Many reasons to be THANKFUL! Oh, look the baby is crying Nov '12 (THROWBACK FRIDAY!)

[francis6306]

Oh my goodness, I just love this TR! Your girls are so sweet. This has been so much fun to read so far.

Thank you!!!

 

[debrapagliasotti]

I got behind on your TR, but am all caught up now

The Merida M&G area looks so fun! Love how they have archery for the kids to do while waiting.

OH, and the girls dresses -- Minnie & Merida...too cute!

1900 PF bkfst looks fun! We have eaten there once for dinner, but might try bkfst there sometime.

Enchanted Tales with Belle looks neat, but we never did see it in Dec. I will get around to it eventually.

I cant wait for mother/daughter trips either. Harper & I had so much fun in our little time together at HS. I am thinking doing a trip like that in the next few years.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

OH...and yea for Spring Break trip next year!!

 

[francis6306]

I got behind on your TR, but am all caught up now

The Merida M&G area looks so fun! Love how they have archery for the kids to do while waiting.

OH, and the girls dresses -- Minnie & Merida...too cute!

1900 PF bkfst looks fun! We have eaten there once for dinner, but might try bkfst there sometime.

Enchanted Tales with Belle looks neat, but we never did see it in Dec. I will get around to it eventually.

I cant wait for mother/daughter trips either. Harper & I had so much fun in our little time together at HS. I am thinking doing a trip like that in the next few years.

It's fun to catch glimpses of the future when you are with your kids! We had a blast!

I want to try the dinner at 1900!

OH...and yea for Spring Break trip next year!!

I know! I just hope I can make it happen!

 

[jenseib]

Okay people!

My husband JUST said "Why don't we go to Disney for Spring Break?"

Me: Um… That's in two weeks.

DH: Well, why didn't we think about going SB instead of Thanksgiving?

Me: Um… we DID. YOU have to work Baskeball tournaments and weren't sure when we could leave. So we picked TG.

DH: Well… do you KNOW what goes on at Disney during Spring Break?? (while pointing at the TV which is on that little unknown sports network)

Me: (Blank Stare)

DH: NEXT YEAR! We are going to Disney NEXT year on Spring break and I'm going to spend a day at Wide World of Sports and I'm going to Spring Training.

Me: Oh well, if you are going to twist my arm about it….

WooooHoooo! he needs to give my husband some lessons. Well my husband is famous for saying lets go next week. But not for planning a year out!

I love enchanted tales with belle. I was a picture frame too! I forget what Claire was, but it was a filler as well I think. ( I have to go look at my pictures to trigger my memory.)

Mommy/ daughter trips are very nice. We just have a bit more of a free feeling. Dads don't seem to like to browse the shops or do all the girly things.

 

[mommytocalliesue]

Just got caught up!

I will say...girl's trips are the best. In June 2011, just DD and I went (She was 5) and we had the best time!!! At the same time, my SIL and my 3 nieces were also there. We didn't go together...but we did a lot of things together!! We all had a great time!

 

[francis6306]

WooooHoooo! he needs to give my husband some lessons. Well my husband is famous for saying lets go next week. But not for planning a year out!

I love enchanted tales with belle. I was a picture frame too! I forget what Claire was, but it was a filler as well I think. ( I have to go look at my pictures to trigger my memory.)

Mommy/ daughter trips are very nice. We just have a bit more of a free feeling. Dads don't seem to like to browse the shops or do all the girly things.

I'm not quite sure how he keeps coming back to Disney, but I'm glad he does!!! He wants to do other vacations, but he also knows that Disney is just so wonderful that he keeps ending up back to the idea! I'm guessing it's harder for Skip to plan, because he never really knows how the farm is going to be, where as with Corey's job we have very specific times we can travel.

Just got caught up!

I will say...girl's trips are the best. In June 2011, just DD and I went (She was 5) and we had the best time!!! At the same time, my SIL and my 3 nieces were also there. We didn't go together...but we did a lot of things together!! We all had a great time!

I can't wait to find out!! And you know, that's the way to travel with family/friends. Be there, but not up each other's butts all the time!

 

[francis6306]

After we finished up with Belle, we decided to head over to check out the Barnstormer! Since Cortlyn had done so well with Splash Mountain, I wanted to jump on the excitement and show her how much fun roller coasters could be! We grabbed FP's though, because the line was fairly long. Figured, we would do some character meets while we waited! So we headed over to the Big Top and got in line for Minnie and Daisy!

As it turned out, JUST as we got up to meet Daisy, she had to go powder her nose! So we waited. I started practicing with my camera- but I have since learned that it doesn't matter what kind of camera you have, because EVERYONE complains about the lighting in here! Good to know!

So I'll just post the PP pictures, because they turned out MUCH better than mine!

I love this little set up, but I do miss Minnie's red dress! I wish the lighting was better, but I like the overall effect. We skipped the other side. We LOVED the shop that you get dumped into after meeting them. Cortlyn and I enjoyed seeing everything in there. We didn't buy anything though. I'm a hardnose about stuff like that. We don't buy a lot of stuff at Disney! I'm spending enough on the trip! We will eat like kings and queens, but we aren't buying much!!!

Time to head over to Barnstormer!!!

She LOVED it!!! She wanted to ride it again, but Corey had called and said that they were on the way back to the park. We had quite a bit of just "us" time, so it was good to have the whole family back together! We decided to head over to check in a little early for our dinner ressie…

We had a bit of time, so we walked around a little… We decided to get FP's for the LM ride for after dinner. It would be cutting it super close depending on how quickly we were served- would we make it or not??? I walked back over to where Corey and the girls were and took a few pictures…

Then I made a FATAL mistake… So, Cortlyn put on her Belle dress:

And I said "Oh, you look so pretty! I wonder if the Beast will think you are the REAL Belle?" This didn't seem like a big deal… but it would come back to haunt me later!

We had to wait longer than I wanted to wait… but finally we were buzzed and were ready to go inside!!

 

[francis6306]

I was soooo excited!!! We were FINALLY HERE!!! BE OUR GUEST!

We were seated in the most PERFECT spot. In the ballroom- right next to the glass window where the snow was falling. We were just amazed and in complete AWE! Terrible Pictures, but here goes!

I had to go to the bathroom, so while I was there… why not take a few pictures?

We had a wonderful server and she was SO honored to be working there, you could just tell. I wish I had gotten her name! Here is what we ordered!

The steak! OMG, this was ahhhmaazing! My husband said that it was one of the best steaks he has ever had.

Cortlyn wanted steak too, but sadly, it wasn't even close to being half as good as Corey's. It was very blah and the texture was off… She ate it and enjoyed it, but the two just do NOT compare at ALL!

I got the Shrimp and Scallops! The server said that THIS was the best dish and she was NOT lying! It was… completely out of this world!!! My only issue, is that it doesn't have a good side dish. It's in a puff pastry… with a puff pastry side- now how much sense does that make?!!!?

When we had licked our plates clean, our server brought over the dessert cart!

Corey got the Chocolate Creme Puff. He said this was delicious!

I got the Strawberry Cupcake… Which I had to split with two small little kids. Not fair!! It was really good, and the cream filling was perfect!

We finished our meal and there was an issue with the computer system and they couldn't process any payments! Didn't matter how you paid- they couldn't get the system to work! Sigh… I just saw our FP time come and go. Anyway, our server finally came over and gave us our checks.

Then, we went to go meet the Beast! Well… I did… remember that comment I made before Dinner?? Yeah. Cortlyn was scared to death that he would think she was really Belle, and didn't want to meet him! Sigh… Well, I wasn't missing this-

I told Corey that we should just go and CHECK if we could use our FP's a little late. Well… Luck was on our side!!! The ride was down! How was that in our favor?? Well, since the ride was down, they told us that ALL the FP's for after a certain time would be honored, and WE had FPs after that time! WOOHOO!!

I forgot to mention the ONE thing we DID purchase!! OMG!

Okay, so while Cortlyn and I were walking around earlier, she saw those parasols that they paint with names and pictures. Cortlyn had really wanted one of those Mickey Head Balloons, but I wouldn't let her, since we had flown in and those things last forEVER. But I noticed on the parasol, you could get the Mickey Head Balloons PAINTED on the side! So, we ordered one of those. Only problem, was that you couldn't use your KTTW card to pay for it. So, they let us order it, but we had to bring our REAL CC to pay for it- weird!! Anyway, after I dinner (and after checking on our FPs) we ran over to pay for the parasol! They said it would still be a while before they were done and we couldn't get it delivered to our room- FOR SERIOUS?!?! Sigh… so one of us was going to have to stick around until I think 10 or 10:30…

We decided to head back to LM to see if it was up and running yet and it WAS! Woohoo!!

I loved this ride! Ariel is one of our favorites! After this… we were just walking around trying to decide who was going to stay in the park until it was time to pick up the parasol. Corey decided he would, since a former student of his was actually at the park this day too. Cortlyn had said she wanted to stay and watch the Fireworks, so it was decided that I would take Catie back and Corey would keep Cortlyn at the park. Seemed like it would be a good idea… So, we started walking up to the front. By the time we got to the front, THIS was what we saw:

SOMEONE had finally given up the fight and had fallen asleep. I decided if she was sleeping in the stroller, just let her stay asleep. I took Catie and headed to the bus. Corey walked around with the sleeping girl and tried to wake her up for Wishes… but it didn't work. She was passed out cold!!! Oh well, we tried! There is always the NEXT trip!

 

[jenseib]

Love the BOG shots. It's hard to take any pictures there because it is so dark, but so beautiful. Both your meals look great! We had those same desserts too. YUM! Beast wasn't there when we went though. Is that picture added to your photopass then? Or is it only a picture with your camera?

Too funny about Cortlyn falling asleep. I can't beleive it took so long to get the parasol done.

 

[francis6306]

Love the BOG shots. It's hard to take any pictures there because it is so dark, but so beautiful. Both your meals look great! We had those same desserts too. YUM! Beast wasn't there when we went though. Is that picture added to your photopass then? Or is it only a picture with your camera?

Too funny about Cortlyn falling asleep. I can't beleive it took so long to get the parasol done.

It was on my Photopass apparently! I kept looking for it, but it was in my Photopass Album. I think he is hit or miss, but I was happy to have him there when we were there. I KNEW Catie wouldn't be up for it, but I thought it would be so sweet to have the picture of them dancing! I had seen a few pictures of little girls dressed as princesses dancing with the Beast.

 

[emmysmommy]

Christen I'm caught up now! After seeing the new FL now I know what you are describing for Belle's Storytime (fabulous! And awesome that at least Cortlyn got to be a "filler"), Little Mermaid (exact same ride at Disney's CA Adventure that I LOVE!), and BOG!!! Oh my gosh! The ball room is so amazingly beautiful! I had the strawberry cupcake too but I didn't have to share with any little ones!

What a great mommy/daughter day you had with Cort! She's quite the thrill seeker with Splash - the look on her face in the ride photo definitely says, 'bring it on'

Oh, and I completely understand the logic/thought that goes into your snack choices.

 

[francis6306]

Christen I'm caught up now! After seeing the new FL now I know what you are describing for Belle's Storytime (fabulous! And awesome that at least Cortlyn got to be a "filler"), Little Mermaid (exact same ride at Disney's CA Adventure that I LOVE!), and BOG!!! Oh my gosh! The ball room is so amazingly beautiful! I had the strawberry cupcake too but I didn't have to share with any little ones!

What a great mommy/daughter day you had with Cort! She's quite the thrill seeker with Splash - the look on her face in the ride photo definitely says, 'bring it on'

Oh, and I completely understand the logic/thought that goes into your snack choices.

Yay! Glad you got caught up! I feel like I can update again!

I'm SOOO jealous that you got the cupcake all to yourself!!!

 

[francis6306]

A Real Life Land quick update for you all! Today, my sweet Cortlyn had her Tonsils and Adenoids removed. I'm not bragging… Okay, so I am But my kid is a rock star! She is doing GREAT. They kept her a little longer in recovery than usual, because of the size of them. Doctor said that the lung function can change, because the tonsils/adenoids cause such a blockage, so removing them can really effect the lungs. Well, Cortlyn did GREAT and the nurses were amazed at how well she handled everything. She hasn't complained once about pain and has been drinking and eating her soft food great! Now, I just have to figure out how to keep my kid from being active now. She seems to feel fine, but I just worry about her raising her blood pressure and ended up bleeding. Hard to keep the kid down!

Okay, I'm working on uploading my pictures for another update!

 

[francis6306]

OMG. Have I mentioned that I HATE photobucket??? I'm thisclose to ditching it altogether, but I will just wait until this TR is over, because I don't want to have to reload the pictures…. AGAIN. Sigh…. Sadly, I can't get this STUPID website to reorder my pictures!! How annoying!!!

Anyway, So the next day in our trip?? Thursday- THANKSGIVING DAY! This was our down day. I am SO glad that we did this, and I will absolutely do this on our trips in the future. I did it more for Catie, because I didn't know how she was going to handle the go-go-GO of Disney, but honestly, I LOVED it for us!

So, our first order of business was just to explore our own resort. So, we got up and walked over to the Cars Section and looked around. I will just overload you with pictures- but I PROMISE you… NONE of these pictures do it justice. I'm telling you- you will feel like you just walked into the movie! Not sure HOW they did it, but it was amazing!

Cortlyn loved all the Cars characters. I was impressed at how many of them she knew! We don't watch a lot of Cars, but she has seen it a few times.

Corey had Catie and they joined us a little later. Catie loved this area as well

We decided to walk through one of the buildings just to look around a little and I LOVED this little detail:

We walked around the back side along the lake- so pretty!

We came up on our Nemo section and got to enjoy the playground area for the first time! Needless to say- this was a hit!

Sadly, we spent WAY too much time here and it was quickly time to get ready to go for our Thanksgiving Lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe. I figured we'd come back and explore, but sadly, this was it. We NEVER saw the LM or the LK sections. Can you believe that?!?!!? We are just terrible!!!! But it will come… Maybe next trip will land us in the LM section for our vacation??

 

[jenseib]

Yeah for you big girl.
Claire was a trooper too. They kept telling me to expect her to be really down and she was full of energy that day as well.

Love the AoA. Tour. That place is really neat. I did a quick explore too, but I am sad I didn't get more pictures of the place as well.

 

[francis6306]

We made it over to the buses, and there was NOBODY in line. We got in the line for MK, and just about had the whole bus to ourselves when it arrived!

We had explained to Cortlyn that we weren't REALLY going to MK, but it was just a stop on the way to lunch. She was a little bummed we weren't going back. Okay, I'll admit it… I was bummed, too!

We walked over to the boatdock, and apparently we had just missed a boat, because there was no one in the line to the Wilderness Lodge boat either! We had to wait about 15 minutes- not bad, and we had plenty of time before our ressie anyway.

Catie was tired of waiting on the bus and so she tried to sneak off… I suppose she was going to swim to the WL?

Finally, the boat appeared and we loaded on the bus. We decided to sit up front and enjoy the sights!

Again… Catie wanted to go swimming!

If you haven't been on the boats- I really suggest you do it! It was so relaxing to just be coasting around the water like that! And the WL wasn't that far by boat. You could easily go for a quick ride and get back to MK for a small break!

Soon enough we were at WL. This place is BEAUTIFUL! Corey really wants to stay here one day. It is just a perfect location and the decor is just perfect. I would love to book this for our next trip… we'll see! heehee… I have SO many places I want to stay! I didn't get any pictures of the resort, because I was just amazed!

We checked in at Whispering Canyon and we were SO excited!

I had saw a PP Photographer over near the Christmas Tree, so we got a picture. Of course, I wish that he had gotten more of the tree and not just us, but oh well. It was a good picture!

After waiting a little bit and letting the girls play with the Lincoln Logs table, we were taken to our table.

We were in the back of the main dining room, in the corner of the middle section. I thought it was a good location. Our server was from Puerto Rico, and she was apparently new to the whole "thanksgiving meal" but she was a great WC server. She took our drink orders and we let Cortlyn get a Strawberry Milkshake and it was AMAZING! It was good and thick, but still really creamy and icy.

She also brought some of the famous cornbread. This was very yummy, although it was a bite sweeter than more traditional southern cornbread. That did NOT stop me from having WAY more than I needed to have!

We also got the salad. Cortlyn loved this- she is a big salad eater. I thought it was good, but I could take or leave the dressing.

They were serving a Thanksgiving platter, not the regular menu, but that was okay- because it was AWESOME! The Dressing was delish- very moist and had a great herb flavor! The turkey was juicy and tender. The roast beef- which was unexpected- was perfect! We could have had a meal with just that! Corey enjoyed the ham and the green beans were tasty. We enjoyed the mashed potatoes as well and the gravy was in that little orange bowl! My family did NOT want to wait on me to snap all these pictures!

This sweet potato casserole was out of this world! We had TWO servings of this, because we licked the first bowl of it clean…. okay maybe not licked, I mean we WERE in public. But we seriously ate this like it was a flipping dessert.

And not that we care for it, but since it is a staple of Thanksgiving Dinner, this is the cranberry sauce that they brought:

For dessert, what could you have besides a slice of pumpkin pie?!!!?

Overall, this was the PERFECT Thanksgiving meal. The location, the food and the family style was exactly what you want on that day, you know? I am SO glad we were able to get this ressie. Of course, we want to go back, because we want to try the regular menu. As good as this meal was, we can't wait to see what the rest of it tastes!

Of course, we also had a lot of fun! I'm not sure how it happened…. because we didn't ask, but we ended up with ALL the ketchup at our table! haha… Cortlyn was amazed! It was actually the table next to us that wanted the ketchup, but somehow a server appeared at our table with an armfull of ketchup bottles and yelled out "SOMEONE ASKED FOR KETCHUP!" then kids from all over brought their bottles as well. Then a little while later, we hear the "ketchup call" but Cortlyn refused to take any ketchup, so I had to load up all the ketchup and take it to the table.

Cortlyn DID however enjoy the Pony Race! It was adorable to see all these kids running around!

We finished up our meal and had to head back out. We were so sad to leave this beautiful place… I wish we could have just curled up on the couches for naps, but I figured they wouldn't like that! We let the girls run around the bridge and enjoyed the indoor "spring" that they have set up.

 

[francis6306]

Yeah for you big girl.
Claire was a trooper too. They kept telling me to expect her to be really down and she was full of energy that day as well.

Love the AoA. Tour. That place is really neat. I did a quick explore too, but I am sad I didn't get more pictures of the place as well.

We're struggling a little bit more today, but she is still doing great!

I guess it just gives us an excuse to go back, right?? Like either of us "need" an excuse! haha

 

[francis6306]

This next update will be more wordsy than pictures… Sorry about that!

So, after our wonderful meal, we went back to the resort and rested/naps. I think we alllll slept good that afternoon with our full bellies!! That night, we decided to do something a little different for dinner. I had wanted to see the "Boardwalk" area, so we got ready and quickly jumped on a bus to the Magic Kingdom to catch a bus to the Boardwalk! I say quickly, because… we realized when we got to MK that the girls didn't have their jackets! OOPS! We had a back sack that Jen had sent us (Just one of the little gifts we got for using her as our TA for this trip!) that had the jackets inside. It was one of those "I thought YOU had the bag" conversations with Corey. Nobody's fault, it just happened, ya know?

Anyway, can I just say, that the WORSE bus experience came from trying to get to the Boardwalk Inn. It really impacts the idea that I have to stay there one day. It was terrible. They shared with several other resorts, including the Swan and Dolphin. The bus was already more than full, yet people were shoving in to get on the bus. My husband gave up a seat fairly early (because that's the the type of person he is!) and I had Cortlyn and Catie as close to me as possible (well, Catie was on my lap!). People were pleasant, but it was just crowded! Not sure if that's common to be so crowded on those buses.

We finally got to the Boardwalk Inn and we walked into the main lobby area first, just because I wanted to poke my head around in there. I saw their Gingerbread House display. Cute, but not as big the GF.

We headed down to the boardwalk area, and when we walked out, we realized that the girls not having their jackets was going to be a VERY big deal, because the wind off the water was MUCH cooler than when we were over at AoA. We quickly found a shop off the Boardwalk and looked around for jackets for the girls. Of course, there was NOTHING that Cortlyn liked… Seriously- this girl is sooo picky! I think there was ONE that she liked, but they didn't have one large enough for her, so she just refused to pick anything else. Then, I saw a sign that had a "buy this $$, get a blanket for $$." So, basically, if we bought a Jacket for Catie and one other thing, we could get the blanket for I THINK halfprice, which would have been cheaper than buying the jacket and the blanket alone. Well, I'm no fool! Well, okay, maybe I am, since I left my girl's jackets in the hotel room! Anyway, we let Cortlyn pick out a cute little Minnie Mouse pen, a Minnie hoodie for Catie and bought the blanket for Cortlyn to wrap up in the stroller.

I felt MUCH better about my kids once they had something to keep them warm!

Anyway, we walked around a little bit,enjoying some of the "street performers" and dodging the surrey bikes (which look like SO much fun!!). We went back and forth on what we were going to eat for dinner. We finally decided on just grabbing something from the Bakery, but I wish we had gone with the Pizza instead. It wasn't that great and none of us were impressed with what we had. Corey and I split a Turkey Club and the turkey was just really bland. The bread was tasty and it could have been a good sandwich, but… it wasn't. I think we had some chips that came with it and a drink.

We got the girls a turkey and cheese sandwich, that was actually on a bun. Again… nothing special and rather bland. They also got a cup of applesauce.

Catie could have fun anywhere though…

So, then we decided that we'd take a boat somewhere and head back to AoA. Except, I wasn't thinking well… We saw a boat arrive for EPCOT, so we just jumped on that boat. As it was taking off I gasped and said "Oh NO! Corey! this boat goes to the BACK entrance to EPCOT!" We only had 5 day tickets, so it would cost us money to get off there. I was so upset at myself for messing that up! Anyway, the CM at first said we'd HAVE to get off the boat and wait in whatever line was at EPCOT to get on another boat. Well… we got to EPCOT (And the girls were LOVING the ride by the way!) and there was another family that had messed up like us, so the CM's just let us stay on the boat and go back to the BWI. We made it over to the dock again, and then proceded to the bus stop at BWI.

I don't like the bus set up at the Deluxe Resorts! They don't have a "line" set up, so there was people rushing to get on the overcrowded bus and we had to go to other resorts again. I think I have decided that if we stay at BW or the BC in the future, we will have to have a car so I don't have to deal with those buses. Unless you guys convince me otherwise! Anyway, we got back to MK and hopped on our AoA bus (which was much less crowded!) and back to our resort so we could rest for our last park day…

 

[francis6306]

So, a real life update… Cortlyn was doing GREAT with her surgery, until Thursday night. She started to really complain about her throat hurting and we had a rough night of sleep.

Well, (WARNING- Medical Yuckiness to follow!) Friday morning, poor thing had started coughing up blood- she had a blood clot form on the lefthand side and it basically exploded. So, off to the ER and long story short, we ended up right back in the OR with her doctor going back into re-cauterize the area. She is back to doing great, but it is going to delay her recovery a bit!

Thoughts and prayers are always appreciated!