Afganistan to Disney...and some stops along the way!

[allbluezoo]

Aloha! I am relatively new to the DISboards. Well, new to posting but not new to reading/lurking! I have been in the planning stages of this Disney vacation for what seems like an eternity….and now it is finally all coming together!

I guess I should introduce myself; my name is Melissa. I am a 30-something mother of 2 boys and wife to a US Navy Corpsman. My most recent job involving a paycheck was working as a teacher’s assistant at the Pre-K level.

Currently I am the CEO, CFO, executive assistant, personal chef and limo driver to my “allbluezoo”. In other words…I run this joint!

As far as my allbluezoo goes; I’ve got DS1-Deegan who is 6 going on 16. Then there is DS2-Cameron who is truly an 80year old man stuck in a 4year old body , and last but not least DH-Raymond…an 11 year enlisted sailor with three tours to Iraq/Afghanistan under his belt.

Deegan is in a Star Wars phase and can talk about it for hours on end, I just nod my head a lot and say “uh huh, that’s awesome” because I have NO EARTHLY IDEA what he is talking about! Thank goodness my dad and brother live close enough that he can have “man time” with them and talk Star Wars. Cameron is obsessed with all girl things. I dunno how that happened but my best guess is that since he has been home with me the majority of his life, he really only “knows” girl stuff? At least that is the rationalization that I give to DH! He loves Hannah Montana, Emily Osment and Tinkerbell. He also plays with Polly Pockets, his favorites are the Disney princesses . It’s not all pink and frilly for him though, he likes Cars, Bolt and Peter Pan too. I guess you could say I am also married to the Navy LOL, it has taken us from California to Florida, then to California again in preparation for a loooooong trip to Hawai’i! We recently received orders for the Chicago area and right now the kids and I are living in Indiana waiting for DH to join us.

ooh, okay...wait. Guess I should add some pics of us so you can put faces with names!?

This is our homecoming pic; DH had just come off the jetway on his flight from Afghanistan...we just won a contest our photographer had for "best picture"!!!

How did we get here?

Off Site vs. On Site

 

[annnewjerz]

Welcome to the DIS!

I love the "homecoming" picture---I only wish I had someone taking our photo when DH got home from his first deployment. He was in the Navy sub service and gone what felt like all the time. Six months here, 3 weeks there, 2 months somewhere in between. You know the drill I'm sure.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

[reyasmommy]

What an adorable family! Hope you have fun on your trip.

 

[tarak]

You have a beautiful family. I love the reunion photo - it's just lovely.
I'm also new to posting, but a long time lurker!

 

[allbluezoo]

Welcome to the DIS!

I love the "homecoming" picture---I only wish I had someone taking our photo when DH got home from his first deployment. He was in the Navy sub service and gone what felt like all the time. Six months here, 3 weeks there, 2 months somewhere in between. You know the drill I'm sure.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

Aww, thanks! It was actually a friend of mine who does photography as a side business! They (sub community) has actually been after DH to turn sub IDC (independent duty corpsman) but I don't think I could deal with the up tempo deployments (I have a chronic illness) so we turned them down several times...was hard to let that $$ go out the door!!

Thank you to you and your family for your service!

 

[allbluezoo]

You have a beautiful family. I love the reunion photo - it's just lovely.
I'm also new to posting, but a long time lurker!

Yay, I'm not the only long time lurker LOL! Thanks for the compliments on the photo, I was very pleased with the way they turned out!

 

[allbluezoo]

What an adorable family! Hope you have fun on your trip.

Thank you thank you! I cannot wait for this trip; I really need to ask DH if he had ever been before we went with the ILs just after we were married!? My kids are beside themselves..hope DS2 isn't totally crushed that Hannah Montant won't be there

 

[allbluezoo]

How did I get here?

The premise of this trip is quite simple; DH has just returned from Afghanistan and promised to take the boys to do anything they wanted. Well, with a little prompting from me and the military salute tickets …it was a done deal. One morning on webcam DS2 said “Daddy, can we go see Mickey Mouse? Pwease pwease pwease pwease?” I mean, how can you say no to that? Of course it doesn’t hurt that this trip just happens to fall in the middle of a PCS (permanent change of station) and so getting to the mainland was “free” since the Navy was moving us anyway!

And so, the journey began and planning mode kicked in!

We had family photos done before DH deployed so I thought I'd share that since I don't really have any pics that relate to this chapter of my PTR.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Welcome to the DIS. I'm subbing.

Great pictures of your family!!!!

My DH was in the Navy too. Did a few Gulf tours then got injured which meant he could not re-enlist. He's officially a disabled vet now but would be back there if they'd let him!

 

[allbluezoo]

Oh, and I am not quite as tech savvy as I'd like to be...so I made need some help here along the way.

Actually, I need help already How do I make the links to the different replies that are installments of my pre-trippie? I know how to use the insert buttons and stuff, but I can't figure out what http address I use to link the new installment? Am I even making sense right now?! It's late and I've already taken some sleeping meds so my brain is turning to mush!

If you have any idea what I just said and you can help me out that would be great. Otherwise I'll have another go at it in the morning.

 

[tarak]

If you're trying to post links to previous posts (or in the first post, set links to later posts), I think what you do is click on the # in the upper right hand corner of the post. That should open a new page and the URL at the top is the one you want to copy for the link. Does that make sense? I could be wrong about that one, though - it's late here in PA and I've been up since 5 am .

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Oh, and I am not quite as tech savvy as I'd like to be...so I made need some help here along the way.

Actually, I need help already How do I make the links to the different replies that are installments of my pre-trippie? I know how to use the insert buttons and stuff, but I can't figure out what http address I use to link the new installment? Am I even making sense right now?! It's late and I've already taken some sleeping meds so my brain is turning to mush!

If you have any idea what I just said and you can help me out that would be great. Otherwise I'll have another go at it in the morning.

If you ar tryig to reply to people and include their quote, if it a single person just hit the "quote" on the lower right side. If you want to reply to multiple people at the same time, hit the + button for each and then hit reply.

Does that make sense? Or help?

 

[mickeysmyboy]

Welcome and happy planning! I love your photos! You have a beautiful family!!!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[pooksma]

What a beautiful family. I look forward to reading more! Glad you came out of lurkdom to share.

 

[allbluezoo]

thanks for all the technical help, I think I finally figured it out

 

[allbluezoo]

Off site vs. On site

So, y’all know I am married to a sailor. There are tons of perks out there for military families and we are taking advantage of the military salute tickets during our trip! There is also this little thing called “armed forces vacation club” and I had been hearing they were having AWESOME deals in Orlando. So, I checked it out but couldn’t get any dates to match up for when we wanted to travel.

I kept checking back on a pretty regular…I mean obsessive basis. Finally a deal showed up for the dates we wanted with enough room for the 4 of us; $329 for 8 days/7 nights with a complete kitchen and just about 10 minutes from WDW. Holy deal of all deals, right?! I snatched it up reading all the fine print along the way. With the money we save on the room there will be plenty for eating and souvenirs. Uh huh, yeah….sure.

It was around this time that I really began visiting DISboards; I had been lurking around every now and again previously but now I was a full time stalker!

Random thought: Well, not really random..but DH called today to tell me he is coming "home" on June 15!!! We were thinking he wouldn't be able to make it until July 1 so this is a real treat! I am going to try and keep it a secret from everyone for a BIG surprise! We'll see how far I get, LOL!?

 

[reyasmommy]

Off site vs. On site

So, y’all know I am married to a sailor. There are tons of perks out there for military families and we are taking advantage of the military salute tickets during our trip! There is also this little thing called “armed forces vacation club” and I had been hearing they were having AWESOME deals in Orlando. So, I checked it out but couldn’t get any dates to match up for when we wanted to travel.

I kept checking back on a pretty regular…I mean obsessive basis. Finally a deal showed up for the dates we wanted with enough room for the 4 of us; $329 for 8 days/7 nights with a complete kitchen and just about 10 minutes from WDW. Holy deal of all deals, right?! I snatched it up reading all the fine print along the way. With the money we save on the room there will be plenty for eating and souvenirs. Uh huh, yeah….sure.

It was around this time that I really began visiting DISboards; I had been lurking around every now and again previously but now I was a full time stalker!

Random thought: Well, not really random..but DH called today to tell me he is coming "home" on June 15!!! We were thinking he wouldn't be able to make it until July 1 so this is a real treat! I am going to try and keep it a secret from everyone for a BIG surprise! We'll see how far I get, LOL!?

Well of course it's always more fun to stay on property but at the same time you can find some really, really nice places off property too. We're staying off property on our upcoming trip and I couldn't be happier with our choice.

That's super exciting news about your DH coming home early.

 

[allbluezoo]

Well of course it's always more fun to stay on property but at the same time you can find some really, really nice places off property too. We're staying off property on our upcoming trip and I couldn't be happier with our choice.

That's super exciting news about your DH coming home early.

Yeah, it was kinda painful to drop that 329/wk deal but in the long run I think we will all be happier. We can save off site for another time LOL!

Side note: I went to Lowe's tonight to gather some Mickey head paint chips and they said they don't carry Disney paint. Why did I think it was Lowe's? Guess a trip to Home Depot is on the agenda for tomorrow.

 

[allbluezoo]

UPDATE: Success on Mickey head paint chips! We scored a TON at Home Depot, guess there aren't many DISers around here?!

My boys were very concerned that we didn't pay for them, not quite understanding the whole "sample" thing just yet