All I Want for Christmas is...A WDW Vacation!! UPDATE pg 35 - Leaving today!!

[MeMom]

I hope the Disney Live thing works out for you. It sounds like a great Disney fix. We have tickets to Disney on Ice in October because we thought we weren't going to be able to make an October trip. Now it is looking more like we are going after all for a short trip, so we may be getting a lot of Disney in in October with both of those things!

Looking forward to NYE. You're going to be there, right? We watched fireworks from the Poly beach week before last, and it was as marvelous as ever. NYE fireworks will be incredible!

Hope the yard sale went well. We had yard sales all too often when I was raising three kids alone. We sold anything that wasn't bolted down just to make ends meet, so I kind of have not so great memories of yard sales. I like to go to them, but I don't like to have them! I know yours wasn't for survival, though! Hope you brought in some Disney dollars!

 

[DWGal210]

YAY for Mickey mail!! And Disney Live!! That sounds awesome!! Do you know if it will be in Memphis anytime soon?!

Hey Becky! Well, I looked on their website and it's coming to Johnson City, TN in March 2010. Don't know where that is in relation to you. If you visit their website, you can look at all the dates; maybe there is one close enough to you guys where you could make a weekend trip! The website is http://disney.go.com/disneylive/

I hope the Disney Live thing works out for you. It sounds like a great Disney fix. We have tickets to Disney on Ice in October because we thought we weren't going to be able to make an October trip. Now it is looking more like we are going after all for a short trip, so we may be getting a lot of Disney in in October with both of those things!

Looking forward to NYE. You're going to be there, right? We watched fireworks from the Poly beach week before last, and it was as marvelous as ever. NYE fireworks will be incredible!

Hope the yard sale went well. We had yard sales all too often when I was raising three kids alone. We sold anything that wasn't bolted down just to make ends meet, so I kind of have not so great memories of yard sales. I like to go to them, but I don't like to have them! I know yours wasn't for survival, though! Hope you brought in some Disney dollars!

Hi MeMom! How are you guys doing? That sounds great that you'll be able to make an October trip - how exciting!

I will more than likely be there on NYE. I'm traveling with my aunt and uncle and their 4 kids, so it will probably be me and my 18 year old sister, I bet the kids will have pooped out by midnight! We'll have to exchange cell phone #s closer to the date so we can text each other and make sure of our meet-up!

The garage sale was actually anti-climactic; it was at my friend's house and it was mostly her stuff, but I had some knick-knacks, some items of my grandma's that she was trying to get rid of, etc. My grand total for 2 days of a garage sale was......drum roll please.....$18!!! Are you kidding me?! So needless to say, everything else that was in the sale went to Goodwill cause I didn't want to mess with it anymore. Oh well - I did have money to go out to eat the other night, so that was good I guess!

Have a great day!

 

[DWGal210]

So I promise for a full-fledged update later this week. My computer has been acting screwy again and is giving me problems on loading pictures. But as a tease, here is what you can expect coming up:

* A day trip to Dubuque and Galena - Or, Why I Love Shopping

* Scrapbooking with my Goddaughter

I just had to tell this story; I had my goddaughter over last night to work on her scrapbook. For her birthday, I pre-decorate a scrapbook for her so when they got back from the Disney Cruise, she could put in her pictures and finish it how she wanted. Well, since they have been back from the cruise since March she decided to work on it last night. She went into my bathroom (where I have Mickey galore) and her words were, "Katie, this is wicked cool!". When you can get "wicked cool" from a 9 year old, that's pretty good, wouldn't you say?

Have a great day, everyone!

 

[BippityBoo]

So I promise for a full-fledged update later this week. My computer has been acting screwy again and is giving me problems on loading pictures. But as a tease, here is what you can expect coming up:

* A day trip to Dubuque and Galena - Or, Why I Love Shopping

* Scrapbooking with my Goddaughter

I just had to tell this story; I had my goddaughter over last night to work on her scrapbook. For her birthday, I pre-decorate a scrapbook for her so when they got back from the Disney Cruise, she could put in her pictures and finish it how she wanted. Well, since they have been back from the cruise since March she decided to work on it last night. She went into my bathroom (where I have Mickey galore) and her words were, "Katie, this is wicked cool!". When you can get "wicked cool" from a 9 year old, that's pretty good, wouldn't you say?

Have a great day, everyone!

Haha wicked cool---she is too much!

I can not wait to see pics of the scrapbook. Also, let us in on how she liked the cruise (and her parents). I am still trying to get lots of feedback from people with younger kids....cant wait for the update

 

[DWGal210]

OK, so this is not the updates I was talking about, but I just had to share these new pictures of my niece.

The first one - this is her and Micah. Micah is the son of friends of my brothers, his dad was best man at their wedding. They came and saw them last weekend. I think he is about 2 months older than Caroline.

Now this one I love - doesn't it look like they are holding hands?! So CUTE!

See ya, everyone!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Ah, I love the sweet baby pictures!

Yes, wicked cool is high praise from the 9-year-old set! I want to see the scrapbooking pics!!!

 

[DWGal210]

So I just wanted to share a cool picture:

This is my sister and her friends, with Sam Champion from Good Morning America! They are in our town, Cedar Falls Iowa, a few weeks ago doing the morning show.

My sister is right next to Sam, on his right.

So cool!!

 

[DWGal210]

Ah, I love the sweet baby pictures!

Yes, wicked cool is high praise from the 9-year-old set! I want to see the scrapbooking pics!!!

I thought it was pretty neat, too! She is a fun gal.

I think I am going to have to load pictures at my mom and dad's house; my work computer works fine, but I have to be able to email them to me at work, and it's not even doing that from home. So I think I'll head over to their house and load the pics there.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Such a neat picture of your sister and Sam Champion!

 

[DWGal210]

Good morning!

Here is Part 1 of....I don't know, we'll see how many pages it takes to put in these pictures! I have a couple of fun updates I want to do. Some of them are non-Disney and involve a day trip we took last Friday. The others are of baby Caroline (of course!) and my goddaughter and I doing some scrapbooking of their cruise in March.

Thank you for all being patient with me as I load these. I'm at my brother and sister in law's house now, and their computer is more trusty than mine, so I took the opportunity to load some pics!

Coming soon, pictures galore!

 

[DWGal210]

So here are some more obligatory Auntie pics of baby Caroline.

I LOVE this one...

Yea, I am so excited - Aunt Katie is here!

Just hanging out with Dad...

Part 2, coming right up!

 

[DWGal210]

Now on to Part 2...

Last Friday, we (me, Mom, Dad and brother Noah, age 13) went to the MS River Museum in Dubuque, IA. We also jaunted over to quaint and darling Galena, IL, to do some shopping and walking around.

First, we arrive - they have this GIANT paddle wheel in front of the museum. Sorry there is no one in front of it so you can guess scale - it was raining like mad that morning and we just wanted to get inside!

We then go inside and start exploring. I like museums anyway, but it's a very nice one. If you live in the area, I would suggest going - it's very informative but fun at the same time.

Here is Noah, getting to put his hand inside a tank and pet some kind of fish (I forget what kind)....I said no thank you, I'll just take the picture.

Mom and Noah, next to a fish tank.

Then I reminded myself why I DON'T swim in the ocean or lakes....yikes! This was literally the biggest catfish I had ever seen.

But he had a cute little friend, a tiny turtle that was very content to just swim around....and Mr. Giant Catfish left him alone, which was good!

I actually had quite a few Disney moments on this little day-jaunt: The pic below is of a quote that wraps around their gift shop. I can't recall what it said, but the point is, it was a Winnie the Pooh quote from AA Milne! Neat!

Quote again...

Neat, huh?!

Next episode...Museum Part 2: Lizards, and lots of them!!

 

[DWGal210]

The River Museum has a space for rotating exhibits, and the one this summer is about lizards. So 1/2 the top floor was all different kinds of lizards, small and large, and some very gross! (Can you tell I am not a big fan of lizards?!)

Here is my brother with a statue they had in front of the exhibit...I still can't figure out why he had a lab coat on, but whatever.

Then there's this guy - he can't save you money on car insurance, but apparently he can captain a river vessel!

Here are some of the lizards we saw...

Our final pic in the lizard area was of me and Noah, in the lizard cutouts My mom wanted a picture of "the kids" and so we gave in.

More museum, coming up!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Your niece is sooooo cute!! And I loved the picture of you and your brother in the cutout! How nice of you to humor your mum!

 

[DWGal210]

This is the final museum post, then on to the scrapbook pages!

There are just some random shots that I thought were neat...

(These are all the people that have been honored by the River Association, mostly for conservation and that sort of thing.)
Looking down from the 2nd floor onto the mail level...

It's kind of hard to tell, but this is how gloomy and cold it was that day. August 7th and it was FREEZING...it was cold outside AND they had the air conditioning on in the museum...brr!!!

Mom, Dad and Noah rolling on the river logs! Watch out!

Mark Twain, just hanging out, reading a book...

About 2:00, we departed for Galena, IL. It's a darling, quaint town only about 20 minutes from Dubuque (so less than 2 hours total from my house). They have tons of fun shops all up and down this long, twisting street. Here are a few pictures of the shopping area:

I had Disney moments #2 and #3 in the shops. In a toy store, they had the 75th Anniversary edition Mickey Monopoly! I was so going to get it, but the price turned me off. Never fear - I am bidding on one from Ebay as we speak!

Moment #3 came in a collectibles store. They literally had just about every Jim Shore Disney figurine known to man-and-woman kind! It was so hard to resist - my spare bedroom / office has become my Disney place, and I am collecting the smaller figurines and placing them in that room. But I held onto my cash, knowing I would be at Disney before long, and resisted.
At this point, Noah decided he wanted me to take pictures of him running down this giant, stone paved hill. (Some might tell you that Iowa and Illinois are all flat - they are not! Suffice it to say, I would not like to live in either Dubuque OR Galena in winter - some of those hills would be murder with ice on them!)

Success!

I just had to take a picture of this tree....We were outside the museum, getting ready to leave, and we notice this lone tree on top of this hill, all by itself. I thought it was funny, so I had Mom pose in front so it wasn't like I was just taking a picture of the tree on the hill.

We had a great day - since it was only 2 hours from hom, we were able to sight-see, do a little shopping and then have some dinner and go home. Other than it being unseasonably cold, we had a great day!

Onto scrapbooking!

 

[DWGal210]

On to scrapbooking!

I aplogize in advance that some of these pictures are tilted...I loaded them into Photobucket at my brother's house (since my computer is acting up) and then log in today and realize some of them are all a-jumble. Oh well, tilt your head or use your imagination!

My goddaughter came over last week to scrapbook. She's my Disney buddy and a blast to hang out with. She's 9, going on about 17. A very sweet girl, but sometimes I have to remind myself that she is only 9 - she can carry on conversations and is fun to be with, which you don't always get with a kid that age!

For her birthday this past year, I started a scrapbook for her, since they were going on the Disney Cruise over Spring Break in March. Being that it was almost the end of summer, we thought we should get started on it now.

Here are some pictures of her, getting things ready to roll: My dog Riley also makes appearances in some of these pictures. I thought it was SO CUTE that she brought her pirate Mickey ears to wear! A girl after my own heart!

We then got rolling. She is very creative, and so I just let her loose in my craft closet and said, "Go for it!"

The front page:

Her following pages: she had pages devoted to towel animals, getting to and from the cruise and hotel, and her family.

We had a great time - we watched a Disney travel DVD, looked over the Unofficial Guide, and in general had a marvelous evening!

Have a great day, everyone!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Seeing those great scrapbook pages made me want to take a cruise and scrapbook!

 

[DWGal210]

Seeing those great scrapbook pages made me want to take a cruise and scrapbook!

I know, I felt the same way! I wanted to be on that boat, all over again! She and I are talking about taking a godmother / goddaughter trip next fall if they have Free Dining again. We've never been on a trip, just us two, and we thought that would be fun! Stay tuned for details on that trip!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Seeing those cruise made me remember that we are going to cruise next year! With these twelve hour days at school I forget about my upcoming travels! Thanks for the reminder! Loved the pages! What a darling Goddaughter you have!

 

[DWGal210]

Seeing those cruise made me remember that we are going to cruise next year! With these twelve hour days at school I forget about my upcoming travels! Thanks for the reminder! Loved the pages! What a darling Goddaughter you have!

Thanks Anita! I think she is pretty darling, too. We have a lot of fun together.

How is school going for you so far! Good I hope! And you can get through the days, thinking about your Christmas trip and next summer's cruise....
Have an awesome weekend!