Heat, Headaches but So Much Fun! My June Birthday TR (Trip Wrap-Up 10/12)

[princess_momma]

That is so awesome that you sat in that same seat! It was pretty awesome, huh?

I'll try my best to drag out this TR. I hope to post again either today or tomorrow. It was a crazy busy weekend for us! I'd love to go again next year, but not for my birthday or Tony's birthday. June and July are WAY too hot for me. But, Madison's is the middle of October and that would be wonderful.

Its just such an awesome feeling knowing you have the best seat!! lol!

And you know what works better for getting your Disney fix than dragging out tr's? Booking another trip!! I love your tr's and hope you get another trip soon so I can read one!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Its just such an awesome feeling knowing you have the best seat!! lol!

And you know what works better for getting your Disney fix than dragging out tr's? Booking another trip!! I love your tr's and hope you get another trip soon so I can read one!

I would book another trip right this instant, but that's not going to happen. I really don't know when we'll get back to WDW.

 

[princess_momma]

I would book another trip right this instant, but that's not going to happen. I really don't know when we'll get back to WDW.

Aw thats no good. I haven't booked yet but I don't think we'll get back until November or December of next year. I'm sad thats its over a year away. I hope some things happen so you can go again soon!!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Aw thats no good. I haven't booked yet but I don't think we'll get back until November or December of next year. I'm sad thats its over a year away. I hope some things happen so you can go again soon!!

I would love to go around that time too. I just have to see WDW all decorated for Christmas someday! One of my really good friends goes the 1st week in December every single year. She said the crowds are non-existent and the weather is perfect!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

I would love to go around that time too. I just have to see WDW all decorated for Christmas someday! One of my really good friends goes the 1st week in December every single year. She said the crowds are non-existent and the weather is perfect!

Let's hope that's true!! We arrive on 12/5!! ADR's were a little tough to come by at a few places.

 

[Dancegrl624]

I'm so sorry that I've been gone for so long! But, I'm back now so it's all good. I apologize if the rest of the trip is a bit boring and pictureless. Upon leaving Disney, I just wasn't in the mood to take pictures anymore. So, without further ado....an update.

June 28th
3pm

Like I said at the end of my last update, we were on the road by 3pm and Madison fell asleep very quickly. She did wake up briefly when we stopped for a bathroom break in Gainesville but once we got back on the road, she was out! I believe we made one more stop on I-75. Once we got onto I-10, we made one more stop for gas and a quick snack outside Tallahassee. We arrived at my MIL's house around 8pm. We unloaded the car, got settled and then had a late dinner. After visiting for awhile, it was definately time for bed. Since Madison had slept for about 5 hours, she was wired! She was having a "camp-out" with my MIL and SIL and no one got much sleep.

June 29th

We woke up around 8:30am which was the latest we had slept all week. Madison helped my MIL make chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. She also pretended to be our waitress and had made up a menu! Her desserts consisted of an ice cream sundae or a fruit cup. Does Disney have her brainwashed or what?!

Once everyone was ready for the day, my MIL showed us around the area: a lighthouse, the library where she works, the town of Appalachicola....we had some delicious ice cream in that little town. When asked what she wanted to do next, Madison said she wanted to play putt-putt. So, off we went to their local mini golf place. It was very muggy and buggy outside and we all couldn't wait to get into the a/c. We headed back to their house to relax and freshen up for dinner.

For dinner, they took us to St. George Island to a place called the Blue Parrot. It was right on the Gulf of Mexico and had tons of fresh seafood. I had the Gulf Shrimp and my first southern sweet tea!!! I must say, it's much better than the bottled iced tea I get up here. I now know what all my southern DIS buddies are talking about. (Lipton sells Sweet Tea in a big jug at my grocery store. It tastes just like the sweet tea I had at that restaurant. Delish!) After dinner, we took a little walk on the beach and we saw the St. George Island lighthouse. We then headed back to their house.

We just hung out awhile until it was time for bed. I still didn't feel my best. My throat was very sore and my head & chest were very congested. Not a lot of fun! By this time, I was looking forward to getting home. I was sad that our Disney trip had flown by and I was still bummed about being too sick for Wishes on Sat night. I had really been looking forward to it. Anyways....I fell asleep rather quickly that night knowing that we had another long drive ahead of us the next day.

 

[princess&her4princes]

Your time with MIL and SIL, sounds nice, so sorry to hear that you still weren't feeling too well though! Looking forward to hearing more!

Btw, hope you are doing well!!!

 

[Monny2AE]

Too cute she made up a menu and had Disney-ish dessert choices!

 

[princess_momma]

Aw, I think Madison's menu is so cute. I love hearing about her and all of it...from her dancing to her first day of school this year! You'll have to keep us all updated even with your tr ending!! She's such a doll!!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Side note: We actually visited with my MIL, her husband, my SIL and BIL. My DH's younger brother was back at FSU for his summer class. However, he did come up and visit us for 2 weeks in August.

 

[Dancegrl624]

Your time with MIL and SIL, sounds nice, so sorry to hear that you still weren't feeling too well though! Looking forward to hearing more!

Btw, hope you are doing well!!!

I'm doing great Kristen! Thanks for asking. We haven't been super busy or anything, I just keep forgetting to post an update!! However, once October hits, I'll be going nonstop. We have something planned for every single weekend in October. Just crazy.

Too cute she made up a menu and had Disney-ish dessert choices!

She is just a true Disney lover!

Aw, I think Madison's menu is so cute. I love hearing about her and all of it...from her dancing to her first day of school this year! You'll have to keep us all updated even with your tr ending!! She's such a doll!!

That menu was adorable. Not only were the menu items like Disney, so were her prices!!! It was very funny and very cute. Thanks for taking an interest in me and my family. I love reading your TR too!

 

[stacikristine]

Madison's menu is adorable! I can remember doing things like that for my parents... Sorry you were still feeling sick. Being sick on vacation is the absolute worst! I'm sad that your TR is almost over...I've loved reading along!

 

[vamassey1]

What a nice visit with your in laws. I love doing touristy things. I'm sorry you were still feeling bad. It stinks to be sick on vacation.

 

[Dancegrl624]

Madison's menu is adorable! I can remember doing things like that for my parents... Sorry you were still feeling sick. Being sick on vacation is the absolute worst! I'm sad that your TR is almost over...I've loved reading along!

She has such a great imagination. She never ceases to amaze me with what she comes up with! Thank you so much for reading! I can't wait to go check out your TR!

What a nice visit with your in laws. I love doing touristy things. I'm sorry you were still feeling bad. It stinks to be sick on vacation.

It was a nice visit, but I missed being at Disney! Next time, it will have to be separate trips.

 

[Dancegrl624]

Before I post another update, I have a few pics to share with all of you. These first two are from the last feis we went to in September. Just in case I didn't already tell you about it, Madison got a 2nd place on her jig! That is the best she has ever gotten on either dance. That was our last feis this year because she is no longer a beginner. She is an advanced beginner so she's now learning 4 brand new dances!

As promised, I finally took pictures of Madison's Disney books!

This is what the outside looks like. It holds all 5 books inside of it.

Here are the books. Don't mind all of Madison's post-it bookmarks!!

Here's a close-up of the text

And a close-up of a few pics. There are really beautiful pictures on every page

Now, time for an update!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Day Seven
June 30th
8am

I'm going to call this update, "Will we ever get home?" You will have to read along to find out why I gave it this title.

We woke up around 8am or so and my MIL and Madison were making breakfast. They were making (well, trying to make) Mickey head pancakes. They ended up looking more like blobs, but they were still delicious. After breakfast, we got ready, finished packing and left around 10:20am. We had a long trip ahead of us again because we were driving to Jacksonville to fly home. I think it's about a 3-4 hour trip, but I don't remember! I do know that we stopped to get gas (twice...my DH wanted to make sure we returned the car with a full tank of gas) and we made a quick bathroom break. Madison slept quite a bit, but she also read her new Disney books.

We got to the Jacksonville airport a little after 2pm for our 5pm flight. It was such a beautiful airport! We returned the car and got through security very quickly. We found our gate and then got something to eat (Quiznos for me and Tony. Maddie wasn't really hungry). Madison had a loose tooth for the entire trip and it had been bothering her all week. I had tried to pull it out, but I didn't have any luck. I didn't want to force it out, so we left it alone. While we were eating, I noticed that it had gotten super duper wiggily (yuck!) and I decided to take her to the bathroom. Well, I hardly touched it and out it came! Another lady in the bathroom even celebrated with us! She was much more comfortable and I stored her tooth securely in my purse.

After we finished eating, we looked around all the shops in the airport. They even had a Vera Bradley store!!!! We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look around. Upon returning to our gate, they made an announcement. There was severe weather surrounding JFK (where we had to make our connection), so we would be delayed. Our flight was supposed to depart at 5:19pm and arrive at JFK at 7:50pm. Our connection was set for departure at 9:10pm and it would land in Buffalo at 10:54pm. Well, they told us we would now be taking off around 8pm and that meant we would miss our connection. Tony went up to the desk and was told they would get us a new flight a bit later on.

Time went on....I had to buy a blanket because the a/c was blasting and I was freezing. No news had been announced about making connections. They called people up who were flying to Rochester, but I never heard them call up Buffalo people. Tony eventually went back up to see what was going on and they still had no news for us. There were a lot of little ones waiting at our gate and they were sure getting restless.

Tony got us a few personal pizzas to share and they were not good. I was starting to miss my Buffalo pizza! After eating, we finally got some info. We were told our plane would take off around 8:45pm and land around 10:45pm. I had been talking to my mom throughout this ordeal and she informed me the last flight out of JFK to Buffalo was at 10:50pm. Well, that was a bit of a problem. How would we make it? Even if we managed to make it, our luggage most certainly wouldn't. If we were to miss that flight, the next flight out of JFK was at 6am the next morning!! We were already exhausted from our car ride across Northern Florida, we had been sitting at the airport for 5 hours...downright exhausting. I really didn't want to sleep at an airport overnight. I was hoping they would at least consider holding that connecting flight. There had to be others that needed that flight. Tony went up to the desk again, and managed to get us onto that 10:50pm connection to Buffalo.

Eventually, we boarded our plane and we were on our way to JFK. The pilot informed us that he was going to try to make up some time in the air. Yea! He did a great job because we landed in NY around 10:30pm. Tony and I thought that we could make our connection if we ran. Well, we had to wait for another plane to push back from our gate. It seemed like it took FOREVER!! We had made up so much time in the air but we lost it due to unforeseen events. We exited our plane and the gate we needed was directionally across from us. However, when we got there, they had already sealed up the doors and the plane was getting ready to push back. Just great.

I called my mom and she told me our original connection (the one supposed to leave JFK at 9:10pm) had been pushed back to 1:45am. We couldn't get new tickets at our gate, so we had to head over to the service counter. The line was very long and I thought we'd be there forever, but it ended up taking no time at all. The agent at the gate told us we would have to be stand-by. Wait a minute. A few hours ago we had seats on that flight! I guess with all the delays and missed connections, our flight was now full. I really didn't feel like spending the night at JFK! Well, at the service counter, they got us seats on our original flight. Woo hoo!

There were sooo many people around our gate at JFK. Everything had been delayed due to the weather. Nothing was open except for a little food stand, so I got us some juice. My mom had told me she was going to sleep for a bit and would set her alarm in time to come pick us up. She told me to call if anything changed...well, something changed again. Instead of departing at 1:45am, we started boarding at 12:30am for a 1am take-off. I hated to wake her up, but she told me to! Before we even took off, Madison was out cold.

We landed in Buffalo (FINALLY!!!) sometime after 2am and we were pooped. My mom took Madison to the car while Tony and I waited for our luggage. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait terribley long and all of our bags made it. If we had made that earlier flight, our luggage would have been put onto the later flight anyways, so everything worked out for the best. Our kitties were very happy to see us and followed us around. We all passed out on our beds and were asleep within minutes.

So there you have it folks. That is the end of our trip. But, please stay tuned. I will post a wrap-up of our trip: what we liked, what we didn't like, etc. I hope you will join me!! Thanks for reading along!

 

[tinkgurl]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. It was fun comparing where we were at the same time. Hope you'll be along for my PTR...and I hope you get to make another trip soon!

 

[vamassey1]

Congrats to Madison on her dancing!

I love her books. I'm going to have to look for them next trip, whenever that may be.

I'm so sorry you had such a bad trip back. We had a rough time too but not nearly as bad as you.

Looking forward to your wrap up.

 

[Dancegrl624]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. It was fun comparing where we were at the same time. Hope you'll be along for my PTR...and I hope you get to make another trip soon!

I had so much fun writing this TR!! It really was a great trip. I will definately be reading your PTR!!! I'd love to go back next year, but I don't see it happening. However...my DH did say that he dreamt that we booked a Disney trip for next month! You never know!

Congrats to Madison on her dancing!

I love her books. I'm going to have to look for them next trip, whenever that may be.

I'm so sorry you had such a bad trip back. We had a rough time too but not nearly as bad as you.

Looking forward to your wrap up.

Maddie was SO excited when she saw she had won a silver medal. She couldn't wait to tell everyone about it. Those books are really awesome. We found them at MouseGears and I had never seen them anywhere else before. I really thought we were never going to make it home that night! I knew that it would be rough if we had to sleep at the airport. That would have been a nightmare!

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Wow, you certainly had a rough return -- and I always think of weather delays because of snow, not in the summer!

No wonder you were exhausted...

Maria