Leaving the Disney-Hater at Home: A Dorky Disboutiquing Diser Sista Trip Report 6/4

[HeatherSue]

Sorry I haven't updated in a while!! We've had all sorts of stuff going on. But, I promise I will finish this TR! I also hope to explain what's been going on soon.

As for Easter, it wouldn't be a holiday if one of my kids wasn't sick. So, Sawyer made it feel like a real celebration by coming down with a fever yesterday. I stayed home with him while Henry and Tessa went to eat Easter dinner with Henry's grandma. He seems to be feeling better today, so far...

 

[jenb1023]

I was glad to see you posting on the boutiquers thread earlier today. I was starting to get worried because I haven't seen any posts from you lately. I hope what has been going on is something good.

Hope Sawyer feels better soon! We will be waiting to read the rest of your TR whenever you have the time to write it.

 

[The Moonk's Mom]

Poor Sawyer...I hope he is better!

 

[ADAMANDLISA]

I hope all is well and can't wait to hear an update!!!

 

[HeatherSue]

Ack! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in such a long time!! I WILL finish this trip report, I promise! I hate when people start a TR and then don't finish (DisUnc )!

I'll tell you a little of what was going on before. We were hoping to adopt 2 children, but it looks like that is not going to happen now. I don't want to go into too many details on the boards.

But, I am going to start going through my pictures for my next update right now. I hope I haven't lost everyone in the meantime!

 

[karebear1]

I'm still here for ya Heather!

 

[maroo]

I'm still here, too!!

Can't wait!

And hugs to your and your family!

 

[HeatherSue]

Thanks Karen and Maroo!!

Karen, I just got done editing a picture involving you, with a little help from photoshop.

 

[jham]

Oooh, I have some ideas of what happened with your editing! While you're in photoshop, if you have any photos of me, could you make me look thin? Thanks! Yes, I'm still here for you Heather, but you need to finish up so you can start a Disneyland PTR!

 

[karebear1]

Thanks Karen and Maroo!!

Karen, I just got done editing a picture involving you, with a little help from photoshop.

Uh-oh.......... I'm skeered!!!
Makin' me thinner would be ok though! Good idea Jeanne!

 

[Adi12982]

Your delay in finishing helped me catch up!! YIPEE!

I love your TR so far. . . my favorite was definitely your tribute to UtahMama, loved it. .. especially since it was a sippy cup Your children are so beautiful. . . love all your outfits too!!

 

[HeatherSue]

WARNING: My camera was doing really weird things again, so some of the pictures are really bad!

February 8, 2009

We started out kind of slow in the morning. We slept as late as we wanted and took our time getting ready. I talked to Stephanie (Stephres) and we planned on meeting up at The Land to eat lunch together. Tessa was really excited about this! Stephanie and her kids, Jacob and Megan, flew up from Florida and stayed with us for a few nights in December. Her kids got to see snow for the first time!

Yeah, I know, that was a pitiful little bit of snow. That's Megan in the pink and green and my friends kids with the sled.

Tessa and Megan got to be good friends. Both of the kids really liked Jacob, too.

In case you're wondering- Stephanie and I met on the disboards! We met in person in May 2008 when I was there with my whole family. So, the natural progression is for her to fly up to spend a few days with us in Michigan, right? We may be nuts, but it worked out great and we had fun!

The plan was to eat lunch together and then meet up with the rest of the Disboutiquers in front of China at 2:00!

Yes, we were meeting 11 of those crazy women and 1 man that we had been chatting with on the disboutiquers thread for over a year! So, I guess this means I'm going to have a LOT of guests next December, right?

I snapped a few pictures of the kids in the room before some sort of catastrophe befalls their outfits.

Sawyer's Pinocchio shirt says "REAL boys wear lederhosen". I thought of that myself.

By the time we were all ready to go, it was about 64 degrees out. Not too bad for cold blooded Michiganders like ourselves!

As we were leaving, mom remembered that she didn't bring her ticket, so she ran back to the hotel room to get it. In the meantime, I took some pictures of the kids outside of our room.

In case I haven't mentioned it, Stephanie GAVE me that Peg Perego Pliko P3 stroller when she came up in December!!!

The kids started bustin' a move to the awesome music that was always playing at Pop.

Sawyer discovering that he was wearing his Pinocchio shirt for the first time.

Doin' the booty dance.

By golly, I even have video of it! I really, really wish I would learn to keep my mouth shut when I'm taking video!



We called Henry while we were on the bus. He said it was -4 degrees at home!! BRRRR!!!! We were really lovin' that 64 degrees at this point!

We were planning to ride a couple of rides before we met up with Steph. But, the lines were pretty long (that's what we get for not getting there at rope drop).

Plus, I had a nasty realization as it started warming up outside.

I HAD FORGOTTEN MY DEODORANT!!!!

I was going to meet a bunch of people I had never met before and I was most likely going to hug some of them, leaving my stinky pits exposed! It would be the end of "HeatherSue"... I'd be "StinkyPitGirl" from here on out!

So, instead of having fun and riding rides, we went on a hunt for some deodorant!

I asked someone in guest relations and they sent me to one of the gift shops. They said I'd have to ask for it. Ugh, how embarassing! However, I can think of a few more things that would be MORE embarassing to ask for.

It was pretty crowded in the store and I had to wait in line to ask. My mom struck up a conversation with 2 handsome young men. She seems to have a knack for that! However, all I could think of is that I was going to have to ask for deodorant in front of these two handsome young men my mom was talking to.

When I got to the front of the line, I found out that there was only one counter in the store that had it, so she sent me all the way over there....to wait in ANOTHER line!

When I got to the front of that line, guess who the CM was? That's right, it was a handsome young man- UGH!

When I asked him for deodorant, he looked at me like I was a pariah and he dug around looking for it. He then yelled over to another CM "Do you have any deodorant over there?" Then, he asks me if I want women's or men's deodorant. Then, he yelled again

"SHE NEEDS WOMEN'S DEODORANT!"

I felt like crawling into the middle of a display rack and staying there for a while. But, I purchased my $3/oz deodorant stick and snuck away to a bathroom to refresh with some baby wipes and apply. Aaaaahhhh....much better!

Now, it was time to meet Steph. She may never know what kind of stench she dodged by agreeing to meet me for lunch instead of first thing in the morning. Then again, she'll probably read this....

We spotted Stephanie, Megan, and Jacob right away in the middle of The food court area. Unfortunately, I had to give her a drive-by hug because Sawyer had just messed his pants.

After I changed his diaper (and washed my hands), we got some lunch. I ordered the same thing I had the day before because it was pretty good.

Tessa was so excited to see her friends and I was too! She and Megan just chatted away the whole time. So did Steph, Mom, Jacob, and I. That Jacob is such a sweetie! He's like I was as a kid and likes talking to the adults.

I have no pictures of this and I think it must be because I left my camera outside again!

Stephanie suggested we take a ride on Nemo since all the other lines were so long. Sawyer was all for this because he loves him some Nemo!

I took several pictures- without flash of course.

The kids took a gander at the fishies while we chatted.

Whoa, that's a big 'ol fish!

The Seas were much more enjoyable with my friend Stephanie along!

It was getting close to 2:00, so it was time to meet "the others" in China! That's right-

CHINA!!! 2:00!!

I was so excited and a little nervous, too. We had all been friends for a long time online, but would we all get along in person? People can really present a different side of themselves online. Sometimes they come across as a much different person than they really are. Plus, would they like me? They seemed to like me online, but would they like the "real" me?

So, I walked over to China with a little bit of trepidation and a lot of excitement.

We were the first ones there and we saw Mulan and Mushu signing autographs! We'd never met Mushu before and Mulan is my favorite princess to see in person (we've yet to meet a snooty Mulan)!

Plus, Mulan has NEVER broke our pen.

Next

 

[HeatherSue]

I was a little distracted, looking around for the other Disboutiquers. But, I do remember how warmly Mulan greeted my children. That is why she holds such a special place in my heart.

As soon as our special meet with Mulan and Mushu was over, I spotted KRISTINE (Tnkrbelle565) and STACY (sohappy)!!!!

Those two had been rooming together at Pop and they looked like they'd been friends forever. They could even pass for relatives! But, they had just met in person at Disney!

Next up was PIPER (Piper), in her grand chariot! She was at Disney all on her own. I think that's very brave! She brought magical gathering pins for all of us. She is such a sweetheart!

We stood around talking a little bit. I was still nervous, so I don't know what I said, or if I said much of anything! Most likely I giggled too much and said lots of stupid things. That's what I generally do when I meet people.

Then, a ball of energy bounded up, in the form of KATHY (NaeNae), with her hubby, Jim, tagging along!! She said "HI!" and gave me a big hug (good thing for that deodorant) and all the tension was broken. How could you not be comfortable around these people? From that point on, I felt at ease with my friends!

A few minutes later, there was CATHY (twob4him) and her friend!! She was so cute in person, just like the rest of them! She just said a quick hello and said she'd stop back later to chat a bit and then meet up with us after ESPN.

It was getting hot in the sun and they were getting ready to start a show, so we moved our group across the walkway over to the shade.

Stephanie was so sweet, she offered to get my kids some Mickey bars to keep them busy while we waited for everyone. She had no idea that My Kids+Mickey bars= MESS!

Surprisingly, we managed to keep their clothes clean and they weren't "RUINED!!" like the children on Jon and Kate Plus 8.

After a bit, TOM (princessleighsdaddy)showed up with LeighAnna and his wife, Angie. Luckily, I wasn't yelling at any children at this point.

Tom was wearing the Prince Charming outfit I made him and he looked great!

Then, there was CINDEE (livndisney), Morgan, Shel, and Jord!!! I had met them in May 2008 at McDonalds in downtown Disney. We had a great time yakking away. I fell in love with little Morgan. It's obvious that this angel child can do no wrong, despite what her mother might say. Jord is Morgan's doll, and my close personal friend.

Morgan showed me her gorgeous sparkly hairdo and how Jord even matched!

Cindee had been riding some rides with JESSICA (jessica52877), Dallas, and Lin! So, they all showed up together. Meeting Jessica was just like seeing an old friend again. It was like we'd known each other forever. It's funny how it was meeting these people! It was like we weren't really meeting for the first time!

Wow, we were looking like quite a group! Jeanne called me and let me know they would be here soon, but she said not to wait around for them. She said T-beri and kids were with them, too!

We had talked about touring Epcot together, but this group of people was pretty massive and it would be pretty hard to actually get any touring done. I'm thinking people thought I had some sort of master plan for the day. But, I was happy to just stand around and talk! So, we did a lot of that!!

I was really having a great time!! Everyone was so great! They were just like they were on the internet. It seems that no one had made themselves out to be anything other than their true selves. I was actually pretty surprised about that!

The kids were getting along great! Apparently, LeighAnna was feeling very relaxed!

Tessa had not stopped talking about LeighAnna's deer puppet from the day before. So, grandma decided to spoil her and buy her one of her own.

Soon, everyone was buying a puppet from the cart! I bet that person wondered why he was selling so many that day!

Would you look at these sweet kids?

Perfect angels, I tell you...

At first Morgan wanted no part of the silliness, but then she decided that she wasn't going to get in trouble for it.

She decided to give Jessica some dancing lessons while we waited. She was very particular about us doing it "just so". LOL!!

Finally, JEANNE (Jham), her hubby, Mike, Jayden, Seth, Luke, and Lily showed up. They had TIFANI (t-beri), Gavin, and T's Lily with them.

Megan seemed to be pretty happy to see Gavin.... Who can blame her? He's a really cute kid and he has a great personality, too.

Next

 

[HeatherSue]

Here's Jeanne's Lily, otherwise known as "cupcake" for obvious reasons:

We did some more hanging out.

This poor guy wandered into our midst without realizing it. I didn't know he was there until someone pointed out to me that Tessa was talking to a stranger. Apparently, she assumed he was part of "our crowd".

Tessa made sure to show everyone there her deer puppet.

The problem with the puppets was that they constantly got tangled up. So, Luke, being a little gentleman, tried helping out his lady love.

There was still one person who's absence was rather conspicuous. The famous KAREN (karebear1)!! She was the one who decided to meet up at China at 2:00. Meeting at ESPN later on was her idea, too. But, she wasn't here!! She called to let us know that she would be meeting us at ESPN later.

Tom had decided to continue touring the world earlier on and said they'd meet us at ESPN, too.

Around 3:30, we all decided it was time to move along. We thought it would be fun if we went to ride the Maelstrom together! It was quite a process moving a group that large over there.

I think Luke spotted Dallas and Tessa holding hands and felt he needed to get in there, too.

However, when Dallas went to give Tessa a hug, things got ugly.

Luke got in there and broke it up!

I don't think Dallas had any intention of stealing his girl. He's just a sweet little boy who wanted to give her a hug! It was all pretty funny!!

They got over it pretty quickly and were hanging out together again.

Here's a line picture for yah. Notice the rather peeved looking woman in line behind Jeanne? She and her husband got trapped in the middle of our huge group and she seemed pretty unhappy about it. I think we let them cut in front of us eventually.

The line wasn't too bad (but longer than usual for this usually empty ride). Our group took up 2 boats. It was pretty cool to all be together! Steph had to take Megan to the potty, so I was in charge of Jacob. He's sitting on the other side of Sawyer in this picture.

Jacob was VERY concerned about Sawyer riding this ride. He kept telling me that he couldn't believe I was taking Sawyer on it and that it was really a very scary ride and that maybe I shouldn't have brought him on it. I assured him that Sawyer was pretty brave and that he would be fine. But, Jacob told me to hold onto him tight when we went down the "big drop". That kid is so funny!

Luke had his arm around Tessa for most of the ride, trying to protect her. From the looks of this picture, he may have been a bit scared himself!

When the ride was over, Luke kept asking Tessa "Are you okay? Did you like the ride? You weren't too scared were you?" It was so sweet! That boy is positively smitten!

When the boat behind us pulled up, we discovered Kristine and T's true identities. We always knew Kristine was sweet, but we didn't know she was an ANGEL! T's angel status was the most shocking, however (you know I love you, T)!

We all nimbly skipped the post show movie and headed directly to the trolls! You'll see who got into the dress-up the most-

Yep, Mike!

But, the kids had fun, too. I think some of our group went outside to wait and didn't realize we were in here trying to catch lice from the Nordic helmets.

Don't you love Sawyer's long blonde pigtails?

We caught up with the rest of our group outside and decided to head over to ESPN for dinner. Most of us didn't know which way to go, but you can always count on Jord in a pinch.

Next

 

[HeatherSue]

T's Lily wasn't feeling very well and she wanted to be carried. But, as you may have noticed, T was rather pregnant! So, she was getting really tired, trying to carry her everywhere. So, we thought we'd take the boats over instead of walking. This was probably a silly decision because we could have walked there in the time it took to wait for the boat.

Cindee and Co, along with Mom, Tessa, and Stephanie walked over.

Kathy really touched my heart when she helped me get the stuff out of the stroller so I could fold it up. It was just such a natural thing for her to help someone out. Her husband, Jim, seemed to be the same way. They were such a wonderful couple!

But, I just wanted T to sit down for a minute and she's too stubborn to do it unless we force her. I'm going to include this terrible picture of me just so you can see T sitting peacefully behind me.

We all had a nice, leisurely boatride over to the boardwalk. No matter what, I can never remember the name of this area. Is it the Boardwalk? The Boardwalk Villas? I know there is another section that has another name. It's all too confusing for my poor little brain.

Mike and Jeanne are just about the cutest couple ever. They are high school sweethearts and I love the way they are together. Aren't they sweet?

When we docked and got off the boat, the wonderful Kathy let her inner grandma out and automatically started pushing my stroller for me. It was so weird to think that we had just met 2 hours earlier, but I already trusted her enough to take off with my kids! After a minute or two, she realized that she was pushing my stroller and we both started laughing about it.

Karen was at ESPN waiting for us all to arrive. We were all very disappointed that she wasn't wearing her signature pink boa.

She took a head count and there were 31 of us!! I must admit that I was very skeptical about this plan. I thought we'd be waiting forever for tables together with such a huge group. So, I tried to stake out a spot in the shade to wait it out.

Poor little Lily had fallen asleep and poor T looked pretty whupped.

Surprisingly, in about 15 minutes, they were calling us in to our tables!! I was so relieved that it wasn't a long wait because the kids were getting hungry! Karen, I bow down to you, oh Queen of Everything Disney and Beyond, Including, but Not Limited To the Cricut. Please forgive me for my doubt.

I'd never been to the ESPN club, but it seemed pretty nice. They had a little area of the restaurant, just for us! I got Tessa settled in to eat with some of the other girls and then I turned around to take a seat for myself. But, they were all taken! The only place left to sit was with the kids. That didn't appeal to me for some reason...

But, Cindee quickly made room for me down at their table, so I got to sit with Cindee, Shel, Morgan, Mom, and Sawyer.

Steph sat with Tom

Some of the "single" gals sat together. That's Karen on the left.

Our little "cupcake" really enjoyed her cupcake!

The kids sat for a while, but then they were up playing together. Thankfully, we were up out of the way, so we weren't bothering any of the other guests.

It's too bad none of the kids really liked each other...

Someone thought to get a picture of the picture takers.

We were all wearing matching t-shirts that were designed by Tracie on the DISign board. Here's a closeup of the design.

We thought it would be fun to get a group shot of all of the disboutiquers and our kids. It was quite an undertaking trying to get us all together in the shot. Little Stacy tried standing in the back, but I made her come up front or we'd never see her!

I wish I had a picture of Jim, who was taking most of the pictures. Everyone wanted a picture of all of us on their own camera. So, he had both arms laden with cameras. He'd take a picture or two with each camera and then move on. He had cameras coming out his ears. It was great! He took it all in stride, and with a great sense of humor!

I wish I would have had my picture taken with everyone there. But, I didn't think to do that. Cathy showed up when we were done eating and she thought to get a picture of the two of us together.

We decided to stop terrorizing the poor waitstaff at the restaurant and take the show on the road. They really did handle this huge crowd well and they were really nice to us. They didn't seem to get TOO irritated by all the craziness.

Once we got outside, I finally got to talk to Karen for a few minutes. We're both big fans of Jord.

REALLY big fans!

Next

 

[HeatherSue]

Sawyer was starting to get pretty tired and he layed in the stroller for a bit.

The rest of the kids had a great time playing duck, duck, goose.

My awesome mom kept my kids in check while I got to talk with all of my friends. We decided that most of us would stick around to watch Illuminations together.

Steph was getting tired, so she took off with the kids and went back to the hotel.

The rest of us played a quick game of poker. Karen kept her cards close, so she was raking in the dough.

Piper, Tom, Cindy, and Karen parted ways with us before we headed back for Illuminations. I wish everyone could have stayed because we had such a nice time together!

We took our time walking back to Epcot, chatting the whole way. A few people needed to use the potty right before we entered Epcot, so we stopped to wait. One of the kids (who I won't call out in public) decided they needed to use the bathroom when everyone else was done. Let's just say we waited a while after that!

I called Teresa and passed her around to everyone while we were waiting. I felt bad that she was missing out on this. It would have been perfect if she had been there!

We were finally all ready to head out again and we passed through the gates to Epcot. We weren't sure where we should watch the fireworks from. But, then we came upon the bridge and thought it would be the perfect place to watch them from. We couldnt' believe we scored such a great spot!

Jim asked if anyone wanted something to drink and he took off to get refreshments. I thought that was so sweet of him!

We all plopped ourselves down on the ground and laughed and talked and had a great time!

Stacy helped Tessa untangle her deer once AGAIN! Shel had untangled it for her at the restaurant.

Sitting with everyone out there was just magical. It was like we were a little family. We all seemed so comfortable with each other. Sawyer was fussing and hungry, so T gave him a little bag of pretzels. Little things like that were happening all of the time. It was just natural for us to be together.

T was freezing because she didn't bring a coat. You'd think she'd never been to Florida before.

The whole feeling of family was emphasized by the fact that Kristine reminded me so much of my cousin, Marna. Her mannerisms and her sense of humor are so much like her! I love Marna, so this was a good thing!

We were pretty early, so we got to get a lot of chatting in before the show started. I took one piddly picture because I knew it would be bad.

I was right! But, Kristine took some awesome pictures!

The kids were mesmerized by the show.

When the show was over, it was time to part ways. It was sad to leave all of our friends and not to know when we'd see each other again. Jeanne was holding a sleepy Luke and I was holding a sleepy Tessa. They gave each other a mid-air hug goodbye.

Then, Jeanne hugged Tessa and told her that she loved her. I just about cried. I thought that was so sweet! I really loved her kids, too.

We said goodbyes all around and then we headed off towards the buses. I wasn't looking forward to the long wait I thought we'd have once we got there.

Sawyer was distracted by these cool lights in the sidewalk on our way out.

So, we let him play for a little while.

By the time we got to the buses, the line was pretty long. Stacy and Kristine were up in front of us a ways and I think they were surprised to see us behind them since we had left first!

Shockingly, we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get on the bus. There were 6 buses that came 2 at a time, right after each other. The POP bus system is AWESOME!!!

We got back to the hotel and fell into bed, absolutely exhausted.

Unfortunately, I was in severe gastrointestinal distress ALL night. I felt so sick and I barely got any sleep. I had hoped to meet up with some of the disboutiquers at Hollywood Studios the next day, but it wasn't looking too good for those plans...

Up Next: I can't stay in the hotel room on our last day at Disney!!!!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

What a fun update for today when I'm feeling sick and needed a good pick up. I love re-living it all over again I also never knew that I was an angel but you know that I'm stealing that picture and sending it to my mother!!!

 

[HeatherSue]

Your delay in finishing helped me catch up!! YIPEE!

I love your TR so far. . . my favorite was definitely your tribute to UtahMama, loved it. .. especially since it was a sippy cup Your children are so beautiful. . . love all your outfits too!!

Thanks! I think they're pretty cute, too! UMama's were the first TRs I ever read. So, I felt I needed to do a tribute!

 

[HeatherSue]

What a fun update for today when I'm feeling sick and needed a good pick up. I love re-living it all over again I also never knew that I was an angel but you know that I'm stealing that picture and sending it to my mother!!!

Aw...I'm sorry you're feeling sick. I was not surprised about your angel status, so I'm sure your mother won't be either!

T, on the other hand...total shock!

 

[maroo]

Awesome update!!

It looks like you guys had so much fun!!

This is so encouraging to me...since I plan to do some major DIS meets on my next few trips AND take an actual vacation with people I only know from the DIS (and multiple phone calls, etc...)

Great update! Your kids are SOOOOO cute and their outfits are all just darling!!

Glad to see you back on the DIS and what an awesome update!!!