Family of 5 plus a Spare - Going Again!

[mom3sonstt]

Well, here we go again - I'm gonna try this Trip report business again. I started one last year, kept getting frustrated with trying to plan and getting my family involved in, or at least paying attention to the planning then venting on my PTR and finally gave it up. This year I'll try to keep it in control. That said - I do have 3 teen-age boys and a husband who has delayed hearing - I say something, he ignores me, and a couple minutes later will say "huh?" then as I'm repeating myself he starts to answer Very frustrating - but I'll try.

Characters
Me - 42 year old mom - not currently working

DH - 55 year old dad - recently took early retirement and is back working as a consultant

DS19 - Oldest of our boys (DH has two older ones that are in their early 30's) Will be 20 by trip time. He is a college student, is completing his 2 years at a Jr. College and is leaving the week after we return for his final 2 years at a 4-yr school. He is studying to be an Elementary Ed Teacher

DS18 - Our Middle boy - has some Developmental Delays, not specifically diagnosed, but I suspect some form of Aspergers. He eats, breathes and sleeps WWE wrestling

DS15 - Our youngest - will turn 16 during the trip. Is involved in Golf and Baseball and Speech, Drama and Art. Just got his Driving Permit, but due to Illinois graduated driving process he can't go get his license until 9 months after he got his permit which will be a couple months after his birthday

DSF -Youngest sons friend. We took him with us last year for his first Disney trip - the idea is to keep our oldest and youngest separated as much as possible and since the older two are a better match together and since Mark (mine) and Adam live at each others houses as much as their own he is the friend that it makes the most sense to take


As far as trips go - the five of us have been over a dozen times each - I don't remember how many - My oldest's first trip was when he was not quite 2 - we didn't take the middle one that trip because the main part of the trip was my oldest step-son's graduation from Navy boot camp, but other than that time we drag 'em along no matter how young they are. This will be DSF's 2nd trip. The new and exciting thing this trip is - we are staying at the Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Since we joined DVC 12 years or so ago the only DVC resort we have stayed in has been OKW. We have added on a night at the beginning or end at All Star, Pop, and PO plus we stayed at All Star and Carribean before we bought DVC - so this is totally new for us and I am so excited

More Later!

Oh - Our trip is scheduled for Aug 2 - 10th. We are planning to drive, but who knows, if gas goes up and flights go down we may fly again - but right now the plan is to drive

 

[mom3sonstt]

Thanks for joining me!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Joining your pre trip report. You have a nice big family, that's good!
We are going to Disney for the first time May 12-19. We are so excited and cannot wait. I do love all of the planning.

 

[bitohoney]

You leave on my birthday!
I'm going in April with DD who will turn 16 the week before we go and will be taking along her friend. Usually it's just the 2 of us. Hopefully they will have a good time! Sometimes I can be hard to tolerate!

 

[shordiebecka]

Good luck on this PTR- I'll keep checking it to see how progress is going. Just remember, try to stay calm. I know it's frustrating, I planned a trip for 8 people last year and i wanted to pull my hair out by the end

I'm going about a week before you! time can't pass fast enough, huh?

 

[mom3sonstt]

Preliminary Plans

Home: Central Illinois (Peoria area) 1150 miles to Disney World

Transportation: Chevy Express - full size van. Two captains chairs in front, 2 in middle, and full bench in back. Have a small AC/DC TV between the front two seats that can be seen somewhat by everyone in the back. That is assuming the people in the middle keep their long legs out of the way and the people in the back scoot towards the middle or lean in It worked better when they weren't all teenagers and their legs weren't as long

Route: What we used to do is leave early-mid afternoon and drive to Southern Illinois the first night, then to Southern Georgia the next night, get to the Publix around 11 AM, get groceries and go check in. Sometimes we would get lucky and our room would be ready. We had pretty good luck with our room requests. The last two years we flew, got to the resort a little later and had lousy luck with room requests. That and dropping gas prices were our reasons for driving again. But since we are staying somewhere new an have no idea what to request it really doesn't make any difference. But earlier to Disney is always better!

This year I have been told that since there are 6 of us going and since we will probably need to get 2 hotel rooms on the road each night, that we may leave "God-Awful-Early" on the 1st and still drive to Southern Georgia We have done that before but it is not enjoyable!

The Rooms: We are trying out the new Treehouses. I am excited, DH, is excited, the rest of them are teenage boys and refuse to act excited . . . . but I know they are

Why August??: We prefer to go in September - early October, and 2 trips ago we did, but we left the oldest son behind because he had just started College and we didn't want to take him out. The middle on was in High School but as I mentioned he is in the Life Skills class and they don't care if he leaves, they think its good for him to experience new things and learn to adapt to new situations, the youngest was in Jr High and it was still kinda easy to take him out. Last year the youngest put his foot down and said he did not want to miss school because if you miss more than 2 days in a semester - regardless of the reason - you have to take Semester Tests. If you miss 2 or less, and have a passing grade you don't have to. Some kids may have a D in one class so they only have to come in to take that one test - so skipping semesters was a higher priority than going to WDW. The "benefit" of going in the summer was we could take our oldest again - then he signed up for some summer classes, eliminating June & July from our travel schedule. Since my younger two go back around the 24th of August, that narrowed it down to the first 3 weeks of August. And it included my youngest son's birthday. For years he has wanted to go on his birthday - now he is going to be there 2 years in a row It also allowed us to invite Adam along - I never wanted to ask to take someone elses kid out of school, but his family take Mark everywhere so I figured this would even things up a little. And now this year we are able to do it again.



Well it's still 4 months plus to go so I better drag this out, um, I mean spread this out - so.....more later!!

 

[DisneyBrat]

I am on board your PTR!!! We have kids almost the same ages Ours are easier to get there because I homeschooled them!!! Plus the youngest finishes up this year WHOO HOO!!! The oldest is working so he has 2 weeks vacation time!!! I am new to the PTR's and just started one too!!! These little trippies are HARD!!!!

I look forward to hearing more about your trip!!!


Lew

 

[mom3sonstt]

Does anybody know how to make those links from one installment to the next - that you list on the first installment - I was searching through some of the "help" things and couldn't find what I was looking for

Thanks!

 

[DisneyBrat]

Does anybody know how to make those links from one installment to the next - that you list on the first installment - I was searching through some of the "help" things and couldn't find what I was looking for

Thanks!

I would love to know this answer toooooo!!!!!!!

 

[mom3sonstt]

Where Did This Start?

As I mentioned earlier we have only stayed at OKW for DVC - we have stayed at some other non-DVC hotels for a beginning or ending night, occasionally, but mostly it's OKW. Why? Well, one - it's our home resort. Two, we love the space that it has and the full size washers and dryers in the room. Three - we tried to break away last year and book at AKL based on the model we saw at the Doorway to Dreams in Schaumberg only to find out after we booked it that the extra amenities we thought we were getting wouldn't be available until the Kidani Village rooms were available and Last but not least, my youngest son thinks we are being deliberately cruel to him if we don't go to OKW

But this year I saw that the Treehouses would be available. DH and I talked and compared and looked at points and thought and.......well - "I" did all that - he would grunt and say "huh?" every now and then. Finally it was the day before booking at the Treehouses. I made him commit to Plan A and Plan B - If we can or can't book Treehouses. We only have 110 points at Saratoga Springs and since it was early booking for Saratoga owners I didn't think we would be able to use our OKW points yet - He thought we would. So plan A was to book the Treehouses, Plan B was to go back to OKW. What did I do? Neither....both....more

I got up at 7:30 (8:30 WDW time) got my cell phone and the cordless phone and a cup of coffee. I drank the coffee while waiting for the magic hour - and then I started dialing alternating between the 2 phones - one in each hand - listening to busy signals for....ever. Fast forward to reaching a live body. I told her what I wanted to do and she told me that I could only use the Saratoga points so we could only book 3 nights, so I did that, and I booked through the 9th at OKW. While talking to her I only gave her 4 names and told her I wasn't sure if my oldest was coming with us or was going to take a short trip in May with a buddy. She suggested that if he were going to do that that I should go ahead and book his because our use year is August and if I used all my points on the August trip I wouldn't be able to book his later without borrowing and I couldn't borrow in May because my points aren't until August - and.... ....well it made sense at the time.

Two weeks later back up at 7:30, coffee, and only one phone this time. Got through on my 3rd try - much better! And no problem - I could can cancel his trip, book the Treehouses for my entire trip (through the 10th) and cancel my OKW ressies So now we are totally at the Treehouses - DS15 isn't completely mad at me because at least he will get a bed and not the pull-out this time, and if he misses OKW bad enough he should be able to walk, or maybe take a boat (if that route is still running) or go to Downtown Disney and catch a bus back to OKW.

Now I am waiting for June and for them to officially open with guests. I've asked a couple cast member a couple questions - well one 2-part question - and got a couple different answers. I will be renting an ECV from an off property company, and I asked if there would be somewhere on the ground level to park it and to plug it in. The first one didn't have a clue, but suggested getting a handicapped one with ramp - no thanks. The second one said there would be a utility room and an outlet. (I like that answer!) But when I posted that to these boards - somewhere - it was mentioned that there may be a utility room but it may be for cast members/housekeeping access only So I am waiting for June and then I will be trolling these boards to see if anyone with firsthand experience can give me a solid answer

Take Care until next time!!

 

[mom3sonstt]

Plan of Attack

We typically go against all the rules - We don't visit the site that says what days are red or green - We do go to the park that is having EMH. Our usual plan is whatever park is having EMH in the morning is the one we go to - if we can hit all 4 parks in the first 4 days. Sometimes, depending on how much we cover those first mornings we may go somewhere else in the evening. So for us assuming we still drive the sketchy initial overview would be:

Aug 2 - Wake up in Southern Georgia somewhere, drive to the Florida Welcome Ctr and get our orange juice and take pics in front of the Welcome to Florida signs - the drive the rest of the way - watching for Disney billboards. They used to have really cute ones - but it doesn't seem like they were any more the last couple times we drove. Get to the grocery store around 11ish, get what we need, enter WDW property - never to step foot off it until we are pointed home again. Check in at noonish and hopefully have a room (or a Treehouse in this case) ready. If it is, we will go, unload the van, I unpack and put away as they are hauling everything in. Once that is done it depends on the time and what hours things are open.

If the rooms is not ready then we would probably either explore the resort since we have never stayed there before or head to Downtown Disney to exchange our AP Vouchers for actual Annual Passes then come back and unload.

We could hit a park - or maybe just let the boys go somewhere

Aug 3-6 - Hopefully MK has EMH on the 3rd because that is where we like to go first - tradition - but we also like to hit the EMH's so we'll have to wait and see. Each day ideally will start at the EMH park where we will conquer as much as we can, eat lunch, and see how much longer we last. DH & I will probably give up at some point and go back to the room and soak up some air conditioning. Plus, well - I am on dialysis. I do peritoneal Dialysis, which is on a portable machine I bring with me and do myself. I had tube inserted in my abdomen and I have bags of fluid that I hook up to the machine and it pumps it into and out of my abdomen - until just over a week ago, I only had to "hook up" to the machine for 6 hours overnight. Well, last time they tested the effectiveness it was down, so they added one more cycle in the afternoon. So assuming that is still in affect, at some point I will need to take a mid-day break to "hook up" for about an hour. Right now, what time I do it is pretty flexible so I don't have to plan my whole trip around it.
So after our down time we could either head out if one of the parks is staying open late - or go back where we started, or just wherever the mood hits us. I can't do late nights followed by early mornings because that doesn't give me enough time to be hooked up at night.

Aug 7 - Weather permitting - would be a water park day. Go early stay 'til we can't stand it anymore, go back, shower and change, maybe go to a Miniature Golf - if Blizzard Beach is our water park of choice we would probably just go straight to Winter Summerland before cleaning up. Then maybe some park time, maybe some Downtown Disney time. Boys would probably wind up at a park whether we do or not.

Aug 8 & 9 - Catch up on whatever we missed or want to do again. The 9th is my DS15's bday so we will make a point to be somewhere where we can sufficiently embarrass him .

Aug 10th is check out day. We may hit the parks all day again and have a hotel lined up ahead of time an hour or so away. We would load the van up in the morning an leave it whereever we have to - since we'll be in the Treehouses, I am sure whoever is checking in on the 10th won't want our van parked there all day so we may have to take it up to the main area or drive to a park or something.

Aug 11th & maybe 12th - drive drive drive

As you can see - I'm not much of a planner. Sometime over the next few months I will try to make some ADRs - Prime Time Cafe is a "for sure", Hollywood & Vine is a more than likely - I use an ECV down there now so getting the Fantasmic Dinner Package is somewhat wasted on us. We used to get it and sit down in the front row so DH could film the show, last year I used an ECV and we sat up at the very top - which I personally liked better. We used to always have breakfast at the GArden Grille - until they took breakfast away - then we always had lunch there - until they took that away - I don't know if we are going to go for supper or not. They may close the whole restaurant down if we're not careful!

DS19 wants to eat at Yak & Yeti again - I wasn't impressed with it enough to do the sit-down meal again, but maybe the counter service would be ok, Cosmic Ray's is a regular, we tried Earl of Sandwich last year and loved it. Will probably try T-Rex's. One good meal a day is all I can eat anymore, which is a shame with all the good food that is down there - but with the dialysis and all I only have so much room left in my tummy - if I eat too much I am terribly uncomfortable, so I snack a little throughout the day and have one meal. I imagine I will be ordering a lot of appetizers this year while they are eating yummy food

Take CAre!

 

[mom3sonstt]

What?? He has an opinion????

A couple days ago we were driving to town and DH says - "So what are we going to do with our Disney trip this year?" Uh.....that's usually my line. I think what led up to his question was I had mentioned to him ( a few days earlier) that I had priced flights to Orlando. Not for everybody - just for me. I'm really not looking forward to that long driving day. We used to leave in the afternoon and drive to Southern Illinois (about 5 - 6 hours away), then on the 2nd day drive to Southern Georgia. Instead of doing that he thought we would just get up in the middle of the night and go to Southern Georgia all in one shot. Because there are 6 of us we would have to get 2 hotel rooms when we stop for the night and he thought by doing it that way we could eliminate one nights hotel. I don't like the idea because I don't travel well anymore - I swell up terribly especially if I have to sit for that long, and I wouldn't be able to do my dialysis and....well, it just didn't seem like a good idea. So I thought I would fly down on Saturday, stay at a Value resort, then go over the next morning and check in and all that would be done by the time they got there. Well, by the time you pay for a flight, and book me a room for the night it would cost as much or more than just leaving a day early and stopping 2 nights on the road So maybe we will leave Friday afternoon instead of the wee hours of Sat morning..........stay tuned

Then he asked "Are we just going to let the boys go do what they want?" Well - they did last year I don't know why they wouldn't this year. Ahh - but last year we spent our first 4 mornings together and didn't split up until DH & I took a mid-day break. This was always his rule - we do each park together - we drug 4 teenagers out of bed early every morning and made them sleep-walk to the bus, moaning and groaning the whole way because that is what we do - and now he wants to just let them do what they want??? He suggested we plan a few meals - (again ) and let the boys go where they want and meet up to eat and if we want to do some stuff together for awhile we can and then split up again. Plan meals??? He never wants to plan meals. I am beginning to think we had one of those Freaky Friday things happen and that my words were coming out of his mouth

So now the dilemma is - do we really and truly let the boys do what they want? If we do - that could very well mean they would sleep until noon Can I make a rule that they can do what they want.....under certain conditions Of course, in August the parks are usually open later - plus some extra magic hours at night and they could actually be spending a lot of time at the parks even if they do sleep in. I guess I hate the idea of going all the way down there for them to just sleep but I also don't like to think of myself as a control freak

In the meantime - DS15 now has a possible hairline fracture in his right wrist so no more baseball for awhile, and until it doesn't hurt so much - no more driving......or eating with a fork, or wearing jeans with buttons, or writing, or.......... well let's just say - the poor kid is miserable right now!

 

[mom3sonstt]

First things first - DS15 did not have a hairline fracture. I don't know what they call it but they said he injured it near the growth plates in his wrist - I think the first doctor said he may have over extended them and widened the gap. But bottom line was it wasn't broken or fractured, he had to wear a brace for a week or so when he was at school or out and about, but at home he was to keep it off and to try to keep using it. He was back in sports and PE after 2 weeks.

No real news on the trip. Still haven't ordered tickets. Don't know if we are gettin annual passes or Magic My Way Tix. Have a concern regarding the buses at the Treehouses. The latest word is that the buses that run to the Treehouse bus stops are only internal ones that will drop us off at the main bus stop to catch another bus to the parks. I absolutely hate that idea for more reasons than I care to list. I am only hoping that by the time we get there enough other people will have voiced complaints and they will do something different.

 

[Vacation Lover]

Great start. You're brave to drag 4 teenage boys with you! I know everyone will have fun though.

 

[mom3sonstt]

I saw where they are offering a Picnic in the Park at Animal Kingdom now - so since it was something new and there just aren't that many restaurants at AK that we like, I printed it off and showed it to my gang. They gave it a thumbs down. DH was ok with it, DS19 thought it sounded ok but was afraid that wherever the picnic spots were would be crowded if very many people wanted to do it, DS18 had no opinion (doesn't usually), and DS 15 (always opinionated!) didn't want any part of it. I guess the more I think about it, the more I am thinking at lunch time in August I would much rather be eating where there is air conditioning so we'll probably pass on it.

Also printed off the menu for Le Cellier. None of us have ever eaten there. I didn't really see anything on the full menu that I wanted bad enough to pay the prices for - but I am real interested in trying the cheese soup. None of the DS's were interested at all. So maybe DH and I will try to get lunch there one day and I can just do the soup and he can get whatever.

Also need to book us at PrimeTime. DS15 says he wants to eat over at Earl of Sandwich at least 3 times. I thought maybe he had 3 different things that he wanted to try there. Nope - he really loves their meatball sandwiches and wants as many of them as he can get My favorite meal from last year was a cup of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich from there. It just really hit the spot that day. Don't know if it was because I wasn't overheated from being at the parks- but at that moment in time its was the perfect meal . I also want to try the new T-Rex. Depending on when we get there that could be our first night meal.

I guess I need to get a little more specific about some of these so I can call in my ADRs - it's almost time to be doing that. I'm assuming it's still at 90 days.....I hope - if it's been moved back to 120 or 180 then we are in trouble!

 

[mom3sonstt]

GRRRRRR Why exactly do I want to bring all of my kids????

Once again I am so furious with my oldest son I want to spit, slam doors, throw things........ And we are going in August just so he can go too

Basically - to everyone else - everyone that doesn't live in this house - he is (or can be) helpful, polite.... all those wonderful things you hope your kids grow up to be. But the minute he steps foot in this house he is mouthy, lazy, acts entitled, lies......everything you don't wnat your kid to be.

Our latest battle is a graduation party. He is finishing his 2nd year of college and expects a big blow-out of a graduation party. He just had one 2 years ago for High School graduation and he will expect another one in 2 years when he finishes college. I am totally against one this year. Yes, he is graduating with his Associates - but he is not done. I talked him into having a cook-out camp-out with his friends. Maybe a small picnicy thing for some of the family members, then we could leave and his friends could have a going away, graduation, summer fun thing. Ok he seeemed satisfied with that and decided he had to immediately look for our old tents. I told him he didn't need to get them out yet. Pretty soon he is dragging them outside......when it was getting ready to rain. Told him to bring them back in until the weather looked better - he left them piled on the porch. EAster Sunday we are down at mom's and he decides he needs to go home and get ready for work.....an hour earlier than actually necessary. We get home to find 3 of the tents set up in the yard and a message that one of the tents didn't have any stakes so he used sticks By the time he gets home from work that tent is missing. So he takes down the other two and piles them in the back room of the basement where my medical supplies are stored - doesn't roll them up just drags them in. I told him I had a delivery coming this week so he needs to put them away. He says he will and tries to blame DS18 because he helped DS19 take the tents down but DS18 did not roll them up. (he also didn't get them out and won't be using them - but apparently that part is irrelevant to DS19) Kept reminding DS19 to put them away and he finally snaps at me that they are. Great - only took a week. Then today I go downstairs and am looking over at the tubs and boxes of stuff to see if I can find the other tent (oh the 3rd one did turn up - amazingly the sticks didn't hold it and it blew over to the neighbors) Even though he found 3 I thought I had a bigger one. So while I'm tring to see if I recognized the other camping tub I see the tents - NOT rolled up or put away - ust drug over to the other side of the basement. He was downstairs so I hollered that this is not "put up" it's just "moved". His reply? "Get over it". I was already in a bad mood and in order to not go in and hit him with a stick I went back upstairs and got ready to do some dishes. And there in the sink is a bowl half full of potatoes and stew juice. His of course. Walked right past the trash can on the way to the sink and couldn't dump it out had to put it in the sink with the food still in it. And not just the little bits that he didn't eat - it was 2 or 3 new potatoes halves and a good thickness off juice. DS15 has even posted a sign over our sink that says "No Food Scraps or Paper Products in Sink! DISHES ONLY!!!" He's in charge of dishes normally and is tired of dealing with other peoples uneaten food. But - no - my precious first born can't be bothered with that. He is too busy - napping - or doing extra credit (if he' spend as much time on his class work as he does the extra credit he wouldn't need the extra credit) or volunteering at the grade school (time he could be spending on his class work)

And in the hottest month of the year I am going to trap myself in a hotel room (granted a pretty good sized one) with him for 10 days

Pardon the rant - I really needed to get that out of my system

 

[mom3sonstt]

Decisions made.....and unmade.....


Hubby and i decided that we would all drive down, but to make it easier on me we would leave Friday morning at a reasonable time and drive to Nashville. It;'s about 8 hours away. On Saturday we would drive maybe to Gainesvile. Then Sunday we could swing by a grocery store, stock up on food, then check in by noonish. Figured we could take the same route coming back. Spend most of the day on check out day at the parks, when it was time to leave we could drive to Gainesville, then to Nashville, and home. I was looking up hotels in Nashville to see what we could come up with.

Then all the kids were home so we told them the new plans. DS19 says - well I can't leave on the 31st that's my last day of class - I'll probably have a final that day. Now he has started on this kick that he will just stay home and pack for school. Nope - there is no way I am letting him have full access to the house for practically two weeks. I'm not worried about him having some big beer bash and trashing the house. But I do know he would behaving people over. And I am kinda weird about having people I don't know very well at my house.

So we will either have to leave later on Friday - which is actually ok, but we had it planned to get there at supper time. Go eat, me go back to the hotel so I could hook up to dialysis early, then they could go to one of the putt putt golf places. If we had left by 10 we could have been there by 6. If we have to wait til noon it would be 8, which if we went out to eat would make it late for them to go do something afterwards - and we would want to get up early the next day to get to Gainesville at a decent time. Supposedly DS19 is going to ck with his teacher about taking his final earlier in the morning, or the day before. We will see....

 

[mom3sonstt]

No News is....well, no news.....


I had written down 3 ADRs I intended to make. I called Disney Dining on Sunday - thinking that was my 90-day mark, only to find I miscalculated and was a day early (I think I had put down the day we leave instead of the day we get there when I was calculating) Then I made the mistake of telling DH what I had planned. I didn't plan anything for the first couple days because I didn't know if we wanted to be tied to a particular park so early in the trip. I made the ADRs based on what park had the late extra magic hours. I didn't figure we would be trying to make it to the early ones this year, so as a place to start (since I have had no input!) I made an ADR at Liberty Tree on MK's late night, Le Cellier on Epcots, and 50's Primetime on DHS's. It just so happened that those three days were consecutive. When I did it that kinda bothered me - but Le Cellier is just the 2 of us, so at least the boys weren't tied down all 3 days. So now he wants to discuss it with the boys. Their opinions about going somewhere to eat all along have been "I don't care", with Primetime being their only must do. DS15 says he wants to eat at Earl of Sandwich a lot, and will probably eat at Cosmic Ray's when at MK - or maybe Pecos Bills. So now almost a week later, the ADRs that I thought I would have made by now are on hold......so - no news......is no news.......

 

[mom3sonstt]

Finally got those ADRS

After waiting over a week for input from people who refuse to give input I called and made my ADRs......just as I had them written before. The only change was that in the meantime I discovered you could resserve a Fantasmic dinner package. Maybe I did know that before, but we never knew very far in advance when we wanted to go so we've always ust waited until the last minute. This trip DS15 mentioned that he would like to eat at Hollywood and Vine on his birthday, which just happens to be one of the nights Fantasmic is showing. Unfortunately they were out of dinner packages for that restaurant for that night. I went ahead and made ADRs for dinner and if we haven't already seen Fantasmic by then (it shows 3 other nights earlier in our trip) thn we will just join the crowds in line. Of course after I made my call then everyone had an opinion about why and where I booked us for meals. I figure if we eat 2 meals a day (not counting the snacks we grab in the room for breakfast) that would be about 18 meals - I only booked the boys for 3 - the 4th adr is just hubby & me. So if DS15 wants his 3 meatball sandwiches from Earle of Sandwich he has plenty of opportunities left to get them!

 

[mom3sonstt]

Just over two months and counting!


We started out May by renting a big dumpster and cleaning out our basement. We had old furniture down there, boxes of "stuff" - you know the stuff it sits around upstairs in the way, so you finally stick it in a box so you can go through it later, and years later you come across it in the basement (garage, attic - whereever your "stuff" goes to hide). We had tons and tons of boxes of "stuff". Didn't quite fill the dumpster, although I am betting if I could have kept everyone on track and the monsoons would have let up we could have done it! While going through the stuff we discovered our Disney Tub. We bought it when we bought the big van - it is long and clear and we thought it would work great behind the back seat to store groceries, detergent, and other oddball stuff going down, and would be sturdy enough to protect souvenirs coming back. Then the last 2 trips we have flown and the Disney Tub went to the basement....where it collected all sorts of dead bugs.....yuk! It also managed to lose its clips that hold the lid in place. So, since we are driving again this year hubby went out and bought a new Disney tub - then proceeded to fill it full of golf stuff. He runs a golf outing on Father's Day, and WalMart had a lot of good golf stuff on clearance so he stocked up for prizes. So I have a nice new Disney tub taunting me as it sits there full of golf prizes. Then a couple weeks later as we were digging through the mounds of junk in the basement we uncovered the clips to the original Disney tub! So now there are two! The debate is on as to whether we need two or not. There are six of us going, we will have plenty of luggage - but maybe some of the stuff can be moved from the luggage to a tub. Two months to figure out that dilemma. In the meantime I haven't started using the original one (the though of all those dead bugs is really putting me off - even though they have been disposed of) My plan is to set one of them in the corner of the living room and to start gathering our packing stuff. You know - go shopping, buy extra shampoo for vacation, throw it in the box, swim trunks - in the box - if you need them in the meantime get them out use them, wash them, put them back in the box, water shoes - in the box, big floppy hat and water mister fans - in the box......