Juan says "BAAAA!" - 12/24 - Our last few Disney hours. COMPLETE

[praisehisname]

So glad you enjoyed your first time taking a pool break!

Denise

 

[brookelizabeth]

For those of you interested and not reading my PTR as well...here is a link to Henry all dressed up this past weekend!

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34201756&postcount=1241

 

[Stefy]

Ohmigosh how cute is Henry in his little outfit, looks like you guys had alot of fun

 

[lazydoxy66]

Brook, You got some excellent pictures again!
I think your 'break' was a great idea. The pool looked like so much fun.

Henry on Dumbo! Love it. I'm sorry that barnstormer scared him a little. Do you think he will go on it next month?

 

[jenseib]

Great updates. That resort is just so pretty. I think it's hard to take a bad picture there.
I think the Mk refurb is taking 2 years? I can;t remember off hand anymore, but It seems like I thought Claire would be about 8 when it got done, so I'm thinking it's supposed to open in Spring of 2012? Maybe 2011. Someone else probably knows. And yes Barnstormer is just going to be moved.

 

[MEK]

Love your latest update!

Can't believe your next trip is next month. Wow - that will be here before you know it.

I love your pictures of CSR. I swear, I think it is the most photogenic of all the resorts. Its really hard to take a bad picture there.

I'm glad you decided to take a break, not rush, and enjoy your afternoon pool time.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[mickeysmyboy]

Brook, you last update was wonderful!

Your afternoon sounds lovely! So relaxing and enjoyable! We spent a good long while at the pool at SSR last week and it was sooooooo nice!

Now I gotta go see Henry in his halloween costume!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Great update Brook! I love that you took a break and I'm really interested in hearing how you liked going back with an early closing. That's much of what we are doing next month with closings at 7 and 8pm and I'm a little bit nervous about that. The pool pictures are adorable! What a neat setup they have! It really themes to the kiddos.

 

[TyRy]

Henry looks like he such a good time at both the pools...hopefully everyone learned to share quickly.

Was Joe getting a sunburn on his head, or is that just the coloring in the picture - I thought - eek he looks like he'll be hurting a bit later.

And that picture of Henry after playing with the "big boys" is priceless - absolutely frame worthy.

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

As much as it may hurt first thing in the morning...hitting the rope drop can really let you get a lot done...and then you can kick back by the pool...

Which is one of the more relaxing things you get to do at WDW...

I love Henry's little face pondering what's going on......he's a little smartie...I think it's smart to figure out what's going on around you before just jumping in pell mell...

Looks and brains...the unbeatable combination...

 

[thumperbelle3]

You must be keeping busy and enjoying all your time to spend with Henry! How wonderful!

We are patiently waiting for you and the next update!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I haven't gotten here yet today, but I DID get caught up on the PTR. I'm so excited about the book I have, and finally just posted about, I want to share the link here too in case some of you don't read my PTR. Check it out if you have a minute, it's mostly pictures:

Disney World circa 1985

I do plan to catch up here later tonight!

 

[ptcrn]

I'm totally behind, but I'm going to try to catch up!

That afternoon Henry...and a few other kids...learned a bit about sharing.

HAHA! 2 year olds and sharing... interesting concept!!! David is just starting to say "mine" to everything, only he says "mise." It is so cute, that I can't help but laugh every time! Bad mommy!

More kiddy pool fun, more playing with the Cars, more climbing in and out...still not interested in the pop jets!

This picture is so cute!!

Must get balloons pic!

Beautiful!

I love Henry's Cars hat! He looks so sad on the Barnstormer! But what are you gonna do once they're on, but take pics!

I went over to your new blog and I love it! I'm all about saving money, but I haven't been very good or consistent about couponing lately. This is really helping me! I don't know if I found it from a link on your site, but there is a blog, Couponing to Disney, which is really cool too. I like the inspiration!

 

[KathyRN137]

Hey, I'm glad you're moving slowly with this report... it made it easy for me to catch up!

I wholeheartedly agree that taking it slow RULES at WDW....
(Gee, it only took me six trips to figure that one out!!)


Kathy

 

[brookelizabeth]

Brook, the pictures of Henry at the pool are wonderful. I love the one on the lounge chair. And sometimes it is a good thing to just be an "observer."

Thank you! It was a nice relaxing time around the pool. Joe really wanted Henry to get into the jets, but he was more content playing with his cars. I loved just walking around and soaking it all in, snapping pictures, dipping into the pool now and again - it was great!

I adore mid-afternoon breaks at the pool! Sometimes it is just what we need to have energy for the evening fun!

Henry is so cute being goofy on the lounge chair!

Beautiful shots of the pool and grounds of CSR!

It really did re-charge us. We both liked the idea of an afternoon break a ton - now it's the getting up early/Rope Drop part we have to work on....

So how did the sharing go? Do you have any tips on how to get a 2 year old to share?!

Loving your blog! You are a busy lady!!!

Here is the No Buy thread if you are interested!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2321066

Sharing tips...hmmmm....NOPE! Henry is more of the type that will allow a child to take whatever he has right out of his hands, then turn to me with the saddest eyes. I'm trying to teach him to stand up for himself a bit! Lately I think he has gotten the picture because randomly throughout the day he will walk up to me with a toy and say "MINE Mommy! MINE!" "Oooookay...yep, that's yours..."

I will check that thread out, thank you!!!

You must have a steal stomache.


I love the comment about the lush grass.
I thought the same thing and a CM told me the grass is full of fire ants.
This was at the MK, but I'm thinking, they didn't want you sitting in the grass.

I love your pictures of Henry, he reminds me so much of my son with red hair.

My dh is up in your state, Thief River Falls, or Thieve River Falls.
His company is putting in gas lines up in the area.
They are staying at a Casino.
He said it has a great indoor water park and rooms are $45 a nite.
I laughed and said, they don't want you spending on your room, but in their casino.

I do! I really do - food rarely affects me. Please do not recall the Great Ohana Debacle of 2008....

Very interesting about the fire ants! Whoa! I DEFINITELY would not want to sit there! Eeek!

Ah, Thief River Falls! I have been there a few times, pretty area. I am thinking that might be a Mystic Lake Casino, or maybe a Turtle Lake. I am not a gambler in the least bit, but I am all for those cheap hotel rooms! Nice time of the year to work outside, now that we are finally getting real fall weather! I hope it keeps it up for a while yet.

Lol so cute, would have been even funnier if he pulled it out, bet he would have tried to put it back

Fitted tees are nice and like you say quite flattering.
Not bad rides for him to favour, looking forward to hearing about Nemo (is such a cute ride).



You started planning ADR's etc?

Latest Update

Love the pics of CSR and Henry looks like he is having a ball in the kiddy pool. Its nice to have a relaxing day and still feel like you accomplished something

Looking forward to more

Oh, it would have been so funny if the sword had come out of the stone! I bet his eyes would have gotten as big as saucers!

Yep! We have our ADRs all set, it's all the little details I have yet to do - make a grocery list, order the groceries, make a Master Plan for the family, make a packing list, etc. I know time is gonna fly!

Your blog is awesome. I wish that you lived in my town, so I could take advantage of your great information even more. I pride myself on being a deal finder, but you beat me hands down. You have made me want to be even better at finding deals. I just don't know how you find the time, to find all those great coupons and stuff. You are great.

I bet anything that you already know this, but I wanted to share it just in case. One of my best deals that I look forward to is after Christmas at Target in the toys section. For the past two years, I have made out like a bandit, but you have to be quick, and you never know when it will happen. But Target some time in January will put sometimes up to two aisles of toys at 75% off. My two big deals over the two past years have been A little tykes Puppet Theater (for like 18 bucks) and a Smores furreal pony (for 50 bucks down from 200)

Oh, thank you!!! I work a LOT on it. Hence, my lack of updates here.... I need to find a good balance between it all. Thank you sooooo much for reading it!

What stores do you have? I read a LOT of deal finding blogs out there with all sorts of stores - so maybe I have one I can send you a link to for the deals! I get quite a bit of deals from these blogs, plus I get an absurd amount of email everyday with deals in it. I have signed up with tons of stores, sites and products - so lots of spam mail to weed though! But, it's worth it, because our freezer is full, our fridge is full, our cabinets and pantry are full. All on $50 a week.

That is GREAT to hear about Target! I never was quite the bargain hunter I am now - due to me quitting my job, I've sorta taken it on as my new job. So, I wasn't sure if they did this, I just figured they would - but to hear it first hand, Perfect for next years Christmas, and gifts throughout the year!!

I know exactly how you feel. You really do feel like you're missing out on something by taking some downtime, it's so conflicting. I think having a small child forces you to go back to your resort and relax. We had some of the best moments of our trip at AKV. Hanging out at the resort made us focus on each other instead of all of the surroundings at the parks. We even canceled some ADRs and opted to hang out at the pool. In all our 10 trips we've never done that!

Looking forward to Henry behind bars, Lucas (again) wanted NOTHING to do with the characters, plastic, furry, or face.

~bree~

It does! Having a little one really makes you notice different things and tour differently. I have to keep reminding myself that he won't be little forever, and soon he'll be begging to be in the park all the time!

Not even the pretend characters, huh? Next trip he'll probably love them!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I'm glad to hear it's going well! I'm amazed that you're getting stuff done though. When I was home with the kids I NEVER got stuff done! I'd put them to bed at the end of the day and look around the house and think "what the heck did I do all day?" My house was still a sty!

Great update! I'm loving the CSR pictures!

Oh, some days are like that. Like the past TWO WEEKS! Aside from some DIS catching up, and working on my blog - that is ALL I have gotten done! I was sick today, really yucky cold - so I slept a good chunk of the day, now I'm wide awake at 2:40 am. So I cleaned my kitchen. It was buggin' me! I don't even bother with the living room since it is always littered with Henry's toys...

Wow, that is crazy you've never done a break before. We've always had park hoppers so we're always going back to the resort for a while.

Great pictures of the resort. It looks awesome! Looks like a relaxing afternoon.

We have always slept in, hit the park, and just kept going for the entire day. It worked really well for us - Henry is a great stroller napper! But, Joe was always bummed that he wouldn't get enough pool time, so this worked really well for us!

HAMMOCK!!!!

Sounds like the best kinda day! Relaxing! Fun! Sleep! A/C

I should have taken a few minutes to chill in the hammock! Perhaps on the Poly beach on NYE I will snag one for a bit...

So glad you enjoyed your first time taking a pool break!

Denise

It was great! I hope we can continue to get up for Rope Drop more often. Joe and I both agree that was a great day.

Ohmigosh how cute is Henry in his little outfit, looks like you guys had alot of fun

Thank you!! It was a great party!

Brook, You got some excellent pictures again!
I think your 'break' was a great idea. The pool looked like so much fun.

Henry on Dumbo! Love it. I'm sorry that barnstormer scared him a little. Do you think he will go on it next month?

Joe thinks Henry will go on Barnstormer again, I don't think he will. I think he'll get one look and say "no, no, no". Maybe if his Poppa rides with him though...!

He has already said he wants to ride Mickey's Choo-Choo and the cars again though. That Tomorrowland Speedway line during NYE week...eek. We'll see...

Great updates. That resort is just so pretty. I think it's hard to take a bad picture there.
I think the Mk refurb is taking 2 years? I can;t remember off hand anymore, but It seems like I thought Claire would be about 8 when it got done, so I'm thinking it's supposed to open in Spring of 2012? Maybe 2011. Someone else probably knows. And yes Barnstormer is just going to be moved.

I agree! The resort is pretty almost everywhere you look-an abundance of beautiful scenery. I loved taking pictures there!

I'm SO glad to hear that about Barnstormer! The move/re-theme will be really interesting to see unfold. I'm excited about it!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Love your latest update!

Can't believe your next trip is next month. Wow - that will be here before you know it.

I love your pictures of CSR. I swear, I think it is the most photogenic of all the resorts. Its really hard to take a bad picture there.

I'm glad you decided to take a break, not rush, and enjoy your afternoon pool time.

Looking forward to reading more!

I know it, with the holidays coming-Christmas shopping and all, the days are slipping away on me fast! Which is wonderful in a way, and makes me crazy in another.

Brook, you last update was wonderful!

Your afternoon sounds lovely! So relaxing and enjoyable! We spent a good long while at the pool at SSR last week and it was sooooooo nice!

Now I gotta go see Henry in his halloween costume!

Ahhh, don't you just love having those vacation memories so fresh in your mind? "Last week..." The SSR pool is really nice, isn't it? We enjoyed it a lot!

Great update Brook! I love that you took a break and I'm really interested in hearing how you liked going back with an early closing. That's much of what we are doing next month with closings at 7 and 8pm and I'm a little bit nervous about that. The pool pictures are adorable! What a neat setup they have! It really themes to the kiddos.

I purposely picked this early close/MNSHHP day as our MK day. There were no EMH, plus I figured with the party/early close that would mean low crowds, and I was RIGHT. It was AWESOME. I hope to get my next update done very soon here, but I'll tell you - walk-ons all over the place. We didn't even bother with FPs! Are the days you are doing MK MVMCP days?

Henry looks like he such a good time at both the pools...hopefully everyone learned to share quickly.

Was Joe getting a sunburn on his head, or is that just the coloring in the picture - I thought - eek he looks like he'll be hurting a bit later.

And that picture of Henry after playing with the "big boys" is priceless - absolutely frame worthy.

You asked, "Was Joe getting a sunburn on his head, or is that just the coloring in the picture - I thought - eek he looks like he'll be hurting a bit later."

As much as it may hurt first thing in the morning...hitting the rope drop can really let you get a lot done...and then you can kick back by the pool...

Which is one of the more relaxing things you get to do at WDW...

I love Henry's little face pondering what's going on......he's a little smartie...I think it's smart to figure out what's going on around you before just jumping in pell mell...

Looks and brains...the unbeatable combination...

It's like the most crazy morning possible for our slow moving family - getting to RD, but the reward of the afternoon break and pure relaxation and being as slow as we want....the December trip is FULL of that, so let's hope it works!

I like your "looks and brains" - I like to think that of him too! He really does take stuff in before jumping it, very unlike the typical 2-year old!

You must be keeping busy and enjoying all your time to spend with Henry! How wonderful!

We are patiently waiting for you and the next update!

Hee hee! It's been a busy few weeks, I've been torn between working on my blog, keeping up with TRs/PTRs, PLANNING, and posting on my own. Planning hogged quite a bit of free time last week. This week, I hope to get a FEW updates done here!

I'm totally behind, but I'm going to try to catch up!

HAHA! 2 year olds and sharing... interesting concept!!! David is just starting to say "mine" to everything, only he says "mise." It is so cute, that I can't help but laugh every time! Bad mommy!

This picture is so cute!!

Beautiful!

I love Henry's Cars hat! He looks so sad on the Barnstormer! But what are you gonna do once they're on, but take pics!
I went over to your new blog and I love it! I'm all about saving money, but I haven't been very good or consistent about couponing lately. This is really helping me! I don't know if I found it from a link on your site, but there is a blog, Couponing to Disney, which is really cool too. I like the inspiration!

That is so funny about "mise"! It is hilarious how they talk. Henry says "tire" with a southern drawl and we laugh almost every time. His latest thing is that EVERY SINGLE CAR has a broken tire. So he says it a LOT.

And thank you for the comments on my blog-and thank you for reading it!!! I'm so glad I can help! It's a lot of work, but a lot of fun too when you snag an awesome deal. The other day we did the Up/Monsters Inc deal at Target (twice!), got both BluRay/DVD combo packs for a total of $11! Loved it!

You might have gotten the Couponing to Disney link from mine, I have linked back to a few of her posts - she is AWESOME. She finds all sorts of deals, and I agree-what a great motivation! Her hope was to earn $1,800 in a year. She is already at $1,600 since June 1. I hope by all her hard work, her and her family can UPGRADE!

Hey, I'm glad you're moving slowly with this report... it made it easy for me to catch up!

I wholeheartedly agree that taking it slow RULES at WDW....
(Gee, it only took me six trips to figure that one out!!)


Kathy

Glad to help Kathy! I feel just awful about not even keeping up on my TR, but real life gets in the way sometimes, right? I am still learning how to manage my time. I think it's a life-long quest!

The only reason I know about going SLOW at Disney is because Joe forced it upon me after 1 trip. I admit...he's right...

 

[MeMom]

Jill got some kind of toy for 54 cents at Target this weekend. It was on sale for ten something at Toys R Us, so she took the ad in and they matched it, then she had a ten dollar off coupon, so it ended up being 49 cents plus tax. She was quite satisfied with her purchase.

So many times have I cleaned my kitchen at 2 a.m.! Might as well be productive when you can't sleep, right?

We got Henry a little something for NYE. If he has to hang out with strangers for the night, he at least should get a little something for his trouble. So, if he doesn't already have it, don't get him a small-sized Color Wonder Cars coloring pad and markers. We were going to get him one of the Cars cars, but we figured he had them all, so we went with this. If he does have one, let me know and I'll exchange it for something else.

 

[jenjolt]

Awww...I'm so behind but I'm glad I was able to finally get all caught up!!! Your pictures of the resort are amazing!!! I'm so glad you guys had such a great afternoon!! The pictures of Henry are adorable and you can tell he had a great time at the pool!!!!

 

[Stefy]

Oh, it would have been so funny if the sword had come out of the stone! I bet his eyes would have gotten as big as saucers!

Yep! We have our ADRs all set, it's all the little details I have yet to do - make a grocery list, order the groceries, make a Master Plan for the family, make a packing list, etc. I know time is gonna fly!

December isn't that far away, you will be ready to go before you know it