For the First Time in Forever...we finally get to go back!! a pre trip report

[AprilRenee]

Adore the shirts!! They're going to look so cute in pictures! And don't feel silly or embarrassed about running into people you know while youre wearing them - true Disney fans will understand

I agree with everyone else.....just make sure you have snacks. And we always take along coloring books and crayons too just to be safe.

Thanks! I'm excited about them! And cool...I have a pile of snacks ready to go!

I wouldn't worry too much about an 8 hour car ride. You can almost guarantee that he'll nap for a couple hours of that and then your back to 5/6 hours like your original trip.

We took the girls on a car trip to Nebraska when Hannah was about Caden's age and they did pretty good. We brought tons of snacks, movies and went to the library for books on cd for her to listen to/look at. I was sort of a freak about keeping track of them but she did great with them and really liked being able to hear stories.

ETA: don't worry about taking too much stuff on the plane. I took a TON of those $1 packets with a couple crayons, stickers, color book etc on our first trip. The girls ended up sharing them with several cranky kids on the plane which made everyone much happier. So, I say, sprinkle some pixie dust if you overpack. It benefits everyone!

Books on CD are a good idea. Maybe I'll hit the library tomorrow and grab a few!

Breaking the drive up over the two days sounds a lot more manageable. The most we've done for a car trip with Izzy is the 4 hours to see my grandma in Wisconsin - and she usually naps for half of that. 8 hours straight sounds like a long time - you'd need to make a couple fun stops on the way. Hope the trip goes well!

Yeah, I'm feeling much better about the drive now that we decided to break it up.

I have found that car rides are more manageable than planes, you just have more options. Plus they are only bugging you, not anyone else, that makes me more calm and therefore the whole situation goes more smoothly!

I think as long as you have the things you mentioned you should be good. I agree with snacks, ones that seem like a "treat" are even better. My only advice with the iPad is maybe download a new app or two. In case he gets board. You can get him all excited with something new!

True! It is just us that he'd be annoying. And Caden likes car rides most of the time. I think we'll be good, especially since we have it broken up now. I know he can easily do the 5 hrs and 3 hrs is like nothing lol.

 

[AprilRenee]

Ok...Christmas is over and it's time to go full brain force for Disney!!! Woohooo!!!! Yeah yeah...I've got a little in law trip in there but only 8 more days to disney!!! Yay!!!!


First a little Christmas recap:

Caden's pile looked a little sad and small when I first set it up (not that the size of the pile really matters...but ya know what I mean...),

so I ended up wrapping up one of the toys I was planning to leave unwrapped, and then DH goes "it's fine! We have a disney trip in like a week!" and I went let's put a sign about the disney trip on the pile!!! And a countdown chain!!!

and BAM!!! Impressive looking pile lol



Same stuff...just reconfigured lol



Our printer stopped working and only printed like half of our sign and the other half (the castle) was in red and the words didn't print out very dark. (Mickey was originally just an outline...this was halfway thru the repair)



So Andrew went and grabbed his box of colored pencils and fixed the sign all up and it looked lovely!!




Caden loved Christmas morning...although he was unimpressed by our disney chain and sign...we were like "Caden we're going to disney world in 9 days!! And he was like "yeah I know...you tell me all the time" lol I mean we do talk about it all the time but I never gave him a date/countdown. But I don't think 9 days means anything to him. I don't think he's gonna get it til the day before when I tell him "in the morning we're going to disney world" Ah well!

He loved his Cars cars. Had to sleep with like 7 of them last night


He also loved his vintage little people airplane. I heard him say "Caden ride airplane"


Also a hit are the headphones we got him for the plane. Yay!!! I was worried he'd refuse to wear them but he loves them!


My brother and his wife got us an R2D2 carryon bag!! LOVE it!!! We're so excited! It's gonna be our carry-on for the trip and Andrew said he's gonna use it every time he has to go out of town for work lol


Finally, Caden's cute Christmas outfit...


My mom got it for him and it was too cute to not use for a holiday.


And now...on to disney planning!!

On my last Aldi trip I grabbed a bunch of fun snacks and made "Snack Packs" for each of our disney days. We'll have a gallon size ziplock for each day (already packed with 1 of each item) and then each morning we can just grab a bag and throw it under the stroller. Then as the day goes on and Caden gets crabby or snacky we can let him pick a fun snack. Andrew and I will likely also snack on things periodically.



Also, going back to my souvenir/extra money discussion...our credit card rewards kicked in and I got another signing bonus from someone using my recommendation code. plus some points for using the card. So between that and a disney gift card from my brother for a family Christmas gift, we've got the last bit of the souvenir money we needed. Yay!

 

[Dugette]

Glad you had a good Christmas and so exciting that your trip is around the corner. I seem to know a lot of people who are going to Disney in January (DIS and IRL), so I am feeling all left out. I'm so excited to hear about the trips, though!

I love the sign and countdown chain idea, even if Caden was less than enthused. In a way, the printer quitting is kind-of appropriate, as it made the sign go from print to animation, in some sort of symbolic Disney way.

Glad that he liked his headphones. Izzy really never took to hers. That will be really helpful for the plane ride, I'm sure.

Some of your gifts reminded me of our trip to the Disney Store a couple weeks ago, if you don't mind me sharing. Izzy sat in front of the store window to admire the Cars toys (guess we should have gotten her some, oops):



She also pulled the carry-on out of the shelf to admire it:



It is pretty awesome!

Cute Christmas outfit.

Good idea on the snack bags. Will be handy to grab and go.

Yay for the extra souvenir money!

 

[AprilRenee]

Glad you had a good Christmas and so exciting that your trip is around the corner. I seem to know a lot of people who are going to Disney in January (DIS and IRL), so I am feeling all left out. I'm so excited to hear about the trips, though!

That's how I felt in Aug/Sept. It was like EVERYONE was going!! I felt very left out! lol But then I lived vicariously thru everyone's TR

I love the sign and countdown chain idea, even if Caden was less than enthused. In a way, the printer quitting is kind-of appropriate, as it made the sign go from print to animation, in some sort of symbolic Disney way.

LOL yes it was...it was also quite indicitive of our evening. It's like nothing went right.
-We had to re-made a loaf of the homemade bread we were making for the christmas get together cause one of the loaves had a bad day.
-Caden's pile was too small.
-the light up spinny toy I got (after I returned the broken target one) stopped working and replacing batteries didn't fix it. (WHY does this keep happening to me!?!?!?! I gave up and pulled out the one I got him for Disney on Ice and threw it in our bag. It's not new but at least it works!!!)
-My gift didn't come in in time so there wasn't going to be anything for me to open in the morning.

it was just like one thing after another...and then the printer ran out of ink. By that point all we could do was laugh.

Glad that he liked his headphones. Izzy really never took to hers. That will be really helpful for the plane ride, I'm sure.

Oh man! I really didn't think he'd go for them but he's been using them off and on all day when he's stopped to watch Toy Story on the ipad.

Some of your gifts reminded me of our trip to the Disney Store a couple weeks ago, if you don't mind me sharing. Izzy sat in front of the store window to admire the Cars toys (guess we should have gotten her some, oops)



She also pulled the carry-on out of the shelf to admire it:



It is pretty awesome!

I never mind you sharing pics of Izzy! lol
And I think Caden and Izzy would get along great! They have similar tastes lol

I found those cars at a garage sale (may have posted about it...can't remember) but I've been saving them for a while waiting for Christmas. I also have about 30 more in a box in my closet to use for potty training incentives (just random characters...I gave him all the main characters for christmas). Got 42 of them for $10. Pretty much the best find of the year!!

 

[AprilRenee]

So I can finally see part of our forecast on the 10 day forecast!! Yay!!

However, it's hotter than we were expecting. Sun, mon, tues are 82, 81, 78 and they all have a little rain predicted. Now I know the rain will change 17 times between now and then, but I'm kinda surprised by the temps. I was planning on highs in the low 70s and needing jackets at night. I don't think that's gonna be an issue this year. (But we'll bring them just in case )

Gonna need to go find my shorts and pull those out. Lol

This also may change our arrival day a bit. We will be at AoA and kinda wanted to try out the big blue pool. Now it's gonna be warm enough to do so. However I don't know how to get in pool time, nap, AND go to the parks for a bit. Lol

MK is open til midnight. And I'm thinking we'll arrive at the resort around 2:30 (1:30 home time). So maybe we'll just do 30 min or so of pool time then let Caden nap 3-5 (or probably 3-6 cause he normally takes a 3 hr nap that late in the afternoon) then head to the park for late night fun.
I mean with the park open that late that still gives us 5ish hours and allows us to see the 8p (or 10p) parade and the 9p wishes. And we can ride a good bit after wishes cause the park tends to clear out.

I think Caden will be ok going that late. Especially with a late nap and with still being on STL time. He was out til 11 or later on halloween and had a blast. And this will be the only night we go this late on this trip.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I think you'll enjoy the warmer temperatures Spending some time in the pool will probably burn some of Caden's excited energy so he will fall asleep faster at nap time. I'm counting the days with you!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Looks like a great Chritmas! Your going to Disney sign is really cute, I think it turned out better than if it printed correctly.

I love your new suitcase! That will be so cute and as Caden becomes older he can use it too!

I love your snack packs those look great, I love the Aldi snacks.

I think the weather will be great! You can think of all of us back home freezing!

 

[THiiNKTiiNKx0]

Yay for getting all the souvenir money you needed !!!!! Can't believe it's so close!

Adore the snack pack idea for the parks. I think we may do that too lol.

Hope you enjoyed your Christmas and if I don't talk to you before you leave, have a safe trip !

 

[STLMickeyMom]

yay for getting all the souvenir money! and that carry on is super cute! I like the countdown chain--you know i'm all over those!

i'm excited for you to have warmer weather then we had when we were there in January. you guys are gonna have an awesome trip! it is seriously SO close!!

 

[jc040404]

Love that carry on! Blake checked something like it out (maybe the same?) at Toys r us once. So tempted to buy it for him. Now that I've seen it again, I want it! Super cute!

Caden looks so handsome sitting in front of the tree. Growing so fast!

Yay Christmas and wow it's trip time already! I need to go back and catch up a little. I can't believe how warm it's going to be for you though. It's ridiculous too warm here and even warmer over there. Awesome for your swimming plans! (Sad for my desire to have some winter-like weather!)

Adding- I love your magic bands! I knew you'd come up with something cute. The shirts are adorable, too.

 

[anniebabymu]

Super fun Christmas pics!! He looks like he had a great Christmas morning! And your countdown chain is adorable as well, great job!

What a great idea making snack bags for every day to just grab and put in your park bag! I may have to steal that for our next trip! I just ordered from Garden Grocer and had to refill everything daily and in the morning when we just wanted to get out and go it got to be a pain in the rear!

Woohoo for spending money!

Crazy it's gonna be so warm while you're there! You definitely need to hang out at the Big Blue Pool! It's such a fun pool! So I think you're idea of just having a late night at the park is great! 5 hours is a good chunk of time to do some things!

 

[AprilRenee]

4 days 11 hrs and 38 minutes til we're on a plane to Disney world!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

I'm so freaking excited!! It doesn't even seem real!!

 

[AprilRenee]

I think you'll enjoy the warmer temperatures Spending some time in the pool will probably burn some of Caden's excited energy so he will fall asleep faster at nap time. I'm counting the days with you!

That's very true. Last night I mentally thought thru the updated arrival plan and I'm feeling good about it!!
I'm going to go over to HS guest services and do our early ticket pick up during cadens nap. And then I think we'll also grab some dinner and eat it in the room at the end of his nap so that once he's up we're ready to go. ("Mr I don't eat food anymore" can snack on whatever on our way to the park.)

Looks like a great Chritmas! Your going to Disney sign is really cute, I think it turned out better than if it printed correctly. I love your new suitcase! That will be so cute and as Caden becomes older he can use it too! I love your snack packs those look great, I love the Aldi snacks. I think the weather will be great! You can think of all of us back home freezing!

Thanks! I think the sign turned out really cute! and it was pretty cute how dedicated Andrew was to making it just right. He's totally just as excited as I am. He just shows it differently.

Yay for getting all the souvenir money you needed !!!!! Can't believe it's so close! Adore the snack pack idea for the parks. I think we may do that too lol. Hope you enjoyed your Christmas and if I don't talk to you before you leave, have a safe trip !

Thanks!!

yay for getting all the souvenir money! and that carry on is super cute! I like the countdown chain--you know i'm all over those! i'm excited for you to have warmer weather then we had when we were there in January. you guys are gonna have an awesome trip! it is seriously SO close!!

I totally forgot the countdown chain at home and we're in Kansas now. Oops. Oh well. It's the thought that counts right? Lol

In feeling good about the weather now that I can see that the rest of the week will cool down a bit. 85 was gonna be a wee bit toasty for me! Lol but I'm excited about getting some pool time

Love that carry on! Blake checked something like it out (maybe the same?) at Toys r us once. So tempted to buy it for him. Now that I've seen it again, I want it! Super cute! Caden looks so handsome sitting in front of the tree. Growing so fast! Yay Christmas and wow it's trip time already! I need to go back and catch up a little. I can't believe how warm it's going to be for you though. It's ridiculous too warm here and even warmer over there. Awesome for your swimming plans! (Sad for my desire to have some winter-like weather!) Adding- I love your magic bands! I knew you'd come up with something cute. The shirts are adorable, too.

I love the carry on too! Best Christmas gift of the year for us! Lol

Thanks! I love being crafty!! I'm really happy with my custom stuff for this trip!

Super fun Christmas pics!! He looks like he had a great Christmas morning! And your countdown chain is adorable as well, great job! What a great idea making snack bags for every day to just grab and put in your park bag! I may have to steal that for our next trip! I just ordered from Garden Grocer and had to refill everything daily and in the morning when we just wanted to get out and go it got to be a pain in the rear! Woohoo for spending money! Crazy it's gonna be so warm while you're there! You definitely need to hang out at the Big Blue Pool! It's such a fun pool! So I think you're idea of just having a late night at the park is great! 5 hours is a good chunk of time to do some things!

I'm excited about those snack bags. I think they're gonna be really great for us.

I'm glad you don't think I'm nuts to keep my 2 yr old (almost 3 yr old!! OMG!!) out at MK til midnight. Lol. I'm really hoping it works out! *fingers crossed*!

 

[jchurch0409]

Joining the party a little late! Enjoyed reading your PTR so far and I can't wait to read your TR!

Caden is such a handsome little boy! I love your shirts, Magic Bands, and the snack pack ideas!

 

[jameson314]

Just read through your PTR today! Caden is adorable! I am excited for you just 3 more days I love all your DIY projects and wish DH and I were anywhere near as crafty and artistic as you guys I hope you end up doing a TR when you get back! I can't wait to see how everything goes and what Caden's favorites end up being. Have Fun!!

 

[AprilRenee]

Joining the party a little late! Enjoyed reading your PTR so far and I can't wait to read your TR! Caden is such a handsome little boy! I love your shirts, Magic Bands, and the snack pack ideas!

Welcome!! And thanks! I think he's pretty cute. Lol

Just read through your PTR today! Caden is adorable! I am excited for you just 3 more days I love all your DIY projects and wish DH and I were anywhere near as crafty and artistic as you guys I hope you end up doing a TR when you get back! I can't wait to see how everything goes and what Caden's favorites end up being. Have Fun!!

Welcome!! I'm getting so excited!! I can't believe it's finally here!!
And I'm totally planning to do a trip report I'll post the link here

 

[AprilRenee]

2 sleeps left!!!

Had a fun time in topeka with the family
Here's Caden with his grandma (Andrew's mom)


She was thrilled to get to hang out with him

He did awesome with us screwing with his schedule and I'm feeling good about our Disney plans.

Kansas was like Siberia and I am SOO ready to get back to the 40s in STL and then 85 on arrival day at Disney!!


We're on our way home now. Caden has done awesome on all the car rides! He's sleeping now

Tonight I'm gonna hit Walmart for some last min things (and some shorts for Caden cause none of his fit!!)
And then tomorrow I'm gonna hit JCP for some new bras (mine are driving me nuts and I'm NOT dealing with this at Disney. So there) and then gonna stop by work (I teach at a performing arts school) and see their progress on our new building. I've missed all the fun of tearing down walls this week! lol

Then we'll finish loading our bags (list is made and ready), then sleep, then my dad comes at 8am to take us to the airport!!!! Woohoooo!!!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Ahhhhhh you are getting soooo close! I am so excited for you all!
Looks like you all had a great visit to Topeka. Caden is a pro at this traveling thing now!

 

[Dugette]

So glad that your travels went well and Caden was able to be flexible!

You leave so soon!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

You are so amazingly close!!! I'm so excited for you guys! Caden is going to rock it and you all will have a super time! Yay!!!!!