Spinal Dalmatians, Eliminations, and The Merry Go Round of Life...June 2011 New 2/19

[grumpyfannypack]

Late arrival, but I'm on board. I can't pass up a trip report from a fellow Illinois resident.

 

[Sooze]

Love me some Chili's!! Your meal looked scrumptious!!

Oh no... I'm guessing you ended up going out of your way to avoid the costly loss of money?!

 

[teachermommy78]

Uh oh, this doesn't sound promising!

Cue suspenseful organ music!

Just wandered over!! Cant read to hear more about the trip!!

Welcome!!! You have to join a TR that you are part of!

Late arrival, but I'm on board. I can't pass up a trip report from a fellow Illinois resident.

Welcome!!! You aren't late at all. I have the habit of wanting to zip through the days and am forcing myself to slow down (if I don't, I will be done before Photopass gets here!!!). We haven't even finished the first day of fourteen yet.

Love me some Chili's!! Your meal looked scrumptious!!

Oh no... I'm guessing you ended up going out of your way to avoid the costly loss of money?!

Well, you'll have to find out later!

 

[shocky5]

WHAT HAPPENED?

Great TR! Seriously can't wait to read more!!

 

[reelmom]

Signing on. I hope the hotel isn't too far away.

 

[teachermommy78]

We Chicago-ans know a lot of stuff people don't think we'd know! My language arts teacher (from the south) was surprised to know that our whole class knew what a corn husk was!

That is too funny!!! At least you were all more advanced than she gave you credit for!

WHAT HAPPENED?

Great TR! Seriously can't wait to read more!!

Welcome!!!!!!

Signing on. I hope the hotel isn't too far away.

Welcome! I'll be updating a bit later. Right now I am sitting in the parking lot of Sophie's gymnastics center on my iPad. I should probably go home and be productive.

 

[blessedmom4]

Way to keep us hanging Stacey! I read this update earlier in my tooth misery state and didn't comment and You STILL haven't taken me out of my need to know now mode...WHAT HAPPENED!

LOVED the dinner at Chilis and all of the yummy photos..but do tell us...did you get charged for a room you couldn't use, because of the van. You foreshadowed that earlier...Southern girl here showing her brains... now I better go back and make sure I don't have any typos so I don't appear "ignerent"! ...I had to laugh over the corn husk and the southern teacher...my in-laws (Northerners...so was their son until I converted him) and I tease all of the time, so I love it! One time Rachel asked me why there wasn't a wicked witch of the south in The Wizard of Oz. I told her it was because the South doesn't HAVE witches. My dear MIL spit her drink half way across the table, she was laughing so hard.

 

[teachermommy78]

Way to keep us hanging Stacey! I read this update earlier in my tooth misery state and didn't comment and You STILL haven't taken me out of my need to know now mode...WHAT HAPPENED!

LOVED the dinner at Chilis and all of the yummy photos..but do tell us...did you get charged for a room you couldn't use, because of the van. You foreshadowed that earlier...Southern girl here showing her brains... now I better go back and make sure I don't have any typos so I don't appear "ignerent"! ...I had to laugh over the corn husk and the southern teacher...my in-laws (Northerners...so was their son until I converted him) and I tease all of the time, so I love it! One time Rachel asked me why there wasn't a wicked witch of the south in The Wizard of Oz. I told her it was because the South doesn't HAVE witches. My dear MIL spit her drink half way across the table, she was laughing so hard.

I'll update tonight (or I'll try super hard to, at least!). We are on our way home from a bday party. I have a goal of getting 6 baskets of laundry put away and getting the house straightened before Big Brother comes on tonight!!! I'm trying to slow the TR a bit because I'm going to need to insert photo pass pictures. I still haven't ordered the CD. I'll do that tonight too!!!

 

[teachermommy78]

Taking a break from real life! I got 6 basket of laundry sorted, but not put away. It's all on my bed, so Scott and I may have to bunk with kids or on the couch tonight! Hey...it happens!
_____________________
OK, so where we left off, I had made a reservation at a hotel that was nowhere NEAR where we thought it was and there was a cancellation fee. The funny part about this is that Scott is awesome with maps and directions. Had we not depended on the ipad, we would have been just fine! We now learned that we need to check with more than one app for accuracy when there are fees dependent on it!

We were looking at our little blue dot on the map, and it was going REALLY slowly. Turns out we were 2 hours away from the hotel we thought was one or two exits away. THANK GOODNESS we were living on pretrip adrenaline! NO PROBLEMA! We'll just travel those extra 2 hours and be 2 hours closer to DISNEY! Both Scott and I were stress free on this problem (that really doesn't happen much with a worrywart husband and a overplanner wife!). The kids were sleeping, we were energetic, and we'd be 2 hours closer to our destination. In fact, we made a change in our trip plans right then and there.

Original Plan: Day 1: Chicago- Kentucky; Day 2 Kentucky to Florida Border; Day 3 Florida Border to WDW (to arrive mid morning)

New Plan: Day 1 Chicago- Almost Tennessee border Day 2 Tennessee- WDW (to arrive late evening)

Considering we left in the afternoon on day 1, not a bad itinerary! Scott's mom and dad were also traveling at this point, but they left about 2 hours after us and would meet us at WDW.

First crisis averted, and we were left with a good night's sleep.

Next up...Extra long day on the road! But who cares! We're going to DISNEY WORLD!!!

 

[Sooze]

Good call!! You can totally do that trip in two days! But if you arrive in WDW a day early, where will you stay? I'm curious to see how this plays out....

 

[teachermommy78]

Good call!! You can totally do that trip in two days! But if you arrive in WDW a day early, where will you stay? I'm curious to see how this plays out....

WEll, our original original plans were to leave at 4am the first day and go as far as possible, and then get to WDW the next day. Then we decided to leave the afternoon before instead of waiting for the next morning and kind of take our time so the kids could swim at night and have a lazier trip. That 2 hours extra stopped that plan! We knew we would get to WDW at some point that day, but now we had a full day (got to the park 15 minutes after rope drop) as opposed to after lunch. On our last trip we really wasted money and park time. We got there late afternoon and wasted the entire day. Then we left on our last day in the morning wasting those tickets as well. This time we had already decided to add a room only at the end to take advantange of the time. We figured the beginning would just be a loss, but now it turned out not to be! Yay for careless map reading!

 

[ZFamily5]

Yay for getting further than planned!

 

[anjalee6]

We always do a room only the last night in Disney to take advantage of the parks so our tickets don't go to waste. It only took us three years to figure that one out. Lol!

 

[teachermommy78]

Yay for getting further than planned!

That's always a good thing as long as no one in the car is crabby!

We always do a room only the last night in Disney to take advantage of the parks so our tickets don't go to waste. It only took us three years to figure that one out. Lol!

I'm glad we figured that out sooner than later! It was a bummer leaving last time knowing we had a day left (and I think we left all got double breakfast or something due to extra quick service credits!).

 

[ZFamily5]

That's always a good thing as long as no one in the car is crabby!

Do your kids travel well in the car?

 

[reelmom]

Extra time at Disney is the best!!! So glad you were able to not stress about it and turn it into something postivie. That's hard to do on a Disney vacation.

 

[teachermommy78]

Do your kids travel well in the car?

They typically do not. The state line gifts did wonders. They tend to fight a bit, and we get the normal "how much longers?"

Extra time at Disney is the best!!! So glad you were able to not stress about it and turn it into something postivie. That's hard to do on a Disney vacation.

I think it was easier since we were on our way. And the extra time was a great incentive to suck it up!

 

[teachermommy78]

Day 2: June 22, 2011

We woke up bright and early and pretty confused by the time. While traveling through Indiana we moved from Central to Easter Time Zone, which set us ahead an hour. Then, apparently, somewhere we went BACK to Central. When we entered Eastern that first time, I changed our van's clock since it would be in Eastern for the entirety of the trip. I set my phone alarm for 5:15, so we could be out of our room by 6 or so (which would actually be 7ish). Whatever...I still don't know what happened!

For the kids, breakfast at a hotel is the best thing EVER. Many of Sophie's gymnastics meets take place out of town. We always find a place with a breakfast. We know that this is a HUGE incentive to get the kids ready in the morning. It definitely worked this time as well! We left the room and Scott went and checked us out. He found out that the breakfast was open a bit early so we got to get in there before the crowds came. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures! I guess I wasn't in TR mode yet! I know Ethan had a waffle, which we had to wait for, and he ate about 3 bites. I also remember the boys going absolutely nutty and began having imaginary sword fights. I also remember going to the bathroom 3 times (taking individual kids) and somehow EACH time, all three kids had to come with me into the single bathroom. It was time to get to the car!!!

Here is the part where I don't remember what happened to the state line gifts from Kentucky. If we end up with an extra set at the end, we'll just have to all imagine that extra set back in Kentucky. What I THINK happened what that they might have gotten them when we got to the hotel and it was dark and everyone was sleepy. Or they got them right away and I didn't take pictures. I'm confused. Yet again.

We were a bit closer to Tennessee than we realized because before I even put my camera away, we saw this:

And the time was:

State line gifts!
Toy Story Silly Bandz, and Goofy!

Dear Dumb Diary Book Pack and Magnetic Thingy (see Ethan's pic in the next picture)

Magnetic Hair Thingy and Silly Bandz

And we were left traveling with some beautiful scenery!

Up Next...GEORGIA!!!

 

[ZFamily5]

They typically do not. The state line gifts did wonders. They tend to fight a bit, and we get the normal "how much longers?"

The state line gifts are a great idea! I might have to try that when/if we drive to Canada next summer.

 

[reelmom]

You were making great time. I bet until you hit Georgia. We have the worst traffic, no matter what time of day it is.