Sib rivelry is going to DW,can we put it aside&get along for our kids? Sept Pretrip

[Catkramer]

Hello all! I am starting my pre trip report. My name is Helen. I have pulled together a whopper of a trip this time and we will see how well it goes. Let me first give the dates:

September 19th through the 27th. We are taking advantage of the free dining.

This started off as a “family of four” vacation. My husband and I actually commented that this would be our first trip to Disney by our selves, as a family of four. This is my fifth trip to Disneyworld, my husbands fourth, and my kids third. I went the first time to DW when I was about 22, however, grew up going to Disneyland as we lived in California.

When my father offered us either 5 grand for a wedding or 5 grand for a honeymoon to Disneyworld, we opted for number two and then eloped. OOO, he wasn’t happy. But he didn’t say WE had to pay for a wedding. If I could go back, I would have used that 5,000 towards a wedding at Disney, but it didn’t even occur to me at the time. And my husband would probably not have gone for that. But, you know, he was in love at the time, so who knows. LOL Now, he has been married to me for 10 years and now he says no to me. Darn it!

Anyways, to the cast members:

First is myself. Honestly, I would say I have a problem, a serious Disney problem. My bills are definitely paid, but any extra dime I have goes to Disney. I have raised my kids to be Disney fanatics, but basically because my husband wouldn’t allow pink in the house for the two years of my daughter’s life, AND he nixed the Winnie the Pooh nursery that I wanted. Now, in my defense, I was wearing a blue jean long sleeved shirt when we eloped…. It had Winnie the Pooh and friends on the back of it. So he had a chance to change his mind. He KNEW from the beginning what kind of freak I was!

Mark- We met while he was in the Marine Corps. He jokingly and lovely teases me that he was drinking a lot back then and that is why he missed that Winnie the Pooh shirt. The poor guy grew up at Six Flags and even worked at Six Flags for a few years. I blame his parents for his lack of enthusiasm and imagination. Tsk Tsk. It is such a shame. He is the laid back one in the family, and he thinks a vacation means lying around for 7 days and sleeping, and if we are lucky, he might shower in between all the lying around and sleeping. He works for an airline, so he travels A LOT. So I get that for vacation, the last thing he wants to get on ANOTHER plane and travel some more. But he does it, for the kids he says. He is getting better over the years though. He now at least “plays” along with the kids. I think he truly enjoys seeing them happy and living it through them, but he still has a hard time understanding why I get all worked up.

Last year, we went to have Breakfast with Mary Poppins and I actually cried when I saw her. He totally razzed me for weeks. Ugh, can’t he just GET it??? That WAS Mary Poppins! COME ON!

Our daughter, Catie 8 years old - She has been going to Disneyland since she was 4. That was the first time I had experienced a character meal with the princesses, and I have been hooked ever since! And needless to say, she has been too! So here we are to her third trip to Disney World and she has become a pro at this. She still does the Disney Count down and looks forward to it.

Our Son, Kevin 4 years old- Kevin was diagnosed with Autism at 2, and there have been many times we have been afraid of how his life was really going to turn out. However, on our trip back in February, he started talking at Disney World. Yes! His therapists have commented only good things since we have been back, saying it has been like a light has been turned on. He rarely stems now and even though he has a lot of work to do, has made AMAZING progress. So we are back to see what he will start doing on this trip! Way to go, Kevin! Although he is 4 by age, it is only reflective to how many times he has been around the sun. Speech wise, he is that of a 14 to 18 month old. Maturity wise more of a 2 year old. This makes him almost dangerous since he is twice the size of a 2 year old. Now he is can climb and then jump, and you still can’t reason with WHY he isn’t allowed to jump off very tall things.

So we booked at the Sports and I started celebrating that we were going to have the cheapest vacation ever. LOL Then I started looking around, and reading trip reports, and read about the VIP guide. And thought, awesome! How cool is THAT. So I started leaning toward that.

Then I got a phone call from Hollie, my husband’s niece. She just turned 19, works at Six Flags (again, that family!) and said she had quit another job and wanted to know when we were going to Disney. I had been talking to her for the past year about taking her. A few years ago her father died in a motorcycle wreck and my sister in law took her and her siblings in when their mother was “too busy” to care for them. She had never left the state before flying up to see us, and she is such a doll. I really wanted to do something nice for her. So since we already had a trip on the books, and free dining, why not this time?

So we called Disney back, and upgraded from the Sports to Riverside (again) because you can’t stay in a value with 5 unless you get a suite. ( Honestly, I think this is a bit nuts. I mean, why not a roll away and charge me for it? When you book a party of 5, you are pretty limited on where you can stay. That is a little frustrating.)

So, now Hollie has joined us. Her first time to Disney anything. I am excited! Man! Disney with Hollie! My daughter is dancing around the living room and we are stoked. Mark is happy that we have another person to go in case he wants to: drum roll please: SLEEP.

So a week or so passes, and then I think about my brother. I had tried to talk him into going with us in February when we went, but money was tight. So I called him to let him know about the free dining. Oh! They already knew! They were thinking about going the week BEFORE us. OH NO! NO NO NO! You can’t go THAT week. Well, he said that they were looking and for a party of four, it would cost them 4 grand to go. So they had backed out and decided not to go at all.

WHAT? So I asked him, to go where? Are you pricing Disneyland Paris???? Good Grief, brother! Call your family more often!

So I took a deep breath. Brother, oh dear brother who kicked me in the mouth and knocked out two of my teeth. What am I going to do with you?? Your MOTHER works for Delta airlines. Your brother in law works for Southwest. Why are you looking at buying plane tickets??? He said “because I only thought buddy passes would apply to me.” No no no! So, after another 15 to 20 minutes of explaining the flight benefits that his family has had for the last 7 YEARS, I told him “Now. I have gotten you down to a 2,000 vacation. Is THAT doable?”

His response was “That is closer to it” and then he asked about Park hoppers. “Man, you don’t HAVE to have park hoppers. I have found I don’t use them when I have smaller kids. If I plan a little bit, just make my dining in that park or around that park, I am good. But I have a hard time paying 45 bucks a person just to park hop one time during the week. You know? I personally have found that I waste more time trying to drag small kids from one park to another, adding stress to their world and my mine.”

“Hey, I have a reservation at the castle for lunch I will give you for your girls if you will come!”

“Wow! You should work for Disney! You drive a hard bargain! Every time I talk to you I want to go to Disney World again.”

Alas, the park hoppers were cancelled. They had to talk about it and would call me back. Ok, good. A week went by. OMgosh, I knew I was impatient but golly gee. Finally, he calls me back “We have agreed to go.” YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Now he wants to discuss what order to book his stuff in. Oh geez, dude, call up and pick a hotel and book it! It is FREE DINING. They book up fast! HURRY! Should they do Pop, music, sports? Mmm, doesn’t matter. You aren’t going to be in the room that much. Take a family vote really quick and go for it. Over analyzing will kill you.

Four days later, they got on line and all the values were gone.  So they had to shave off a day and book at the Caribbean. (Well, it wasn’t from my lack of trying.) But at least they are going at the same time we were. So now, we are a party of 9!

Craig, my only other sibling is 5 years older than me. He is a forever “dead head”. A hippie born 20 year too late. He is now clean cut, and works in the white collar world, but by heart he would like to live off the land and breed fish and rock collect for the rest of his life. Extremely laid back and goes with the flow, however, is annoyed by the uptight and doesn’t like to be rushed…. Aka me! LOL. This is why we are polar opposites and never got along as children.

Randi, my sister in law. Love her. Is the perfect match for my brother. Has embraced him for all that he is. Again, loves to hike, fish, live off the land.

Jasmine 10 years old- The first grand child and has a wonderful personality. Very smart. She is named Jasmine, but not after Disney. I think more after the plant. Again, they are earthy people.

Amarine 7 years old- She is their last daughter. Randi and Craig jokingly call her the angry child. She doesn’t like to be jacked with. And that is something my brother has always done. Jacked with you. So he teases her a lot to try and get her to lighten up. She isn’t “angry”, she just doesn’t seem to have a sense of humor about anything. She takes everything literally. I don’t think she is a dreamer, like Caitlin and Jasmine are. She is just more matter of fact. Again, complete opposite of Jasmine.

Let me add that my brother and Randi also went to Disney World on their honeymoon. Randi, however, converted right over to being a Disney lover. Mark is still protesting.

So, now we are a Grand Gathering! YEAH!!!

Unfortunately, by the time everything fell into place, there were no grand gatherings tours left. Although I am calling often to check. Since we have now added some people to the party, I opted out of the VIP guide and have decided to upgrade us to the Dining Deluxe plan. This will be our first time using this option.

My brother and his family are still on dial up, bless their hearts. And up until now, have requested that pictures of their children not be on the internet. Did I mention that they are very simple people? Not really caring for keeping up with the technology of today? Which is fine with me.

I recently got permission to put pictures of them on our family web site which requires a password to get into. So I will check and see if trip reports are part of that.  If not, I will use their pictures and just draw a big happy face over theirs.  that way you can just imagine what they look like.

Well, with the change in Craig’s dates, I get to keep the Cinderella Royal Table. I had made this reservation back when we were a party of four, and I can’t get it changed to a party of 5.  So I offered to let my husband go with the three kids ( I still call Hollie a kid even though she is 19) and I would go shopping or something else. He then replied “Oh really? You want ME to go to the Castle??? Joy!” I think there was a hint of sarcasm there.

“Well, what do you want to do??”

“Sleep in!”

“Mark, it is at 2:00 in the afternoon! How can you sleep IN?”

“Really? You have to ask that?”

I don’t know. I don’t think Kevin will really care where he is. He is still afraid of the characters but loves to go with Catie and Hollie. So I don’t know if I should try and make an ADR for him and Mark and have Mark take him some where else. Or if I should just let Mark stay at the hotel that morning. However, we do have a breakfast ADR with Lilo and Stitch. So I am not sure what our plans are or what I should. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Our dining plans. Oh wow. Since my brother is sorta new to this, he has been to the World three times and they have never gotten the dining plan. So they aren’t quite clear how it works. I think they have to go through it first and then come out on the end going OOOHHHHH! I get it!

So I have tried to lead them. They are actually the type of vacationers ( like my husband) who want to sleep in, then spend an hour drinking coffee somewhere and then pull out the map and decide which PARK to go to. Where they are going to eat is not really something they think about. Having a child with Autism, our life hasn’t been under the terms of “Winging it” for a long time. Our motto is “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.” That seems to get us moving. So, I tried to explain to my brother that you CAN cancel an ADR if you wake up that day and decide that you aren’t hungry for that, or you don’t feel like going over there. But, having had my ADR’s and being a member of the Dis community, you definitely want to make them and then cancel them versus not having them at all and wishing you did.

So a few days later he calls me back to talk about some restaurants. All of our ADR’s for a party of five were made. But I told him that on most we were flexible into changing to either a party of 9 or changing locations all together so we could meet up with them. We don’t plan on being together all the time, just ride a few things and then split up and then ride a few other things together later.

He said “Wow, not having park hoppers and then trying to make your ADRs months in advance takes some planning, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, I know it is outside of your comfort zone, but you don’t have to keep them if you decide that day you want to do something else. However, it is better to atleast have a plan since you are not getting park hoppers.”

Then I proceeded to tell him about our trip 18 months ago with a party of 7 where I had all of our ADRs set up, and then we switch park days to cover someone who decided to stay longer. UGH. We were in the middle of Animal Kingdom when we needed to be over in Magic Kingdom for an ADR. What a NIGHT MARE. I learned from there that when I switch days, I switch ADRs or I don’t switch parks at all. We wasted more time on those buses trying to get to and from our dining reservations.

So last year I learned by either making breakfast ADRs or Dinner ADRS out side of the parks. Only lunches did I do IN the parks. So we weren’t leaving the parks in the middle of the day to go hunt down a reservation. It really seemed to work best on the basic dining plan for us.

So this year, I tried to stick to that, except for some weird ADR times due to party size.

Friday, the 19th is our arrival. Since we are flying standby, we never know when we are going to get there. We don’t plan anything for this day and just eat quick service and usually swim and check out the resorts.

Saturday
Breakfast - Boatright @ Riverside
Lunch- Quick Service
Dinner- Kona for dinner

Sunday
Breakfast- Quick Service
Lunch- 9 for lunch at San Angel Inn
Dinner- 9 at the Coral Reef for “dinner” in the afternoon.

Monday
Breakfast- Chef Mickey’s as a party of 5 for breakfast
Lunch- Quick Service
Dinner- Whispering Café for dinner as a party of 9.

Those three days are the days that we will meet up with my brother and his family in the parks and have some fun with them. That will leave them Tuesday and Wednesday to enjoy in the parks by themselves as a party of four. And we can split off and do our thing. We all figure by that time we will be tired of each other and kids will want their space, etc.

Tuesday
Breakfast -Norway with the princesses
Lunch – Quick Service
Dinner- Dinner in Italy.

Wednesday
Breakfast- Playhouse Disney
Lunch- Quick Service
Dinner at the SCI FI

Thursday
Breakfast - Lilo and Stitch @ the Polynesian
Lunch - The Royal Table at the Castle.
Dinner- Quick Service

Friday
Breakfast- Whispering Canyon
Lunch- Quick Service
Dinner with Cindy and Prince Charming.

Whew! That is a lot of food! I seriously doubt that we are going to use all of our meal credits. And I still have some places I COULD try and schedule in more meals, but honestly, I don’t want to spend my whole time sitting in front of food.

The one last thing I had to think about was dog watching. My mom agreed to watch our 70 lbs Golden Lab until she found out my brother was coming. Now she wants to come out on her days off. Honestly? Who could keep her from the grand kids. I haven’t seen them since my son was 8 months old. And that was the only time all of our kids have been together at once. We live in separate states and life happens. So when we make this kind of commitment, the rest of the family stops and says WHOA. LOL

So, now I am flying in a friend from Kansas to watch my dog for a few days while my mom MAY come out and stay a night or two so she can see the kids together. Who can pass up four adorable kids on Big Thunder Mountain, right?

 

[Catkramer]

Something that should be really interesting on this trip is that My brother and Sister in law have not seen my son since he was 8 months old. We only talk on the phone a few times a year, we are one of those families that don't have to be attached at the hip to be close. If something were to happen to one of our parents, we would both be there for each other. However, if a few months pass, we don't guilt trip each other about it. Life happens.

However, I am interested in seeing how they will respond to Kevin and his autism. I can't say that I know if they have ever been around some one with Autism. Or atleast they haven't brought it up.

I have found that a lot of the family has expected one situation and gotten a complete different situation when it comes to Kevin. They are surprised at how "cool" he is. Yes, he has melt downs, but his personality is pretty darn cool. And I am also interested to see how Kevin responds to Craig. I hope he warms up quickly. He is such a special little boy.

 

[Catkramer]

Let me start out by saying that my mom has two sisters. Both live down in Louisiana. All three of the sisters had two kids each. I am the youngest. Our oldest cousin passed away in December on a cruise. It was unexpected and my aunt is having a really hard time, as expected.

My other aunt came into town last night. She brought her oldest grandson with her, and he is about 12 or 13. My mom told Catie that for her 8th birthday, she would take her to Hawaii. So today, my aunt, her grandson, my mom, my husband and Catie left for Hawaii.

Last night over dinner, my aunt mentioned that her two girls, my cousins, were headed to Disney World. The week BEFORE us! She said she told her oldest to call me weeks and weeks ago, but she never did.

So last night I called my cousin, who was in charge of planning it, and I told her, "Hey! What are you doing? Why didn't you CALL me??"

When I told her that we were going the next week, AND I got my brother, who is literally the lost boy in the family to go, she went "EEEEK!" Yeah, eeek. They are leaving on the 18th and we arrive on the 19th. Bummer!

But we were tossing around doing a family reunion next year at Disney. Now getting my brother to do it again, ugh. My moms side of the family has never even seen his kids. He is more of the anti social one of the group. So now I have to start working on getting this family together that is sturng out acorss the US.

 

[Catkramer]

I guess it is time to get some photos added:

Here is a photo of Caitlin:

Here is a photo of Kevin:

Here is a photo of Mark:

Again, keep him fed and he is a happy camper. Literally.

I will have to search for one of Hollie. I don't have one of her in my photobucket.

 

[kathleen27]

Hi Helen,

I'll sign up to read.

My son(12) & I will be down in Sept too!!! (9/26-9/30)

Sounds like a lot of people!! I am sure at some point we will end up traveling with my in-laws (my mil loves disney) so I'll be interested to hear how your trip goes! The only thing is my kids have NO cousins. (yet)

Your kids are cute.

 

[Catkramer]

Hi Helen,

I'll sign up to read.

My son(12) & I will be down in Sept too!!! (9/26-9/30)

Sounds like a lot of people!! I am sure at some point we will end up traveling with my in-laws (my mil loves disney) so I'll be interested to hear how your trip goes! The only thing is my kids have NO cousins. (yet)

Your kids are cute.

Thank you! I have a goofy group of family members. Lots of cousins, and second cousins, we are just all spread out all over the place. I am taking one of my sis in law's 6 kids. So I know I will get alot of "ugh, what about me???" lol I just consider myself the "Convertor". The more people I convert, the more people will go with me once my husband refuses to go.

Have you ever been this time of year? We usually go in February. I am a little worried about the weather. I don't know how to pack. Up here in Utah, we have very short summers, so I hate to buy a whole set of summer clothes if we don't need them at the end of September.

It will definitely be interesting to see how it goes. It has been along time since my brother and I have spent this much time together. I am a little scared.

 

[Catkramer]

I usually have special jeans made for Caitlin when we go to Disney. This was here back in 2007 when we surprised her with breakfast at the Castle. She was very excited.

These are the jeans I had made for her this year. She is really really into Prince Charming.

With Mark and Caitlin gone to Hawaii, I have been busy working full time and editing a bridal shoot that I shot. I do bridals on the side as a hobby. I am hoping that eventually I can go into Photography full time, but right now staying home with my kids is more important until Kevin is in school full time.

I telecommute, so I work for a company where I can work 40 hours from home (60 hours this week) and still have all of the benefits of being in the office. Which is really nice. So hopefully my updates will become more frequent as we get closer.

 

[kathleen27]

Have you ever been this time of year? We usually go in February. I am a little worried about the weather. I don't know how to pack. Up here in Utah, we have very short summers, so I hate to buy a whole set of summer clothes if we don't need them at the end of September.

Our last couple of trips were in Feb too. I lived in Fl for a while, but have not been to Fl in Sept in 20 something years. I keep hearing it will be hot! Possibly rainy??

The pants you made are so cute!
Caitlin must be looking forward to meeting Prince Charming at dinner.

 

[Catkramer]

Our last couple of trips were in Feb too. I lived in Fl for a while, but have not been to Fl in Sept in 20 something years. I keep hearing it will be hot! Possibly rainy??

The pants you made are so cute!
Caitlin must be looking forward to meeting Prince Charming at dinner.

Oh very much. That is her love. She dances with him every year. Hoping that her luck doesn't run out this year.

We really liked going in Feb, it wasn't hot and mucky. We are actually from Texas and we moved north for a reason. I can't handle the heat any more. We looked up the almanac and I think the average is in the 80s that time of year, but that is a muggy humid 80s. So it may feel 100 to me.

I think our high today here in Utah was 70. My windows were open and ceiling fans were going. Last night I had the heater on.

Thanks for chatting with me! I am glad you signed on.

 

[Catkramer]

Great news from Kona. My husband was talking about how much he enjoyed Hawaii. He was sitting at the airport waiting for the plane. But he agreed that once we added in our air fare (we would have to buy a discounted ticket on another airline since SW doesn't fly to Hawaii) and the resort and food, that he agreed that at this time in our lives and with the kids ages, Disney is the best place we could "Probably" go. I told him that I would take that as a Disney Rocks!

He also informed me that our daugher got her ears pierced today. Wow! When I asked him if he took pictures, he said no. So mom got to miss out on her only daughter getting her ears pierced AND there are no photos??? Well, no more sending him off with the kids alone.

But I am excited. If she will keep them clean and take care of them, she may get some lovely ear rings at Disney!

 

[kathleen27]

She dances with him every year.

That's so cute!
We have just never gotten around to dinner at Park Faire.

He also informed me that our daugher got her ears pierced today. Wow! When I asked him if he took pictures, he said no. So mom got to miss out on her only daughter getting her ears pierced AND there are no photos??? Well, no more sending him off with the kids alone.

But I am excited. If she will keep them clean and take care of them, she may get some lovely ear rings at Disney!

Sorry you weren't there, and there are no pictures.

My daughter got her ears pierced last Jan, and in Feb she was so excited to get some earrings in Disney!!! They have lots of cute ones to choose from.
She got 3 circles of her birthstone in the Mickey head shape. She also got a 3pk of Minnie earrings - minnie's face, minnie head shape(w/bow), and minnie's bows. It was a tough decision.

She has been really good about taking care of them. (She is 10).

 

[Catkramer]

Sorry it has been a while since I have posted. I have been working 12 hour days. Mark is on another business trip and won't be back until Thursday. I have a counter in my signature, but for some reason it isn't showing up correctly, so I am going to have figure out what is going on there.

Mark and I sat down and talked about the VIP guide again. I originally wanted to do it and then Hollie was added to the party and we decided to cancel it because we didn't want to spend that much on the vacation since we just got back in February. However, we then decided to upgrade to the Disney Deluxe Disney plan since we were getting the free dining.

So another few weeks went by, and by my calculations we have something like 87 days left. ( we don't count day of flight and the day we are on, it helps pass the time.)

So, we decided to go with the VIP guide again. They didn't have rooms for us to upgrade too unless we went for a Villa and I think I heard my debit card laugh when we were looking into that. So we are back to the guide. YEAH!

We opted to do it at MGM. Honestly, we were debating between MK and MGM. I know, I know, Hollywood Studios. How can you get used to that??

But we decided to do MGM because of the shows and we have two meals there and we just decided it would be a lot of fun. I have read only one other trip report that had the VIP guide and it sounded like a lot of fun.

Since my niece works for Six Flags, I was hoping something like this would allow her to have a different type of experience.

We also opted to have them pick us up at our Hotel. Which is nice as well. Costs a little extra, but saves us a lot of time when having to deal with the buses. We are going to MGM on our 5th day, and man, we are going to be tired! So it will be nice to have someone else take control of the day and allow us just sit back and relax.

I am totally excited!

So unless something financial happens to us in the next 3 months, we are good to go for the VIP guide. I am getting a ton of OT right now and in August, I get an extra pay check and a bonus check. So we are good to go right now! YEAH!!!!

 

[cjhinch]

I am enjoying your report! You sound like me, always pimping Disney to all of your friends and family, then getting frustrated that they just don't "get it"! I will be looking forward to your trip report, I'm sure it is going to be fun!

We are planning a "grand gathering" for next May that will include about 17 people, and all but about 6 of us have no idea what they are in for! I will do a PTR and TR about that trip once I have finished up with our upcoming trip!

 

[Catkramer]

I am enjoying your report! You sound like me, always pimping Disney to all of your friends and family, then getting frustrated that they just don't "get it"! I will be looking forward to your trip report, I'm sure it is going to be fun!

We are planning a "grand gathering" for next May that will include about 17 people, and all but about 6 of us have no idea what they are in for! I will do a PTR and TR about that trip once I have finished up with our upcoming trip!

Wow, 17 people?? I think that would make my head spin! That is alot of "grand" going on. I will look forward to reading how it goes. I read another trip report with 16 a while back and she did pretty good keeping her group together, even with a few mumbles amongst the crowd.

And I am ALWAYS pimping it. I have a co worker now planning a trip for May. She has never been. There are about 10 going in her party and they wanted to stay off site. And I was telling her all about the dining plan, etc and she opted to stay at the Poly and get the dining plan. Oh man, I thought they were going to disown her. What? No off site house?

First trip to disney for all of them. So I am there to answer questions and convert those who don't know, and convince those who don't care. When I grow up, I want to work for DisneyWorld.

Thanks for chiming in. It is getting closer and now I have moved on to collecting shirts for the group. I am trying to convince the cool people of the group to wear matching family shirts. Mmmm, I don't know if it is working or not.

 

[kathleen27]

The VIP guide sounds cool!

Not positive, but I think there may be a limit on size of signature that will show up. some of the boards have a signature guideline stickey at the top. Don't think the tr board does though.

 

[Catkramer]

The VIP guide sounds cool!

Not positive, but I think there may be a limit on size of signature that will show up. some of the boards have a signature guideline stickey at the top. Don't think the tr board does though.

You were right! That was the problem. Just changed the text size and Whammo! Thank you for helping me with that!

Yes, I am looking forward to the VIP thing. That will be very cool.

 

[Catkramer]

Ok, well, it has been a month and I have been slammed! I just turned in a time sheet for 131.5 hours for two weeks. I am tired! However, this is the check to pay off the rest of my trip with. Soooo, We are going to Disney! YEAH!

In the meantime, the count down is on. 52 days to go.

We have a family friend that was our nanny for about 2 years, and she is moving back from Kansas to stay with us through the winter until she can get our own place. She went with us to Disney in 2007. She is actually going to dog sit for us while we are gone.

And then my neice who is going with us this time is supposed to fly up tomorrow to stay with us for atleast 10 months. So we are going to have a house full, but also have some Disney planning chaos.

After the kids went to bed last night, I talked to my husband about planning another trip at the end of January, which is usually when we go. I really didn't think he would say yes, it was more of feeling him out.

But he said he didn't want to go, but if I wanted to go and I was willing to pay for it, so be it! Buh bye, and have fun.

I don't really know what I am going to do, I have seen others on here do the whole surprise trip, and I really think that would be fun. I surely don't want to do a large trip again, this one is a bit long. So I was thinking maybe a 4 or 5 day trip. And I can't decide if I want to try and take both ladies with me, which puts me back into a 5 person moderate.....again.

So, I am in the very early stages of thinking of another Disney trip.

I would give more updates, but honestly, I am killing myself with OT right now.

I do have a list for hubby to go through and find suitcases, I have to go through and do a clothes inventory and make sure we all have enough to take with us for 10 days. Woo hoo!

I will make an effort to update more often! Off to call Disney.

 

[Catkramer]

Well, it has been really busy here. I think I have had one day off in a week. But we have to pay for the Disney fix.

I had to put two of my cats down about a week ago. It has taken me a while to get past it enough to write it down. I have had them for 12 years. They were brother and sister and atleast they went together. I have one other cat now that I got at the same time as the others, and we have a home for her in a few months. We are remodeling the house room by room and it is coming down to new carpet and furniture. And obviously you don't want to spend a lot of money only to have cats tearing it up. It was a very hard decision to make, but both were getting old and had health issues. The one we have left is healthy, and she is going back to her original owner.

In the mean time, we had to rip up all of the carpet in my daughter's room which is in the basement. We kept smelling some thing funky and of course the husband blamed the cats. Once the carpet came out, I wanted the paneling (which had been painted) to come out to. I HATE that 70s paneling. ugh. So we have ended up completely redoing her whole room. In the mean time, Catie and Hollie have been sleeping in our living room on a hideaway. Our fourth bedroom you can't even get into.

Hopefully the room will be painted and carpet will be laid Saturday. I need to get them back in the room before school starts.

This little remodel has cost us about the same as I planned on spending on the VIP. So we are sitting on the fence about whether we should cancel it or not. I am still trying to work a bunch of OT, but honestly, I am getting tired. I have worked 262 hours in the last 4 weeks. I know they won't always be offering it, so I need to take advantage of it. But I don't want to over extend myself at work or on this trip.

I have started packing. All of the kids clothing is packed. I read on here about packing one outfit in a zip lock baggie. I have done this now for several trips and I could kiss that person that suggested it. I have the 8 year old who wants to fight over clothes.

This way I just pull a bag out and throw it to them and tell them to get dressed, we are leaving in 10 minutes. Ta da! And it helps me stay organized in the suitcase.

So the packing is on, I think we are down to 36 days. Hollie is finally starting to get excited.

WOO HOO!

 

[Catkramer]

AggghhH! How do this happen???
I need help. Professional help.

A month ago I had this all planned out.

Now I have called and added another day. While trying to decide what park to go to, Hollie and I were checking out the Water Parks. Catie has been bugging me for two years to go to them and honestly, I didn't want to drag Kevin since he didn't know how to swim. Over the last few months, he has learned to swim with a vest. He still doesn't like to go under too much though.

Has any one gone to the Water Parks? I was told I could add the Water Park option for 7 days to our tickets for 50.00 a piece. So for 250.00, is it really worth going to the water parks? I don't know!! I have never been !

Ugh, Decisions, Decisions!

Helen

 

[Catkramer]

aaaggghhh. I was rushed to the ER yesterday morning and had to have emergency surgery! AAGGHHH. Now I am off on Disability and this is putting a crunch into my disney fund. Disney is paid for in full, but this may make me have to cancel the VIP guide. Man, sucky timing!!! Well, the kids are all packed and 22 days to go.

Can we get there in one piece???