Well let me just say a big hearty

for reading! I thought for sure that I would be writing and writing and no one would stop by! I'm not that frequent to the DIS boards and don't post a whole lot, so I didn't know if anyone would actually care about what I was writing. So, Thanks!
When I first started to write this, I thought I would just give a little bit of background on our cast and our prior trips, and now as I look back I hope I haven't bored anyone who was hoping to start reading a pre-trip report about a Thanksgiving 2007 Disney Trip, and instead got a bunch of strangers from the 70's and 80's on their computer screens! I do want to post a report on our last trip (Jan of 2006) as it was so pitiful, (shamelessly asking for pity readers) but I have one more trip to highlight before the "disney disease" trip and before I start the pre-trip for this trip! So, on with the trip before the trip before this pre-trip! Got that? Ok.
Our family had not been on a family vacation to Disney since that lovely 1980's trip, so fast forward about 16 years to the year 2002, and now I'm married with a little boy (14 months old), my sister is married with 3 girls (ages 2, 4, and 6) and my brother is also married but with no kids yet!
We took a mostly unplanned quick trip to the world in May of 2002 and had such a good time. I say "mostly unplanned" as we (my Mom and I) were headed to Orlando for some training on the accounting software we were purchasing for work. We thought "hey, why don't we see if the guys (hubby and step-dad) want to go" and called my sister who lives in GA to see if they could meet us there for the weekend as well! My brother and his wife unfortunately had other plans that they couldn't change. So, our 1st family trip since the 1980s was born! Bonus that the company pretty much paid for the lodging and the tickets, since we purchased everything throught the convention!
We headed to Orlando and me, mom, hubby, and step-dad along with the baby had one day at MGM, then Mom and I spent 3 days in training (while the guys stayed at the pool and went to Sea World one of the days), then my sister and her crew joined us and we did the MK and Epcot each for a day, then we left to go back to VA and my sister and her family stayed on and spent the last day of our 4-day conference tickets at the AK.
See? Short little synopsis, wasn't it? Here are a couple of pictures from that trip, for your perusement!
Mom with DS at MGM - he loved his umbrella backpack!
We didn't have a plan - so we just caught the tail-end of the parade at MGM!
Tuckered out!
While mom and I went to our convention, the guys took the baby and went to SeaWorld. I don't have too many pics but here are two I found:
Ok, so the girls got there, and the fun truly began! Here they are at the hotel right after getting there.
They're so little!

Where does the time go?
(If you've been keeping up since the beginning, these are "Belle" - 6 at the time, "Happy" - 4 at the time, & "Sleeping Beauty" -2 at the time - nieces).
These two are 6 and 7 years old now! They grow up soooo fast!
Ok, so the first few days of our trip (MGM and conference days) were really nice temperature-wise - low 80's. Then, on the first day of being together - our MK day - WHAMO! It felt like 100 + degrees outside!

It was a weeee bit hot!
Mom and two of my nieces (ages 4 and 6) on Dumbo! Right after this picture was taken, the ride took off, and it started to downpour! They brought all the elephants down, but by then, we were all drenched! I was riding with my son and my brother-in-law and all 6 of us from Dumbo were soaking wet! Not fun! My husband, step-dad, and sister and youngest niece had taken cover and were perfectly dry! Great!
Mad Hatter and Alice! I remember that these two were really great!
The girls were in awe!
Niece (2), Brother-in-law, Husband, Son (1) in between Haunted Mansion and Fantasyland, I believe.
Our Epcot day was next. It was raining, so the park was totally empty when we got there. We ended up not doing a lot (shocker) (Shh, we didn't know what we were doing!) We did eat at the Garden Grill which was fun:
Worms in dirt, I believe!
1st meeting with the mouse!
I believe he was dancing in the aisles with the girls - they loved it!
I don't think my son was too sure about this encounter!
Last but certainly not least!
So that was 2002. Up next, the Trip Before This Trip... and it wasn't pretty!
Sara