Hi everyone!
To be honest, I never thought this day would come. I've been stalking the DisBoards for awhile now (and loving so many of your PTRs!) and am so excited to finally be able to make my own!
My name is Kayla, and I'm a former PA (physicians assistant) in the ER who became a stay at home mom after my first son was about a year old. Since then, I've had two more beautiful, amazing kids. I've been to Disney World many times, although my kids have never been (and I've only been once since they were born).
So, what's with the title? I'll keep the medical history part brief as to not totally bore everyone.
In January 2015 I was diagnosed with NHL (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) while I was pregnant with my 3rd child. After many (many, many) discussions, tests, and decisions my husband and I continued on with the pregnancy, and in June of 2015 our third son was born (completely healthy, which was a complete miracle from God). It was a very dramatic delivery and an even more dramatic and intense several months of treatment that followed. I don't think I have ever been that sick in my life.
In March of 2016 I went in for a routine scan that shows how the cancer has progressed, shrunk, or essentially what the status was and I was told that my stage 3 NHL was officially in remission. All the chemo, all the hospital stays, all the vomiting, the weakness, the..everything. It as all worth it. I had beat cancer. My husband thought what better way to celebrate than to spend some much needed time as a family (anyone who says cancer truly does impact your entire family is 100% correct) and take our kids to Disney World. I, happily, agreed.
So, here we are.
And now, for the rest of my family..
I'm married to my high school sweetheart, and my best friend. We've been married 6 years now (just celebrated our 6 year anniversary in December!) and he has NEVER been to Disney World (although he has been to Disneyland several times, but I keep telling him that is NOT the same!!).
He's an ER physician who works 60-70 hour weeks, which essentially means we don't see much of him. We've been really thankful to be able to take our kids on at least 2 family trips a year, but never one of this magnitude, so I know he (and our kids) are really excited.
Apart from his crazy work schedule and obsession with football (actually all sports, really) he's a Disney lover at heart, although he may not admit it. He's been curiously asking me every few days if I've picked any restaurants yet, park days, where are we staying...so I know he is curious about Disney! I can't wait to show him what it's all about.
We have 3 kids who, as the title said, are all under age 5. Our oldest is 4, currently, but turns 5 this summer before our scheduled Sept. trip.
Our oldest loves all things Disney, specifically Lilo and Stitch, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Aladdin and Toy Story. He also loves roller coasters and says that seeing that "big magic castle" that he has seen pictures of is "going to be his home one day". I love his imagination.
I also have a 2 year old, who is the sweetest child in the world. He's really into Finding Nemo and Cars, and I think has every Car themed toy ever made. He's a big Disney Junior fan as well, so I'm looking forward to taking them both to Hollywood Studios for the Disney Junior show (fingers crossed).
And, finally, we have my 10 month old who will be just over a year (15 months, actually) when we go to Disney. Although he's too young to fully embrace the Disney magic yet, we're trying to start him early.
Disney World with a preschooler, toddler, and infant seems exhausting just thinking about it, but we're all really excited nonetheless.
And now, what are the details??
Dates: September 6th - September 15th (9 nights, 10 days).
I picked these dates for several reasons. I've heard that September is the best time of year to go, crowd wise, and so I'm taking full advantage of the fact that my son doesn't start kindergarten 'til 2017 (which means if we EVER want to go in September, this is the year). It's also the easiest time of year for my husband to take off work. I was purposely trying to avoid Labor Day weekend, for airfare reasons, so I picked that Tuesday after. Let the countdown begin!
Resort: I have gone back and forth about a billion times. I'm hoping to narrow this down this week. So, more on this later.
Airfare: We have a LOT of Delta Skymiles, so I'm going to cash those in and buy flights this week. We live in North Carolina, so while that is a doable drive down to Orlando, I'm just not doing it. My kids have been flying since they were babies, but we've never done the road trip thing with them. So, flying it is. I'm hoping to get a direct, early morning flight from Raleigh to Orlando that way when we arrive we can take the Disney Magical Express from the airport to the resort, check in, and hit the parks! That's my goal, at least.
Parks: Since we will be there for 10 days we are planning to do each park at least once (probably Epcot and Magic Kingdom twice, actually). I had read that Epcot wasn't great for younger kids, but because my kids love Nemo I think they will really like it. Also, they've traveled through most of Europe, so I think taking them to the Around the World section may be fun for them as well (at least for my oldest).
I'll post more about our park plans, and ADRs (crap! I need to do those ASAP!) in the upcoming days once I get them figured out. In the meantime, those are are preliminary ideas
Let the planning begin!!
To be honest, I never thought this day would come. I've been stalking the DisBoards for awhile now (and loving so many of your PTRs!) and am so excited to finally be able to make my own!
My name is Kayla, and I'm a former PA (physicians assistant) in the ER who became a stay at home mom after my first son was about a year old. Since then, I've had two more beautiful, amazing kids. I've been to Disney World many times, although my kids have never been (and I've only been once since they were born).
So, what's with the title? I'll keep the medical history part brief as to not totally bore everyone.
In January 2015 I was diagnosed with NHL (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) while I was pregnant with my 3rd child. After many (many, many) discussions, tests, and decisions my husband and I continued on with the pregnancy, and in June of 2015 our third son was born (completely healthy, which was a complete miracle from God). It was a very dramatic delivery and an even more dramatic and intense several months of treatment that followed. I don't think I have ever been that sick in my life.
In March of 2016 I went in for a routine scan that shows how the cancer has progressed, shrunk, or essentially what the status was and I was told that my stage 3 NHL was officially in remission. All the chemo, all the hospital stays, all the vomiting, the weakness, the..everything. It as all worth it. I had beat cancer. My husband thought what better way to celebrate than to spend some much needed time as a family (anyone who says cancer truly does impact your entire family is 100% correct) and take our kids to Disney World. I, happily, agreed.
So, here we are.And now, for the rest of my family..
I'm married to my high school sweetheart, and my best friend. We've been married 6 years now (just celebrated our 6 year anniversary in December!) and he has NEVER been to Disney World (although he has been to Disneyland several times, but I keep telling him that is NOT the same!!).
He's an ER physician who works 60-70 hour weeks, which essentially means we don't see much of him. We've been really thankful to be able to take our kids on at least 2 family trips a year, but never one of this magnitude, so I know he (and our kids) are really excited.
Apart from his crazy work schedule and obsession with football (actually all sports, really) he's a Disney lover at heart, although he may not admit it. He's been curiously asking me every few days if I've picked any restaurants yet, park days, where are we staying...so I know he is curious about Disney! I can't wait to show him what it's all about.
We have 3 kids who, as the title said, are all under age 5. Our oldest is 4, currently, but turns 5 this summer before our scheduled Sept. trip.
Our oldest loves all things Disney, specifically Lilo and Stitch, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Aladdin and Toy Story. He also loves roller coasters and says that seeing that "big magic castle" that he has seen pictures of is "going to be his home one day". I love his imagination.
I also have a 2 year old, who is the sweetest child in the world. He's really into Finding Nemo and Cars, and I think has every Car themed toy ever made. He's a big Disney Junior fan as well, so I'm looking forward to taking them both to Hollywood Studios for the Disney Junior show (fingers crossed).
And, finally, we have my 10 month old who will be just over a year (15 months, actually) when we go to Disney. Although he's too young to fully embrace the Disney magic yet, we're trying to start him early.
Disney World with a preschooler, toddler, and infant seems exhausting just thinking about it, but we're all really excited nonetheless.
And now, what are the details??
Dates: September 6th - September 15th (9 nights, 10 days).
I picked these dates for several reasons. I've heard that September is the best time of year to go, crowd wise, and so I'm taking full advantage of the fact that my son doesn't start kindergarten 'til 2017 (which means if we EVER want to go in September, this is the year). It's also the easiest time of year for my husband to take off work. I was purposely trying to avoid Labor Day weekend, for airfare reasons, so I picked that Tuesday after. Let the countdown begin!
Resort: I have gone back and forth about a billion times. I'm hoping to narrow this down this week. So, more on this later.
Airfare: We have a LOT of Delta Skymiles, so I'm going to cash those in and buy flights this week. We live in North Carolina, so while that is a doable drive down to Orlando, I'm just not doing it. My kids have been flying since they were babies, but we've never done the road trip thing with them. So, flying it is. I'm hoping to get a direct, early morning flight from Raleigh to Orlando that way when we arrive we can take the Disney Magical Express from the airport to the resort, check in, and hit the parks! That's my goal, at least.
Parks: Since we will be there for 10 days we are planning to do each park at least once (probably Epcot and Magic Kingdom twice, actually). I had read that Epcot wasn't great for younger kids, but because my kids love Nemo I think they will really like it. Also, they've traveled through most of Europe, so I think taking them to the Around the World section may be fun for them as well (at least for my oldest).
I'll post more about our park plans, and ADRs (crap! I need to do those ASAP!) in the upcoming days once I get them figured out. In the meantime, those are are preliminary ideas
Let the planning begin!!
