A Smile in my Heart–Magical Week of Friends,Fun & Freezing-10/28-COMPLETE!

[jeremysdisneymom]

Yay, I love your reports, Sara! You are off to a great start. The reveal was fabulous! I can never keep it in long enough to plan anything like that for Jeremy.

I can't wait to see how your children liked the Poly. We are doing a split stay there in July along with AKL. Thanks to the discount that came out last week, we upgraded to Club level so I am super excited.

Look forward to hearing your next update!

Erika

 

[reyasmommy]

HOW FUN!!!!!! Love the pictures, the look on your kids faces are priceless!

The Poly is where my husband and I got married..... It's so beautiful! So obviously that place will always hold a special place in my heart.

Looking forward to more.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Awww! I love the surprise! I can never pull off a good surprise..I get too excited myself!

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in

 

[mkluvsmickey]

You did such a great job with the surprise! I can never keep a surprise either, I'm usually too excited and let it slip. You captured some great pictures of the kid's expressions too.

 

[mom2mek]

Sara,
I loved the way you surprised the kids! You did an awesome job on planning that. The kids pictures are priceless too, they look thrilled!

Thanks Nichole! They were excited!

Yay, I love your reports, Sara! You are off to a great start. The reveal was fabulous! I can never keep it in long enough to plan anything like that for Jeremy.

I can't wait to see how your children liked the Poly. We are doing a split stay there in July along with AKL. Thanks to the discount that came out last week, we upgraded to Club level so I am super excited.

Look forward to hearing your next update!

Erika

Thanks Erika! The secret was a little easier to keep this time around since I didn't wait ALL THE WAY TO THE END, like last time! I didn't think I could do that again! Plus I kind of missed not having a countdown calendar last time. 35 days worked out perfectly - it was just enough time for them to get excited but not annoy me too much!

Woo-hoo on the Poly!!! And Club Level!!! I will have a little bit on that as well since my parents stayed club level when they joined us mid-week!

HOW FUN!!!!!! Love the pictures, the look on your kids faces are priceless!

The Poly is where my husband and I got married..... It's so beautiful! So obviously that place will always hold a special place in my heart.

Looking forward to more.

Wow - a Poly wedding! How fabulous! Was it out on Sunset Point? What an amazing place to get married!

Awww! I love the surprise! I can never pull off a good surprise..I get too excited myself!

Yes, surprises are hard!! But with the excitement of Christmas and everything else that is going on at that time of year, it was easier to keep this trip a surprise than I thought it would be. Plus, when my kids slipped into the "pit of despair" after their cousins left to go home after being here at Christmas, it was a nice way to break them out of their "funk!" LOL!

joining in

Welcome!!

You did such a great job with the surprise! I can never keep a surprise either, I'm usually too excited and let it slip. You captured some great pictures of the kid's expressions too.

Thanks Michelle! I think I remember reading a report where you surprised Sam. Didn't you pick her up from school once to leave without her knowing ahead of time? Or am I just remembering that wrong?

Yeah, I love some of those pics Shawn captured of their faces! Such pure happiness!!

Sara

 

[Señor DonDuck]

Now that's how you surprise the kids! Well done.

Those pictures really caught the moment, too.

 

[Colt Blackwood]

You've got a real nice, happy looking family. I'll join in on your fun.

 

[RockinDisney]

I wanna join, I wanna Join!!!! Your kids look Terrific and the looks on thier faces as they realize they are going to Disney are priceless! Can't wait to hear about the Poly as I have a similar dream of one day staying there! and Can't wait to hear your thoughts on club level!!!!

 

[queenof3]

yeah I am so glad you are writing another report. I followed along on your other ones and they were great. Your kids are adorable!

 

[Charlefours]

Aww--what a great reaction you got from your kids when you surprised them!! How adorable I love how you created such a party atmosphere. :

I am looking forward to following along

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Hi Sara
I noticed the link to your TR over on Katie's report and decided to come check it out! I'm excited to read along

By the way, you have a precious family!

 

[kcandbella]

Joining in the fun! Can't wait to hear all about it. What a great way to surprise the kids!!!

 

[mom2mek]

Now that's how you surprise the kids! Well done.

Those pictures really caught the moment, too.

Thanks Senor! Welcome!!!

You've got a real nice, happy looking family. I'll join in on your fun.

Thanks! I hope I can keep it interesting and fun for everyone!

I wanna join, I wanna Join!!!! Your kids look Terrific and the looks on thier faces as they realize they are going to Disney are priceless! Can't wait to hear about the Poly as I have a similar dream of one day staying there! and Can't wait to hear your thoughts on club level!!!!

Thanks for joining in!! They were very surprised!

yeah I am so glad you are writing another report. I followed along on your other ones and they were great. Your kids are adorable!

Aww...thanks! And thanks for reading the other reports! Hope you post more on this one!!

Aww--what a great reaction you got from your kids when you surprised them!! How adorable I love how you created such a party atmosphere. :

I am looking forward to following along

It was a fun New Year's Eve, that's for sure!!

Hi Sara
I noticed the link to your TR over on Katie's report and decided to come check it out! I'm excited to read along

By the way, you have a precious family!

Thanks for popping over!

Joining in the fun! Can't wait to hear all about it. What a great way to surprise the kids!!!

Thanks and welcome!!

Sara

 

[cinderella crazy]

Joining in on all the fun!

I love how you surprised your children! The looks on their faces are priceless.

 

[mom2mek]

Joining in on all the fun!

I love how you surprised your children! The looks on their faces are priceless.

Thanks for joining in! I should have an update done tonight!

Sara

 

[kimbo0569]

Your kids are adorable! I'm in and can't wait to read more!

 

[mom2mek]

Your kids are adorable! I'm in and can't wait to read more!

Thanks and welcome!!

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Friday, February 5, 2010 - Departure Day

I tend to be long-winded….bear with me….


I packed a lot on this trip. It’s just how I roll. I figured we couldn’t afford to fly this time, what with the splurge on the Poly, so we would have to drive. Well, I consider it to be a perk to be able to bring everything I want with me, don’t you?

Yeah, Shawn didn’t think so either.

Overall, I think I did pretty well. I had one big suitcase for me, one big suitcase for Shawn, one big duffel bag for the girls together, and one small suitcase for Michael. Then I had our overnight suitcase for the hotel (all 5 of us for one night in one bag) and the toiletries bag. Shawn had his computer and a separate bag for his camera and various accessories. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Oh yeah, I also had quite a few small bins for snacks, the kids each had a bag for the car with their movies, coloring books, stuffed animals, kitchen sink, you get the drift.

One more little thing…..I had packed a plastic bin (actually a footlocker type thing on wheels, but plastic) with the “other” stuff. You know….coffee pot (yes, I know the Poly rooms have coffee pots….ick ), electric kettle for heating water in the room for oatmeal, hot chocolate, etc, etc, a few food items for breakfast and snacks, water bottles, diet coke, medicines for every possible illness that could ever happen, cleaning supplies like clorox wipes, lysol, sample-size laundry detergents, you know…the norm! LOL! Shawn was very confused as to why we needed all of this. Silly man!

Ok, I managed to get everything packed for the most part the night before we were leaving , but we had not yet loaded the car like I had hoped. Oh well.

I don’t like to fly anyway, so to me, driving is better! Shawn, on the other hand, is usually a different story. However, he claimed that he was looking forward to driving this time. (I think it was more that “mind over matter” thing making him believe that he was truly happier doing it this way!)

The last time we drove to Disney was the big Thanksgiving trip 2 years ago and I was beginning to think Shawn was suffering from memory loss surrounding that trip or something when he claimed he was looking forward to driving this time! Oh well…I’ll take it! Anyways, on the trip 2 years ago, we got a late start leaving VA, and therefore didn’t stop until 1 in the morning at our hotel that I had pre-booked for us near Savannah, GA.

For this trip, we were hoping to be on the road by 3:30 and we chose not to book a hotel so that we wouldn’t be pinned down to HAVING to stop at a certain place, if we wanted to drive a little further. I have to say that this made me very nervous. I admit I’m a little tightly wound when it comes to these kind of things, but I just don’t like leaving things up to chance…especially on I-95. You can go through a big area with tons of decent-looking hotels and then have an hour or more of just nothing but risqué billboards. I hated not knowing where we were going to stop. Especially since it would be dark, the kids would be asleep, etc, etc…I just wanted to know that we would be at a decent place.


The best I could do was to do some research regarding the exits that were a “possibility” for our travels that night. I found the website that lists each exit off I-95 and what hotels were at each exit and then I researched the hotels I wouldn’t mind staying at from each exit and printed me up a nice little spreadsheet! I felt much better after that. Did I mention that I am a bit Type A minus (not complete type A personality, but when it comes to say….Disney planning and um….wedding planning, I’m pretty close! Hence the MINUS behind the “A”! LOL!)


The day we were to leave, the weather forecast was a little iffy. It kept saying that we would have rain but that it wouldn’t start until late in the day…sometime around 7. I figured we would be long gone by then and didn’t worry myself too much about it. I was picking Katie up from Pre-K at 12:00 and bringing her back to work with me to eat her lunch and finish up all my last minute stuff. Then we would leave to go back to the school to pick up Michael and Emily who finish up at 2:45, head home to an already packed car (Shawn would be meeting us there), grab a few last minute items, and head out by 3:30.


As is usually the case….when you are trying to leave for vacation, everyone piles a whole bunch of stuff on your desk to handle before you leave! It’s just a week, people!! Geez. I WILL be back, don’t you know?


Needless to say, I was a little late leaving work to go pick up the kids from school. We are having work done on our windows in our offices, and I wasn’t able to see what was awaiting me as I left work that afternoon, but as I stepped out the front door of the office, it hit me!

SNOW!

Well, allrighty then!

It was very weird as the temperature was hovering around 38 degrees. The snow that was falling was made up of very large, fluffy, wet snowflakes and was almost blinding it was coming down so fast! The poor teachers in the pick up line at school were not enjoying it too much! I quickly scooped up the older two kids and the four of us made our very slow drive home to a waiting Shawn! People here do not know how to drive in snow and it took me almost 40 minutes to get home! (It’s typically a 20 minute drive). That, combined with leaving a bit late from work to begin with, meant that it was already 3:30 when I pulled into the driveway – the time we were supposed to be leaving! Ugh.

No worries though! Shawn had the car all loaded and all I needed was the hotel suitcase for that first night, and the kids “extra” items like blankets and stuffed animals that they wanted to bring. After getting all of those things crammed into the Tahoe, we hit the road around 4:15! First stop before we even got 5 minutes away….STARBUCKS! Now the vacation can begin!!

I hope you don’t mind cell phone pictures because that’s all I have for our travel day as my camera was packed in the back of the Tahoe.

Unfortunately, due to the weather, we weren’t able to get down the road as fast as we thought when we were planning this all out in our heads. The snow eventually turned into rain as we continued south, but that didn’t really make it that much easier, especially once it was dark.

The kids did great though, only asking “how much longer” oh, about 20 times in the first hour. Eventually they settled in and started watching a movie and before long we stopped at Chick Fil-A for bathrooms and dinner.

The rain was REALLY coming down at this point and we all got drenched trying to get inside. Vacation mojo had definitely set in because no one seemed to mind (not even Shawn!)

Minnie was helping!

At one point, I gave my ipod to Michael and he started singing VERY loudly in the car. It was HILARIOUS!

The girls were covered up with blankets and comfy with their neck pillows and eventually all 3 of them fell asleep around 9:30. Phew. Silence.

Well, low and behold….by the time it was midnight, we were ready to stop and where do you think we wound up? Very close to the same exact exit that we stayed on our Thanksgiving trip! I was glad about this for the most part. I had hoped we would get a little further south so we wouldn’t have as much to drive the next day, but I was pleased that we were going to be staying at the same hotel we did before, since I knew it was completely suitable!


We pulled up to the lobby at the Port Wentworth, GA Days Inn off I-95 and Shawn went to see about checking us in. When he stopped the car and got out, all 3 kids woke up!

Fabulous.

I hoped they would be able to get back to sleep once we got into our room.

The hotel lady asked Shawn if he was military, and when he said “no, but I am former military”, she gave him the military rate of $60! Hot diggity! We unloaded what we needed out of the Tahoe (overnight bag and toiletries plus the computer) and Shawn parked the car. This hotel is perfect for what we need. It is right off of I-95, it is clean, the rooms are large, the breakfast is adequate, and the people are nice.

Here are some pictures from the hotel website, for anyone who might be wondering.

We made it up to our room where the kids promptly wanted to jump on the beds as if it were 6:00 in the evening. Um, NO!!! Get in bed and go back to sleep! Michael and Shawn fell right asleep in their bed, but I had two squirrels sleeping in the bed with me and had a tough time getting them to settle down. Eventually we all drifted off with dreams of Disney for the next day!


Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Saturday, February 6, 2010 – Today we get to Disney!!!!

I woke up to hear the shower running and had a momentary panic attack when I thought I had overslept. No worries though – Shawn had just decided to jump in the shower before me. Ugh. I like to shower first since I take longer to get ready and can be doing all of my hair and makeup while he gets his shower, but oh well.

I got the kids clothes out and got myself organized for getting ready and by then he was out. He said he was going to go take the truck to get gas and then get some coffee while I got ready. Ahhh….thanks hon’! That makes sense. I was just about ready when he returned and he took the kids down to the breakfast area and got them started while I packed up from our one night stay.

After munching down some bagels and homemade waffles, and grabbing some cereal boxes for the road, we were on our way!

Estimated time of arrival to the Polynesian Resort per our GPS….11:55! Perfect!

Emily's turn with the ipod:

Katie checking out the Guide to the Magic book that I bought for the 3 of them to journal their trip:

Three crazy kids:

We stopped once we got into Florida at a stop that, according to the crazy GPS, said had a Starbucks right off the exit. We pulled into a gas station first and filled up and I took the kids inside to use the bathroom and grab a couple of waters for them. I figured we were close enough – about an hour and a half – that they would be safe from needing another bathroom stop before getting there.

When we came back out to the car, the dash said we needed to check the tire pressure on the right rear tire. Oh yeah, did I fail to mention that right before we left on our trip, we had to get four new tires for the Tahoe! Yikes! That was not pretty! Now one of these new tires is all of a sudden showing a weird pressure reading??? The tires were all showing the identical reading and had been the same since we left Virginia, so we didn’t do anything about it and just hopped back in the car to find the Starbucks. Never did find it, and this whole stop off the interstate was getting us way past my 12:00 estimated arrival time to the Poly. Bummer. We decided to turn around and just as we were about to get back on the interstate, Shawn spotted a Dunkin Donuts and decided that that would work for our caffeine fix.

Estimated arrival time after gas station, bathroom break, drink purchase, tire check, drive all across God’s countryside to find a Starbucks, stop at Dunkin Donuts for coffee since we never found the Starbucks???? 12:40! Oh well.

Before too long we were starting to see the signs….

and then the longest part of the trip started....WOW....this just seems to take forever to get through...

As we got closer and closer, Katie got sleepier and sleepier....

And just like on our Thanksgiving trip, just as we were getting to THE sign, Katie was out:

(Just for fun, here is our 2007 picture...)

At this point, under 5 minutes from the hotel, Michael started squirming around and whining that he HAD to go to the bathroom. BAD.

Well, you're just gonna have to wait buddy...cuz lookie here:

A few minutes later and we were pulling up to this.

It was so fun to be able to tell the parking lot CM that "we are here to check in at the Poly"! Woo-hoo!


Coming up....we check in at the Poly? Is our room ready? Would we get Tokelau? First floor? ANYTHING I requested???

Sara