September 2013 with a twist - New 9/13 - we are on our way!

[lvcourtneyy]

Sounds like a fun day! Fort Wilderness does sound amazing. I would love to stay there one day-- maybe a cabin will make sense if we ever go with a bigger group!

Fingers crossed you get a BOG reservation!

 

[lsenquiz]

Sounds like a nice relaxing day. Those cabins look nice although I've never stayed there. I've only stepped foot on the camp grounds once and that was for a carriage ride on my honeymoon in 2003. Hope you guys enjoy it even though you'll be a bit cramped. Cramped or not, you'll be at Disney! I've been trying to get an ADR for BoG as well but no such luck! Hope you're luckier than I have been with it.

Sounds like a fun day! Fort Wilderness does sound amazing. I would love to stay there one day-- maybe a cabin will make sense if we ever go with a bigger group!

Fingers crossed you get a BOG reservation!

I agree we will be cramped but we will make do. I honestly have mixed emotions about BoG. Mostly because of the menu. I just do not think there is alot on there that most of the people in our party will enjoy. I am starting to lean more and more towards lunch instead but continue to look just in case.

 

[klacey1]

I'm reading a TR of a family staying at FW and they are making it seem like so much fun!! The cabins look really nice!
I am also not too excited about the BOG menu, although the scallops and shrimp sounds like it could be okay.

 

[lsenquiz]

I'm reading a TR of a family staying at FW and they are making it seem like so much fun!! The cabins look really nice!
I am also not too excited about the BOG menu, although the scallops and shrimp sounds like it could be okay.

Can you give me the link or the name to the TR? I would love to read it.

 

[klacey1]

Sure, here it is: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3153288
They stayed in the campground, not the cabins, but you definitely get a good feel for the resort!

 

[lsenquiz]

Sure, here it is: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3153288
They stayed in the campground, not the cabins, but you definitely get a good feel for the resort!

Thanks. I am already following this TR but would love to find one where someone stayed in the cabins

 

[happybelle]

Your plans look like I should be part of your family. I want to go to BOG but the menu doesn't look too appealing to me either. I am looking forward to seeing how you enjoy the cabins.

 

[lsenquiz]

Your plans look like I should be part of your family. I want to go to BOG but the menu doesn't look too appealing to me either. I am looking forward to seeing how you enjoy the cabins.

Thanks. I love when I find a PTR that has similiar tastes to my own

 

[lsenquiz]

We are officially in the Teens. 19 days to go!​

My plan this weekend was to get ourselves at least 50% packed for our trip. Sadly life had another plan for us. Our little dog Snickers (11) started having some trouble breathing in the night Saturday. We took him to the vet immediately on Sunday morning. They ran a bunch of tests including chest x-rays and gave us the very sad news around lunch time that Snicky had pneumonia as a result of lung cancer that we had no idea he had.

This came as a complete shock to us because Snicky had chest x-rays back in May because he had a persistent cough and they found nothing. At that time, they diagnosed him with collapsing trachea which is common in little dogs like him (he is a Shih Tzu). So when he kept coughing over the past few months we just thought it was something he was going to have to live with. Honestly it was not really that bad (he would have a couple of coughing fits a day) until Saturday night when it turned into more of an asthma like event instead of the normal coughing spasm.

The vet gave us the option to transfer him to the ER where he would be placed in an oxygen cage for a couple days to try to give them a chance to get the pneumonia under control. However, I knew by the time that we were done at the vet that his end was near and my thoughts went immediately to my mother who died of lung cancer. When she was diagnosed she was immediately transferred to a hospice house where she passed away a few days later. I will always regret that we did not bring her home and let her pass in her own bed. I wanted that for our Snicky. The thought of him passing away all alone in a cage was just not an option. So we brought him home from the vet at 2pm. He passed away in my arms at 6:30pm.

I have to say that I have had a really hard time getting into this upcoming Disney trip. Work is crazy right now and Gabriel going back to school has not made things easier. I also still feel like we just got back from our last trip. I have just not had the time to devote to trip planning that I usually do. Well that all changed minutes after Snicky took his last breath. Events like that have a way of quickly resetting your priorities. Now I cannot wait to go. Disney is just what we need to step out of reality and let our hearts heal a little. I am so looking forward to being able to devote all my energy to my family for two whole weeks. My only regret now is that our two oldest (25 & 21) cannot go with us as they both have work and school.

Below are some pictures of our beloved SnickersJ

This is Snicky with his brother Snuggles and Gabriel when he was 1. Snicky is the one on the left.


021107 001 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

Snicky, Gabriel and my daughters boxer Laila


P1010265 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

Snicky, Gabriel, & my sons dog Kenai


P1010841 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

One of the few pictures I have of Snicky where he is not sitting right next to (or on top of ) Gabriel.



snicky by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

 

[Leger13]

I have tears. I am SO sorry to hear of your loss! Losing a pet is so hard as they truly do become one of the family. My dogs are also getting up there in age and I know we will be dealing with this sooner rather than later. I'm glad you all have your Disney trip to look forward to to spend a little time healing with Disney magic. Big hugs and warm thoughts being sent your way!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I am so so sorry to hear about your loss. The loss of a pet is so devastating. You gave him the nice, long life he deserves and allowed him to pass on in a comfortable, dignified manner.

I hope your upcoming trip allows you to think about only the happy, magical parts of life and distract you from your pain. Again, so sorry!

 

[klacey1]

I am so, so sorry. There's nothing like losing a pet. You definitely made the right decision letting your doggy pass away at home. My beloved childhood dog died a couple of years ago, in her favorite spot to lay in the house. That was a comfort.
I hope Disney gives you a wonderful bubble of happiness with your family-- like you said, the most important things in life.

 

[lsenquiz]

I have tears. I am SO sorry to hear of your loss! Losing a pet is so hard as they truly do become one of the family. My dogs are also getting up there in age and I know we will be dealing with this sooner rather than later. I'm glad you all have your Disney trip to look forward to to spend a little time healing with Disney magic. Big hugs and warm thoughts being sent your way!

I am so so sorry to hear about your loss. The loss of a pet is so devastating. You gave him the nice, long life he deserves and allowed him to pass on in a comfortable, dignified manner.

I hope your upcoming trip allows you to think about only the happy, magical parts of life and distract you from your pain. Again, so sorry!

I am so, so sorry. There's nothing like losing a pet. You definitely made the right decision letting your doggy pass away at home. My beloved childhood dog died a couple of years ago, in her favorite spot to lay in the house. That was a comfort.
I hope Disney gives you a wonderful bubble of happiness with your family-- like you said, the most important things in life.

Thanks everyone. It has been a rough week. I am trying to catch up on everything this weekend. I can not believe we leave in 2 weeks. This is the least prepared I have ever been for a Disney vacation. Hoping I can catch up today and tomorrow. Hopefully I can post the rest of our plans next week.

 

[Leger13]

Hope y'all are doing ok and finding ways to have a good weekend. Thinking of you!

 

[lsenquiz]

Hope y'all are doing ok and finding ways to have a good weekend. Thinking of you!

Thanks. Everything gets easier with time. We are just focusing on getting through the next couple of weeks and then we are off to Disney.

 

[lsenquiz]

Although I am the type that likes us to have Disney shirts when we go to Disney I have never considered making shirts because I always thought that was something you would do only if you wanted to match and we are definitely not a matching shirt kind of family. So I just usually buy them. This trip I was pretty successful finding shirts for Kenny and me although I did have to get most of them off Ebay. However, I had such a hard time finding shirts that Gabriel would wear. Most of the stuff I found was just too baby for him. The ones I could find that he liked are ones he already has and wore for our May/June trip. Although these all still fit I did not want the same cloths in our pictures for this trip. So I did something I never thought I would do. I made shirts for him. He has gotten to an age which he is picky about what he wears so it took some doing but we finally found some designs he was willing to wear:


t-shirts 1 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


t shirts 2 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I think these turned out great. I really was trying to make something that did not have a homemade look and this is probably about as close as I am going to get. I got the tees from old navy for $4 apiece and the transfers from Amystransfers.com which is what everyone on the September FP page recommended. I will say her transfers are amazing.

I also made some purchases this past week:

I got this backpack for Kenny to carry (I carry a Baggalini). I must confess that I usually buy a new backpack for every trip and have never loved a single one. This time I was trying to find something that would get lighter as the day wore on and we used the stuff in it. The one I took last trip was a cooler backpack and it was almost as heavy at the end of the day as it was at the beginning even though we had emptied it of half its stuff:


backpack by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I got this to keep the few cold things we will bring cold and to keep them from sweating all over everything else in the backpack:


bag by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I got this because although I never have a problem keeping my phone charged at home (even though I only charge it at night) I have a terrible time keeping it charged at Disney. I have already tested this and it will fully charge my iphone 4s 2 ½ times


phone charger by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I got some Keen's for Kenny & Gabriel. Neither of them are sandals people so I hope they will wear them. We realized during our last trip when it rained ALOT (sometimes all day) that the right shoes make a huge difference. I had my Teva Mush flip flops on and with a good poncho had no trouble navigating the parks in the rain and actually preferred it to the heat. Kenny and Gabriel both had Tennis Shoes and were miserable when it rained.


keen's kenny by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


keen's gabriel by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I got a waterproof case for both Kenny and my iPhone. This will allow us to keep our phone on us even when we are in the pool so we do not have to worry about leaving it on a chair.


waterprood case 2 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


waterproof case by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I got an extra battery for our camera because we had it go dead on us during our last trip right in the middle of a park day.


xtra battery by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I also got a sleeve for our camera. Although we have a very nice case we found that lugging the case around the parks was just too much and we were frequently just throwing the camera into one of our park bags. I will feel better knowing it is protected but still small enough to fit into my Baggalini.


camera sleeve by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

Finally I got this for Kenny and I:


rain jacket by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I got blue and Kenny got black (Gabriel already has an extremely high quality poncho that goes to his feet so he did not need anything else). They are very light weight. As I mentioned earlier it rained a lot our last trip and even the quality ponchos we brought with us were not enough some days because it got so windy. The wind would blow the ponchos up and there was very little you could do to keep them down. So we switched to these. I actually got them online for $4 apiece and think we will like them much better than a poncho.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I love the shirts that you made! They came out great and they look like they're the perfect combination of Disney/boy designs.

Have you tested out the dandy cases? I ordered 2 of them for us also based on good reviews. I had ordered other similar waterproof cases before that and I tested them with napkins inside and they were damp at the end. I'm hoping the Dandycases are better!

It's getting so close to time to go!

 

[Alysa]

I am sooooo sorry to hear about Snickers. Sending hugs. Hope the retail therapy brightened your day a little!

 

[lsenquiz]

I love the shirts that you made! They came out great and they look like they're the perfect combination of Disney/boy designs.

Have you tested out the dandy cases? I ordered 2 of them for us also based on good reviews. I had ordered other similar waterproof cases before that and I tested them with napkins inside and they were damp at the end. I'm hoping the Dandycases are better!

It's getting so close to time to go!

I have not tested the cases yet. I ordered them but they do not arrive until tomorrow. I did read reviews from alot of people who did the napkin test with completely dry results so I have my fingers crossed. I will let you know more tomorrow.

We are at 11 days out today and I am a mixture of excited and panicked

 

[lsenquiz]

I am sooooo sorry to hear about Snickers. Sending hugs. Hope the retail therapy brightened your day a little!

Thanks Alysa. Another saying from my mom - This too shall pass. It is getting a little easier with each day