How "just one trip" became three (babies)... update 6/29, huge triplets photo update

[Lease]

Essentials

Code pretty well covered the new gadgets for the trip, but there are a few other essentials I'll be taking. Things I'll need to keep me from going a little crazy on flight. Two projects on the needles with patterns committed to memory.

Socks for my mother-in-law, this is mindless knitting. Wonderful for the crazy early flight out of SLC.

A lace scarf for my mother for the hotel breaks each day. When it's done it'll be 80 inches long with braided fringe. Big head start on Xmas this year.

Also going to load up my ipod with new music. Something soothing to get me through the 6 am flight out of SLC. Getting up at 4 to get to the airport is evil!

Today as part of getting ready for the trip I got my hair done, nothing beats a new hair cut and color. Now if I could just fix it the way my stylist does.

Code isn't joking when he said this weekend is devoted to getting clothes for the trip. All of my summer clothes are from last year and well they don't fit (in the good way). Since my office is always cold I've been wearing sweaters to work, so they are the only things I have in my size. Somehow I don't think wool and WDW in September mix.

There is so much more to say, but I now have sufficient pause time on the Tivo and High School Musical 2 is calling.

Go to 17 days - We Can't Go Naked - 8/19

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Not to be a downer but do airlines allow knitting needles on the plane? I would double check before going because it would be a shame if they confiscated your lovely knitting.

 

[Lease]

Not to be a downer but do airlines allow knitting needles on the plane? I would double check before going because it would be a shame if they confiscated your lovely knitting.

Yes they do as long as the circular needles are not longer than 31 inches and it's recommended that you take bamboo or plastic needles. I've never had a problem with them before though. Just in case I'll take a self addressed envelope with me and two sharped pencils. The pencils are roughly the same size as the scarf needle Unless they start preventing writing utensils on planes I should be good.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Yes they do as long as the circular needles are not longer than 31 inches and it's recommended that you take bamboo or plastic needles. I've never had a problem with them before though. Just in case I'll take a self addressed envelope with me and two sharped pencils. The pencils are roughly the same size as the scarf needle Unless they start preventing writing utensils on planes I should be good.

That's good to hear. I wasn't sure as you never know with airport security these days. It seems like they are always coming up with something new to ban from carry ons.

 

[kindakrazy2]

Oooohhhhh....your knitting is beautiful! I love to knit but sadly I am not very good at it. Those projects are going to be beautiful when they are finished!

 

[Code]

We Can't Go Naked

Neither of us are big on shopping, but we both desperately needed clothes for the trip, so we bit the bullet today and spent some time at Kohls. Lease picked up 7 shirts, 2 skorts, and a pair of shoes for our California Grill dinner. I was amazed to find that Kohls carries tall sizes in-store now, and got 5 shirts, and also some shoes. Fall clearance prices were good to us, it ended up being much cheaper than we expected.

We so rarely buy this many clothes at once that we felt the need to take a picture.

Sadly, we're not done with the shopping.

Go to 17 days - Disneymoon? - 8/19

 

[Lease]

Disneymoon?

Today while we shopped and shopped and shopped, it came up that this is our first "real" vacation since we got married. It's the first vacation for just the two of us. We never did the honeymoon trip.


Our wedding was wonderful if not exactly traditional My ring was left to me by my grandmother and after some searching Code found the ring he liked. After some planning attempts and just not finding what we wanted, Vegas started looking really good. We were looking online at places to have a ceremony and I just jokingly said "we have the rings lets just go to Vegas." So, that's what we did!
We booked the chapel and gave our guests (Code's parents and sibs, my dad) 10 days notice. We left after work on a Friday to drive to Vegas. We went straight to the court house to get our license while the family settled into their rooms. I still remember waiting for the marriage license, the line went out the door and took us about an hour. We got married Saturday afternoon then went out for a nice dinner. My new sister-in-law swiped one of our room keys and decorated with confetti and two Krispy Kreme doughnuts for our cake.
Sunday morning we drove home so everyone could be back to work Monday. We had a really great time, it was perfect for us and in our price range.

At the time I had just switched careers from teaching at a junior college to my current employer and vacation just was not an option. Since we've been married, we've talked about when we'd get to go on vacation. Where was never a question. It was Disney or bust! So we've decided this is going to be our much delayed honeymoon

Go to 13 days - Funcrastination, Dear, Can I have $400? - 8/23

 

[Nicole786]

Aw, a much deserved honeymoon, how cute! You guys should get those buttons and everything!

 

[pierresgirl]

Disneymoon?

Today while we shopped and shopped and shopped, it came up that this is our first "real" vacation since we got married. It's the first vacation for just the two of us. We never did the honeymoon trip.


Our wedding was wonderful if not exactly traditional My ring was left to me by my grandmother and after some searching Code found the ring he liked. After some planning attempts and just not finding what we wanted, Vegas started looking really good. We were looking online at places to have a ceremony and I just jokingly said "we have the rings lets just go to Vegas." So, that's what we did!
We booked the chapel and gave our guests (Code's parents and sibs, my dad) 10 days notice. We left after work on a Friday to drive to Vegas. We went straight to the court house to get our license while the family settled into their rooms. I still remember waiting for the marriage license, the line went out the door and took us about an hour. We got married Saturday afternoon then went out for a nice dinner. My new sister-in-law swiped one of our room keys and decorated with confetti and two Krispy Kreme doughnuts for our cake.
Sunday morning we drove home so everyone could be back to work Monday. We had a really great time, it was perfect for us and in our price range.

At the time I had just switched careers from teaching at a junior college to my current employer and vacation just was not an option. Since we've been married, we've talked about when we'd get to go on vacation. Where was never a question. It was Disney or bust! So we've decided this is going to be our much delayed honeymoon

Alright, I'm on board!!! Love the start you guys have! Me and my dh got married very similarly, 3 days notice, about 15 family members, nice dinner afterwards. Our 8 year anniversary is this coming Friday and I love him more every day! Way to go on your weight loss, that's fab!

 

[TheLastPrincess]

Disneymoon?

Today while we shopped and shopped and shopped, it came up that this is our first "real" vacation since we got married. It's the first vacation for just the two of us. We never did the honeymoon trip.


Our wedding was wonderful if not exactly traditional My ring was left to me by my grandmother and after some searching Code found the ring he liked. After some planning attempts and just not finding what we wanted, Vegas started looking really good. We were looking online at places to have a ceremony and I just jokingly said "we have the rings lets just go to Vegas." So, that's what we did!
We booked the chapel and gave our guests (Code's parents and sibs, my dad) 10 days notice. We left after work on a Friday to drive to Vegas. We went straight to the court house to get our license while the family settled into their rooms. I still remember waiting for the marriage license, the line went out the door and took us about an hour. We got married Saturday afternoon then went out for a nice dinner. My new sister-in-law swiped one of our room keys and decorated with confetti and two Krispy Kreme doughnuts for our cake.
Sunday morning we drove home so everyone could be back to work Monday. We had a really great time, it was perfect for us and in our price range.

At the time I had just switched careers from teaching at a junior college to my current employer and vacation just was not an option. Since we've been married, we've talked about when we'd get to go on vacation. Where was never a question. It was Disney or bust! So we've decided this is going to be our much delayed honeymoon

Wow I wish our wedding was that simple and stress-less.

We were engaged for 9 months, and that was constant chaos. I wish we would have eloped at WDW. One of the barbers at the barbershop in MK was licensed....he offered to marry us!! But noooooooo...we had to be all "traditional"...........bah!

 

[randy4au]

sorry no fan of Crocs here

Same here. I'm baffled as to how such an ugly shoe can be so popular.

Even better than the Gorillapod is something that I can search the DIS for and get zero results returned, which surprises me because it is going to be great to have at WDW.

It's called XShot (xshotpix.com), and it's basically a collapsible rod to which you screw your camera on one end to extend your own reach for taking self-portraits. 9" collapsed, 37" extended. It has a quick screw for mounting the camera, it only takes a few seconds. Then just set the camera's 2 second self timer to take a self-portrait!

That's a cool device! Speaking of the Gorillapod, do they make one that can support the weight of a DSLR with a heavy zoom lens?

 

[abbybeth]

Hello you guys! I'm on board - glad that you decided to do a pre-TR

Code - great camera equipment. I had considered getting a Gorillapod myself and ended up not ...

Lisa - congrats on the weight loss, that's amazing!

Can't wait to hear more about the planning and hopefully we'll work out our schedules to meet up while we're all down there!

 

[mvazul]

Congratulations on finally getting your honeymoon! DH and I will be married 7 years on September 2nd and still haven't had a honeymoon. I'm hoping to do something big for our 10th!

Congrats on the clothes!!

 

[Lease]

Welcome aboard Abby! Even if you don't have a gorilla pod for this trip they are great. We've used ours more than I thought we would. It's been great for snowboarding, the legs spread and balance well enough to set the camera up on snow banks to get shots of us together. This is much preferred to handing our camera off to someone of questionable balance with their feet also strapped to a board.

Sorry we didn't have any updates yesterday we were recovering from the weekend. Code should have pics up later today of Sunday. Tonight we're going to start watching Disney movies we haven't seen in a long time. Lets call it research. I want to know the lyrics to "Phony King of England" in case we run into Prince John

Lisa

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

My brothers and I watched all our Disney movies before the trip so that they would be fresh in our memories. Every Sunday we watch 2 movies and play Disney Scene It. It was a lot of fun!

 

[Code]

Thanks everyone for posting.. sorry for my slow replies!

UGAFan0829 - I followed you to your pre-trip. Thanks for your comment!

Lessa, Julie - Gorillapod is definitely worth it!

Michelle - Thanks! If you have any Disney photo tips, feel free to share

Nicole - Hmm I think I'm really on board calling this a belated honeymoon, not sure about the buttons though...

Leyla - Great way to do it. I didn't want a stressful wedding.. I sat by the pool for an hour on the morning of our wedding

Colleen - hmm, see above?

Randy - 3 sizes of Gorillapod, the one I have is the smallest, the other 2 are SLR and SLR zoom. I'm tempted to get the SLR size for the trip.

abbybeth - Glad to have you following along, and I look forward to meeting you!

 

[mvazul]

Michelle - Thanks! If you have any Disney photo tips, feel free to share

Try "shooting" from different angles - and take LOTS of pictures!! Also, if at all possible, don't use flash. Flash ruins so many nice pictures. Flash is my enemy!! Your camera should have a setting for aperature and speed. Play with those so you don't need flash. It's nice with a digital since you can delete any you don't like.

I went in January with my DH and kids. We only made it to Epcot, MK, Universal and then headed to Tampa to visit the B'sIL. I had almost 2000 pictures by the time we got home. Here is my absolute favorite from that trip:

I really can't wait until Sunday!! I am looking forward to taking even more pictures. My mom gave me a 2G memory card for Christmas. Plus, I will be taking my 512mb. I'm taking my laptop with me so I can empty the cards each night.

Sorry to hijack your thread! I love photography!!

Michelle

 

[Abby's Dad]

We don't have any kids yet, and we said for quite a long time that we didn't want any, but we slowly changed our minds (mostly due to my adorable nephew) and this may be our only WDW trip without kids.

Ah, I remember the days - having a baby was DW's idea. OK, if you really want a baby, I'll do my part . Then we finally had a positive pregnancy test - and I started talking to DW's tummy - what is happening here? Suddenly, it wasn't just "OK,", I was pretty darned happy about this new addition. Then DD arrived, and I found out that a missing piece in my heart had been filled (that I didn't even know was missing). I miss those days, but you know, she's turned out to be a pretty nice adult

Count down calendars have been placed and the excited panic of vacation has set in.

Time is getting short and there is so much to do - and what am I doing here instead of making name tags and mousekeeping envelopes - oh yeah, reading a good pre-trip YEAH and it is gooooood!

It all sounds great, and I like the layout of your itinerary. Somewhat jealous of the camera - last time that I went to WDW (before Epcot - I think Mickey was still in diapers) I was carrying 2 35mm SLR bodies, and something like 10 lenses, a TLR with 3 lenses, tripod, and flashes I'm not sure if I was a tourist or a pack animal. Much simpler this time - digital camera, digital camcorder, monopod - all weighing less than just my long lens last time. But your camera and lenses look really sweet - and lightweight.

"we have the rings lets just go to Vegas."

We had a pretty simple wedding 26 years ago. We had been planning a church wedding (including being taken off the church steps in a hot air balloon - I used to fly them, and had friends that wanted to do this for us) - then I got a job out of town, and didn't want to leave without Lynn (I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy), so what to do - elope (which was probably best, because there was plenty of "this won't last" coming from her family anyway). So we had wedding announcments printed up to let everybody know after the fact, addressed them, stamped them (we'll come back to that one), and arranged for the magistrate to marry us on a Friday with just a best man and matron of honor there (well, Lynn's twin sister found out, and showed up too, but that was OK). After a nice lunch with everybody, we left for the honeymoon - Toronto and Niagara Falls (no time to book WDW). We stayed overnight in Detroit, and then left the next morning for Niagara Falls, Ontario - therein lies the problem - Ontario, not Niagara Falls, New York - we were supposed to mail the announcements before we left Detroit (US postage), and we didn't. So one of the first things we had to do on arrival in Niagara Falls was to take the bridge across to the US side (nice view) - on arrival at customs, purpose for entering the US - um, to mail these wedding announcements?!? Mailbox over there - thanks! And then back over to Canada - and the last vacation that we had before this trip coming up!

Really hope to meet up with you two while we are there! Great Pre-trip so far.

 

[Lease]

Michelle - wow what an amazing photo, I hope we get some at least half as gorgeous. Code is the big photography buff, I just like having the pictures.

Abby's Dad - Thank you for sharing your wedding story with us. We also sent out announcements after the fact. Code photoshopped some of the wedding pics into a "Surprise we got married" postcard giving the website to see the rest of the pictures. I'm sure you'll meet up with us at some point on vacation

Lisa

 

[Code]

Michelle - That is an AWESOME photo Hope you have it hanging on your wall somewhere!

I agree about the flash, Lease just agreed to let me order a fast prime lens (f1.4) so I can get good indoor shots without a flash More about that in my next post...

I look forward to taking many, many pics! With the rapid fire feeling of a DSLR.. it will be hard not to. We'll have 4 gig in the DSLR, 1 gig in the Fuji, and a spare 1 gig that is compatible with either camera. Borrowing my parents' laptop to unload the memory cards onto nightly, and taking an external hard drive so we can have two copies of everything (I'm a stickler for backups).

Abby's Dad - Thanks for following along.. fun wedding story! As far as camera gear goes, I'll be carrying the body & 3 lenses, but the 2 kit lenses at least are very small and lightweight as far as DSLRs go, and everything (including compact camera+gadgets) fits in my sling camera bag nicely. I'll stow a tripod in a locker for night shots. A monopod would be nice but I've already stretched my wife-approved photo budget a bit far for this trip