Flowers and Firsts - A May 2010 PTR, 5/13 TR started! Link on pg 39

[wdwgirl03]

Joining in a little late but I'm here! Sounds like a great trip. The F&GF is awesome and May is a great time to go. We went in mid-May a couple years ago and the crowds/weather were amazing.

Love the pictures of your son...I don't have kids yet either so I don't fully understand that feeling but some of my cousins have kids and geez, I can't believe the oldest one is already 8. It is crazy.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Happy Birthday Justin. I've got tears in my eyes looking at those fantastic pics of him growing up.

 

[SoonerGirl]

WOW! Happy Birthday, Justin! They grow up so quickly, don't they?

They do indeed!

I love all of the old pics. SO COOL he got to meet Adrian Peterson!! My DH would be very jealous.

The boys were so excited to meet him! They got all shy once we got to the front of the line and didn't know what to say to him, but he was all they could talk about for the rest of the day. Don shook his hand and said it was like putting your hand in a vice Guess he's got a strong grip!

We met him at an OU/TX football game, he signed a photograph of himself as a Sooner player and he also signed the boys game tickets. I made identical scrapbook pages for the boys and framed them. They are hanging in their rooms, doubt they'll ever take them down! Here's the finished product

Thanks for the "heads up" this morning. Some times those little kids pop up out of nowhere

You're welcome

Your photos of Justin were so sweet, but they made me a bit sad, too. My son is 12 and just yesterday I was thinking how I want to put the breaks on his growing up. He was trying on his tux for an upcoming piano competition and when he walked out of his room, I almost cried. It doesn't help that he is my only child.

PS. I'm not on FB either.

Yep, you're right behind me! In a matter on months you'll see him morph from a boy to a young man right before your eyes - it's crazy!

Yay for another FB resister!

Joining in a little late but I'm here! Sounds like a great trip. The F&GF is awesome and May is a great time to go. We went in mid-May a couple years ago and the crowds/weather were amazing.

Love the pictures of your son...I don't have kids yet either so I don't fully understand that feeling but some of my cousins have kids and geez, I can't believe the oldest one is already 8. It is crazy.

Hi there! I'm pretty sure you posted early on, but I could just be remembering you because we subscribe to alot of the same threads. Either way, I'm glad you're here!!

So glad to hear you've good experiences going in May! That's what I'm hoping for, low crowds and great weather

Happy Birthday Justin. I've got tears in my eyes looking at those fantastic pics of him growing up.

Thanks, he's getting to adulthood much faster than I ever would have imagined!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Only two more weeks to go!

I'm stealing an idea from Katie here and taking a trip back in time to share some of my past Disney history with you all. This post and the next one will have pictures of scrapbook pages because I don't have any of these photos on my computer or on CD to upload, so the pics will be kind of hard to see, but you'll get the idea!

I was never able to go to Disney World or Disneyland as a child and I was always so jealous of those who did. I loved everything Disney growing up, the movies, the books, watching the Wonderful World of Disney on television. I swore that when I had children of my own, I would go!

My first trip was truly a last minute decision. I knew nothing about the parks, didn't even know how many there were and what they were called, I was only familiar with the Magic Kingdom from television commercials. I wasn't computer savvy and knew nothing of the DISboards or any other informational site, so to say that we were flying blind is no understatement! The real purpose of our trip to Florida was to go to Miami to see the Oklahoma Sooners play in the college football national championship game. We were using free Southwest flights and had to fly into Orlando, so we decided to spend a couple of nights at WDW. Don had been on property before for a conference for work. They stayed at the Dolphin and he said it was nice, so we got online and were able to book a room at the Swan. We arrive on New Year's Eve 2000, late in the evening. I remember driving onto the WDW property and being able to see Cinderella's castle all lit up in the distance, I got so excited! I was just so happy to be there!

We asked the lady who checked us into the hotel where we should go for the night, and she suggested Downtown Disney. Don and I thought about it and decided not to venture away from the area. Instead we went down to the Boardwalk, ate at the ESPN Zone, watched the fireworks from Epcot at midnight and then called it a night. Of course, I saw Spaceship Earth in the distance, had no idea what it was, but thought it looked pretty cool!

The next morning we got up and tried to figure out where to spend the day. I didn't want to go to Magic Kingdom for the first time without the kids, and just skimming the info at the hotel about Epcot and MGM, decided that MGM seemed more interesting (oh, how silly I was!). We had a great day at MGM though! I don't remember everything we did, I know we saw the Indiana Jones show, went through the Animation Building, rode The Great Movie Ride, saw a parade, it was Mulan themed, and had lunch at the Brown Derby, no reservation necessary! I took very few pictures and only have one scrapbook page from the day

I know I took some pics of the parade, but I can't find them - probably thought they weren't any good and threw them out during one of my 'organizing' episodes.

I don't remember where we had dinner that night, I know it was on the Boardwalk. What I do remember vividly was watching this adorable little boy on the grass out by the Boardwalk hotel. He was probably about 2 and he was running around dragging his Mickey plush behind him, having the most fabulous time! Watching him made me so anxious to bring my boys here for a vacation. That one simple moment was all it took for me to fall for Disney hook, line and sinker!

The next morning we got into our rental car, said goodbye to Disney and headed south to Miami for the best football game I have ever been to!

We were playing Florida State for the championship and it had been a dream season. Oklahoma football, with it's great history and tradition, had been flat awful for at least a decade, and here we were undefeated and playing for a national title. No one thought we would win, but we did!

It was a great trip, from beginning to end!

 

[MHTeacher]

Fun memories!


Look how long your hair was then, and Don has no facial hair!

It's so much fun to look back at old pictures. Your scrapbook pages look great! That's something I've never tried.

 

[SoonerGirl]

Fun memories!


Look how long your hair was then, and Don has no facial hair!

It's so much fun to look back at old pictures. Your scrapbook pages look great! That's something I've never tried.

I had long hair for a very loooooong time! It was all one length and I would just pull it up out of my face. I cut it in 2006 right before our Disney trip, it was really hard getting used to it!

I love to scrapbook, but am so far behind right now! I cringe when I look at some of my earlier stuff, my style is quite different now. I like the pages that will be in my next update better.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Hi there! I'm pretty sure you posted early on, but I could just be remembering you because we subscribe to alot of the same threads. Either way, I'm glad you're here!!

So glad to hear you've good experiences going in May! That's what I'm hoping for, low crowds and great weather

haha, I can't remember, I've been posting on so many TRs lately. I think I've lurked on yours a couple times but saw your post on Rachel's TR and found your link again. But either way I'm here!

Great scrapbook pages.

 

[RachelNinja]

It's really amazing how much info we can get from the internet. How did my parents plan our WDW trips in the past?!? Unbelievable! After this past trip, my dad said that it's too bad that I didn't have all this Disney knowledge when we went as kids. Of course, as a kid, I didn't believe I was missing out on anything. We followed the map and did everything we wanted to do. I'm glad that you jumped on the Disney fanatic bandwagon after that first trip! I never would have known you had you not

Love the scrapbook pages! I think it'll be really fun to digitally scrapbook for this past trip and print it out in a book, but we'll see if I actually have time to do that!

 

[SoonerGirl]

haha, I can't remember, I've been posting on so many TRs lately. I think I've lurked on yours a couple times but saw your post on Rachel's TR and found your link again. But either way I'm here!

Great scrapbook pages.

I know what you mean, I'm subscribed to so many reports right now it's hard to keep them all straight! They are so much fun though

It's really amazing how much info we can get from the internet. How did my parents plan our WDW trips in the past?!? Unbelievable! After this past trip, my dad said that it's too bad that I didn't have all this Disney knowledge when we went as kids. Of course, as a kid, I didn't believe I was missing out on anything. We followed the map and did everything we wanted to do. I'm glad that you jumped on the Disney fanatic bandwagon after that first trip! I never would have known you had you not

Love the scrapbook pages! I think it'll be really fun to digitally scrapbook for this past trip and print it out in a book, but we'll see if I actually have time to do that!

I know our first trip as a family was so much better than it would have been because I finally found online information to help me out! It's really amazing that we all survived as long as we did with the information super highway to guide us

I've never tried digital scrapbooking, I like to use my hands and create my pages. I think digital would probably be faster though, and I'm so far behind it might be worth taking it up!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Well, it's a dreary rainy day here today, so I decided to go ahead and do a post about our next Disney park experience.

This visit was also initiated by an Oklahoma football game, but this game took us to the opposite coast. We were playing in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Justin went with us this time, but we decided that Jared was still too little to be able to sit through a football game.

Before we left Oklahoma City, we tried to figure out what we could do with a 6 year old in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. We decided that a trip to Disneyland would be the way to go. Again, my inexperience with Disney parks and message boards reared it's ugly head, because going to DL on NYE turned out to be a really bad idea!

The day started out fine, we got to the park relatively early and were able to ride some rides before the crowds showed up.

I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but there is a picture of me on the above page riding the teacups with Justin. That was the one and only time that I've ridden them, I felt AWFUL once we were done - never, ever again will I get onto those spinning cups of doom!

About mid afternoon the park started to get very crowded, wait times for rides were ridiculous. I think we waited over an hour to meet Mickey, it was wall to wall people! Justin still had a good time, he loved Goofy's house, it was like a giant moon bounce, he had a blast in there! And he absolutely loved Tarzan's treehouse, we must have walked through it at least 5 times! He also got to meet the wicked queen from Snow White, of course we didn't realize what a rare treat it was for her to be out doing meet and greets. Justin was a little afraid of her, she was mean!

We saw the parade that night, and watched the early fireworks

By this time we were beat and ready to leave. This was honestly a very scary part of the day, the crowd had gotten so thick that we couldn't even make our way towards the front of the park, you went where the crowd went period! I was so nervous that Justin was going to get pushed down and stepped on, it was really bad. Finally we were able to get to a spot where we could turn towards the exit and we slowly made our way out of the park. Needless to say, this was not the best experience. We weren't able to enjoy the park much at all. I had no idea that NYE would be that crazy!

The next morning, deciding that this was probably our one and only chance to see it in person, we got up early and went to Pasadena to find a spot to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade.

Of course, people camp out overnight to get a curb side spot for this parade, but we were able to find an area on the sidewalk so that we could watch. A very nice family who HAD camped out invited Justin to sit on curb with their kids so that he could see better. We didn't ask, or infringe on their space, they just saw him and offered, I thought that was so kind of them!

After the parade, we had some lunch then headed over to the Rose Bowl to hang out and wait for the game to start. We played Washington State, and won the game. Such a treat it was for us to be able to play in a game that is traditionally Pac 10/Big 10. We really enjoyed it!

 

[kschafer]

How fun to look at those pictures! Funny how much finding the Disboards changes our lives. I mentioned to my parents last night how easy it is to drive around Disney world and they commented that I have educated myself much more so of course I think it is easy

 

[RachelNinja]

Any time I'm in a craft store, I always look at the things because I've always been interested in scrapbooking. I even bought blank scrapbooks way back when! We just don't have the room to do the scrapbooking. I wouldn't want to spend time laying everything out and then packing it all up. I wish I had a craft room or a table that could be left undisturbed! Anyway, the inner love for scrapbooking is why I loved the Magical Memories store at DTD that I finally visited this past trip!

I figure digital scrapping would be good because then I don't have to lay it out. Plus, I could spend more time on the writing aspect. I'd like it to be more of a book because, as you can tell from my TR, I'm quite wordy! Haha.

I love that you have captions for your pics, especially the one titled "Hangin' Out at Mickey's Place." That's my kind of scrapbook!

 

[PrincessInOz]

This is amazing! Kinda like taking an intensive class of your life - or at least the holiday and memory part of you life .

 

[MHTeacher]

It's so great to catch up on parts of your life that happened before you were DISing here with us!

 

[cdotla]

Great scrapbook pages!

Like you, I am so far behind in scrapbooking! At least I will have plenty to do in retirement!

Like you, I sometimes don't like the style I used 5-10 years ago. However, at least the memories are preserved, and even if your personal style changes, it is still great to have the books to flip through to remember your history, isn't it!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Love your scrapbooking pages -- I am so far behind, too!

 

[SoonerGirl]

How fun to look at those pictures! Funny how much finding the Disboards changes our lives. I mentioned to my parents last night how easy it is to drive around Disney world and they commented that I have educated myself much more so of course I think it is easy

I didn't find the DISboards until I was planning our 2nd trip with the kids! I did however find another site that helped in the planning a lot. I think our first trip would not have nearly as nice had I not.

Any time I'm in a craft store, I always look at the things because I've always been interested in scrapbooking. I even bought blank scrapbooks way back when! We just don't have the room to do the scrapbooking. I wouldn't want to spend time laying everything out and then packing it all up. I wish I had a craft room or a table that could be left undisturbed! Anyway, the inner love for scrapbooking is why I loved the Magical Memories store at DTD that I finally visited this past trip!

I figure digital scrapping would be good because then I don't have to lay it out. Plus, I could spend more time on the writing aspect. I'd like it to be more of a book because, as you can tell from my TR, I'm quite wordy! Haha.

I love that you have captions for your pics, especially the one titled "Hangin' Out at Mickey's Place." That's my kind of scrapbook!

Yep, you have to have a place to spread out. When I first started scrapbooking I used the kitchen table - needless to say, we ate in the living room alot because I always had stuff all over the table! It was too much of a pain to get everything out for a couple of hours and then put everything away again, so it just stayed out. Now I have a desk in the office where I can scrapbook and not have to worry about putting everything away, it's much better!

You can do so much with digital scrapbooking. You can do the pre-made layouts where you just add your pictures and journaling, or you can buy backgrounds and embellishments, and lay out your page however you want it. I've looked into it, just haven't taken the plunge!

This is amazing! Kinda like taking an intensive class of your life - or at least the holiday and memory part of you life .

My Disney related trip down memory lane

It's so great to catch up on parts of your life that happened before you were DISing here with us!

I didn't find the DISboards until I was planning our 2006 trip, and then I just lurked for awhile, didn't write my first TR until 2008!

Great scrapbook pages!

Like you, I am so far behind in scrapbooking! At least I will have plenty to do in retirement!

Like you, I sometimes don't like the style I used 5-10 years ago. However, at least the memories are preserved, and even if your personal style changes, it is still great to have the books to flip through to remember your history, isn't it!

I get so depressed when I look at how far behind I am. I got in a funk and didn't scrapbook for a long time and now the anal part of me will NOT scrapbook events out of order! It's not as much fun doing older events, so I just have a hard time sitting down at the scrapbook table now!

I am so happy to have my scrapbooks and I hope one day my children and grandchildren will enjoy them. I know I would have loved to have gone through my grandparents old stuff and found keepsakes like these.

Love your scrapbooking pages -- I am so far behind, too!

Sounds like I'm not alone in my scrapbooking procrastination! It is just hard to find the time sometimes isn't it?

 

[Happydog]

Vacation scrap books??!! I am impressed! I shudder every time I look at the baby books and half filled vacation photo albums I have!! I mean I have everything! I just need like a MONTH to do it all!! Your memories are so fun to look back on, though! Lots of Disney in your PRE-DIS life!!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Loved your last set of memories. My dad and I have taken a couple similar trips (my dad's a Michigan alum so we went to Disneyland/the Rose Bowl in '05 and '07). They are so much fun. I loved getting to see DL and all the Rose Bowl festivities are awesome. Sadly they lost both games we went to.

 

[stace208]

I loved looking at your scrapbook pages! What fun memories!
Add me to the "very far behind" club. I did really well when the kids were small but then fell behind. Now I feel like I am so far behind, I don't even want to start. I got photoshop and a great book so I could do them digitally but have never moved forward on that either. Someday, right?