Fears, tears, fun, and laughter: We survived spring break TR updated 1/29

[JPFamilyMom]

We survived Spring Break in Florida, there were crowds, there were fears, many tears, and of course some fun and laughter.

We were on vacation from March 11-19 which included our travel time, 4 days in the parks, not the trip we planned but we had a good time.

So first a little background:

I'm Jessica, the Disney obsessed mother, and planner/organizer of this recent trip. Got to celebrate my birthday on this trip And recently became a stay at home mommy and couldn't be happier than to just get to spend extra time with my kids now. It was a hard decision to make, but we feel I really need to be home for at least the next year and a half.

Next is my DH, not such a huge Disney person, but enjoys it, took me to WDW for our honeymoon, and loved getting to experience it with our boys for the first time. He is a teacher so it was either spring break or summer and we weren't ready to brave the heat of summer in florida yet.

Next is Jack, who just turned 6 but was 5 on the trip, he has high functioning autism and is the reason for my overly obsessed planning. The trip was also planned to "celebrate" his birthday, but I'll leave the explanation on that for the TR

And our baby who turned 3 recently, Joey. He is a ball of fun, but has recently been having some issues medically and behaviorally that prompted our decision for me to stay home for awhile.

But that wasn't the end of our whole traveling party, we had some others join in with us:
My sister, BIL, and niece joined us, they reside in NV. My niece is my god daughter and she also got to experience her birthday in Walt Disney World, she was born on St. Patricks Day. She just turned 3.

And my parents joined us. My Dad is retired military and after our trip my Mom has decided she would like to look into seasonal work at WDW.

And lastly my great aunt Bea, she is my Grandmas older sister, and has lived with my parents and been a part of our family since my brother was a baby so about 20-25 yrs.

These were the best pictures I had of everyone for now, our PP should arrive this week and I'll post a big group shot...

Up next everyones travel experiences getting to Florida

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Friday March 11- Travel Day 1

Saturday March 12-Arrival and our accomodations

Sunday March 13- the start to our day

Exploring Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge

The start to our first park day

Meeting Woody and Buzz

A Backlot Tour and A dump shop onto the Neverland Pirates and lunch

Did I really just traumatize my son?

Let's go see Illuminations...

We're going on safari...

animals, dinosaurs, and pooh oh my

A nice end to a flustered day

Our night gets even better...we all scream for ice-cream

A Magical morning

A magical ride on Dumbo and games with Pooh

It's a Small World After All

We broke another ride

We broke another ride part 2

A near perfect night, darn fireworks

Happy Birthday Princess Ella

I couldn't come up with a title, but we are in Epcot and more Epcot touring

Japan fun and Italy equals Gelato Happiness

The thing that turned our day around and The Crash dummy family

Soarin over California and a delicious meal

 

[All7OfUs]

I'm here, Jessica!! Great introductory start! Looking forward to all your Fears, Tears, Fun and Laughter!

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Hey Liesa, thanks and Thanks for joining, planning to catch up on your TR tonight since we are out of town again, last night I caught up on several TR's and am almost caught up on everyones happenings again.

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Friday March 11, 2011

The morning began pretty typically... my dh got up got ready for work and left, I got Jack dressed and took him to school.

I didn’t end up working but went to get coffee with a co-worker and pick up my last check. Then I went home to frantically finish packing and load the car, after a trip to the bank of course (had to deposit that check for spending money).
Joey just relaxed all day.
After school my dh dropped his car off at co-workers house, and got last minute school grading done so he didn't come home to any work after our trip.

In the mad dash to get Jack to school on time and forgot to take the last Mickey head down from our countdown calendar so I took it with me in the car to pick him up from school.

I had picked them up some Phineas and Ferb dry erase boards from Target awhile back and so this was their first surprise before we got on our way.

Joey was asleep already as you can see, I purposely didn't let him nap today.

We left 1 hr and 30 min later than planned putting us on the road at 5 pm central. The drive was long, the boys were tired, Joey kept saying he wanted to go home. Being that we were in the season of Lent, we were thinking of where we could stop for dinner to accommodate everyone’s needs. Jack decided on Burger King, which was really not one of the choices, but we wanted to keep him happy. So I think it was about 7 pm we stopped and had fish fillet sandwiches. Jack had fries and Mac n cheese (yes he broke his diet-for those of you that don't know our family story, Jack was on a gluten free and casein free diet all year). So we just monitored him all night and he seemed ok, we arrived at our Ramada Inn room at 11pm and everyone was back to sleep by midnight.

We passed this and had to take a picture

We stayed in a Ramada somewhere in Alabama and this is what Jack got into

There were arcade games right outside the door to our room and the boys couldn't wait to get out and play

Saturday March 12, 2011

Joey and Jessica got an early start and headed to breakfast in the hotel at 6:40 am, where Joey ate everything in sight: waffles, cereal, bagel, orange juice, and an apple. Jack once again broke his diet when my husband took him to breakfast while Joey and I got dressed (yes we went to breakfast in our pj’s) and packed up our bags again. Jack had a waffle. We were starting to get a little nervous about what kind of stomach issues would be ahead of us, but knowing we were closing in on a year, we hoped his stomach issues would be over.

The drive was very long, but the boys did VERY well, neither of us wanted to say anything in fear we might jinx something. But they had dry erase markers and boards and each had a portable dvd player to entertain them, plus all their little super hero toys.

We stopped at a Pilot to fill up and there was a subway there, which we had both been craving the day before so we ate lunch at our gas stop. The boys each had pizza.

That was suppose to be the last stop before arriving at the house and I think we were just past the Florida state line.

up next the rest of our travel into Florida and where we stayed....

 

[TanzUnited99]

Your title pulled me in - am looking forward to reading along and hearing all about the fears, tears, fun and laughter

 

[irishsharon]

I saw your title and knew l needed to stop and read. With a ds with great anxiety and sensory issues l'm expecting fears,tears and also some fun!Looking forward to reading more

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Your title pulled me in - am looking forward to reading along and hearing all about the fears, tears, fun and laughter

I saw your title and knew l needed to stop and read. With a ds with great anxiety and sensory issues l'm expecting fears,tears and also some fun!Looking forward to reading more

and thanks for joining. I'm going to try and get through this TR quickly (before I forget it all) so I'll probably be getting another post up in the next couple days

 

[All7OfUs]

That was a late first night- I hope this didn't catch up to you too quickly!

Glad the kids seemed entertained throughout the drive.

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Saturday March 12, 2011 cont.

We arrived to the house in Florida at 7:15 pm where Grandma had dinner waiting for us, chicken patties and fries. Jack had taquitos which are part of his special diet food. The house was amazing, we explored our surroundings, unpacked, watched t.v. , and played.

Game room:

Dining area:

Kitchen area (looking from upstairs):

Master bedroom (downstairs)-where we slept:

Our bathroom, loved the tub:

downstairs family room/living area:

Pooh room (upstairs):

Mickey room (upstairs):

(we didn't put Nick on,that is what was on, we quickly fixed that and put on Disney channel )

two posters I liked in the upstairs hall:

Upstairs living space with computer and tv:

Those are all the pictures I got, it was a REALLY nice home to stay in, my DH said it was a vacation all on it's own, but more on that in the end, when we talk about what we thought about staying off property.


Everyone went for a swim except Joey and Mommy (and Aunt Bea), Joey said he was not going in the pool and so Mommy couldn’t go either. I don't know where he got the idea but he thinks there are sharks in water, even pools.

Originally Sunday was to be an AK day, but in knowing how our children are and with the time change we decided to have a non park day.
Knowing we could sleep in Sunday was nice, especially with daylight savings time.

Up next, just cause we aren't going to a disney park doesn't mean we can't enjoy a visit to....

 

[JPFamilyMom]

That was a late first night- I hope this didn't catch up to you too quickly!

Glad the kids seemed entertained throughout the drive.

the late nights were taken care of with our Sunday plans

We were very pleastantly surprised with how well they did, especially considering previous shorter road trips we had taken before. Doesn't mean we didn't hear Joey every so often "I wanna go home"

 

[mousescrapper]

Hey Jess
Saw you started your TR looking fw to reading along and hearing all about it!

I don't think I saw your big Mickey Head countdown w/ the park pixs on it that is great I may have to borrow that idea
Also the house looks great another detail I didn't realize where you were staying very cutely decorated!
The drive sounded pretty good too
Jules

 

[TanzUnited99]

Love the pics of the house where you stayed - we toyed with the idea of staying off site but changed our minds. Am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject

 

[gray2402]

checking in Look forward to your report!

 

[brdlyleon]

Im here!!! I was there that exact week so Ill be tuning in and maybe we hit some of the parks at the same time!! lol thatd be cool if we had seen each other! cant wait to hear more

 

[Goofy442]

All caught up . It is hard enough when your home on Fridays during lent, don't think I would like to be on the road and trying to find something.

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Hey Jess
Saw you started your TR looking fw to reading along and hearing all about it!

I don't think I saw your big Mickey Head countdown w/ the park pixs on it that is great I may have to borrow that idea
Also the house looks great another detail I didn't realize where you were staying very cutely decorated!
The drive sounded pretty good too
Jules

Hey julie, and thanks for joining.

The Mickey Head countdown was a lot of work, but for a first trip well worth it, and I think it helped Jack get an idea of what to expect on the trip. I had photos of all the things we had hoped to accomplish and then mickey heads covering them that read: ____days until we _______.
If we were going to stay off property we knew we still wanted a disney themed home and I found it on another TR

Love the pics of the house where you stayed - we toyed with the idea of staying off site but changed our minds. Am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject

It was a constant conversation in my head the whole trip about staying off property vs on property. My previous two trips to this were on property but never with kids, and the decision to stay off property this trip was all due to the special dietary needs my ds had and a place to get him away from everything for his meltdowns

checking in Look forward to your report!

thanks for joining and

Im here!!! I was there that exact week so Ill be tuning in and maybe we hit some of the parks at the same time!! lol thatd be cool if we had seen each other! cant wait to hear more

oh the pressure is on, thanks for joining, let me apologize ahead of time for anyone in my travel parties behavior if they did something wrong they knew not what they were doing and

All caught up . It is hard enough when your home on Fridays during lent, don't think I would like to be on the road and trying to find something.

thanks for joining and We have been on the road for 3 Fridays during lent, it has been interesting to say the least.



Our Photopass cd should arrive today, I can't wait

 

[DisMomAmy]

I just noticed you started your TR!!!

Now I have to go back & read!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

All caught up... I'm glad you made it through the drive but I'm really scared about Jack breaking his diet. I hope it all worked out OK but whenever Alex broke his diet (he was gfcf for three years and only went off the diet with the help of prescription digestive enzymes) we really paid the price... major behavioral breakdowns!

The rental house looks great - can't wait to hear what you thought about staying off-site!

 

[JPFamilyMom]

All caught up... I'm glad you made it through the drive but I'm really scared about Jack breaking his diet. I hope it all worked out OK but whenever Alex broke his diet (he was gfcf for three years and only went off the diet with the help of prescription digestive enzymes) we really paid the price... major behavioral breakdowns!

The rental house looks great - can't wait to hear what you thought about staying off-site!

thanks, you have no idea, that was my first fear of the trip, but I'll let you know he is still off the diet, doesn't mean we didn't have any issues, but he has already been on supplements, doesn't mean he won't go back on the diet down the road, but for now he is ok

we loved the house, especially the boys and my DH, but we did run into the same issues you did with regards to transportation