July 2010 Big Bdays Family Reunion (Update 9/28 Final Thoughts)

[kaoden39]

Oh forgot to mention that I did my Disney Give a Day, Get a Day service so now I can either get $84 toward the purchase of an AP or get a special FP.

I think since we already have tickets that I was planning to use to upgrade to an AP, we'll just do the FP.

Jerry does his Disney service day on Saturday, so we'll have two different days to do the FP. This should work well in summer when it's crowded and we won't be able to make rope drop.

The cool thing is that the GAD FP is good even after all the regular FPs are gone (like at Toy Story Mania). And we can also use the regular FP, too.

I signed up to do a GAD and I had no clue about the FP. Very cool, such a nice thing to do something simple.

 

[Marshay]

Thats great Marsha

What are you guys doing for volunteer work?

I just had to make a spreadsheet with 30-50 local business names, address, phone number and contact information. I was able to get all the information on-line and gave them 75 businesses.

Jerry is going to be a photographer at a charity event (brain tumor research) on Saturday. They are doing a Monte Carlo (sp?) casino night.

 

[Trentmom]

I just had to make a spreadsheet with 30-50 local business names, address, phone number and contact information. I was able to get all the information on-line and gave them 75 businesses.

Jerry is going to be a photographer at a charity event (brain tumor research) on Saturday. They are doing a Monte Carlo (sp?) casino night.

totally missed this post. Sorry

That is awesome. very simple

What a great thing Jerry did. Sounds like a fun event too


You guys hanging in there with all this snow?

We are. Looking out window now and it is coming down so fast here

 

[Marshay]

Thanks to sharp-eye Sharky, I found that Elizabeth is the All Ears Photo of the Week

http://allears.net/pw/pw.htm

This was Elizabeth at 8 months old. The first night we arrived at WDW, we went straight to a character meal. Obviously Elizabeth needed some more time to get used to the characters!

 

[swwake]

How adorable is that!!!! Congrats to you!

 

[kaoden39]

I still love that picture. I am so glad that it got picked.

 

[Marshay]

How adorable is that!!!! Congrats to you!

I still love that picture. I am so glad that it got picked.

Thanks! I actually sent it in twice ... maybe persistence paid off.

 

[kaoden39]

Thanks! I actually sent it in twice ... maybe persistence paid off.

That and good taste prevailed finally.

 

[Marshay]

I know I'm very negligent on making TR updates, but as with everyone, life gets busy.

Anyway, on the 12th, Elizabeth will turn 1 year old and we're having a jungle theme. I finally ordered the cake today and asked them to do a Girl Jungle theme in bright colors. I'm letting them decide on what they want to do. I got Rachel's Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck cake from them and loved it, so I have high hopes.

Both our anniversary (12th) and Jerry' Birthday are also this month -- guess it will be an expensive month for us.

As for our July trip, I have been studying the I-95 corridor for places we might want to stop at on our first night. We are driving this time but I have no clue how long it'll be and how far we can get the first day.

We are hoping to leave our house at 5am and drive until 9am. Take a half-hour break for gas and food and then drive another 2.5 hours. This will be our long break -- 1.5 hours for a sit-down lunch, or at least Jerry and I sit and stretch our legs and the girls play at a park or McD's playground.

Then we drive for another 2.5 hours, take one more 30 minute break and drive for another hour. I'm hoping to get to Savannah, GA by 5:30pm

Of course we'll be flexible. I'm planning to make ressies for Pooler, GA, Richmond Hill, GA and Darien, GA. All have same day cancellations and we'll play it by ear whether we get North or South of Savannah.

I'm really hoping to get about 9.5 hours driving on the first day so we only have about 4.5 hours on our WDW arrival day.

My current project I'm working on is creating a travel bag of fun things to do while in the SUV for four days total. Also, I'm trying to add some more pages to Rachel's Autograph Scrapbook.

 

[kaoden39]

Wow your drive is longer than ours. The bag of activities is a great idea. That along with dvds and regular stops for the girls will make for an easier trip.

 

[Marshay]

Wow your drive is longer than ours. The bag of activities is a great idea. That along with dvds and regular stops for the girls will make for an easier trip.

Yeah, I had gotten a portable DVD player at Christmas for super-duper cheap (Black Friday special), the last one available. So now we can watch movies, too. We do need to test it out though -- I hope it works!

Yeah, I have us taking about 3-3.5 hours of breaks...I'm hoping that will work, but you never know with young kids and potty breaks, traffic jams, etc.

 

[kaoden39]

Yeah, I had gotten a portable DVD player at Christmas for super-duper cheap (Black Friday special), the last one available. So now we can watch movies, too. We do need to test it out though -- I hope it works!

Yeah, I have us taking about 3-3.5 hours of breaks...I'm hoping that will work, but you never know with young kids and potty breaks, traffic jams, etc.

I find that I need to get out and walk around as much as the kids do too. I-5 that we take to get to Disneyland is mostly in an open area so the stops are usually road side rests, where there is grass and such. And frankly I am more tired on a road like that I don't have the distractions.

 

[reyasmommy]

Your DD's are just adorable.

Planning your child's 1st birthday is so bitter-sweet My DD will be turning 4 on the 25th of this month and it just blows my mind how time flies.

Your trip sounds Fun.. the girls are going to have a fantastic time.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

We drive from lynchburg, va and we will drive to savannah, GA. It's nice having only a couple hours the next day. This time we stayed at wingate and it was pretty nice. Nothing spectacular, but it was clean and everyone was friendly. It was right off the interstate so it was easy access as well.

 

[Trentmom]

Thanks to sharp-eye Sharky, I found that Elizabeth is the All Ears Photo of the Week

http://allears.net/pw/pw.htm

This was Elizabeth at 8 months old. The first night we arrived at WDW, we went straight to a character meal. Obviously Elizabeth needed some more time to get used to the characters!

So glad they picked it..Such a cute pic and made me laugh

 

[Trentmom]

I think your drive sounds perfect..plenty of breaks. DVD player will help a ton.

I love Savannah..so pretty there

 

[swwake]

I got all excited when I got my email today too!

 

[cherbear]

Elie is so cute in that pic!! It's so funny, glad you got picked!

 

[Samar]

Said it once and I'll say it again, what an adorable pic!

Yay for Elizabeth's 1st birthday coming up! Eva just had hers on 2/26 and where has the time gone???? Our BABIES! LOL

Sounds like you've got a good plan of attack for heading out to vacay and I hope that everything will fall into place in plenty of time before the trip

 

[Circusgirl]

We are going to try the Tables in Wonderland card this time. that's the one where you get 20% off for up to 10 people at TS. It costs $75 but we'll easily spend the $375 to break even, esp since my family will be joining us for some of those meals. We'll also use TiW for our trip next May 2011.

TiW is new to me so we'll see how we like it..but I'm thinking it'll be pretty good and allow more flexibility like ordering two appetizers and dessert for a meal instead of having to do an entree and of course we can get drinks (alcoholic or regular) at discount, too.

Yes, I've heard good things at CP and T.Edo so I am looking foward to them and I just know my girls will simply adore Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet.

Don't forget that the TIW card also gives you free valet parking at the resort hotels (for something like 3 hours) for your dining pleasure. One year I had horrible blisters so I used the valet to avoid long walks from the parking lots and felt like I recovered my investment in parking alone!