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

[cherbear]

Marsha, sorry your pics aren't working properly. Can't wait to see them...and read more! I'm sure it can only go up from here. hehe

 

[Trentmom]

That just sounds bad....

I missed some words

 

[labdogs42]

Subbing! Gotta read all about the Auto Train!

 

[Marshay]

Welcome labdogs!

Just a quick update! I finally was able to download all my photos and pick the pics to use. I'm still working on the Disney Photopass pics so they will be added later.

Now I just need to upload to Photobucket and away we go!!

 

[Marshay]

Marsha, sorry your pics aren't working properly. Can't wait to see them...and read more! I'm sure it can only go up from here. hehe

I know! This trip certainly had some bumps!!

 

[Marshay]

Welcome back....hope that mini black clous goes away real quick...

Yep, it does, but it does provide for some "adventures" ... yeah, that's what they are called!

You guys didn't do too bad time wise. The rain sounds horrible, I am glad that your stop was where it was.

Me, too! We debated about trying to go further but 1am was long enough...glad we got the hotel where we did.

I'm in! Hope you had a wonderful trip! I have read some of your trip reports before, and I think I started your pre-trip report, but couldn't keep up with it due to all of our end of year school activities! I am hoping to keep up with your report!

OK I went back and caught up... I thought I had checked in here before, but I couldn't find my post so apparently I was just lurking this time around. I can't wait to see how your block scheduling worked out. It sounds like a great idea! Sounds like you haf a bumpy start, but managed to make it to where you wanted. Can't wait to see if you make it into the hotel in St. Augustine.

It was nice to give us two different options for hotels in Jacksonville/St. Augustine. My hint is that we made it to the right one!!

thanks for de-lurking!

Block scheduling worked out great ... just ended up in much larger blocks!!

That just sounds bad....

yeah, husband and crack shouldn't be used in the same sentence!!

 

[Trentmom]

Yay for having pics almost all done


Will be waiting

 

[silverangel879]

Hey Marshay!

Yey! Found your report! Can't wait to hear everything about it!!!

 

[Marshay]

Yay for having pics almost all done

Will be waiting

Just uploading them to photobucket...

Hey Marshay!

Yey! Found your report! Can't wait to hear everything about it!!!

Hey, girl!! I'm so glad you joined. You were so kind to us in WDW!!

Guess what? We are going now in November, too!! I will look for ya!

 

[silverangel879]

Hey, girl!! I'm so glad you joined. You were so kind to us in WDW!!
Guess what? We are going now in November, too!! I will look for ya!

Thanks! You were fun to "work" with! I'm glad to here you're coming back so soon! I'll let you know where I'll be!

 

[Marshay]

OK, so before we left for WDW, I had joined the Fairy Godmother thread and signed up with two Dissers to have postcards sent from Disney to Rachel and Elizabeth. They were supposed to send in May and June respectively. Well ... they never did. So I frantically scrounged the Official June thread to see if someone could help me and one mom did!! YEAH!!

Here are my girls -- Rachel was excited about getting a card from Mickey telling her that they would celebrate her birthday in WDW.

I had also found a place where I could get Free Disney phone calls from some of the characters. So in the 2 weeks prior to our trip, I set up calls for both Elie and Rae about every other day!

We gave Rachel her birthday present early so she could use it on the trip:

We got her the Disney Princess Leapster 2 and gave her 2 cartridges (she got another one while on the train). Here is a pic of it.

I mentioned in my earlier report that I had the person who did my pedicure add a Mickey head to my toes -- here is the pic! I thought it was really cute ... my technician thought I was really crazy!

Anyway, I wake up Saturday morning around 7:30am and I start to get everyone awake and moving. We eat at the free breakfast at Econolodge (nothing special but cereal, muffins and belgian waffles ... but I love those waffles) and are on the road by 9:40am. Driving is uneventful and we stop at noon at a rest stop and play tag, hide and go seek, walk around, etc.

We're back in the truck at 45 minutes later, order fast food and away we go. However, we made MISTAKE #1 -- we forgot to get gas! Well, we have about 1/4 to 1/2 a tank so we just say we'll get it later. At this point we want to just get back on the road. Well, we look ahead and see where the next best place for a rest would be and set that as our target. However ... we sort of forgot about the gas situation until we are literally calculating how many more miles to the different gas stations and how much gas we have. I had printed a list of McD's with playgrounds and we really wanted to do gas and food at the same time.

We are making great time so we cancel the Jacksonville (northern) hotel via my brand, spankin' new DROID phone!!! I can get used to this!! It was great b/c I could do it all on-line, no busy signals as the 4pm deadline approaches and I got a confirmation number/email on my phone as verification.

But then we run into a bit of traffic, some construction delays and another rainstorm -- and I am literally PRAYING that we make it on the gas we have left. We finally get to the gas station and McD's is right across the street. God provided and we had about 4 more miles before we ran out of gas!! We play on the playground and Jerry has a meal but Rae and I just want ice cream. However, the ice cream machine can't keep the ice cream cold enough, so nope, no ice cream. We hop back into our truck and drive about 1.5 hours more to our hotel.

I swear I took a picture but can't find it at all. AHA! Maybe it's on that new phone I got...Just to figure out how to get it onto my computer now!! So I'll post pics later from here.

EDIT: Hey, I found how easy it is to send a pic from my phone to my email!! So here's the pic from our room of the Comfort Suites World Golf Village in St. Augustine. Now you can see why we had such a relaxing evening here!

But the hotel was really nice!! It was the Comfort Suites World Golf Village and had a lake, two fountains, large pool, gazebo, large patio, etc. We quickly change into swimsuits and order food for delivery and eat out on the patio. They say food will be there in 20 minutes!! except the driver went to the wrong hotel so was 45 minutes later. However, when we saw him, we realized why he was so late ... let's just say he was "easily confused".

But we still had a wonderful meal -- lasagna, manicotti, salads, garlic rolls and a pastry dessert. We ate in the middle of the gazebo and had it all to ourselves, overlooking the fountain, lake and pool. We couldn't have asked for anything better. Then we went swimming for a bit to help tire out the girls and off to bed.

Oh, I forgot another calamity, oops, I mean ADVENTURE on this trip -- my BIL who left the day before we did, put his cell phone on the top of his van at a rest stop ... totally forgot about it and drove off. Clickety clackity THUMP...sure enough, it fell off on I-95. RIP, dear cell phone. They got off at the next exit and went back to search for it ... my sister was praying hard that they could find it. Well, find it they did!!!!! They just forgot to pray that they found ALL of it!! So BIL is now without a phone for the whole Disney trip. It's amazing how we went to WDW for years and years without a cell phone, but now it is just unimaginable to go to Disney without one!

Also, we realize that we forgot to bring blankets and pillows for the train. Oh, well, we'll deal with that later, right?!

Coming up:

Wal-mart
Another calamity -- this time a wallet
and MK

 

[Trentmom]

Good idea giving Rach the leapster early. I bet that kept her quite busy on the drive.

bummer on your bil's phone. That stinks.

Sounds like the hotel was great

Can't wait to read what is next

Can you tell me about the free disney calls? I would love to do that for my friends daugter since this will be her first trip there

 

[Marshay]

Good idea giving Rach the leapster early. I bet that kept her quite busy on the drive.

bummer on your bil's phone. That stinks.

Sounds like the hotel was great

Can't wait to read what is next

Can you tell me about the free disney calls? I would love to do that for my friends daugter since this will be her first trip there

Maybe Trent would like them too! They are not just for going to Disney, but you can celebrate any occasion.

go to disney dot com/piccolinismiles

or disney dot com/bigkidcall

I haven't checked to see if they are still active.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

Sounds like a nice drive so far, and the cell phone thing, I completly agree... i can't hardly function without mine!!!

 

[Trentmom]

Maybe Trent would like them too! They are not just for going to Disney, but you can celebrate any occasion.

go to disney dot com/piccolinismiles

or disney dot com/bigkidcall

I haven't checked to see if they are still active.

Thanks for the links

The first one still works. Just did goofy one for Trent..he was so not into it...acting all scared....I told him it is a recording....what the heck///he so strange

 

[Marshay]

Sounds like a nice drive so far, and the cell phone thing, I completly agree... i can't hardly function without mine!!!

And now that I got the smartphone, it's even more unimagineable! I loved checking the wait times adn reporting the times, too while at WDW!!

Thanks for the links

The first one still works. Just did goofy one for Trent..he was so not into it...acting all scared....I told him it is a recording....what the heck///he so strange

Oh, he was scared???

When we started out on Saturday, Rachel asked me if I think Mickey knows that we are driving down and if he would call. So I quickly got on my phone and went to the site and arranged a call for like 20 minutes later! It was perfect! She was so surprised. Then I arranged another call for the following day, too.

 

[Trentmom]

And now that I got the smartphone, it's even more unimagineable! I loved checking the wait times adn reporting the times, too while at WDW!!



Oh, he was scared???

When we started out on Saturday, Rachel asked me if I think Mickey knows that we are driving down and if he would call. So I quickly got on my phone and went to the site and arranged a call for like 20 minutes later! It was perfect! She was so surprised. Then I arranged another call for the following day, too.

yeah, he afraid of them in person now. But didnt think a phone call would scare him

I had one call my friends daughter and she loved it at least

oh cool...that worked out great

 

[mousescrapper]

My little girls love the Leapsters too....Naomi-Ruth uses my oldest DD's old one...they are a bit finicky in their old ages, but great time distracters...we have the tink game too. My Rachel got it for Christmas last yr.

we have made that gas mistake before too.... so glad you made your destination and the evening wind down and meal sounded great...only 1 more day of driving ahead of you now?

hope the wallet thing isn't too bad

 

[Marshay]

I was able to post this pic back into my report but for those of you who might of missed it, I'll repost. This is the place we stopped at on Saturday night. We could have certainly gone further and made it to Disney but stopping here gave us a wonderful relaxing night. It was a good decision.

The blue area on the far left is a set of fountains. The gazebo on the right is where the 4 of ate dinner. The pool was a big hit afterwards.

 

[Trentmom]

That looks like a very nice hotel.