My better late than never TR

[CanadianWDWfan]

What did I hear? No turkey, I would just cry. I guess it's fine since you don't really like it anyway. Too bad about the oven. Maybe Santa can bring her a new one....

I agree, its better than dirty taste.

sunny_stace - So happy, it's all sorted out.
I wanted to get a Travel & Tourism degree, my dream was to be a flight attandant. I was enrolled in classes for August and I found out I was pregnant with DS in July. OOps, my bad. I love him so much, he is by no means a mistake. He is a gift from God. I decided it wasn't meant to be. It will always be my what if...

 

[MeMom]

My Mom called tonight to tell me that they had arrived home from Florida to find a dead oven so we will not be having Turkey this year. Hmm, will be interesting but honestly, I don't really love turkey so it doesn't matter to me.

Do you have Honeybaked Ham stores there? They have incredible turkey!

Of course, whatever you have - ham, turkey, chicken, meatloaf, tacos, even tuna - you're blessed to have food, family, friends, and fun, so it's all good!

I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving Day! I probably will not be back over here before we leave, so I'll check in whenever we get back.

 

[kschafer]

What did I hear? No turkey, I would just cry. I guess it's fine since you don't really like it anyway. Too bad about the oven. Maybe Santa can bring her a new one....

sunny_stace - So happy, it's all sorted out.
I wanted to get a Travel & Tourism degree, my dream was to be a flight attandant. I was enrolled in classes for August and I found out I was pregnant with DS in July. OOps, my bad. I love him so much, he is by no means a mistake. He is a gift from God. I decided it wasn't meant to be. It will always be my what if...

I talked with my Mom yesterday and she said they will be getting a new one soon but she wants an electric flattop and they currently have gas so they need to get an electrician in to make the hookup switch and it just won't be done before next week.

I never really had a "I've always wanted to be a..." And was alway jealous of those who did. I sort of followed my heart and opportunities. I have often wondered if I could start all over again, where would I dream of ending up and tourism is on that list. It's a hidden talent I didn't realize I had soon enough, Oh Well!. Like you said, it wasn't meant to be.

Do you have Honeybaked Ham stores there? They have incredible turkey!

Of course, whatever you have - ham, turkey, chicken, meatloaf, tacos, even tuna - you're blessed to have food, family, friends, and fun, so it's all good!

I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving Day! I probably will not be back over here before we leave, so I'll check in whenever we get back.

We don't have a Honeybaked Ham store. Mom said we are having chicken paprikash (proably spelled that wrong ) and spatzle, yummy!

DH decided he does want to make Thanksgiving dinner later that weekend at home. Both of my brothers will be headed off to their in-laws and get the traditional dinner there so they will probably enjoy something different. I don't have in-laws so we are on our own. (Actually, I HAVE in-laws, we just don't talk to them and I am certainly NOT going there for a holiday, you only make that mistake once! )

I hope your holiday with Mickey is a great one! Can't wait to hear all about it.

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

See your Mom will get a new oven for Xmas.... I hoped she would.

So, I guess you are cooking a turkey after all for your DH. Memom is right, as long as you are with family it doesn't matter what you eat. Thanksgiving Tacos has a ring to it! I hope you are planning to have pie?

I've had "Honeybaked ham" before when I lived in Auburn, FANTASTIC, very good.

I still miss my MIL's pecan pie, deep fried turkey and spiral ham on Thanksgiving.

 

[sunny_stace]

sunny_stace - So happy, it's all sorted out.
I wanted to get a Travel & Tourism degree, my dream was to be a flight attandant. I was enrolled in classes for August and I found out I was pregnant with DS in July. OOps, my bad. I love him so much, he is by no means a mistake. He is a gift from God. I decided it wasn't meant to be. It will always be my what if...

I never really had a "I've always wanted to be a..." And was alway jealous of those who did. I sort of followed my heart and opportunities. I have often wondered if I could start all over again, where would I dream of ending up and tourism is on that list. It's a hidden talent I didn't realize I had soon enough, Oh Well!. Like you said, it wasn't meant to be..

You never know! I originally started going through school to become a teacher! But my best friend from highschool was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer and since she and I were like sisters, I didn't want to be away at school. So I dropped out of university and got a job. I knew I wanted to continue my schooling but I was having a little crisis of faith, so I chose something I was always interested in but never really persued. I chose travel and tourism as my major and started taking college through distance education so I could work around my life and not have a rigid schedule to stick to. About 2 years later I graduated and since she had passed away, I moved across the country to start working in a hotel...as a housekeeper. It was one of the worst jobs I ever had and I lasted a month!!! People are gross! So I started working in a book store and got very interested in children's books specifically. After about 6 months I came back home and got another job in a bookstore and specialized in children's and young adult fiction. It was a job I never thought I would leave! I was moving up in the company and making lots of good contacts, but then it stalled when upper managment changed and I was stuck in a job that wasn't going anywhere.
And then another unexpected event turned things around again! My step-dad passed away last October and that inspired me to start looking for bigger things. I got a job in a hotel as a front desk agent and in the past 10 months have been promoted twice! I have learned that once I start planning my life, something happens to turn it upsidedown!
Turns out I have found my niche in the hotel industry and am hoping for a long career in the field. But who knows! I'm only 27 and could change careers many more times before I retire!

And then you have someone like my aunt who also always dreamed of being a flight attendant, and now that her kids are grown she is beginning to explore the option. She's in her early 50's and spent her life working with disabled children. You never know what that Big Guy has planned for ya! As long as you're happy, I'd say you're in a good place.

Thanksgiving Tacos - I love it! Last year we had Thanksgiving Panzarotti with traditional garlic bread and M&M's cheesecake for dessert! But MeMom hit the nail on the head.

 

[kschafer]

So, I guess you are cooking a turkey after all for your DH. Memom is right, as long as you are with family it doesn't matter what you eat. Thanksgiving Tacos has a ring to it! I hope you are planning to have pie?

I still miss my MIL's pecan pie, deep fried turkey and spiral ham on Thanksgiving.

Oh your menu sounds wonderful!! Yes, I am making a pumpkin pie tonight to bring to my Mom's house. I will also make a pecan pie for our dinner this weekend

Thanksgiving Tacos!

You never know what that Big Guy has planned for ya! As long as you're happy, I'd say you're in a good place.

But MeMom hit the nail on the head.

Sounds like you had quite a route to your current job. I have also come a long ways around to return to working at the college I attended. I love my job now and am very happy. Yep, the big guy sometimes gives us a few twists, turns and speed bumps but hopefully we all end up where we belong.

That MeMom, she sure knows what she's talking about! I hope she has a great week.

 

[kschafer]

Day 9 – Tuesday, June 17

We gave ourselves permission to sleep in a bit this morning, have breakfast and take our time finishing the packing and loading the van. Mom gave us a bunch of food that was still in the house (snacks, cereal, milk, juice, etc). The plan for the day was to check in at OKW knowing our room would probably not be ready but we could get our keys, activate the dining plan and get our free parking pass (why pay another $11?)

We finally left around 10:30 and easily found our way to OKW. As suspected, our room wasn’t ready but we got all checked in and left for DHS. My first mission was to get fastpasses for ToT and RnR. The one advantage of having kids who don’t want to ride these is we could use their tickets to get FP’s for both at the same time for DH and I to use. We stopped for some lunch at Rosie’s Café. My younger brother and his family were also at DHS for their last day so we met for lunch

The view from where we sat

A photo stop outside of Brown Derby

We didn’t have any serious plans for today so we set out to see what we wanted to do. TSMM standby was over 100 minutes and we couldn’t get fastpasses yet. So we wandered a bit. These guys were marching along then stopped and sent some "new recruits" through boot camp. It was really cute

There was a Playhouse Disney show coming up so we went and got in line. It was really fun again except Patrick got some bubbles in his eye, ouchy!

At this point, we went again to TSMM to see about getting fastpasses and they were all gone for the day. Standby was 150 min, yikes! It was getting to be our fastpass time so Greg and the boys went off in search of smashed pennies to add to their collection while I went to ride. Looking back on it, I should have told them to go do Light, motors, action or Indiana Jones because even with the fastpasses, I was gone over 1 hour! I had been anticipating ToT almost more than anything else and it was really fun but I wish it had been a little longer. RnR was AWESOME!! It ended up being my favorite ride in all of WDW.

Stopped and got a solo photopass pics

By the time I got back to Greg and the boys, they were enjoying the afternoon parade. We has 3:40 ADR’s at Mama Melroses so Greg unfortunately could not use his fastpasses. We SLOWLY made our way there (not easy to do when the parade is stopped). We arrived to find Daniel had fallen asleep in the stroller and he napped through almost all of dinner. A little food porn…

Tomatoes and Mozerella

Cesar Salad

Pork Marsala

Patrick's salmon, pasta with white sauce and fruit

And Tiramisu

I must admit I was a bit disappointed. The food looks wonderful but it was not a great meal nor was the service, it was just OK. We had stopped and grabbed FP’s for Indiana Jones before dinner but ended up being there longer than we anticipated and arrived 5 or 10 minutes after the show began and were not allowed in. So we decided to go to the backlot and play a bit.

And take a few pics

 

[kschafer]

Next we wandered over to One Man’s Dream. I didn’t actually plan on visiting this but we were at a bit of a loss as to how to kill time before Fantasmic. The shows were all done for the day, the boys weren’t interested in several rides and standby lines were too long for the rides they did want to ride. This is a WONDERFUL attraction. If you have never been in here, you absolutely should! Yes, it’s a “museum” but done so well

Check out Walt's initials carved into his desk

A funny thing happened toward the end of our visit here. We decided to skip the movie but we were standing outside of the theater talking to some CM’s and Patrick wandered off out of our sight. Soon we heard his voice over the sound system and turned to find he had opened the box and was talking into the microphone. The CM’s were incredibly nice about it, I was mortified! Later I got thinking about it and realized, there are SO MANY places for people to play with computers and speak into microphones, he assumed this was one of them.

Next we went over to the Magic of Disney Animation. I thought the little skit was cute, the boys enjoyed it. Then we checked out the exhibits.

I haven’t seen this movie yet but this attraction really got me interested. I’m certain Santa will be putting it under our tree this year.

Then we went to say hi to the big guy. Daniel wasn’t too impressed.

We played a bit (with the computers and microphones!) and I discovered that Patrick is Lumiere and I am Tinkerbelle, both fitting comparisons.

At this point my memory is a bit fuzzy but we must have decided to head over to get our seats for Fantasmic and stopped to get our picture taken. I love the lighting in this picture!

We brought along our glow jewelry of course. Greg and Daniel waiting for it…

The WAVE

I know lots of people rant about how annoying this is but the boys had never seen it before and got such a kick out of it. The joy on their faces was enough to overcome the dreaded act. Plus, it was a good time killer while we waited. We were a bit nervous about whether the show would go or not because there was lightning off in the distance but finally the show began

Fantasmic is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I absolutely loved it. I don’t have many pictures because we were just soaking in the experience. The boys did get a bit scared during the nightmare part but the ending SO makes up for it.

I like the Steamboat Willie Mickey!

This was the one major “event” that Greg did not video so I decided to watch it on YouTube the other night and it just brought tears to my eyes. This show is a must see from now on!

After the show ended we followed the masses out of the park to call it a night. We had a full MK day planned for tomorrow and as much as I would have liked to savor the lights of Hollywood Boulevard, we thought it was best to hit the sack.

As we were leaving, it occurred to me that this was the first park I was walking out of for the last time on this trip. I felt very sad because we didn’t see the backlot tour, LMA or IJ; all things I had wanted to do plus Greg missed out on ToT and RnR. This is when it really sank in that this trip wasn’t going to be EVERYTHING I had hoped for and I needed to just relax and enjoy the time we had.

 

[sunny_stace]

That is a lovely photo of your family, the one by Mickey's hat. The lighting is perfect! You should definately have one framed! Isn't Fantasmic fantastic! I do tear up towards the end....not like Wishes mind you but still pretty awesome! Oh I can't wait to ride RockNRoller Coaster! It was closed last September when we were there.

 

[punkin413]

ray and i didn't enjoy mama melrose as much as i thought we would, either. bummer about IJ and LMA. but there's always next time! try not to get too disappointed - no trip ever turns out exactly as planned! i think that's the good thing about WDW: you always have an excuse to go back!

i love fantasmic, too. actually, it's my second favorite behind wishes. ray just LOVES it. he even knows the moves that mickey does! i love the finale - when mickey's on the mountain top shooting off fireworks i just get goosebumps and tear up!!! i even have it on my myspace page. go here to watch it if you want to. it's just below the picture of the princesses making faces.

http://www.myspace.com/punkin76

 

[kschafer]

That is a lovely photo of your family, the one by Mickey's hat. The lighting is perfect! You should definately have one framed! Isn't Fantasmic fantastic! I do tear up towards the end....not like Wishes mind you but still pretty awesome! Oh I can't wait to ride RockNRoller Coaster! It was closed last September when we were there.

There is another picture from the next morning that I also love because of the wonderful natural lighting. I bought an 8x10 Disney frame that I was going to put 1 picture into but after I got my photopass pics, I couldn't decide which was my favorite so I took 4 pictures (1 in front of each parks icon) and made a collage out of them.

For me, Fantasmic rivals wishes, I cried like a baby at both. Happy tears of course!

RnR is SO great!! Think of me while you ride OK Maybe I'll feel your happy vibes.

ray and i didn't enjoy mama melrose as much as i thought we would, either. bummer about IJ and LMA. but there's always next time! try not to get too disappointed - no trip ever turns out exactly as planned! i think that's the good thing about WDW: you always have an excuse to go back!

i love fantasmic, too. actually, it's my second favorite behind wishes. ray just LOVES it. he even knows the moves that mickey does! i love the finale - when mickey's on the mountain top shooting off fireworks i just get goosebumps and tear up!!! i even have it on my myspace page. go here to watch it if you want to. it's just below the picture of the princesses making faces.

http://www.myspace.com/punkin76

I was bummed about missing them but really I learned that you can't do it all and to savor the moments and assume you'll be back. I had read all kinds of hidden touches before I left and never took the time to look for them. Next time I will plan on just doing what I can and soaking in the moment.

So funny, I would love to see Ray moving with Mickey!

Great myspace page! thanks for sharing

**************************

Well gang, this will likely be my last check in for a couple days. I have some errands to run this morning then we are headed to my parents house this afternoon and I still have to pack for me and the boys.

To my American friends, I hope you enjoy your turkey, ham or chicken paprikash but most of all you enjoy the company of those you love and remember all the things you are thankful for.

To my Canadian friends, I hope you are thankful too even without a holiday to remind you.

This past year has had lots of ups and downs but I am thankful for the health of my family, a new job that I love, the chance to go to WDW with my family and the opportunity to meet all kinds of great people who I consider friends on the Dis.

Happy Thanksgiving, I'll be back on Friday.

Katie

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU! I hope you have a great visit with your family. Be safe. See you when you return.

 

[sunny_stace]

Hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving, no matter what you wind up having for dinner! Enjoy your time together. For now I'm thankful to have your holiday off tomorrow (taking a time owed day! ), for my pizza, my laptop, and my Aladdin DVD (I'm on a Disney movie binge!)

And I will definately think of you while I ride RnR, esp. since my first trip on it should be on your birthday! I think we're gonna hit the Studios on Sunday since MK is only open til 7pm for MVMCP (which we have later in the week).

 

[kschafer]

Oh, I've had Dis withdrawls the last couple days. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Ours was fun even if a bit unconventional.

I saw James one day last week and taught him a little something to tease my brother (not his dad, my other brother). I say to James "Aunt Katie" and he claps his hands. Then I say "Uncle Joe" and he shakes his head. HEE HEE. He performed all weekend with that little trick, too funny!

My 2 SIL's and I put the kids to bed Wed night and went shopping. After shopping we went back to my parents and Shelby and I decided we were hungry and decided to run to McDonalds but then on the way decided that we could go to applebees and get drinks instead so we had a couple hurricanes and appetizers and hung out, it was so fun.

I went shopping on Thanksgiving too then of course was up at 4:30 this morning to hit the big sales. It was crowded, crazy and awesome! I love the day after Thanksgiving and day after Christmas shopping, way fun! I got a bunch of christmas presents and a few things for myself too.

I'll be working on an update tonight and should have it posted tomorrow. We will have a busy weekend with our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and we always put up our tree this weekend. Then I have Disney on Ice on Sunday and a birthday dinner with my friend. It's not Disney but will have to do for this year.

Stacy, are you all packed and ready to go?

MeMom, I hope you are having a great time.

I can't wait to hear all about both of your trips!

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

Yeah! you got to do alot of shopping and have a little "girl time". 4:30am now that's dedication and a bit of crazy mixed in.
You have a full weekend ahead of you, I hope you enjoy Disney on Ice. I'm going in March, it seems so far away.

 

[kschafer]

Yeah! you got to do alot of shopping and have a little "girl time". 4:30am now that's dedication and a bit of crazy mixed in.
You have a full weekend ahead of you, I hope you enjoy Disney on Ice. I'm going in March, it seems so far away.

HA, I'm just a little dedicated, DH left by 3:00 am to go to Des Moines so he could hit the bigger stores! It was a lot of fun because I went by myself and everything I was buying could fit in a basket so I was able to maneuver quickly around all the larger groups with carts

I checked my bank account this morning and realized I made a boo boo I paid for everything with my debit card and forgot it comes out of a different account than where my paycheck is deposited. Luckily I get charged a transfer fee per day and not per transaction!!

 

[kschafer]

Day 10 – Wednesday, June 18

Despite the late night we had with Fantasmic last night, we were up and out of the hotel early enough to get to rope drop at MK. We got to TTC and decided to take the ferry this morning. What we didn’t realize was that the first ferry doesn’t leave quite early enough to make it on time for RD. Oh well. The very friendly CM had chalk and invited people to sign the sidewalk so Patrick decided to leave his name.

Daniel even got a start on his name (but all he knows is “D” for Daniel)

A nice view on the way to MK.

I think the ferry is overlooked because the monorail is faster but I have fond memories of riding it as a kid and was excited about taking my boys on it. They thought it was really fun. Worth the little extra time in my mind.

We made our way up Main St and stopped to take some pics. I love the way this turned out.

And we got a great photopass here too.

The castle stage show was going on. We didn’t exactly stop to watch but I caught a few pieces of it here and there over the 3 days we were in MK and it looks like it is pretty cute. Honestly, I am not a princess kind of girl so skipping these types of things doesn’t bother me too much.

First goal this morning was tomorrowland. The exact order we did things is fuzzy but we got in Buzz Lightyear. Cute and fun but I think having done TSMM already spoiled me for this one. Patrick is so funny sometimes!

We went to the Laugh Floor comedy club. Patrick SO wanted to be picked to be onscreen but no luck. We also rode on Astro Orbiter. I liked this more than I thought I would because the view from up there is really nice.

I had plans to ride TTA and CoP but wanted to wait for when we needed a break. Unfortunately, we never made it back. We decided to grab an early lunch at Cosmic Ray’s. It was very good and like most, I loved the toppings bar! I ended up giving my dessert to a family next to us because I couldn’t eat everything!

Now, despite my complete lack of desire to ride the speedway, once my boys saw this, it was all over! The boys of course steered which they thought was great fun and they got drivers licenses too.

A helpful hint. The line here is long and slow. You begin in a single line then split into 2. The right line goes up a ramp then turns right around and back down to the loading area. The left ramp goes up, crosses over the tracks then back down. We took the right lane thinking it was shorter and therefore the better choice, wrong! There are 4 rails. The first rail was being saved for those in the handicapped lane so everyone who went right like us, loaded on the second rail. Everyone who took the left line had farther to get to the loading area but then were split among the 3rd and 4th rails and went much faster! OK, that was a complicated way to say, if you notice the 1st rail being loaded only from the handicapped area, stay to the left and you will get on faster.

OK, as I write this, it feels like we didn’t accomplish much on this day but by this time we were hot, still tired from our late night before and planning on another late night tonight. Having learned from our first MK day when we stayed too late in the afternoon and never made it back, we decided to go cool off and nap back at OKW. We found the talking Goofy statue on the way out and a gentleman was kind enough to take a picture of the whole family.

We also stopped and got a few photopass pics on the way out

We found ourselves back at OKW by around 1:30 and we had 4:30 ADR’s so everyone fell asleep for a couple hours and got ready for another late night. Up next: Kona Café and MK after dark.

 

[Megablocks]

I saw James one day last week and taught him a little something to tease my brother (not his dad, my other brother). I say to James "Aunt Katie" and he claps his hands. Then I say "Uncle Joe" and he shakes his head. HEE HEE. He performed all weekend with that little trick, too funny!

That's too funny!

I've had a hard time getting on the Dis between work and school and Thanksgiving, but I'm all caught up now. I'm definitely going to put One Man's Dream on my to-do list for February, it looks great.

I hope that Santa brings you Wall-E. I saw it in the theater with my boyfriend, his brother, and his sister-in-law, and it was SO cute!

That's so cool that you got up really really early to go shopping. I went out with my dad around noon, and he was disappointed that he didn't have to fight for a parking spot--we parked like eight cars back from the Kohls entrance. Then I went out with my sister later on for some more shopping and dinner, and the crowds weren't bad at all. Maybe next year I will get up really early and go shopping in Boston or something.

 

[sunny_stace]

I'm so glad I got to see an update before I leave! I love the photo of you guys around the Goofy statue! It's hard to believe that at this time tomorrow I'll be there! But I better hurry off! Just got home from work and have to shower and all that...airbus comes at 1:30am...

Have the BEST BIRTHDAY tomorrow and I can't wait to catch up when I get home! Enjoy Disney on Ice and take pics for us!

 

[Happy Elf]

Great pictures! I love the one with Goofy!