Grumpy turned Happy for Christmas!

[Monknmom]

This TR is about a fist BIG trip that my little family had taken to WDW during the month of December. We had driven from Long Island, NY to Florida and home with lots of little stops on the way! This trip is all about our journey to see Disney and learn about each other- how funny it is that you can live with someone for 7 years and never know certain things about them! Well those things were learned on this trip and much more! I took so many experiences and learned many new things and met some really nice people on the way and I am glad that you are coming along to read through my adventure!
The title of this TR came to me while we were driving down to Disney and I saw my grumpy husband start to smile and laugh more than I had seen him do in the 9 years that I had known him! As the trip moved on I saw more laughter and smiles and jokes from this guy then ever before- at one point my son and him even started to pull jokes off on me (NOT COMMON FOR MY DH AT ALL)- it became evident that this TR must be named "Grumpy turned Happy for Christmas"!!! So even though this trip was for our little guy, we probably took more from it than he did!

I am going to make sure that I keep up with chapters so you can either go from chapter to chapter or read everything in between as well!

TRIP REPORT UPDATES
Meet the cast
Day 1 part 1-12/9-THE REVEAL
Day 1 part 2-12/9-Getting out of NY
Day 2-12/10-Poatato chips and the statue of liberty!
Day 3-12/11- Are we there yet???
Day 3-12/11- DTD and wilderness lodge? part 1
Day 3-12/11-DTD and wilderness lodge?part 2
Day 4- 12/12- The Animal Kingdom and my missing pictures....
Day 5- 12/13- Epcot Day- Damien meets Zoe and some culture!
Animal Kingdom Photopass update
Epcot's day 1 photopass
Day 6- 12/14- Disney's Hollywood Studios part 1

LIFE UPDATES
The night before new Years...
Rebekah


Up next introductions and then I will start the report!

 

[mommytominnie]

Subbing!! I read along on your pre trip report and I am excited to read how your vacation went. It's funny in my TR that I just started, I call my DH Grumpy too Can't wait to read more.

 

[swwake]

Hooray! I'm subscribing!

 

[tankgirl427]

I'm here too!

 

[momabaarjo]

I love your title...and had tears in my eyes to think of K becoming happy! I think mine is getting grumpier...

 

[15isto2]

Subscribing, sounds like a fun trip

 

[Monknmom]

***The chapters have been moved to the top first post!

 

[Monknmom]

Just in case there are any new comers that didn't follow along with our PTR I am going to introduce ourselves! And "Driving down to Mickey's for Christmas" was the name of our PTR and if you click on the title it will bring you to there if you'd like to see some of the prep work I did for the trip!

There is me, Heather. I am currantly 25, but will hit 26 before this TR is over. I have been married to my high school sweetheart since July 2004. I currently stay home and work on the house projects that come with buying a new house, but I am always at my son's school for volunteering in and out of the classroom! My favorite character is Winnie the pooh bear! I love the old one though more than the new one, but he does fine too! I just love how he's so absent minded like myself, but he doesn't mean to be and he tries REALLY hard to remember! My favorite ride was the tower of terror because I love that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you drop!

Then there is my DH, Kaung (pernounced like the big monkey Kong). He is 26 turning 27 in April! He has been an electrician for the same company since 2003. He is very good at what he does and he really cares about his work- just don't let him know or this might get to his head! He says that he doesn't have a favorite Disney character, but we like to call him Grumpy. Just like Grumpy he pretends not to enjoy or like things, but deep inside he loves it (like the part whee Snow White kisses him on the head and he pretends not to care)! His favorite ride was Kali River Rapids!

*This is a SUPER bad picture taken of us on New Year's Eve after a few "we left the kid at grandma's house and only have to walk across the street to get home" drinks, but I didn't get the photopass yet to put up a better one. So this will be changed when I get that!

Then last but certainly not least is our one and only little baby! He's not really a baby anymore in fact he gets mad if you say that to him, but in my heart he will always be! This is Damien. He's a talker as a fellow DIS friend found out rather quickly and he thinks that he knows EVERYTHING that there is to know. Damien turned 7 the day before we left for the trip- the trip was part Christmas and part birthday gift for him this year! His favorite character is Phineas and his favorite ride was test track!

 

[Monknmom]

Subbing!! I read along on your pre trip report and I am excited to read how your vacation went. It's funny in my TR that I just started, I call my DH Grumpy too Can't wait to read more.

Hooray! I'm subscribing!

I'm here too!

I love your title...and had tears in my eyes to think of K becoming happy! I think mine is getting grumpier...

Subscribing, sounds like a fun trip

everyone!!!

I have to go back and still subscribe to everyone's but thank you and I hope that I can keep you all entertained!

And Tammie I am so sorry he's grumpy... maybe the last few days will change him

 

[GrammyJudy]

What a cute family? How did you like ASMo? As you can see we will be there soon

 

[Monknmom]

What a cute family? How did you like ASMo? As you can see we will be there soon

Oh we liked it! I asked to stay in the Toy Story building and they made it happen. We had a refurbished room and it was nice and clean and we didn't get to the pool or the laundry, but the park was nice as well!

 

[Monknmom]

This was a surprise trip for Damien- he knew that we were going, but thought that Santa was going to bring us the tickets at Christmas time! So that night before (after his birthday party for our family) we cleaned the house really well after getting him to bed and we packed up the car's trunk only because the next day we had a parent/teacher confrence before school started.
When we got up in the morning things were pretty normal for him other than dad being home, but I said that he wanted to see Damien's teacher for the meeting so he took the day off and Damien believed every word because other than the Easter bunny and Santa I don't like to lie to him which I had to keep doing to him on the trip and felt horrible! To me lying it just too much work and I'm not that great at remembering things to begin with! So anyway, we got up and ate all of us had a hot drink (hot cocoa or coffee) and toast with preserves and made our way to Damien's school for our 8:30 am conference! Damien's doing great in school, he adds lots of life to the class (another way of her saying he's got lots to say) and when we ended I once again asked "is there any homework he has to get done while we are gone?" "Nope Mrs. Htun have a great trip and don't worry about it, just make him write in a journal!" So I did! Later at the end of the trip I will have learned that it's code for "he has to make it up when he gets home". And then we came back home finished getting ready for school and just like every Friday I went to help out in his class! While I was gone DH put the box that Mickey and his friends were leaving for Damien outside for us to find when we returned home.

Now this gets me... when it was time for his class to go to lunch I always head home and may or may not come back later. Well on this day I told him that since yesterday was his birthday he can come home early with me we can pick up daddy to go eat Thai food for lunch (it's his favorite food)! My son is most likely the only one that would ever have a problem with this! He was crying and carrying on that he didn't want to leave school because they are in the middle of learning about the solar system and he didn't want to miss the lesson! So after his teacher and I calming him down he agreed that it would be fun to go with mom and dad!
When we got home he didn't want to go inside right away he wanted to play on the swings while I went and got his dad then come outside and we will leave. Well this held a little problem because the box was only visable when you came close to the front door. So once again I have to get him to do something he's not okay with (here is where I started to really rethink my nicknames Damien=grumpy and K=stubborn)! So I purposely went in the house and took an extra long time to get things together and make sure that all of our electronics were unplugged, rooms were in order, back doors and such were locked when Damien finally came in with the box... "Here, can we leave now?" I thought 'what'? His dad said who is the box to? Monk replies "I don't know Im hungry." I was almost in tears seeing that this was going to be the next few days and I was going to not only be stuck in the same hotel room with them, but in the same car before and after the hotel!!!! Thinking 'is it possible to take 2 off the trip and get a plane ticket this late?' But Damien came around and looked at the box he was excited to see that it was for him and that it was all the way from Disney! He was looking through everything nicely and read the letter and I thought he understood what it meant and it was just taking a moment to process!

But no he said that it was really nice for Mickey to send him these things for the trip, we should save them for when we go! I explained that NO Mickey had Tinker Bell fly to the North Pole and get the tickets for us! So we can leave right now! And word for word his reply was "You mean we can't go to Saba?" (his favorite Thai restaurant)!!! Yep maybe your jaw dropped just like mine did? Maybe you scratched your head and said 'what is wrong with this picture' kinda like his dad did? Or maybe like Damien you just couldn't understand that if we didn't leave now we wouldn't be able to get there on time for our tickets? We finally got him showered and re-dressed and left (forgetting to eat-- remember this when we are a little further in the next post)!

Next up... Getting out of NY!!!

 

[swwake]

Great intro! I think you should leave the NYE pic up!

Damien is so cute!

 

[annmarieda]

I am here!

It is so neat reading how your reveal went. I am sorry the reveal didn't go quite as planned. I think we all want those moments where the surprised are over joyed and surprised. Sounds like he needed a bit of coaxing.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[mommytominnie]

Oh my. Your reveal sounds almost identical to mine. Ours was a surprise for our daughter as well. First trip and all. We picked her up from school, she opened the box, read the letters and..... nothing. She could not understand we were leaving at that moment. She thought we were telling her we were going to Disney World someday. You can read all about it in my TR. Can't wait to read more of yours.

 

[swwake]

Wow, somehow in replying to you, I missed the reveal post. That was awesome. So funny that he didn't "get it" at first. I hope it ends up going better as the excitement builds along the way.

 

[Monknmom]

Great intro! I think you should leave the NYE pic up!

Damien is so cute!

I'm not sure about the picture, but thank you about Damien!

I am here!

It is so neat reading how your reveal went. I am sorry the reveal didn't go quite as planned. I think we all want those moments where the surprised are over joyed and surprised. Sounds like he needed a bit of coaxing.

Can't wait to hear more!

Yes he needed a big ole dose of coaxing! It's okay.... like I mentioned in the PTR he's not so good with change or anything so I should have expected it more, but he has his ups and downs and soon to come K has his "big city lesson"!

Oh my. Your reveal sounds almost identical to mine. Ours was a surprise for our daughter as well. First trip and all. We picked her up from school, she opened the box, read the letters and..... nothing. She could not understand we were leaving at that moment. She thought we were telling her we were going to Disney World someday. You can read all about it in my TR. Can't wait to read more of yours.

I don't see the link to your TR.. maybe I am just missing something? LOL doesn't that stink I was there with the camera and taking pictures of him loving the gifts he received in the box and then BOOM NOTHING! LOL it was funny though because he's so serious about everything that he can't quit comprehend the grasp of last minute things! We went to the city on the 30th as a little getaway and he was fine because we had to let him know the fun things that were there (but the melt downs we had when we found the fun things like the Ferris wheel in Toys R Us closes at 11:30 and not midnight like the store)!

Wow, somehow in replying to you, I missed the reveal post. That was awesome. So funny that he didn't "get it" at first. I hope it ends up going better as the excitement builds along the way.

He always has ups and downs, he's not that great to surprises or changes so I shouldn't have been upset or surprised the way he reacted! But you will see in the TR it goes up and down the whole way!

 

[veggiemama]

I'm here and reading along.

I was not great at keeping up with your PTR, hopefully I will be better with the TR.

Sorry the reveal did not go quite as planned. It is always difficult when the kids do not get as excited as we would like.

Can't wait to read more.

 

[Monknmom]

I'm here and reading along.

I was not great at keeping up with your PTR, hopefully I will be better with the TR.

Sorry the reveal did not go quite as planned. It is always difficult when the kids do not get as excited as we would like.

Can't wait to read more.

It's okay, I'm glad your here now though!

Yeah it's okay though I am over that reveal- next time I know not to over achieve it!

 

[Monknmom]

I am sorry I have not posted the new update.... I have been really sick. I want to get to the doctor, but I don't want to... weird but I'm stubborn and no one else is catching it from me which makes me wonder... maybe it's just that everything (the trip planning, the trip, Christmas, New Year's) is all done and maybe I pushed myself too hard the last few months and my body is just tired? I don't know but I said that if I am still sick by Friday I will go in! So even though that should mean I am on here more I'm not! The only things I have been on the computer for is to watch a movie while falling asleep and to look up stuff for DH while he's working and thinking! Facebook has been done on the IPod and I can't seem to do this on there. But I will be back sometime today to continue with that horrible NY start!