Celebrating 10 years of marriage with the mouse: Photopass Pics Added

[mansionterror]

Greetings all my name is Melissa and I am a diser. Many of will not know me as I am more of a lurker on the boards but I have been around for about 3 years now. On to the cast:

Me: Melissa or Mel. I am 29 years old, approaching the ever popular and dreaded age of 30 in October. I Disney. I went on my first trip at 3 and have gone numerous times since. I married young at 19 but have been with my husband for 10 years. I am double employed as a Business Manager at a preschool and as a supervisor in a retail establishment. If given time I will sit down and read an entire book without stopping. I love, love, love to take pictures as you will soon see. I LOVE musical movies and I know Grease and Dirty Dancing from stop to finish.

DH: James or Jamie. He is 37 years old and along for the ride. This will be his 5th trip to the world. He knows we are going on this trip and for how long but pretty much leaves the planning up to me. He works for a liquor distributor and for the first time in a long time really enjoys his job. He loves all things NASCAR. He loves car movies and anything with Burt Reynolds (huge Smokey and the Bandit fan). He won’t admit it but he too knows Grease from stop to finish…including the dance moves.

DS: Colby, Colbster. He is my almost 5 year old baby. Colby is becoming an old pro at Disney as this is his 3rd trip. A little background for you. Colby is James’s nephew once removed (James’s niece’s son). Colby came to stay with us during a difficult time in my life (I had just had a miscarriage). He was supposed to stay with us 1 week while his birth mother "straightened out her life". This was in July of 2004, he has been a part of our family since he was 11 months old. We received legal custody in July of 2005 and the rest is history. He sees his birth mother and maternal grandparents on weekends. Colby is a funny child; he has the best laugh ever and has always had a thing for music. He loves his Daddy and follows him everywhere. He is a smart little boy and the light of our lives. He is also very compassionate and really feels for others. He will be starting Kindergarten in the fall so gone are the days of going to Disney whenever we feel like it.

Our trip dates were May 30 – June 7 and we stayed at our favorite value, Pop Century. We stopped for an overnight on the way to Disney and actually celebrated our 10 year anniversary on Friday, our last park day. I hope you all will stick around and enjoy this new report.

Up Next: Random thoughts and the pre-Disney part of our trip.

 

[mansionterror]

I hope these aren't huge...I resized in Photobucket before posting.

 

[mansionterror]

We decided to drive from East Tennessee (where we live) to Jacksonville, FL for our first night. You see, James loves the beach; I on the other hand am not so big of a fan. I can tolerate one day so we picked the Jacksonville area and went with that. I did quite a bit of bargain shopping on Disney shopping and stocked up on quite a few t-shirts for us all to wear on the trip. I also put together a gift basket for all of us from Mickey that was to be waiting at the room in Disney. James had borrowed a Garmin from his boss to use and that was a life savor for us…we are notorious for getting lost everywhere we go, our very first trip to Disney together we used an Atlas, missed our exit and ended up in Yeehaw Junction close to Miami.

The drive down was pretty un-eventful. James likes to leave in the wee hours of the morning to miss Atlanta traffic so we left out at around 3 or 3:30. It was daylight when we drove through Hotlanta so I snapped a few pics.

Somewhere in GA, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then headed on to Valdosta and the Fl welcome center. It is a tradition in my family (we did it when I was growing up) to stop and the welcome center for pics in front of the sign. So we made those pictures and goofed around for a little bit. It was still early in the morning and man was it hot already.

We then headed on over to Jacksonville. I got some pictures of the Jacksonville area and after we checked into our hotel we headed out to find the beach. We ended up at Neptune Beach and spent the day there. The only complaint I have is that there was no-where to rinse off so we tracked a lot of sand back in MY car.

We had dinner, made a stop at Walgreens because Colby was fighting summer allergies already and settled in to watch Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. We fell asleep quickly excited about the next day and reaching Disney.

Coming up Day 2: Waisting time in St. Augustine and if this water is supposed to make me younger than why does it taste so bad? I see that some people have at least viewed the report, I hope I haven't bored you to death. I will get to Disney first thing next week, promise!

 

[mkluvsmickey]

I'm here! Sounds like a great report - looking forward to hearing more. Your son is adorable!

 

[mansionterror]

I have a reader!!

Thanks Michelle, Colby is our life. I promise an update on Monday!

 

[DisneySweetheart]

Hi Melissa!

I'm enjoying the pics so far! That Colby is precious!!! What a cutie!

Also wanted to add that my DH and I celebrated our 10 years of marriage on June 20th. We honeymooned at Disney.

Now...Lets hear a little more about your trip!

 

[kaysmommie]

Subbing, love what you have os far. Colby is adorable.

 

[noahdove]

I'm in, keep up the great review

 

[EnchantedPiglet]

Lovely photos!! You and your family are very adorable.
I'm Mel too. Well Melanie.

 

[scrdofbugs]

I am normally a lurker but decided to tell you "Great Start". I can't wait to read the rest.

 

[mansionterror]

Hello all...I just wanted to say thank you to all of the responses. I will try to get an update up today during my lunch.

 

[mansionterror]

We got up pretty early the next morning and went down to have some of the lovely breakfast offered the hotel. We spent some time discussing our plans for the day as we didn’t need to check into Disney until 3:00 and we had some time to kill. I have always wanted to visit the Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine so we decided to let good ole Garmin lead the way. The Fountain is located on 15 acres of natural park land. After a few wrong turns, darn that Garmin we found the fountain entrance on a beautiful tree lined street.

We paid the admission price $12 for the three of us (I think Colby was free) and headed in. Since I will be the big 30 this year I wanted to partake of the fountain, good grief I hope a small sip worked because that water was horrible, here are a couple of photos from the fountain room.

Sorry about the devil eyes...

After visiting the fountain itself we decided to forgo the guided tour and explore on our own. The park is a natural nesting place for Peacocks and we saw quite a few. They also have tame squirrels that you can hand feed peanuts (Peacocks like them too). They also had an Ostrich chick that Colby and I really got a kick out of. You can spend as much time as you like there and we really enjoyed exploring the area. We exited through the gift shop and I purchased my own bottle of the spring water from the fountain, just in case that sip didn’t work.

We headed over to the Castillo de San Marcus after leaving the fountain. We didn’t go in the fort itself but we took some nice photos around the outside. It was already sweltering so we didn't spend a great deal of time here, due to there being no shade anywhere. As we were leaving Colby got to meet several gentlemen that were dressed as soldiers.

I found it quite funny that Colby was wearing their colors.
Finally we were ready to head on down to Orlando and to Disney.

Coming up: It is so good to be home again.

 

[TCKK]

Sign me up. Great pictures and report so far. Colby is a real cutie!!

Cathy

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Love your pictures from St. Augustine. My husband and I honeymooned there so you are bringing back some great memories. I took a sip from the fountain of youth too - don't think it worked though. LOL

 

[mansionterror]

Sign me up. Great pictures and report so far. Colby is a real cutie!!

Cathy

Thanks Cathy, glad you are enjoying the report.

Love your pictures from St. Augustine. My husband and I honeymooned there so you are bringing back some great memories. I took a sip from the fountain of youth too - don't think it worked though. LOL

My parents stopped in at St. Augustine on their honeymoon, so did my husband and I so it was nice to visit again. I think Colby really enjoyed it too.

 

[mansionterror]

We were finally on the road to Disney. We made a couple of stops along the way for gas and to eat and then we saw that old familiar site that brings a smile and possible tear to anyone.

After a couple of wrong turns (This is our 2nd stay at Pop you’d think we’d remember how to get there) and no help from Garmin we saw this:

Colby was asleep by this time so I left James and him in the air conditioning while I braved the boiling pavement parking lot to go in to check us in for the week. As soon as those doors opened I could not help the huge smile that graced my lips. I was home, at Disney in June, it was going to be good week I could feel it. Checking in on a Sunday afternoon was nice, I was 3rd in line and check in went smoothly. I paid for a preferred room and we were assigned to the 70’s section, 3rd floor. I asked for our gift basket, grabbed my welcome pack and headed back to the car.

We drove around to the 90’s parking lot and grabbed as many things as we could and went to locate our room. I was pleased with the room because the pool and classic hall were both just steps away but we had a garden view rather than a pool view and it wasn’t as loud. In the window we were greeted with our first 2 towel animals of the week, last year we had two puppies all week but this year our mousekeeper was much more creative. Here are our first 2 friends

James and Colby both took a seat on the bed and I sat the gift basket on the table for Colby to open. I had a few items put in the basked for each of us, including Happy Anniversary pins for James and myself. Colby loved his gifts from Mickey.

We headed over to Classic Hall for some dinner and a browse around the gift shop. I take lots of pictures but none of food but I will try to remember what we ate. I think James and I both had a cheeseburger and Colby had kids nuggets. James and I both bought hats for the week and I got Colby an autograph book. We also invested in our mugs. We then took a stroll around the resort and took some pictures.

Larger than life Icons. You can barely see Colby

A look at Legendary Hall from across the lake

We made friends with the turtles along the way.

Legendary Hall through the trees, sad to look at what might have been

James and I posed next to signs boasting our birth years.

Great mine just had to have something to do with fitness.

We settled in for the night as the next day we had an early appointment with a photographer the next morning.

Coming up: Day 3: Our first day in the parks, Poly pictures, a visit to Epcot and Colby’s first kiss.

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Love the pictures from POP - that is one of my favorite resorts! Sounds like you are off to a great week!

 

[tink1957]

Just found your TR today & I'm in. It looks like you are all off to a great start. Colby is such a cutie. I can't wait to read more.

 

[mansionterror]

Love the pictures from POP - that is one of my favorite resorts! Sounds like you are off to a great week!

We love Pop as well. It is such a fun resort!!

Just found your TR today & I'm in. It looks like you are all off to a great start. Colby is such a cutie. I can't wait to read more.

Welcome Tink! Glad you joined us.

 

[mansionterror]

I had a busy weekend and don't have computer access then so I haven't typed up the next update. I will do my best to get the next part of the trip up tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.