Surprise Trip.....Can we pull it off?

[kaileighbug]

So...we are planning a trip to Disney World thanks to a lovely free dining pin! We are planning our trip January 3rd thru January 11th. The best part of the whole trip???? We don't plan to tell Kaileigh where we are going.

We really want to surprise Kaileigh with this trip. We are heading to Houston for Christmas this year. So since we are going cross country anyway....I suggested we just drive over to Florida since it is a lot closer to Houston to Michigan. Have to love my reasoning..... I told my husband we have our sign that it is time to go again. I fill in at work for the people I supervise when they go to break if the machine is running. We have to verify the parts the machine produces and dot them. I filled in and placed my dot on one of the parts. This is what happened.

Like I said it is a sign....LOL

 

[kaileighbug]

This is Kaileigh. She will turn 9 this month. She loves going to Disney and is usually helping me to plan our trips and organize all our stuff to take with us. This trip she will not be able to help plan as she doesn't know we are going.

Kaileigh will be learning to be a cheerleader this year. We just signed her up for upwards cheerleading this weekend. She is very excited. She is also learning violin this year. She was just awarded the Terrific Kid award at school and does very well in school. We want to surprise her for doing so well.

We have not decided exactly how to surprise her yet. Right now we are thinking about pulling over for dinner along the way and giving her a card to open with some Disney gift cards in it. Then tell her that's where we are headed. We are going to try and get our waitress to record her. We will see how observant she is on the road signs this trip.

 

[kaileighbug]

Hmmmm it looks like there will be a change in the method of surprise. Now DH wants to pull over at the first gas station and have her write out on the car windows letter by letter "We're going to Disney World!" and film it while she does. I don't think she will be awake enough at 6 am to do that. I want to leave his mom's as early as we can to have some relax time when we get to Disney. I think we need to stop at a rest stop later in the day and send her in with DH and write on the windows while they are gone. I can have the camera ready when she comes back out and he can have her read the window out loud and let it sink in. This way she is awake.

If anyone reading has any thoughts or suggestions please share. It will be the first time we have surprise her like this. I bought Crayola window markers to try out. We will use them before we leave for grandma's house. I want to try them for her birthday this month to see how they show up. This way I have time to find something else if they don't work.

I am already trying to get things put up to pack like vinylmations. I purchased quite a few from the Disney store online when they were on sale for $2.99 to put away for our next trip. We had a lot of fun trading these our last trip. I told her we needed to go thru the pins to pick which ones we want to keep and put them up in her room. I made some covered corkboards for her walls before our last trip. This way I can take the other pins and lanyards to put away. This way I know if I need to order some more pins.

I asked her if she wanted to take her Tiana dress to grandma's for Christmas. Of course she asked why. I just told her so we could show grandma how pretty she looks in it..... I can pack her Disney shirts when she isn't looking.

I really hope we can pull this off.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[kaileighbug]

So let's get this out of the way......Hi my name is JoAnn and I am a Disney addict.

Kaileigh and I went thru all the pins we have and picked the ones we wanted to keep to display. Now we just need to hang up the boards. Once we finished and while she wasn't paying attention.....I ordered 100 pins for trading. All of us enjoyed the pin trading. We also enjoyed the vinylmation trading. I bought 16 when they were on sale for $2.99 for our next trip. Little did I know that trip would be happening so soon.

I found my Disney box and will be slowly adding to the box the things I need to pack up for our trip. I found her Cinderella light up toy today when I cleaned up her room and hid it.

It's amazing what you find when you go through her room. I found a toy story word search book, a princess word search book, and a Doc McStuffins coloring book to put away for the road trip.

 

[kaileighbug]

Plans so far……

December 20th

Attend Kaileigh’s concert at school around 10:30 am. She started playing violin this year and the group will give a little concert during the Terrific Kid assembly. When the assembly is over, we will sign her out of school. We will then need to head home to drop the violin off and pack the cooler. This will allow Kaileigh to change as well. Corey and I will already have the vehicle packed and ready to go. Hopefully we will be on the road no later than noonish. The plan is to drive as far as we can and stop for the night. I hope to make it to Arkansas. Oh btw we are headed to Houston for Christmas. We try to pick a nice hotel with a pool to allow Kaileigh to burn off some energy before crashing for the night.

December 21st

We will eat breakfast at the hotel and hop on the road. Once we find a Whataburger we will stop to eat lunch. Hopefully in Texas. We will arrive sometime in Houston where we will spend time with DH’s family and my DS.

December 22nd thru January 1st

Relax and enjoy the break. We may go to ITZ, bowling, skating, movies, etc. to keep the kids occupied. Let Grandma get in all the lovins she can while we visit.

January 2nd

We want to get a bright and early start to our day. My ideal time to leave would be 6 am. Today is the day we surprise Kaileigh. We are going to Disney! It will be roughly 14 hours in the car today. Around mid-day I would like to pull over and surprise Kaileigh with the video camera rolling. We will check into All Star Sports today.

January 3rd

We will get up and switch hotels and check in for our Free Dining package. We will be moving to All Star Movies. Once we get checked in and have our tickets, we will hopefully make 9 am rope drop at ….. Hollywood Studios. We will be spending our morning here because we have a lunch ADR for 50’s Prime Time Café. This is a new restaurant to us and we really want to try the fried chicken. I would like to stay for Fantasmic. Also if the Osborne lights are still up I would like to see those. We will definitely go on Toy Story Mania. Rock N Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror will be up in the air depending on Kaileigh.

January 4th

We have an ADR for breakfast with the princesses at Epcot. So we will start our day in Epcot and probably stick around for a while. This park has become a favorite in our household as of last trip. I see us spending quite a bit of time here. Especially since most of our dinner ADRs are here….

January 5th

Our plans this day is an ADR for dinner at Teppan Edo. We will go with the flow to see what park we want to visit. We don’t overly plan which park. Once everyone is up we will head wherever we decided.

January 6th

We have a dinner ADR for Coral Reef. This is another new restaurant for us. Once everyone is up we will head wherever we decided.

January 7th

Right now we have a late dinner ADR for Ohana. This is a favorite restaurant for us, but the timing is not very good for us. We will play this one by ear. Once everyone is up we will head wherever we decided.

January 8th

We have a dinner ADR for La Hacienda de San Angel. This is another new restaurant for us. Once everyone is up we will head wherever we decided.

January 9th

We have dinner with Mickey. We have a dinner ADR for Chef Mickey’s. Once everyone is up we will head wherever we decided.

January 10th

We have a lunch ADR for Kona Café. This is another new restaurant for us. Once everyone is up we will head wherever we decided. It will probably be Epcot or Magic Kingdom so we can hop on the Monorail.

January 11th

Today we head back to Michigan. We will drive as far as we can and stop for the night.

January 12th

Arrive home.

We have the park hopper and water park and more options on our tickets. We plan to visit Disney Quest on this trip. We really want to check it out. We will also find some time to spend in Downtown Disney. IF it is warm enough we may try to go to the water park as well. We prefer Blizzard Beach however it will be closed for refurb during our visit. We will decide where to eat for our quick service when we are ready to eat. Kaileigh and I usually split meals when we do because they give you so much food. We also like using snacks to get breakfast. We may find a meal or two off property as well depending on how things go. I am not used to having a vehicle at my disposal. I am just excited and can’t wait. We haven’t really told anyone we are going because we don’t want anyone to ruin our surprise. We will also have homework for her to complete while we are on this trip since she will miss a week of school. The bummer is we can't have her work on it at grandma's house because she will know something is up.

 

[kaileighbug]

Our package is paid in full! ​

 

[kaileighbug]

7 days and counting! I didn't get a chance to make up state line bags with everything going on before we left for Houston. We left early due to fog and we were to get freezing rain before we would have left. We were able to get to the other side of Indianapolis. We might have made it a little further, except Kaileigh broke out from something and we had to stop and get a hotel for the night. The next day we didn't make it as far as we wanted either due to all the rain. We really didn't make good time on our way this time. We made it safe and sound and can't ask for anything more. I still haven't spilled the beans about this trip although we have had a few close calls talking to the very few who know about this trip.

 

[jrj]

Following along... so sad to hear Kaileigh broke out from something, on the way to Houston hope she is feeling better... glad to know you made it safely, in spite of the bad weather...

Have a Merry Christmas and safe travels to Da World!!

 

[kaileighbug]

Following along... so sad to hear Kaileigh broke out from something, on the way to Houston hope she is feeling better... glad to know you made it safely, in spite of the bad weather...

Have a Merry Christmas and safe travels to Da World!!

Thanks and a late Merry Christmas to you as well. 5 days and counting. I can't wait.

 

[jrj]

Thanks and a late Merry Christmas to you as well. 5 days and counting. I can't wait.

Safe travels keep us posted



Joy

 

[Mommy Of 3]

We are doing the same thing. I booked for 1/3-1/8 because we also got the free dining pin. And although my 13 year old son knows about it, our 9 year old daughter doesn't.

She thinks my husband and I are going to Maine and that she and her brother are going to my mom's (a couple towns over) for a few days. We are planning on waking her up tomorrow morning (at 4am, ugh!) and telling her then that she isn't going to Mimi's- she's going to WDW, and she has to hurry up and get ready quick. We figure she'll have no problem getting up that early if she's awakened with that news!

 

[kaileighbug]

We are doing the same thing. I booked for 1/3-1/8 because we also got the free dining pin. And although my 13 year old son knows about it, our 9 year old daughter doesn't.

She thinks my husband and I are going to Maine and that she and her brother are going to my mom's (a couple towns over) for a few days. We are planning on waking her up tomorrow morning (at 4am, ugh!) and telling her then that she isn't going to Mimi's- she's going to WDW, and she has to hurry up and get ready quick. We figure she'll have no problem getting up that early if she's awakened with that news!

I bet she moves really fast. How exciting! I can't wait to see the look on Kaileigh's face when she figures it out. We will leave on Thursday. This will be a one day drive for us from Houston. I don't mind the car trips although this one just cost me $400+ for new brakes in the front. It did fix the wobble that started on the way down though. I made sure to pad the budget just in case. I am ready to get there and start having some fun.....

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Following along, and so excited for you and your family! I can't wait to hear about how the surprise goes for Kaileigh! Have so much fun and happy new year!

 

[kaileighbug]

Today I had to work 4:30 am to 9:30 am and then head to the school for Kaileigh's strings concert. She is playing the violin this year and loves it. They had a little concert at the beginning of the Terrific Kid Assembly. I took photos, but I can't find them right now. She also got an award she didn't know she was getting. The letter came while she was at school and we didn't tell her. So this was a surprise. I did find the picture I took of her with her award though.

This is Kaileigh and her best friend. I don't want to post a picture of her face without permission. They both received awards and they both play violin. We just found out today they will be having their personal lessons together. They are excited.
The rest of the day was spent running last minute errands and trying to pack and clean.

 

[kaileighbug]

Today is the day we get to leave.... Kaileigh had school this morning and DH had to work until 2 am. I had a vacation day today all day.... I got up to get Kaileigh ready for school and drive her. I couldn't believe they didn't have a delay as foggy as it was. It was nasty outside. I took my time but till hydroplaned twice because I couldn't see they big puddles thru the fog. Once I dropped her off I headed back home to finish up the last of the packing. I finished up everything I could without waking up my DH. Once he was up we put the car top carrier on and finished up last minute things. We loaded up the car and headed into town to have breakfast/lunch together. While we were here we found the daily paper for our town and to our surprise Kaileigh was on the front page. They took pictures during the concert and most of the violins made the front page. So after we left we headed to pick up a few papers to share with family. She made the paper a few days later for Terrific Kid. They put a picture of all the award winners in the paper each month.

Next up was getting last minute snacks and drinks for the road and stopping the mail. Once we completed all those items, it was time to pick up Kaileigh from school. Once we had her we had to run home because DH forgot something and we needed to drop off her violin. Needless to say it was still foggy and raining now. We headed out about 3:40pm for Houston. We figured we would get as far away as we could because the weather was calling for freezing rain and I really didn't want to drive in that.

We made it to the other side of Indianapolis, IN before we had to stop. Kaileigh had an allergic reaction to something and we had to stop to get some cream to put on it. She was having no more of the car so we just got a hotel for the night and some steak and shake for dinner.

 

[kaileighbug]

Today was spent in the car all day. We hit a lot of rain and it was slow going. We watched movies when we weren't driving and played on our phones. Kaileigh had a dvd screen as well as the nook. She also had books, toys, and art things to keep her busy. We decided not to go thru Arkansas on our way to Houston. We went down thru Mississippi instead. It got late so we stopped just past Jackson Mississippi in Brookhaven. We always try to get a hotel with an indoor pool for Kaileigh. The hotel we stopped last night had one and she got to swim. Tonight they only had an outdoor pool. This is the first time we got a room with a whirlpool tub. She had a blast in the tub. I have to say it was worth it. What a great way to relax after all the driving in downpours we hit along the way.

 

[kaileighbug]

We got up and moving. We hit the local red box for a few movies and the nearest starbucks and away we went. During one stop Kaileigh decided she was going to drive the rest of the way.



I sent the picture in a text with "Lord help us Kaileigh is driving" to family.

As soon as we made it into Texas we had to stop at Whataburger. We love this restaurant for fast food. They have the best fast food burger we have had so far. They also have breakfast taquitos. (These were a favorite when I was pregnant with Kaileigh and DH would come home at 3 am.)

As soon as we hit DH's mom's subdivision we stopped at the HEB. Kaileigh and I have been waiting 6 months for sushi. They make a San Antonio roll we absolutely love. Kaileigh was starving as usual and ate hers as soon as we arrived and she gave out her hugs. We made it finally.

My son Christopher made it later in the day to stay with us until the 1st when I took him to his grandpa's to stay.

 

[jrj]

Hey, Hey and Welcome home!! Been waiting on your safe return... glad to know you made it home safely Wow, Kaileigh is a superstar Kudos to you and DH for raising a phenomenal daughter I'm settled in and can't wait to hear all about your fabulous vacation

 

[kaileighbug]

I have not abandoned this report I promise. Life has just gotten in the way. I have been working a lot of hours, volleyball for me, cheerleading practice for Kaileigh, Awanas, and more cheerleading have all got in the way of having a spare moment to even sit down and breathe. I will try to get an update in later tonight while Kaileigh goes to the lock in at the college again. Last time I was able to put up a few updates.