DisMomAmy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2007
- Messages
- 7,994
We love Disney World. I love it. DS7 loves it. DS4 loves it. And DH loves us so he tolerates it. I want to go back! I just cant help myself. Our last family trip was October 2007. My last trip was in April with my mom. We went for a long weekend and enjoyed a rain free day at the Epcot F&G Festival after two very wet days everywhere else in the world. We had a blast, but I kept thinking of my kids and how much fun it is to enjoy WDW through their eyes. As exhausting as it is, it is a blast. And I want to do it again. As soon as possible.
My plan has been to try to go every two years. (April was an extra added bonus.) Our October trip was great, we loved MNSSHP, but it was simply too early in the school year to be disrupting Alexs (DS7) schedule. So since we decided we would not go in the fall again that left us with winter and spring school vacation weeks. Luckily our weeks fall a week later than most of the other school vacations and we should be able to avoid the HUGE crowds. Now the question becomes do we go in 2 ½ years in 2010 (probably DHs preference) or in 1 ½ years in 2009 (obviously my preference). Im trying my hardest to get him on board, and I think Im almost there.
So let me introduce you to my family: (I'm going to bite the bullet this time and post face pics of my family!)
This is all of us at Story Land in NH in June.
Me, Amy, 34, SAHM, part time babysitter & bookkeeper. Love love love Disney! I have the personality of a perfectionist, but cant pull it together long enough to actually be organized! Maybe thats part of my obsession with trips to WDW I seem to be able to keep myself pretty organized throughout the whole process. 5 adult trips to the world since 1997. 3 trips as a kid.
DH, Tim, 35, Solutions Engineer (computer stuff). Works really hard, travels around a lot for work. Puts up with me and my obsession. Weve been married for almost 12 years. 4 trips as an adult (all with me) and 2 or 3 as a kid.
DS7, Alex, super bright kid. As he has been telling everyone since the last day of school, he is in second grade now. He loves to move fast he rode Tower of Terror at least 10 times in October. He loves the Yeti Ride and will be tall enough for RnRC (and everything else except driving his own Indy car) next time. Alex is living with autism. He was diagnosed with PDD-NOS right after his second birthday. It effects almost every part of his life, in good and bad ways.
DS4, Zachary, very sensitive and emotional kid. He always feels as though he is being treated unfairly. I am hoping that he is just having a hard time being 4? He will be 5 in September. He could be going into kindergarten (our cutoff date is September 30th) but we decided to give him the gift of an extra year of preschool. Thats how his school presents it anyways. That factor will come up again when I talk about how we can or cant afford this trip later. His favorite attractions in October were Winnie the Pooh, Honey I shrunk the kids playground and Nemo. He refers to any amusement park of any type as Disney. Hell be tall enough to ride a lot more rides next time, but Im not sure if hell want to.
Im starting this PTR 9 months (or maybe only 7) early in honor of mousescrapper and her 9 month pregnancy PTR that has recently turned into a full blown TR. Ill try to post something interesting once a week until we get quite a bit closer to our trip.
DH and I were talking about it last night (the first time he has talked about the trip as though it really might happen) and he said, Wow, April is a long time away. Funny! But thats exactly what Im thinking! Then he mentioned something about February that made me think that could actually happen! Well see
Coming up soon (not necessarily in this order):
Why the Can we, should we? a spring 2009 PTR
Who else will be going?
Pros and Cons of February vs. April
Budget
The big airfare watch
Where to stay
Whats going on with ADRs?
Some mini-TRs from our summer
My plan has been to try to go every two years. (April was an extra added bonus.) Our October trip was great, we loved MNSSHP, but it was simply too early in the school year to be disrupting Alexs (DS7) schedule. So since we decided we would not go in the fall again that left us with winter and spring school vacation weeks. Luckily our weeks fall a week later than most of the other school vacations and we should be able to avoid the HUGE crowds. Now the question becomes do we go in 2 ½ years in 2010 (probably DHs preference) or in 1 ½ years in 2009 (obviously my preference). Im trying my hardest to get him on board, and I think Im almost there.
So let me introduce you to my family: (I'm going to bite the bullet this time and post face pics of my family!)
This is all of us at Story Land in NH in June.
Me, Amy, 34, SAHM, part time babysitter & bookkeeper. Love love love Disney! I have the personality of a perfectionist, but cant pull it together long enough to actually be organized! Maybe thats part of my obsession with trips to WDW I seem to be able to keep myself pretty organized throughout the whole process. 5 adult trips to the world since 1997. 3 trips as a kid.
DH, Tim, 35, Solutions Engineer (computer stuff). Works really hard, travels around a lot for work. Puts up with me and my obsession. Weve been married for almost 12 years. 4 trips as an adult (all with me) and 2 or 3 as a kid.
DS7, Alex, super bright kid. As he has been telling everyone since the last day of school, he is in second grade now. He loves to move fast he rode Tower of Terror at least 10 times in October. He loves the Yeti Ride and will be tall enough for RnRC (and everything else except driving his own Indy car) next time. Alex is living with autism. He was diagnosed with PDD-NOS right after his second birthday. It effects almost every part of his life, in good and bad ways.
DS4, Zachary, very sensitive and emotional kid. He always feels as though he is being treated unfairly. I am hoping that he is just having a hard time being 4? He will be 5 in September. He could be going into kindergarten (our cutoff date is September 30th) but we decided to give him the gift of an extra year of preschool. Thats how his school presents it anyways. That factor will come up again when I talk about how we can or cant afford this trip later. His favorite attractions in October were Winnie the Pooh, Honey I shrunk the kids playground and Nemo. He refers to any amusement park of any type as Disney. Hell be tall enough to ride a lot more rides next time, but Im not sure if hell want to.
Im starting this PTR 9 months (or maybe only 7) early in honor of mousescrapper and her 9 month pregnancy PTR that has recently turned into a full blown TR. Ill try to post something interesting once a week until we get quite a bit closer to our trip.
DH and I were talking about it last night (the first time he has talked about the trip as though it really might happen) and he said, Wow, April is a long time away. Funny! But thats exactly what Im thinking! Then he mentioned something about February that made me think that could actually happen! Well see
Coming up soon (not necessarily in this order):
Why the Can we, should we? a spring 2009 PTR
Who else will be going?
Pros and Cons of February vs. April
Budget
The big airfare watch
Where to stay
Whats going on with ADRs?
Some mini-TRs from our summer
Thanks for reading! Thanks! I think my boys are pretty cute too! 
The airfare watch is a big deal this time around - things are so up in the air. 
(sorry I couldn't resist!)
). DH lived in Alexander the first year, at his fraternity house the second year, then we lived off campus together the last two years. He was an English Major, I started as a biology major and ended up as a Family & Consumer Studies major. What did you major in?
. You have a beautiful family, thank you so much for sharing the pictures.
. That is why my ptr is only there for now. Once I get going with it, I will probably post it here too. I still love the DIS, I just love other places too. 
as well as his brothers autism. Alex is his closest role model socially, so I guess some of the behavior is to be expected, or so we are told. We will probably always worry, 
even when hes in college, but for now well give him the extra year, keep a close eye on him and hope for the best. 
We heat our home entirely with oil. Living in NH, that requires a lot of oil. Last year we paid $2.55 per gallon, for about 800 gallons. Luckily we locked in the price and were able to make budget payments over the year. This years rates are due out now. Two weeks ago the lady at the oil company told me the price would be $4.95 per gallon! 
However, I called again today and she told me the contracts are delayed because the prices have dipped, so hopefully it wont be that bad, but I certainly dont expect it to be below $4.00 or even close to that. Luckily we didnt use all 800 gallons, even though we had paid for them, so we had about a $700 credit to start this season. We thought about putting in a pellet stove in our fireplace, but many places that we checked were already backordered through December or even February! Since the stove will cost $3000-4000, plus the cost of wood pellets, we decided to wait another year, see where oil prices go, get through this years preschool tuition and revisit the idea early next spring. Plus, as we are starting to see, oil prices are also affecting airfare
