Hello! And welcome to our trip report. We are middlepat and erika412 and well be writing this report together. Erika has a PTR here if you want to read that, but it isnt nearly as exciting as our TR.
We had a few other people join us for this tripnamely our kids! Mary is 6, Shannon is 5 and Megan is 2. Yup, thats right. Three girls. Middlepat is way outnumbered! Mary and Shannon have been to Walt Disney World twice already, but this was Megans first trip. It was a special trip in another way too.
The purpose of this trip was to celebrate Megan's kidneys. It sounds kind of a strange reason for a trip, but Megan had kidney failure last year in December 08 (post infectious nephritis) when she was only 15 months old. She ended up on dialysis and they were talking transplant. She was in and out of the hospital and I (Erika) spent all the time she was in with her. Mary and Shannon knew where I was, but obviously also had their lives uprooted. Megan miraculously turned around and we decided that we wanted to have some alone time with our family once she got healthy enough to travel. She is still on various medications- this is a long battle for her which may ultimately still end up with a transplant, but is doing so well compared to where she was last December. (if you're curious more about the nitty gritty details of what she went through, she has a carepage at https://www.carepages.com/carepages/Megan_Newell Megan also has some food allergies (dairy, soy, and egg) and we were a little nervous about not being in control of her food.
Obviously our one and only choice was to go to Disney World. We love Disney World. Yes, we are one of those families. Perhaps you might know another one or two? We had the task of finding a room for 5 this time. We looked at all the options and decided on the Polynesian. We also decided to drive for the first time from Chicago. I was so excited for the Poly and even the drive because the girls are pretty good girls when it comes to car rides.
Heres a shirt I had made for the trip:
So, November 6th, the girls went to school as normal in the morning. They knew we were going to be leaving before lunchtime. What Shannon didn't know was that middlepat was going to be the Mystery Reader that day. But before that we packed up the van. I had read a suggestion here of using storage boxes instead of luggage for a long car trip so we decided to do it. It ended up working out extremely well.
Shannon's teacher allowed Middlepat to come in early and read to the class. It is a huge deal for the kids and when the school secretary intercoms down to the classroom that they have a mystery reader, you can hear the screams of excitement in the school office. To be honest, even though they are just kindergartners, it can be a little intimidating! Middlepat brought a Dr. Suess book which Shannon ended up taking from him and reading to the class.
After that, it was time to come home, change out of uniforms and a bathroom break and hit the road.
The exact time we left:
The girls have no idea how long they will really be in the car:
Coming up next-- More of the drive.
We had a few other people join us for this tripnamely our kids! Mary is 6, Shannon is 5 and Megan is 2. Yup, thats right. Three girls. Middlepat is way outnumbered! Mary and Shannon have been to Walt Disney World twice already, but this was Megans first trip. It was a special trip in another way too.
The purpose of this trip was to celebrate Megan's kidneys. It sounds kind of a strange reason for a trip, but Megan had kidney failure last year in December 08 (post infectious nephritis) when she was only 15 months old. She ended up on dialysis and they were talking transplant. She was in and out of the hospital and I (Erika) spent all the time she was in with her. Mary and Shannon knew where I was, but obviously also had their lives uprooted. Megan miraculously turned around and we decided that we wanted to have some alone time with our family once she got healthy enough to travel. She is still on various medications- this is a long battle for her which may ultimately still end up with a transplant, but is doing so well compared to where she was last December. (if you're curious more about the nitty gritty details of what she went through, she has a carepage at https://www.carepages.com/carepages/Megan_Newell Megan also has some food allergies (dairy, soy, and egg) and we were a little nervous about not being in control of her food.
Obviously our one and only choice was to go to Disney World. We love Disney World. Yes, we are one of those families. Perhaps you might know another one or two? We had the task of finding a room for 5 this time. We looked at all the options and decided on the Polynesian. We also decided to drive for the first time from Chicago. I was so excited for the Poly and even the drive because the girls are pretty good girls when it comes to car rides.
Heres a shirt I had made for the trip:
So, November 6th, the girls went to school as normal in the morning. They knew we were going to be leaving before lunchtime. What Shannon didn't know was that middlepat was going to be the Mystery Reader that day. But before that we packed up the van. I had read a suggestion here of using storage boxes instead of luggage for a long car trip so we decided to do it. It ended up working out extremely well.
Shannon's teacher allowed Middlepat to come in early and read to the class. It is a huge deal for the kids and when the school secretary intercoms down to the classroom that they have a mystery reader, you can hear the screams of excitement in the school office. To be honest, even though they are just kindergartners, it can be a little intimidating! Middlepat brought a Dr. Suess book which Shannon ended up taking from him and reading to the class.
After that, it was time to come home, change out of uniforms and a bathroom break and hit the road.
The exact time we left:
The girls have no idea how long they will really be in the car:
Coming up next-- More of the drive.
(Or is that a still a sore subject? 
)
I'm glad it was just car sickness and that she felt better soon! 
You are not the only one celebrating Kidneys 
