with us throughout the week.

They had a video contest for a Rules Video. Well…my hubby is a very talented videographer, and we won!!! Out of all of the churches that were attending in June. By the way…there are over 5000 students that come each week, and I think it runs for 10 weeks a summer. Something like that. Anyway…because we won the video contest, we got to go in early to save seats every night! Can you say front seats?! Our students ate this up!!

One afternoon, we did a huge ropes course. I’ve done more ropes course challenges than I can count, and this was BY FAR the most challenging! I didn’t know if I was going to make it. I’m a huge challenge-eater-upper, but this was a doozy! Thank goodness I tackled it with Michael and another guy sponsor.

We also went swimming one afternoon. Here’s a pic of my little sister and me before stepping into the cold, cold lake. They had a HUGE blow up ice berg that you can climb up and then slide down. It was awesome. They also have a big blow up trampoline with a blob, slide, and something else attached. It was a lot of fun!

Our group played volleyball (and made it to the tournament!) too. I cheered them on. Every since I got hit in the head with a volleyball in elementary school, I’ve been terrified to play.

One of the days, our volleyball game was cut short by this:

Thank goodness it only rained once!

We took a kinda short hike up to the falls and saw this:

And this:

And drank from this:

It was an EXCELLENT week! I loved every minute of it. I’m already looking forward to next year. I’ll leave you with one of the most beautiful things I saw all week:

 

[stacikristine]

Secondly, here’s an update on Disney Planning:

We had our first Disney Date over a week ago, and it was great! We made pizza, watched Toy Story, and picked our meals (or at least looked at the menus). It was a BIG hit!

So much so that we’re having another tonight!!! We’re eating a mighty meal (steaks and baked potatoes) and watching The Mighty Ducks! We are also putting together a 75 day countdown calendar!

Last night, we finally did it. We went to Home Depot (or Home of De Pot as my dad used to say. haha) to steal Mickey Heads. Needless to say, Michael was embarrassed. He gave me the hardest time! He went on to call me a zealot. And nickname me Zelie. Oh gosh. But it was all in good fun! He’s even going to help with the calendar tonight! I’ve had one at my work since March (I just printed calendars from the Disney Artist website, and wrote the countdown numbers in). But I’m so excited to get an official one up at home!!



Thirdly, on life:

We had a GREAT weekend! I was off work the 3rd, and the 2nd was Michael’s birthday. I took him (well…actually he drove and paid…but it’s the thought that counts—right?!) to an absolutely incredible Italian restaurant. It was in a little bitty town a couple of hours away. If you’re ever in west Oklahoma, go to Marlow and eat at the little Italian place on Main Street. YUM! I had cheese, shrimp, and crab ravioli with half alfredo sauce and half marinara sauce. It was amazing. He loved it too, and said it was every bit worth the drive! Yay!!

The morning of the 3rd, we packed up the car and headed to the lake to go camping with my parents. Sorry—no pictures…I was too busy relaxing. They had this camping time share trial thing, so they took their camping trailer, and we took our tent. We had fun just swimming, relaxing/visiting, and eating. It was really hot, but we didn’t realize it too much since we were inside the trailer or in the pool most of the time. The first night, we had shrimp kabobs/shrimp scampi, grilled fish, and fried fish. YUM! The next night, we had really great grilled hamburgers! We tried making homemade ice cream, but we didn’t realize the bowl has to freeze for a day before you make it. Needless to say, it didn’t work too well. Oh well! The spoons tasted yummy! We spent the night in our tent (it was our first time getting it out of the box) and actually got a little sleep. However, after the sun came up, we went into the trailer and slept for 4 more hours! After more swimming, visiting, and eating, it was time for fireworks! Then, we packed up and headed home. It was just a great, relaxing weekend!

I only have 4 weeks of school left, and I’m finished FOREVER! Can’t wait for that day.

We’re going to try to go to Six Flags (an amusement park in Arlington, TX—close to Dallas) in a couple of weeks. We have a family reunion in Dallas on the 25th, and we’re wanting to go to Six Flags on the 24th. We used to go every summer, so I’m SUPER excited about this! It’s no Disney, but it does have tons of fun thrill rides.

I’m trying to really get my free-lance business off the ground. So if you know of anyone that needs some graphic design work done… hint, hint. Haha. Just kidding. Sort of.



Oh—and I’ve pretty much gotten my outfits picked out for Disney World. I need to start taking pictures and getting everyone’s opinions. I’m so excited! We only have 76 days to go!!!

 

[Dancegrl624]

It sounds like you had a wonderful weekend! That last picture of the sunset was so beautiful!

 

[amandaluvsgoofy]

Great update! And I LOVE the pics from camp! It looked like it was so much fun! Glad you guys had fun camping with the family! I haven't been in years, but used to love it! Of course I'm afraid now that I wouldn't be able to handle the heat!
Have fun when you come to my neck of the woods! Hope it'll be a cool day for ya at Six Flags!!
And post some pics of your outfits! Can't wait to see them!

 

[jenny105]

I love the picture of you guys giving the thumbs up.

I love the Mighty Ducks! "Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, Mr. Ducksworth"

Sounds like you had a great weekend!!! It went by too fast!