TRIP REPORT STARTS HERE!!!
**If you are just joining us, you may want to read my first post. It details who went on this trip. Furthermore, all of my updates in the pre-trippie are linked in the first post.**
Tuesday, Nov. 20th ~
We pulled the last number off the count-down calendar! Here it is all blank!!! Yippee!!!
Close-up of the last 2 days ~ the ones we had to modify when we added 2 days onto the trip. We were originally going to leave for WDW on Friday the 23rd but I, being the smart person that I am, decided we should leave on Wed. and drive to Tampa to have Thanksgiving with my mom and step-dad. Then we could head to WDW on Friday, arriving much earlier than originally planned and have extra park time!
Here is the middle row of seats in the car. Evan and Owen will call this area home for the trip to Florida! Note the Mickey DVD player!
They also have their activity bags in the pockets in front of them.
Here is Abby’s domain for the trip! She likes the way back seat so she can spread out and make a mess. I wish I had taken a picture but alas I did not… she puts up a barrier between herself and her brothers with a blanket ~ a privacy curtain of sorts! It’s funny. Anyway… here is her stuff before she’s gotten to it.
So, we were all packed and ready to go and it’s about 11 pm. Now… how in the world do we manage to sleep? I got the kids to bed around 9 and Abby went to sleep but the boys were still awake!
This is unheard of in our house. Not ever – even on Christmas Eve – have my boys had trouble falling asleep. They were chatting up a storm, getting up for water, getting up to go potty, climbing into bed with each other.
Tom and I went to bed anyway, hoping they would give up soon. I must have fallen asleep pretty quickly (gotta love these meds I’m taking for my ankle) because those two monkeys woke me up at 12:45! I marched in there and told them they better go to sleep or we wouldn’t be able to get up to go in the morning and Gramma and Mickey would be so sad. I didn’t hear anything after that until the alarm went off at 5 am.
Wednesday, Nov. 21st ~
So the alarm went off at 5 and I jumped up, hit the snooze and started getting ready to go. Tom got up when the alarm went off again. At 5:30 he asked when I was going to wake up the kids. I answered in a few minutes. He snapped at me, “We are running out of time!” I started laughing! I said, “You sound like Eyeore!” Then in my Eyeore voice, “Why should we even bother? It’s getting late. Might as well stay home.” He started laughing too – thank goodness because that could’ve gone either way! I figured he was right though and I should wake the kids. They got up pretty quickly. We rushed around a bit more and were all in the car at 6:00 am as planned!
Here’s a shot of the back of my wagon all suffed.
Here’s a shot of the kids looking sleepy but ready to go!
And we were off!
Pulled out the driveway at 6:08 (after Tom went back in the house twice to check stuff – he cannot help it.
)
We were making great time and before we knew it we were approaching South Carolina and this place:
Pedro’s.
Not long after that I realized I hadn’t given Owen any Dramamine. Uh-oh. He does okay for the first several hours but then he starts feeling really icky. We’d better stop and get some, but where? Ah… I pull out my coveted red folder and retrieve “The List”. Yeah, you know the one… the one that my husband made fun of me for printing… the one that tells me what is to be found at every exit all the way to Orlando! I proudly proclaim that at the exit after the next one there is a TA truckstop… sure to have Dramamine. And this is when it happened…….. my dear, loving husband said, “That sure is a handy list you got there!” LO AND BEHOLD…. Redemption!
Thank you, thank you very much!!!
So we pulled in there, filled up the tank (even though we didn’t really need to but since we’re stopping, why not), went inside for a bathroom break, found some Dramamine (yikes! 2 pills for like 3 bucks! It’s cheaper when you plan ahead… oh well.) and we were southward bound once again!
South Carolina takes forever to get through but it’s a pretty drive mostly. We were glad to see this though!:
Hi DisneyDad, DisneyMom, DisneyKids and Leger too!!!
Tom drove until around 3, I think. Then we stopped at a rest area and he asked me to take over for awhile. I got the pleasure of driving through construction.
Ick. It wasn’t too bad and it didn’t slow us down too much. Until we got into Florida. (BTW... Florida doesn't welcome you with a sign... what's up with that?) There were right lane closures as we needed to get off and start to head west. We weeded through that, then there was an accident on US 10 that slowed us down for a bit. Then we had to go south on a 4 lane highway through Gainesville and eventually get onto 75 to go south to Tampa. I hate this part of the drive!
It just feels like you are going slow motion after having been on the interstate all day. We were timing ourselves because we’ve wondered if it would be just as quick to stay on 10 all the way to 75 even though it takes you farther west than you need to go and then you swing back eastward toward Tampa. Anyway… like ya’ll care! So we finally get to 75 and it is a parking lot! Welcome to the Day before Thanksgiving Traffic, I guess!
We never did see much reason for the slow down but it went on for several miles and took forever to get through!
We finally got to my mom’s much later than we were hoping. I think it was around 6:30. Day one was a looooong one!
Thursday, Nov. 22nd ~ Thanksgiving!
We spent the holiday relaxing and stuffing ourselves, how else?
Here’s Evan relaxing:
Here is Abby and Owen relaxing with some coloring:
Here is Tom and the kids relaxing and fishing:
This guy was hoping for a hand-out:
Owen caught his first fish ever!!! He was so proud! Evan also caught a turtle but I didn’t take a picture because I felt sorry for the turtle!
That wraps up the first 2 days of our trip. Tomorrow morning we head to Disney World!!!
Can I just say: Dang! It got cold up here while we were gone! Brrrrrrrrr!
I have so much catching up to do on the boards! I had 136 e-mails!
I am upset at photopass! We signed on the site today to load our cards and we discovered that there are pictures missing. Most importantly our picture at 
But that's the best kind! 
