Dreaming of our Happily Ever After! Disneymoon and First Time Home Buyer PTR

[CtinaDitty]

This is my very short trip report. I had started one originally, almost a year out I believe, but got too busy and it fell apart. Now, I am only 43 days out from my wedding and 45 days out from our honeymoon so I figure I might as well get started considering so much is happening right now!
My name is Chrissy and I am 23 years old. I am a Personal Banker for a bank in the Kansas City, MO area. I love rescuing animals and finding them places to live, whether with me or another family. That’s how we ended up with three out of our four pets! We have two dogs and two cats. I also love to read and sing. I find it can take you away from the stresses of the world and it is hard to find something that does that so well! My fiance’s name is Devan and he is also 23 years old. He is an electrician for a local electrical company. He loves playing his XBOX360 especially when it comes to COD (Call of Duty). We have known each other since 7th grade thanks to our mutual love of the violin and orchestra. We started dating in May of 2007 and are now set to be married over five years later! Here are a few pics of us from the beginning of our best friendship.

*This is actually the night he asked me to be his girlfriend!*

Here are our loveable pets.

Devan proposed on December 29th, 2010 at my parent’s house where we spent most of our time. It was very sweet and very personal. No big fancy set up, just the two of us in a place where we have made a lot of memories. He had asked my Dad on Christmas Eve actually and then went and picked the ring up from the jeweler. Here is a picture of us right after he proposed!

Here are a few of my favorite engagement pictures of us!

Devan and I have come from completely different backgrounds when it comes to Disney. I consider myself practically an expert due to going every year once or even twice. Devan has only been twice and both of those are with me! We went in March of 2009 and December of 2010. He actually changed my Disney-style somewhat which is difficult. Going with my parents for so long, I was always rushing along to follow my Dad. That was back before the fastpass days. He likes to go at more of a leisurely pace and it’s actually better that way I’ve discovered! Devan was actually going to propose when we went in December but chickened out on asking my dad before the trip. Poor guy! My dad can be pretty intimidating.
So here is a little about us. Stay tuned for the post below where I tell you the terrors of our First-Time Home Buyer experience!

 

[CtinaDitty]

We have been through some exciting things these past few weeks! We just closed on our new construction home last Wednesday, May 23rd! We are now living there and getting everything set up. It’s quite an exciting journey. We have had quite a few fun experiences as first-time home buyers and by fun, I am including the literal fun and the figurative fun. As I mentioned before, our home is a new construction. Devan and I designed it from the ground up! Every touch in that house had to do with our decision-making skills and lucky for us, we did well! Moving in was pretty smooth believe it or not! We got moved in very fast and everything was great.

We decided to do our first load of dishes in our brand new dishwasher! Should be easy, right? Welp, turns out we did the first load with the water valve turned off. Great! So, after a mini-freak out by me, Devan turned on the water valve and we thought everything was good. Well, as it turns out the dishwasher decided to leak. Fantastic. It wasn’t draining and was leaking out onto our brand new wood floors. Not okay! The builder had his plumber come out and fix it and now it is doing great! Unfortunately, that wasn’t the last of our problems. We have a brand new washer and dryer as well. Well, when we went to do our first load the washer started shaking VIOLENTLY when it got to the spin cycle. We figured it probably wasn’t balanced or leveled so we went ahead and did that. According the level, it was perfect! Well, according to Mr. Washer who knows everything, it wasn’t so it still shook violently. We are still in the process of getting it fixed so we can’t do wash. Yay! I apologize in advance to my coworkers who have to deal with my dirty clothes….. Of course, I wouldn’t let that happen! We’ll get clothes washed one way or another, but it’d sure be nice to use our own washer and dryer since we spent a pretty penny on them!

Up next: The Hangover Part 3

 

[CtinaDitty]

Yes, that is the exact words that Cj, Devan’s Best Man, uttered to me when they brought him back home from his bachelor party. You can imagine my brain going a hundred miles a minute. You should have heard the stories I heard. Devan had never been drunk before and well… I guess there is a first time for everything. He was extremely hungover. He is apparently a very emotional drunk where he tends to have heart-to-hearts with everyone around him. I guess it could be worse!

I kid you not; those guys are NEVER going to Vegas together. I felt like I was the bride from the Hangover.

While Devan was out shooting a small Hulk figure that never seemed to “Die” and riding four-wheelers and playing drinking games, not to mention locking himself in the bathroom and falling asleep on the toilet, I was sitting at home working on wedding favors while watching Pretty Woman. Seems like a pretty legit way to pass the night away. Not to mention the intense game of Headbands that I played with my family. I get so competitive when it comes to those games and let me tell you… My little sister was bragging about how she could “show us how to play this game” and guess what… I WON! She didn’t even come close! Boom, little sister! BOOM! I promise, I’m a good winner. (cheers in the background, silly dances). See we love each other!

As do myself and my older sister!

Now, you might notice (or if you didn't I'm bringing it up!) that I look a little bit different in the two pictures I just posted versus the picture of Devan and me right after he proposed! I have been on a weight loss journey to get closer to where I was in high school. As of right now I have lost 58.6 pounds since late last August! I've been working so hard! I have gone from a size 22 to a size 12 and from size XL and 1X shirts to size medium shirts! I have had such amazing support from Devan, my family, and coworkers. It's been such a blessing!

I will actually be getting into the Disneymoon in the next post!

Up next: “Schedule and ADRs!”

 

[CtinaDitty]

Okay, so like I stated above, my fiancé is a very go with the flow kind of guy. When we first went to Disney World together I walked VERY fast and he and our friends had a hard time keeping up. I just knew where we needed to be and when we needed to be there. Considering I was the only Disney veteran on the trip at that time, it was frustrating when they were all lagging behind. I’ve since learned to try to go with the flow but that doesn’t mean he’s completely cured me of my obsessive schedule-making! First of all, I completely forgot to tell you where we are staying! We are staying at the Contemporary Resort in a Theme Park View Tower room.

Let’s just say, I am so excited to be able to see fireworks from my hotel room every night of our vacation! Wishes is my favorite part of Disney World!

I cry every time I watch it. I just get so emotional and it reminds me how much hope there still is in the world…

Anyway, without further ado, here is our schedule for our July 22nd through July 29th trip!

Sunday, July 22nd: Arrive in Orlando at 9:30 A.M. Yes, our flight from the Kansas City Airport is at 5:55 A.M. Phew! That’s early! We have a lunch reservation at Planet Hollywood at 2:00 P.M. Devan has always wanted to eat there and so I booked us a surprise lunch reservation there! Now, that surprise didn’t last long, as you will see is a trend of mine, because I told him. I just get too excited and can’t hold it in! We are also picking up a rental car from the Disney Alamo Rental Center at 5:00 P.M. That leaves us with the rest of the night to do Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom until 1 A.M.!

Monday, July 23rd: We are starting the day off with Disney’s Wild Africa Trek Tour at 8:00 A.M.! We are so excited to try out this tour! It looks amazing from the pictures we’ve seen and it will definitely be something different that neither of us have ever tried at Disney. That was one thing I wanted to have happen a lot on our Disneymoon… New experiences! I’ve been over 20 times so I’ve experienced A LOT! But this trip will be packed full of new experiences for us! We decided we will most likely eat at Rainforest Café on our way out of Animal Kingdom. That tends to be a tradition for us, but it’s one we are open to breaking! We have a dinner reservation at O’hana at 6:25 P.M. and I am so excited to try that! Just the stories I’ve heard! Plus, our other resort choice was Polynesian. It was between the Poly and CR. Devan chose CR. This will give us a chance to see the Poly in person and see if it’s a place we want to stay in the future! Hollywood Studios has EMH until 12 A.M. so we will be there for that! We might even try to sneak into Fantasmic that night depending on how tired we are!

Tuesday, July 24th: This is a day where Disney is going to be in the shadows until later in the evening. This is our off-site day! We are going to take our rental car to the Kennedy Space Center and possibly the Titanic Exhibition. We will also be eating at a favorite restaurant of mine called Bahama Breeze! Unfortunately, I came across this restaurant on my last trip to Disney with my parents and fell in love! We don’t have them at home so I made this a must visit! We have an ADR at Coral Reef at 7 P.M. and EMH at Epcot until 12 A.M.

Wednesday, July 25th: We are starting our day off with the Around the World Segway Tour at Epcot! Epcot is one of our favorite parks and we absolutely love it here. Epcot used to be my least favorite but the older I got the more I appreciated the beauty and tranquility of Epcot. We will be dropping off our rental car that day for it will be the last day we need it! We also have an ADR at California Grill at 7:50 P.M. I hope we get a great seat to see the fireworks from there!

Thursday, July 26th: We might use this day to sleep in. Not quite sure but it’s one of our less scheduled days. We might try to rent sea raycers at the CR! We know Hollywood Studios opens at 9 A.M. and we might spend the morning there and the afternoon/evening at Magic Kingdom. We do have an ADR at Fulton’s Crab House at 8:30 P.M. Not sure if this place is good or not but it looks amazing. It’s always been a place we want to try.

Friday, July 27th: This day we have a choice. We can start at Epcot with EMH from 8-9 A.M. or start at Animal Kingdom at 9 A.M. I’m not sure how much Animal Kingdom time we’ll get due to our Wild Africa Trek Tour so this will be a Thursday night decision. I do know we will head over to Magic Kingdom at some point. We are eating at a dream of mine, Cinderella’s Royal Table at 7 P.M.! I cannot express to you how excited I am! Every time I’ve been that I’ve known about ADRs, I’ve tried to make one there. Never been successful! Well, this time I was ON IT and got a great reservation! MK is open until 1 A.M. for EMH that evening so we will spend the evening there!

Saturday, July 28th: Hollywood Studios has EMH from 8-9 so we will probably start there. We have a lunch reservation at 50s Prime Time Café. I’ve been there and thought it was pretty decent and Devan thought it looked good. We also are having our last dinner, as of right now, at Victoria and Albert’s. I know it’s a very expensive meal but it will be the last dinner of our honeymoon, it ought to be special!

Sunday, July 29th: Departure Day… I always try to have a late departure time so we can get some park time. Yes, I want park time on my last day. I’m always grumpy and depressed but I do it anyway! Lol. We have a breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace at 8:20 A.M. I have NEVER eaten there in my memory and have always wanted to. I’ve heard it’s scrumdilliumptious! Other than that, we will spend the rest of our day at Magic Kingdom only to depart by Magical Express later that day. Our flight departs Orlando at 5:15 P.M.
So, that is our honeymoon in a nutshell! Sorry for the lack of pictures in this update.

Stay tuned for my next update!