evan's wish trip report, snow white, dumbo, and heat!

[evsmama30]

hey guys!

i am still not sure about how to post all the trip report stuff, so i am just gonna start it and hope someone else can help me with the table of contents links. here goes nothing


day one: airplanes, vroom, and boom rain
day two: meeting snow white and a hot afternoon
day three: sunshine foundation run4dreams, and downtown disney with the porter's
day four: hollywood studios and fantasmic
day five: breakfast with pooh and a fantastic evening

 

[evsmama30]

so the night before evan's wish trip, i was just like that commercial "too excited to sleep". i had everything packed except the very last minute things. ev and i woke up before the alarm and i had the car packed way early. but grump was being a girly man fixing his hair, so we didn't get quite as early a start as i had hoped. we got a quick breakfast at mickey d's before heading to the pittsburgh airport.

i got a little screwed up in directing grump to the correct parking lot. we went directly to extended BEFORE he could drop ev, mom, and i off a cubside. oops! we parked approximately 3 miles from the terminal! the time we got evan's wheelchair and our bags out, i was ready to hoof it, but a shuttle bus with a wheelchair lift came by and picked us up.

we had no trouble with check in and evan was pretty excited. security with evan in his wheelchair was not quite as easy as i had hoped. no one was mean or anything, but they were rather unclear with instructions and i got a little stressed out. but the screener who check ev, chris was his name, was very nice and chatted evan up about his trip. to everyone's relief, evan was not packing any contraband in his wheelchair!

once we passed through security, we got to take the trin to the airside terminal. ev loved that. wanted to do it again!! then we found out gate, grabbed some lunch and i got a pair of crocs...then we headed to our gate!

 

[evsmama30]

on southwest, guests in wheelchairs are allowed to preboard. so we got evan's chair the appropriate gate check tag and a special blue card to let us get on the plane first.

a really nic guy named dennis (who had on a steelers lanyard, i might add) escorted evan down the jetway and let him peek in the cockpit and say hello to the pilot. he was excited. ev, gran, and i sat in the third row and grump was back a row. i put ev in the middle seat, since i wasn't sure he would like the window. he was asking a lot of questions and watched all the people as they were boarding. he listened to the flight attendant and was ready to take off! he did really well during take off and was waiting for the light to go off so he could watch his dvd player. unfortunately, i could not get him to drink anything when we we ascending, and his ears started to hurt. he cried a bit. the lady behind us offered a lollipop, and he would have none of it. and he wouldn't chew any of the snack i brought. i am not sure if they just popped on their own, or what, but eventually he calmed down. he kept pointing out the window and talking about the clouds, so i asked him if he wanted to sit thereand he said "YES!". i got him switched and got out his dvd player and we had a really good flight from there. he kept saying "airplan bus", "almost there", "bickey bouse".

this was the view of the clouds. he like it a lot!

 

[evsmama30]

once we got to the airport in orlando, ev was starting to act tired (did i mention we were up EARLY)but he was still excited!

we were greeted at the airport by a lovely lady named sam. and i could kick myself that i did not get a picture of her there. i did get one at the race!

sam showed us to baggage claim and then to the rental car desk. after i filled out all the papers, a lady named cassie walked us out and let evan choose a minivan. he chose a white town and country, which was really nice...it even had a backup camera!

sam got us loaded up and our gps programmed and we were on our way to the sunshine foundation dream village.

 

[evsmama30]

it was about a 40 minute trip from the airport to the dream village. but we made it without too much trouble. when we got there, i went in to meet miss wanda, the village manager. she was so nice and welcoming! she gave us some sunshine foundation tshirts, as well as the ones for the race, and a stuffed mickey mouse for evan, then she showed us to our cottage.

we got to stay in the snow white cottage!! it was super cute. from what i read, it was actually decorated by disney artists. it had several murals with all the characters, and the door to the smaller bedroom had a dwarf sized door! it was small, but comfy, with a band new sofa and loveseat, an kitchenette, and a cute little brakfast nook. there was also a bag of snacks and stuff on the table for evan.

the outside of the house

one of the murals

the dwarves bedroom

we unpacked and then decided to head to downtown disney to get some dinner.

 

[cogero]

Love your report so far

 

[evsmama30]

we got to downtown disney at around 5:00. it was still really hot! we walked around a bit and checked out some of the lego things, but evan was tired and hot and hungry. we made our way to rainforest cafe and were able to be seated right away. evan was acting pretty crabby and was not too thrilled with the thunderstorms. (as you can tell from the pics)

the grumpy gus did like his light up cup

but he ate pretty well. he had mac and chees and a light up cup. i had a yummy burger, grump got shrimp pasta, and mom had chicken fried chicken. everything was good, but we were all really tired and had a big day planned. so we took ev and gran back to the village and grump and i ran to publix for some yogurt, juice and such. i was so tired, but had to iron all our special outfits for the next day. it was a big day!!!

 

[p00h4me]

What a wonderful start on your trip report! So glad that the Sunshine Foundation Dream Village gave Evan the Snow White cottage for your stay! I look forward to seeing what else is there at the village and seeing how the rest of your trip went.

 

[angeque143]

So glad that you got home safely!! Love the rtrip report so far!! The picture of the clouds is simply breathtaking!

 

[mommy2girlswv]

it was about a 40 minute trip from the airport to the dream village. but we made it without too much trouble. when we got there, i went in to meet miss wanda, the village manager. she was so nice and welcoming! she gave us some sunshine foundation tshirts, as well as the ones for the race, and a stuffed mickey mouse for evan, then she showed us to our cottage.

we got to stay in the snow white cottage!! it was super cute. from what i read, it was actually decorated by disney artists. it had several murals with all the characters, and the door to the smaller bedroom had a dwarf sized door! it was small, but comfy, with a band new sofa and loveseat, an kitchenette, and a cute little brakfast nook. there was also a bag of snacks and stuff on the table for evan.

the outside of the house

one of the murals

the dwarves bedroom

we unpacked and then decided to head to downtown disney to get some dinner.

I know evan loved cottage!!! Great start on the TR, can't wait to read more!!!

 

[Blyssfull]

So glad you guys are home safe and sound.. LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! all the pictures.

 

[ericamcl]

this is shaping up to be a great trip report - can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip!

 

[mom2pixies]

A great first day!!! Can't wait to hear about the rest. Love the Snow White Cottage murals and dwarf-sized door. Sounds like the Dream Village is a great place to stay!

 

[chelleydi77]

How lucky to be in the Snow White Cottage!!! Love the pics and report!

 

[mmeb144]

Tell us more about the Sunshine Cottages, they look cool! Is it like Give Kids The World? Evan is so cute! Thanks for sharing your pics!

 

[brookerene]

What a great start and it is great to see the Dream Village. the snow white cottage is neat!

 

[jj0plin]

Great start, love the pictures the Dwarf room is awesome!!

 

[katieb4]

What a neat room! Thank you for sharing pictrues of it!! Can't wait to see more

 

[xanphylus]

Glad to see you started your TR! Can't wait to read more! I signed on while in NC just to check in and you've already started and are on page 2 by the time I get here!!! Good deal! Love the murals there- got more pics of the village? Looks pretty neat by their webpage.

 

[billwendy]

Woo hoo!!! Found ya!!