A Trip Sure to be FULL of Surprises! Updates - day 1 & 2 w/ pics!

[englishrose47]

Welcome back again !!! I'll be patient a little longer !!!!

 

[Grace and Mickey]

Hi Lynn
Hope all is well

Looking forward to your update
I need help with printing the tee-shirts
I have the designs saved in my word, and have brought tee shirts tranfer paper, what else do I need? and of course the tee shirts

You have not seen my "big news" we are going to be able to leave for our trip soonerWe now wil be leaving on Sept 6 around 2:30 a.m. which is Sunday so now we don't have to drive STRAIGHT thur.
So my trip is 26 days away

Have a magical day
Grace

 

[newtodis]

Welcome home Lynn! I know you are probable feeling that overwhelming, just got back from vacation feeling. It's o.k. that you haven't updated. We all understand. Just don't wait too long

Aww thanks! You guys are my Labor Day project! I want to finish this TR, the last TR and maybe do a PTR if we decide to go for a long weekend in Sept before our APs expire. I should be able to catch that all up in three days!

Welcome back again !!! I'll be patient a little longer !!!!

Thanks - sorry I know I've been a slacker!!

Hi Lynn
Hope all is well

Looking forward to your update
I need help with printing the tee-shirts
I have the designs saved in my word, and have brought tee shirts tranfer paper, what else do I need? and of course the tee shirts

You have not seen my "big news" we are going to be able to leave for our trip soonerWe now wil be leaving on Sept 6 around 2:30 a.m. which is Sunday so now we don't have to drive STRAIGHT thur.
So my trip is 26 days away

Have a magical day
Grace

Looks like you've got everything you need. Read the directions on the paper (it will tell you what side you're trying to print on). Some people wash their shirts first and some don't (I personally don't). Print them on the paper and let them sit a good long time - a day or two or longer. Then, iron away! Trim off whatever parts you don't want to show up on your shirts before you iron.

YAY for leaving sooner! That's always good news! And that's a good time too. It won't be busy and hopefully you'll miss the morning traffic in the bigger cities that you might drive through/around.

Well, I got a promotion since the last update. Not officially yet (I'm doing the job just not getting paid anymore) until 8/22 so that's great (thinking a Disney trip is a great way to celebrate! LOL). I spent this morning cleaning my new (officially mine on Saturday) office and moved the furnature which was a lot of work. It's organized now (for me) so that's a great start!

This was also Corbin's first week of school. Yesterday morning I pretty much sat here and cried but today I'm much better! I was a mess at the Meet the Teacher Day last week and the first morning of school. I can't believe the five years have gone by so quickly!!! I have to post some pictures for you guys!

I've also been cleaning the house as we're going to have a garage sale next weekend to try and get rid of some junk. I have no storage space and a TON of crap we never use so it's time to clean it out. Might as well make some money while we're cleaning right??? Hopefully we'll make enough to get the boys the bunk beds they've been asking for. That's the goal.

We're debating spending a weekend at Disney with friends (Angie and Sandy) since it'll be Sami Jo's first trip to Disney. She'll be about six and a half months old so it should be awesome! Certainly great pictures!

Alright...well it's almost time to pick Corbin up from school (he doesn't ride the bus due to all of his 18 allergies!) and get ready for a meeting this afternoon...yay!

 

[Grace and Mickey]

Hi Lynn

I hope you are here today, Because I need some more help with the tee shirts.
I FINALLY figure out how to flip ( mirror image) the disign BUt the disign is only 1/2 of the 8 x 10 paper, I tried changes to 8 x 10 by it doesnt look any differnt Any ideas ?? I'm running out of time and I really wanted to have matching t- shirts. Soory to be such a pest.

Only 13 days to my trip

Congrats on the new Job .
Do you know when you might go in Sept to See Angie and Sandy?
How is Corbin liking school?

Hope to talk to you soon.
Grace

 

[lmillercrew]

Congrats friend on your promotion! I wish I could get a promotion.
Awww... your little boy went to school. Is is all day???
My kids don't start school until Wed. The big kids don't go until Thursday. It can't WAIT! It's been a short summer and we really haven't been able to enjoy the pool. It's been an unusually cool summer, so it doesn't even feel like we had a summer. i
If you get a chance, visit Grace's PTR. She's having problems with making her T-shirts and I thought that you might be able to help her.

 

[newtodis]

Hi Lynn

I hope you are here today, Because I need some more help with the tee shirts.
I FINALLY figure out how to flip ( mirror image) the disign BUt the disign is only 1/2 of the 8 x 10 paper, I tried changes to 8 x 10 by it doesnt look any differnt Any ideas ?? I'm running out of time and I really wanted to have matching t- shirts. Soory to be such a pest.

Only 13 days to my trip

Congrats on the new Job .
Do you know when you might go in Sept to See Angie and Sandy?
How is Corbin liking school?

Hope to talk to you soon.
Grace

Hey - I'm sorry. Send me a PM so that I'll see it even if I don't stop over here. Things have been soooo busy. Are there lines around the picture that you can click on and drag to make it bigger?? If there aren't then I'm not sure how to make it bigger....I'm sorry! One thing to keep in mind - will a full sized picture fit on your shirt?? I don't think I've ever done one that was a full page because it's always looked too big on the shirt. Here's an easy way to "test" - print the picture on regular paper, tape it (or pin it) to the shirt on a hanger so you can hang it up and step back to look at it. Does any of that make sense at all? You're not a pest at all!

Wow - the trip's getting SO close!! YAY!!

Thanks for the congrats. It's a lot more work but it'll work itself out I'm sure!

We're going down at some point on 9/11 and staying with them Friday and Saturday night then coming home late Sunday afternoon. I don't really have any plans yet other than I guess kind of hanging out with them and doing whatever they want to do since it's Samantha's first trip. I'm hoping to get some cute pictures of the castle, Mickey, Minnie, general "cute" Disney pictures on her first trip.

Corbin LOVES school. He was so mad this weekend because he was SURE Ms. Jackson was at school waiting for him and he shouldn't be at home with me!

Congrats friend on your promotion! I wish I could get a promotion.
Awww... your little boy went to school. Is is all day???
My kids don't start school until Wed. The big kids don't go until Thursday. It can't WAIT! It's been a short summer and we really haven't been able to enjoy the pool. It's been an unusually cool summer, so it doesn't even feel like we had a summer. i
If you get a chance, visit Grace's PTR. She's having problems with making her T-shirts and I thought that you might be able to help her.

Thanks!

Yes he's at school now and yup it's all day. He says to me on the way home (I pick him up), "please leave me alone I'm tired". Me too kid, me too!

I'm gonna pop over today and see if I can help her out - hopefully I'm not too late!

 

[newtodis]

So in the midst of everything else going on right now, we're having a garage sale on Saturday. A friend is coming over to watch the boys (he's taking them fishing in our back yard) while I do the garage sale thing. I asked him to help me out because Dan wasn't sure if he was going to have to work this weekend or not. Turns out he doesn't have to so that's great! I've got like four totes, a huge garbage bag, big box and some big stuff to get rid of. I'm hoping to make about $200 on Saturday but if we make more that would be AWESOME!

Tonight is Corbin's "open house" so that should be interesting. Carter's VERY excited to see "Torbi's" school and school tackles Corbin with hugs when he gets home every day! He practically hyperventilates himself when he sees Corbin "My Torbi! My Torbi! I wuv you! I wuv you!". It's really sweet. I do love our rides home together after school. He is just one funny kid. I hear stories about girls chasing him at recess and how he has to show them how fast he can run and who got a yellow or red owl at school today (the owl is the school mascot and you're supposed to have a green owl all day - if you make a bad choice, you have to "flip your owl"). The funniest was when he was telling me that a little girl had made a bad choice and they weren't able to go outside. Well, we just happened to be driving past this little girl's car as her parents were buckling her in and Corbin screams - literally scream - out the window "you better behave tomorrow [little girl]". Seriously Corbin? I think her parents have it all under control! LOL Then he proceeds to tell me another day that his teacher said he has to pack his own lunch and snack every day because "that's the rules Mom". So I asked who made that rule and he says "That's how Miss Jackson rolls Mom". Seriously?? Again, you're freaking hillarious kid! Boy oh boy I tell ya - we're gonna have our hands full for sure!

Here are some pictures from the first day (had to open up another photobucket account because it said the other one is full ):

Classroom from "Meet the Teacher" Day before school really started:

All ready for school:

Carter had to be part of the morning too!

Corbin putting his stuff away with his teacher the first morning of school:

Dan spent the night last night at our local "Doc in a Box" (kind of like a redi-med type thing) only to find out his ankle that's been swelled up for a couple of days is sprained. He's not thrilled about this but at least now he knows what's wrong with it and trying his best to get sympathy which doesn't work with me! LOL

Dan worked last weekend (Corbin tells people "Daddy works on the Island for Disney money" So true!) so the boys and I hit the beach despite a hurricane out in the ocean. The waves were VERY big - never seen them like that before - and it was really kind of cool. The boys had a good time so we decided to go back in the afternoon for a couple of hours to hang out and dig in the dirt.

Corbin built a "hill" so "people will slip and fall and go home and it will be just us at the beach". Apparently (which is Corbin's new word by the way!) he didn't like everyone at the beach that day!

Friday night Angie and Sandy and Samantha came over for dinner since it had been WAY too long since we'd all gotten together. Samantha's getting HUGE and growing way too quickly!


Carter "helping" me make dinner:

Samantha is getting way too big!

Alright...it's almost time to go get Corbin from school. He's been BEGGING to ride the bus home so we'll see how that goes. Tonight is the open house then we're heading to Walmart to buy a bunk bed frame. Tomorrow the mattresses are being delivered and a couple of friends are coming over to put them together so the "baby beds" can be sold in the yard sale on Saturday. It's a big week at our house! I'm so looking forward to Labor Day weekend to finish up some TRs - I love looking at the pictures and can't wait to share!

 

[lmillercrew]

You have been a very busy lady! Corbin looked so grown up in his little uniform! Thankfully, we don't have uniforms in our school system. There are other schools in the area that do though.
How fantastic that you live so close to the beach! How far of a drive is it??
Good luck on the garage sale this weekend!
Can't wait for you to have some time to update your TR!!!

 

[englishrose47]

Great Pix !! Our kids don'tstart school till Sept 8th!! Then we leave for Disney on the 12th!!!!!!!

 

[Grace and Mickey]

Good mornng Lynn

Glad you back I've missed you.

Enjoyed the pctures. School starts early there,
I'm still working on t=shirts. I did get it bigger, good ideas to pin to see if it O.K. I have to go get more ink. will work on printing out the designs on Sat, if I need more help I will PM you, Thanks for your help I really appreciate

You said that You are Meeting your friend Angie at WDW Sept 11 thur Sept 13th. If your not to busy Rosie and I our meeting to see Spectomagic on Sept 12 at about 8:30-or so by the Country bear jambroee if you would like to join us.

Landen has that same WDW shirt Carter is wearing in the pictures.
and baby Sam is getting big.
Talk soon
Only 14 days until I see My friend MICKEY
Have a very magical day
Grace

 

[newtodis]

You have been a very busy lady! Corbin looked so grown up in his little uniform! Thankfully, we don't have uniforms in our school system. There are other schools in the area that do though.
How fantastic that you live so close to the beach! How far of a drive is it??
Good luck on the garage sale this weekend!
Can't wait for you to have some time to update your TR!!!

Yeah the uniform really made it all "real". Not a fan of uniforms personally (especially since they change it so often it appears - twice since we've registered him for school a month or so ago!) and the teachers don't wear them so why should the kids??? It costs me WAY more money buying two sets of clothes.

We're about 20 minutes during tourist season and about 10 minutes the rest of the year. It's awesome! I'm excited to try and get out there again this weekend with the hurricane coming through again. There will be lots of surfers out on the waves from the storm. It was really cool last weekend to see all the waves.

Thanks - hopefully I won't need too much luck! We have a lot of stuff to get rid of so hopefully it goes well.

Me either! I love Disney

Great Pix !! Our kids don'tstart school till Sept 8th!! Then we leave for Disney on the 12th!!!!!!!

Thanks! Yeah school starts very early to us too since we're used to not going back until after Labor Day.

Good mornng Lynn

Glad you back I've missed you.

Enjoyed the pctures. School starts early there,
I'm still working on t=shirts. I did get it bigger, good ideas to pin to see if it O.K. I have to go get more ink. will work on printing out the designs on Sat, if I need more help I will PM you, Thanks for your help I really appreciate

You said that You are Meeting your friend Angie at WDW Sept 11 thur Sept 13th. If your not to busy Rosie and I our meeting to see Spectomagic on Sept 12 at about 8:30-or so by the Country bear jambroee if you would like to join us.

Landen has that same WDW shirt Carter is wearing in the pictures.
and baby Sam is getting big.
Talk soon
Only 14 days until I see My friend MICKEY
Have a very magical day
Grace

I'm glad you figured it out!

Yeah that's the plan right now. I don't have any plans in place (can you believe that!!) but am waiting to hear what Angie and Sandy want to do. I have to see Wishes one night and since we're only there two nights I don't have many options. I would love to go to the Poly on the Friday night to see the HalloWishes then see the "regular" Wishes on Saturday night but I don't know if that will happen or not.

YAY only two weeks until Disney!! Jill leaves in two days for another trip! I forget how long she'll be there this time with the family - I think until like the 9th maybe??

 

[lmillercrew]

Good luck with the hurricane coming.
I think that if I lived that close to the beach, we would be there whenever we could.

 

[newtodis]

Good luck with the hurricane coming.
I think that if I lived that close to the beach, we would be there whenever we could.

Thanks. Ironically it's named Danny! The boys have been calling it Hurricane Daddy! (hey, if the name fits!) I think Bill (last weekend) was closer to us. We went to the beach Saturday morning and the waves were HUGE. I'm hoping to head out there tonight but it's raining now so I'm thinking that won't work. It's so cool to see how much that storm that's so far away can stir things up here. I was hoping to find some cool stuff on the beach that had washed up too with all the waves...no luck though!

Yeah I try to get there often but that ONE trip - seriously, an hour and a half - gave me another bout of cold sores that are finally clearing up today! I need to invest in a good floopy hat for Disney to keep the sun off my face for some reason!

Alright...last night was bunk bed building night. It was a bit crazy as we had to try THREE Walmarts before I found one with the bunk beds (there must have been a run on them since Sunday when I was last at Walmart). It only took a couple of hours and I really like them. I think the boys do too:

Corbin also rode the bus to school this morning for the first time (and is riding home tonight for the first time!!). I don't think I could have done that the first morning of school! I still get teary thinking about it!

Carter was ticked again. He kept saying "I ride that bus!". I tried to explain he couldn't so he said "I wait here for Torbi! I wait HERE!". Poor kid! Thankfully our nanny was there by this time and we distracted him by having him show her his new beds! That's when Mommy escaped!

Now I'm sitting here watching the day tick by....my work's done and I can't do anything else until they put a new printer on my computer and that won't be until after 2 so here I sit.....waiting to go home and price my garage sale stuff! I'm ready to sell, sell, sell!

 

[lmillercrew]

Good to hear that the storm will pass you by.
The bunkbeds look great, and judging by the look on Carters' face he thinks so too!

 

[mrsksomeday]

I hope you had a great garage sale! The pictures of the kids are great.

 

[newtodis]

Hey all! I am getting ready for disney and gettibg dans new blackberry ready for disney with the disboards. Hopefully that way I can give you some updates while we are at the parks. I guess that means I need to get this tr done so I can start the next one. Lol.


Grace - did you leave yet? Have a safe trip if you did not


Ok have a great night!

 

[newtodis]

Alright....I last left you at the rest stop at the FL Welcome Center. Sorry about that! Life's been busy and it shows no sign of slowing down any time soon!

Once I get some updates here, I'll either add on the PTR for next weekend's trip or start another so I don't get confused so I can share the details. It'll be my goal to have that TR done before Halloween!

So....hopefully we're all rested up from our stop at the Welcome Center and we can get back on the road to Orlando! (Note: I'm going to try and include more pictures this time since I've made y'all wait so long so be prepared!!)

Once we were back on the road, we were met with the 5:00 Orlando traffic:

The boys started realizing where we were going when they started seeing billboards:

It wasn't too long before we made it to the condo. I'd read some mixed reviews and was ready for a fight when we checked in if I didn't like the room we were given. I was greeted by like 25 - seriously - lizards on the sidewalk from the parking lot to the front door.

For those who don't know, those silly little lizards give me an anxiety attack like nothing else. I start to hyperventillate and get hives and cry...it's not pretty. Just typing this gives me goosebumps. I do not like them one bit.

So, I think I did fairly well despite the challenges - I made it to the front door without passing out while Dan sat in the van and laughed at me. Good thing it was his birthday!

I checked into the condo without a problem. They did ask me if I wanted to sit through their time share presentation which I declined as nicely as I could.

We followed the map around to our condo where I was greeted by a baby lizard (even more scary - smaller and faster!) on the wall with the stairs. After I screamed and picked up the stuff I'd dropped, I was back on my way up to the condo.

I was prepared for the worst but secretly hoping for the best. It was more towards the best - not perfect but certainly not as terrible as some of the reviews I'd read. It was pretty good sized one bedroom condo. Dan and I both agreed that we would stay there again if we found it on Hotwire or through our travel agent or something for a decent price.

It was very weird to watch the news and such that night hearing about the monorail accident knowing we'd be at Disney the next morning and riding on the monorails....just a really weird feeling. I do think the accident had an impact on our trip - I certainly thought a lot more about safety on this trip than I had on previous trips. I don't think I went over board, but I certainly had safety on my mind more this time than any previous trips.

So we hit the bed because we were having breakfast with Mickey in the morning!!! It doesn't get any better than waking up at Disney and having breakfast with Mickey!!!

 

[newtodis]

We woke up bright and early on Birthday Day (for Dan and Corbin) and got ready for our Birthday Breakfast at Chef Mickey's! There was a bit of miscommunication or misunderstanding. I wanted to park at the TTC and ride the monorail over to CM's so we'd have a really good parking spot and not have to drive back after breakfast. Well, Dan didn't think they were open yet so we drove to breakfast, only to be passed by the monorail, and drove back to the park after breakfast.

We did the traditional family picture before we were seated for our breakfast:

The brothers wanted to sit next to each other but Mommy put a quick hault on that little plan!

I ran and got both boys their plates so they could start eating before the characters got to the table:

Before long, Chef Goofy stopped by to say Good Morning!

Then it was time for the CM song and dance and Corbin got a Birthday Cupcake from Chef Mickey himself! Chef Mickey invited Corbin to dance with him but it was a bit too early for him to take part in the dancing.

Chef Mickey danced by Carter instead - he was a little more receptive:

Corbin was very impressed with his gift from Mickey!

Chef Mickey came back after all the dancing to say good morning to the birthday boys

Before anyone else could come visit, Corbin had dug into the chocolate cupcake!

Then Donald, Minnie and Pluto were at our table to visit with us before we finished our breakfast and headed to the Magic Kingdom to get another birthday gift from Mickey!

 

[newtodis]

With full little bellies, we headed back to the van and over to the TTC. We decided to just get the birthday gift cards here instead of messing with it once we were inside the MK. We waited quite a while for our turn but boy was it worth it!

Dan and Corbin both got their birthday button AND their birthday gift cards from Mickey! WOOHOO!

From there we headed over to the monorail area and waited to get on. It was hard not to think about the accident as we were all standing there waiting. Several people around us were talking about the accident and I was just silently saying a prayer for the CMs - I can't imagine how hard it is to come back to work and have people ask/comment on the accident while you're trying to deal with it yourself.

Finally the monorail came and we were headed to the MK!!!! We had our bags inspected and I got my normal comments about how I'm prepared for anything I might encounter at the parks. You're darn right Mr. Security Man - I'm not buying your $4 bottle of water - I brought my own! Glass of pop? Not for us - I brought juice boxes! LOL I do pack a lot.

We went into the MK - missed rope drop due to the birthday gift cards - and saw Pinochio (sp?). The boys had just started getting into other Disney movies - besides Cars - so they wanted to stop. Generally we wouldn't stop for these characters but since they hadn't seen him before, we stopped.

Of course, once there was one more person in front of us, he had to take a break to get some water. It was a short break and before long, Pinochio was back out and ready to greet us!

Now we didn't do autographs with Pinochio because we needed to get a new one and hadn't stopped yet. Actually, we didn't do any autographs because we never got a new autograph book this trip! I wasn't too bummed while we were there but looking back, I wish we would have stopped and grabbed a new one.

From Pinochio, we did our family picture with the castle - a must do for every family!

We also got a little closer to the castle for another picture before heading off for the rides!

I snuck around the side on our way to the first ride and snapped another picture - I love the castle!

We headed back straight to Buzz Lightyear as this is Corbin's favorite ride at MK I think. Wonderfully, it was a walk on which was perfect!

I think Corbin and I beat Daddy and Carter - like always!

The boys were checking out Zurg in jail on our way out. Thankfully they did it this time because when we rode later, Zurg was closed for some reason.

From Buzz we headed to Monster's Inc Laugh Factory because Carter loves him some Mike Wizowski (sp?). Carter was NOT a fan of Rozz in the waiting line for the ride. He kept saying "no wike her - I scurred". Dan held him but it didn't help a whole lot. He was still fidgeting around but there's no going back. Our family's rule is you will try everything once. You don't have to go back again if you don't like it, but you have to try once.

It was a cute little show. I don't know that I'd sit through it again, but it was a great way to pass the time and be cool on a hot day or if you need to rest.

I had to grab another picture of the castle when we passed it!

 

[newtodis]

From Monster's Inc, we headed to Tom Sawyer Island. Now this time I didn't have a plan as to what rides we were going to go on or anything like that. I tried to have it be a more relaxed trip and let the birthday boys figure out what they wanted to do. I don't know that I'd do this again as we did waste some time trying to figure out what to do next and kind of went back and forth sometimes, but it's ok to do every now and again.

We hopped on our raft and headed to the Island!

We took a minute to check out the map to see what we'd be looking for while we were on the Island.

Carter was done checking out the map and ready to explore the island.

Corbin was not far behind him!

There was a cute little playground on the island that the boys spent some time playing on. It was a nice little shaded spot.

They relaxed in the rocking chairs and watched the crowds pass by back on the "mainland".

After we got done exploring the island, we decided to head back to the condo to have some lunch. We weren't used to the crowds and were used to doing lots more in the morning than we got done this morning.

Back at the condo we had lunch

then a special treat after lunch

I guess it was pretty good!

After some rest, we decided we were heading back out to the parks. Enough relaxing for us!