This is my first attempt at writing a trip report, so please bare with me. We took our first trip in December 2004, and were back in November 2006, and September of 2008. This trip report is, of course, about our most recent. However, I feel you'll need some background information to understand my current report.
Our first trip in 2004 was my DH, and our three children, ages 11, 7, and 4 (at the time). We also had a 10 year old foster son that moved in exactly one month to the day we were to leave for Disney.
Second trip same people, kids were 13, 9, and 6 (minus 10 year old foster son who was eventually reunited with his mother) but add a new foster son (15 month old bio-sibling to my youngest) (our kids are all adopted). My DSis, BIL, and 18 month old nephew were also on that trip.
In October of 2007, we officailly added Jacob (the baby) to our family. His adoption took place on my DH's birthday. He could not have had a better birthday present. So, this trip makes our first trip as a "complete" family. I can't begin to even explain what a feeling that is....To know we are forever "together", "complete". Our baby is home, we're "complete". Though, we did bring our daughter's BFF on this trip with us as well.
You are probably wondering why I shared all of this? The adoption of our final addition? Well, because it does come into play during our trip. It will make it easier that once I start the actual trip report, I won't have to stop and explain. Make sense? I hope so!
So, on to the actual cast of characters:
DH (late 30's): Mike was not a Disney fanatic, but I think he's been converted (after our first trip in 2004). He loves to get in on the pin trading. Patriotic and Socerer Mickey pins are his favorite.
Me (late 30's): I'm Elizabeth and have a love of all things Disney. I can be quite the obssesive planner. My family teases me, but they always appreciate all my crazy planning once we're there. Well, they always have in the past anyway. I did hear a few grumbles this trip, but I'll share more about that later. Before our 2004 trip, I was the only one in our family that had ever been to Walt Disney World.
DS1 (age 15): Honestly, I'm not sure where he "fits" into the Disney mix. He gets very excited for our trips, but he's never had a favorite character or ride, though he does let us know what he wants to do. He absolutely cannot stand fireworks, but he does muster through Wishes and Illuminations and such for the rest of us. He will not go on any "thrill" rides other than Test Track. Andrew has high functioning autism, but does well overall. He does have some anxiety in very loud places, thus the reason for not liking fireworks.
DD (age 11): She's following in my footsteps, and now gets just as excited for our trips as I do, and just as depressed when it's time to leave. We've been home a week, and she's been singing the Disney Blues. She's my smart cookie. Too smart for her own good at times, but she'll go far in life. I'm so proud of her. Jazmine's favorite character is Tinkerbell.
DS2 (age 8): Jeremy's favorite character is Donald Duck, though it took us two trips to figure this out. He also has autism, but is more "classic". He has the "wonderful" behaviors that go along with it (he's my Stitch), whereas, my oldest, Andrew has more of the "oddities". For Jeremy, we require the GAC card. He also has a great love of almost all things Disney.
DS3 (age 2, turned 3 on trip): Jacob is a HUGE fan of "Pirates of the Bean" (as he calls it), though he's never seen the movies. He could not get enough of this ride. And is caught often walking around singing "Yo ho, yo ho, Pirates of the Bean" (yes we know it's supposed to be "A Pirate's Life for Me"). He currently has a diagnosis of SID (sensory integration disfuction), but we fear, in time, he will have the ugly diagnosis of autism. We see him making less and less eye contact, and there are other issues as well. But he's so smart, and is always coming up with something funny all the time. He's my little wonder.
Last but not least.....My daughter's BFF (age 11). We'll call her Tink. She's never been to Disney before, never really been too far out of our state (Illinois). She comes from a very large family. She's one of 9 kids. This was a big treat for her. I've known her since she was a baby, and she's basically become an extended part of our family.
We drove from Illinois (an hour south of Chicago) straight through to WDW in our mini van.
Here's a picture of the kids after about an hour on the road. I hope it shows up, this is my first attempt at posting a picture. And I have LOTS more where that came from!
The dates on my pictures will all be off by one day though, so don't follow the date stamped on them, it's wrong!
We left on Wednesday, September 17, with plans to arrive at Pop Century on September 18. But with the gas shortages in Tennessee and Georgia....Do we make it as planned?
Elizabeth
Our first trip in 2004 was my DH, and our three children, ages 11, 7, and 4 (at the time). We also had a 10 year old foster son that moved in exactly one month to the day we were to leave for Disney.
Second trip same people, kids were 13, 9, and 6 (minus 10 year old foster son who was eventually reunited with his mother) but add a new foster son (15 month old bio-sibling to my youngest) (our kids are all adopted). My DSis, BIL, and 18 month old nephew were also on that trip.
In October of 2007, we officailly added Jacob (the baby) to our family. His adoption took place on my DH's birthday. He could not have had a better birthday present. So, this trip makes our first trip as a "complete" family. I can't begin to even explain what a feeling that is....To know we are forever "together", "complete". Our baby is home, we're "complete". Though, we did bring our daughter's BFF on this trip with us as well.
You are probably wondering why I shared all of this? The adoption of our final addition? Well, because it does come into play during our trip. It will make it easier that once I start the actual trip report, I won't have to stop and explain. Make sense? I hope so!
So, on to the actual cast of characters:
DH (late 30's): Mike was not a Disney fanatic, but I think he's been converted (after our first trip in 2004). He loves to get in on the pin trading. Patriotic and Socerer Mickey pins are his favorite.
Me (late 30's): I'm Elizabeth and have a love of all things Disney. I can be quite the obssesive planner. My family teases me, but they always appreciate all my crazy planning once we're there. Well, they always have in the past anyway. I did hear a few grumbles this trip, but I'll share more about that later. Before our 2004 trip, I was the only one in our family that had ever been to Walt Disney World.
DS1 (age 15): Honestly, I'm not sure where he "fits" into the Disney mix. He gets very excited for our trips, but he's never had a favorite character or ride, though he does let us know what he wants to do. He absolutely cannot stand fireworks, but he does muster through Wishes and Illuminations and such for the rest of us. He will not go on any "thrill" rides other than Test Track. Andrew has high functioning autism, but does well overall. He does have some anxiety in very loud places, thus the reason for not liking fireworks.
DD (age 11): She's following in my footsteps, and now gets just as excited for our trips as I do, and just as depressed when it's time to leave. We've been home a week, and she's been singing the Disney Blues. She's my smart cookie. Too smart for her own good at times, but she'll go far in life. I'm so proud of her. Jazmine's favorite character is Tinkerbell.
DS2 (age 8): Jeremy's favorite character is Donald Duck, though it took us two trips to figure this out. He also has autism, but is more "classic". He has the "wonderful" behaviors that go along with it (he's my Stitch), whereas, my oldest, Andrew has more of the "oddities". For Jeremy, we require the GAC card. He also has a great love of almost all things Disney.
DS3 (age 2, turned 3 on trip): Jacob is a HUGE fan of "Pirates of the Bean" (as he calls it), though he's never seen the movies. He could not get enough of this ride. And is caught often walking around singing "Yo ho, yo ho, Pirates of the Bean" (yes we know it's supposed to be "A Pirate's Life for Me"). He currently has a diagnosis of SID (sensory integration disfuction), but we fear, in time, he will have the ugly diagnosis of autism. We see him making less and less eye contact, and there are other issues as well. But he's so smart, and is always coming up with something funny all the time. He's my little wonder.
Last but not least.....My daughter's BFF (age 11). We'll call her Tink. She's never been to Disney before, never really been too far out of our state (Illinois). She comes from a very large family. She's one of 9 kids. This was a big treat for her. I've known her since she was a baby, and she's basically become an extended part of our family.
We drove from Illinois (an hour south of Chicago) straight through to WDW in our mini van.
Here's a picture of the kids after about an hour on the road. I hope it shows up, this is my first attempt at posting a picture. And I have LOTS more where that came from!
The dates on my pictures will all be off by one day though, so don't follow the date stamped on them, it's wrong!
We left on Wednesday, September 17, with plans to arrive at Pop Century on September 18. But with the gas shortages in Tennessee and Georgia....Do we make it as planned?
Elizabeth
However, we now inform them that we are not sure we will make it to Florida in the time we planned. They were bummed, but we promised we were going to do our best to find gas, and that we would keep stopping at every exit as long as we didn't run out of gas before we could get to any. Eventually we did find some gas stations that had gas, however, they didn't have a lot, and only had the most expensive one. Also, they were limiting how much you could purchase...So it took a long time for us to be able to fill our tank, as it took numerous stops. But we were just happy that we eventually got to that point! Whew! That was scary! 
