PTR; Joshua and Samantha's 1st Trip (Sep 17-26 '09) [Train Tour Pics!]

[crocko]

What a fun trip!!! I love all of the pictures. Your kids are adorable. Oh--and I finally made it up to see my parents in Moore...they live near Emmaus (spelling?) Baptist Church... I'm sure you know where that is. And I forgot...will your family be in Jambo House? Our trips are coming up soon!!

We will be over in the new Kidani Village. From pics it looks very nice...so, excited about giving it a try.

Wow, look at Samantha's hair!

No kidding. At the time, I don't think she realized what was happening, but she laughed a lot when she saw her picture later.

Looks like a wonderful time!!!!! Great pictures, I love the one with the hair.

yep -- we almost missed that part...glad we eventually found it.

 

[stacikristine]

Yes--Kidani Village looks gorgeous! My aunt is staying there early in September. I can't wait to hear how she likes it!

 

[crocko]

continuing St. Louis trip...

Monday -- last full day together before Bridgette had to go do work stuff.

Morning was planned as a good time to go hit the St. Louis zoo. We got there right about 8:00am so we could get into the Children's Zoo during the hour in which it was still free. One of the buildings had some cute stuff.


Joshua the vet

We also found a cool jeep -- we referred to it as the Diego truck.

Joshua discovered this, where you could actually get right up underneath some frogs....he was a little intimidated, though

A little farther on, we came across some alpacas. As you look at this picture you make think what a cute little animal this is....it even appears to be smiling. But take a closer look at that smile....I think this animal has tricks up its sleeve. Don't trust the smile, people....don't trust the smile.

Caught off guard by the alpacas' "cuteness", we didn't realize that a whale was sneaking up behind us.......uh oh. Looks like we've been swallowed.

We got out of that fiasco, though, but then Joshua goes and gets swallowed by a hippo. Sheesh!

Samantha does not look excited about crossing a super-scary rope bridge

Toward the end of the Children's Zoo....they had a cool growth chart that let's you see how tall you are compared to zoo animals.
Joshua's bigger than an otter.
Samantha's bigger than a koala.

Weirdly enough, we had some friends from home that were traveling through St. Louis at the same time (they were headed on to Kentucky afterward) so, they met us at the zoo this day.

Posing with the elephants

Samantha loves penguins....so glad we could find this little cutie

With the penguins, though, was a pelican....according to Samantha, this was a bad bird (bad rap for the bird....he didn't do anything....)

"Chillin'" wih the penguins

My friend Amanda and Samantha....girl talk...

One of the neat things about this zoo is the quantity of animals they have in each exhibit.

We love giraffes...

Scott and Amanda....our farewell picture

Last 3 zoo pics.....
Joshua's tired.....
Joshua's putting his waning energy into a smile
...loving his sister

Time to head back to the car......this is a free zoo and if you park on the street, you get free parking.

And what? Well, look at that! On this mighty hot day, I managed to grab the One-and-Only shady spot! Woohoo!!
(it really made a difference....car felt 20 degrees cooler inside)

One more update-to-come...........with some hotel fun and a unplanned fun stop on the way home!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Great update, looks like those kids are now ready for some Disney FUN!!!! I love the pic of Samantha scared to cross the rope bridge, that was too cute. Can't wait to hear about the rest.

I have a Samantha too, I absolutely love that name!!!!

 

[PookieB]

Wow! Great a great zoo! The Magic house looks neat too. Looks like the kids had a blast.

 

[crocko]

Great update, looks like those kids are now ready for some Disney FUN!!!! I love the pic of Samantha scared to cross the rope bridge, that was too cute. Can't wait to hear about the rest.

I have a Samantha too, I absolutely love that name!!!!

It's a great name! her middle name is Grace, so sometimes we call her Sammie G.

Wow! Great a great zoo! The Magic house looks neat too. Looks like the kids had a blast.

It's a nice zoo (too bad the polar bears weren't out this time.....and yes, lots of fun....glad we went in the morning before the heat really set in.

 

[crocko]

Finishing up the St. Louis mini-TR

A couple pics of fun at the hotel

"Push-up bars turn you into a clown!"

The result of a busy and fun day

Finally, on Thursday it was time to head back home. Halfway home, Bridgette said she wanted to try and do "something" fun....instead of just being boring and going all the way home without doing anything. So...as we neared Carthage/Joplin area, we decided to take a short side-route and go to the Precious Moments Museum and Chapel.

Things started out poorly on the kid-front.

Samantha was very scared of this large statue

Then, we saw this....which got Bridgette teary-eyed:

After that, though, things took an upward swing.

Starting with this very cute elephant that Samantha loved

Then, she found a bear that she let us know was very cute

plus a goose

a pony

and some other fun animal statues.


Throughout our entire time at the Precious Moments museum, Joshua was busy doing this

Before heading into the stores, we walked outside toward the chapel

There were some very pretty stain-glassed windows

Inside, you quickly saw a big mural painted by the guy who created Precious Moments -- called Hallelujah Square. In fact, even though he is in his (70's I believe)...just a few weeks before, he had come to town and finished this. I believe he started it 20 years before....this past trip, he added his mom (dark black hair) and said that it is now complete.

There were also some very nice paintings of Bible stories and parables

Outside of the chapel, was an angel that Samantha had a little chat with

The last picture highlights probably the sweetest thing that happened on the whole trip. As we walked through the chapel, museum, and stores we were excited at how much Samantha loved all the figurines and statues. She was having a blast. Then, we come around a corner in the store and see a wedding statue.....and we both hear Samantha say, "Awww.....that's the cutest thing I've ever scene-ed."

LOL The things kids'll say.




So, shortly after we concluded our little side trip and headed back toward home. We stopped in Tulsa at dinner time.....stopping at the Woodland Hills Mall so we could visit the Disney Store real quick

Finally, managed to get back home somewhere around 9:30pm. Whew!

It was a fun trip. Overall, the kids enjoyed staying in a hotel (they love hotels) and had a blast at the pool. This was their first ever time to get to go to a hotel pool....(man, they're gonna love Animal Kingdom Lodge!!)


Thanks for sticking around through this mini-trip report.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Great little mini report, I enjoyed it! The pic of Samantha with the little Angel is cute. That place looks great. My Mom loves precious moments!

 

[crocko]

Great little mini report, I enjoyed it! The pic of Samantha with the little Angel is cute. That place looks great. My Mom loves precious moments!

Yep -- she had turned the cute-o-meter up high during that little stop.
My mom and sister collected some Precious Moments when I was growing up....seeing them a couple weeks ago reminded me how neat they are.

 

[jenny105]

I wanna chill with a penguin! lol I love penguins! Great pictures! I didn't even know that had a Precious Moments museum. That's really neat.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

I love this trip!!! The mall (wish we had one like that), the children's mus. awesome!, and I just love the precious moments mus. and the zoo looked hot but lots of fun as well!!! Great mini trip!!

 

[crocko]

I wanna chill with a penguin! lol I love penguins! Great pictures! I didn't even know that had a Precious Moments museum. That's really neat.

Yeah -- I'm assuming most people don't. But it was cool.

Quite a few billboards for it along I-44. Of course, there is a Six Flags in Eureka, MO....which is not that far from St. Louis. There was not a SINGLE billboard for Six Flags all along I-44. How dumb is that!?
I know that highway from Tallahassee to Orlando is loaded with Disney, SeaWorld, Universal billboards every quarter of a mile!

I love this trip!!! The mall (wish we had one like that), the children's mus. awesome!, and I just love the precious moments mus. and the zoo looked hot but lots of fun as well!!! Great mini trip!!

Yeah -- we ended up having a lot of fun and spent very little money. Most of the money went to good ol' gasoline.

 

[crocko]

Interrupting this September 2009 PTR for some CRAZY NEWS!!


As I've mentioned before, Bridgette and I took a 3-night trip to WDW early last December with my sister. Since we knew we had the big September trip coming up, we got annual passes. Our first usage day was December 1st, I believe.

Recently, Bridgette has joked about trying to fit in one more trip before the annual passes expire. Well....I got inspired this morning when I saw really good airline deals going on right now. So, quickly broke out several spreadsheets and started running some numbers...and....

I HAVE JUST BOOKED AIRLINE TICKETS FOR NOV.14TH-17TH TO ORLANDO!!!!!!!!!

WOO!!!!!!

So....amazingly, Bridgette and I will have gone to WDW 3 times in one 12-month period. So exciting!!

We finish the September trip on the 26th. So...7 weeks later!! we'll be headed right back. Yeehaw!!


(Oh, and I haven't told Bridgette yet, but I've been running some more numbers, and am starting to heavily consider joining DVC.......that's just a rumor for now, though) ;-)

 

[jenny105]

Wow! Awesome! Lucky you, 3 trips in one year. Don't tell your wife, keep it a surprise!!

 

[crocko]

Well....she knows we're going back. Too big of a decision for me to just surprise her with (okay, not really......she'd have no problem with that.....but she knows)

Where I hope to surprise her, though, is with where we stay. Right now, she looked up value resorts and saw that we can get into All-Star Music. We've stayed at an All-Star resort before and enjoyed it...plus looks like Music has added some really neat Broadway stuff.

BUT....I'm working on trying to get some DVC rent points and possibly stay somewhere we've never been before......so, hoping that can be my surprise for her. I'll keep you updated on that.

 

[jenny105]

That'd be a great surprise! Which DVC were you thinking about?

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Great news!! Lucky you! the investment of the AP's has reallypaid off for ya'll! I hope you are able to swing the DVC points and the DVC it self!

 

[crocko]

That'd be a great surprise! Which DVC were you thinking about?

Well, in December we stayed at Saratoga Springs.
In September, we'll be staying at Kidani Village.

So...would like to stay somewhere different this time.

Working on a limited budget, so unless I get a really good deal, looking most likely at:
Boardwalk
Animal Kingdom Lodge (Value room)
Old Key West

Of those....I'm definitely focused on trying to get in Boardwalk Villas. Would be fantastic if I could grab a stay there.

Great news!! Lucky you! the investment of the AP's has reallypaid off for ya'll! I hope you are able to swing the DVC points and the DVC it self!

Thanks! It's nice to get use out of those AP's...and yeah, becoming more and more drawn in by the DVC lure....

 

[disneylovinfamily]

I have been away and just got caught up! I LOVE the mini triipes to St. Louis! The pics are so cute and that children's muesem looks great.

Interrupting this September 2009 PTR for some CRAZY NEWS!!


As I've mentioned before, Bridgette and I took a 3-night trip to WDW early last December with my sister. Since we knew we had the big September trip coming up, we got annual passes. Our first usage day was December 1st, I believe.

Recently, Bridgette has joked about trying to fit in one more trip before the annual passes expire. Well....I got inspired this morning when I saw really good airline deals going on right now. So, quickly broke out several spreadsheets and started running some numbers...and....

I HAVE JUST BOOKED AIRLINE TICKETS FOR NOV.14TH-17TH TO ORLANDO!!!!!!!!!

WOO!!!!!!

So....amazingly, Bridgette and I will have gone to WDW 3 times in one 12-month period. So exciting!!

We finish the September trip on the 26th. So...7 weeks later!! we'll be headed right back. Yeehaw!!


(Oh, and I haven't told Bridgette yet, but I've been running some more numbers, and am starting to heavily consider joining DVC.......that's just a rumor for now, though) ;-)

congrats on the new trip!!!!!!

 

[crocko]

congrats on the new trip!!!!!!

Thanks! I'm very excited.








And..............another Thursday is here, so

10 WEEKS TO GO!!!! ONLY 70 MORE DAYS!!!!

Letter Q
Ride: Test Track (I had to get tricky for Q....I went with Test Track because it is the Quickest Ride in all of Disney World)
Non-ride: Queues (I'm sure we'll be in a lot of these, so decided to get the kids visually prepared)
Characters: Queen of Hearts, Quasimodo, Quincy

I'm so excited to be at the 10-week mark.

This weekend, we're having a garage sale....then the following weekend, Bridgette will be out of town.

After that, though, it's time to start completing some "preparation" projects -- specifically, making T-shirts!