My first princess turns 8, and I get to see my bestie again!!!

[disneymom1980]

We leave for our trip in 18 days, and I've decided that a pretrip report would be a great way to keep my mood (and my pretrip diet motivation) going . First, I'll explain the title.....although the first part is probably obvious. My DD #1, will be turning 8 on our trip, and we intend to spend the whole week celebrating. She is my little sweetheart and completely into the magic of Disney. Now, to explain the second part of my title. I met one of my best friends in the world over the DIS . We were able to meet up the last time DH and I were in the world (almost 2 years ago), and have been best friends ever since. Unfortunately, she lives half way across the country from me, and we basically only get to talk via facebook, texting, and instant messaging.....thank goodness for technology . She is better known here on the DIS as Girldreamer02, and I'm hoping she'll do some posting here.

Ok, now to introduce the players here. First off, we have myself, my DH Adam, DD #1--the birthday princess otherwise known as Anna, and DD #2 Princess Addyson, usually known as Addy.

DH drives truck, and he's often gone for long periods of time, which the girls and I hate . Vacations are the times we really look forward to because it is the only time we get daddy completely away from work. For the past three years, since DD #2 was born, I have been a stay at home mom. Just this year, I have started subbing in our local school district, mostly to get some adult interaction . DH had never been to Disney before he and I got married, but he is a self admitted convert, and I think he loves it almost as much as I do now.

DD #1 is in second grade this year and loves school. She is basically a mini me, not just in looks but in her attitude and pretty much everything else. She loves dance class and princesses, but I think this trip she's most excited to meet Tinkerbelle.

DD #2 is 3, and she is the spitting image of her daddy, and she has his attitude too.........which throws mommy for a loop sometimes. It often amazes me that two little girls with the same parents could be so completely opposite. Addy is also a princess fan, but her real favorites are Buzz Lightyear and Woody. Last time we went, Addy was only 14 months old, but she was deathly afraid of the characters.......I'm really hoping that we don't have that problem this time.

 

[disneymom1980]

Ok, a little more information this time around. The last time we were at Disney as a family was in October 2008. We also had my mom along on that trip.

DD #2 was only 14 months old though, and, as I said before, she was deathly afraid of all of the characters. Having my mom along was a great help in this regard because they both often needed a nap in the afternoon and DH and I were able to take DD #1 and do more park touring. Plus, I was just glad to be able to take my mom along. She is wonderful, and does so much for us. It was nice to be able to take her on her first real vacation in about 20 years. Ironically enough, the last real vacation she was on was when she took me to Disney for the very first time in 1988 .

This trip was basically a trip where we ran around like crazy trying to get as much in as possible, and, I admit, it kind of took away from some of the fun. At the time, I didn't know how much DH was enjoying it, and I had no idea how long it would be before we'd be able to come back again. Luckily, he loved it too and now has no problem making it our usual destination. I'm really hoping we can just take it a little easier this trip, because that will just make it more pleasant for everyone. I did do a trip report for this visit, and the link is in my signature.

Dh and I's last trip was in January of 2009..........yes, just three months after our family trip. Dh loved it so much in October that he decided we needed what we'd never had.....a honeymoon .

As I said before, my mom is amazing, and she agreed to watch the girls while we went back to Disney. We managed to get in on the buy 4 get 3 free deal for this trip and were able to stay at the Contemporary. This may honestly have been a mistake on our part because now we don't want to stay anywhere else . The location was wonderful, and we couldn't have been happier with the hotel itself.

This trip was a much calmer trip, and the way I hope our upcoming trip will be. We took things much easier and just concentrated on the things we wanted to do, not trying to do everything. We had a wonderful time!