Thanksgiving Camping turns into off site with family in May

[lledman]

I ordered Tyler all 3 of the Kingdom Keepers books from amazon – I figured since I want to read them too & our library only has one copy of each that already has a hold for whenever it’s returned that I might as well just buy them. Of course they were shipped in 2 shipments – books 2 & 3 arrived today – the first one should come sometime this week – Tyler’s excited to start reading them.

 

[alr-in-nc]

Impressed by all your planning and also bec. you're taking a family of 5 to WDW and camping too! Went to WDW for the first time in my life last March and had a blast. Went with DH and DD (age 5). We got annual passes so we are going more times this year to make it worth it. So I'm looking for ideas from all these expert moms. DD loved it and DH came around too. We're staying on Disney property in a non-Disney resort. Love the ideas of gifts from Tinkerbell to keep everyone excited!!

I ordered Tyler all 3 of the Kingdom Keepers books from amazon – I figured since I want to read them too & our library only has one copy of each that already has a hold for whenever it’s returned that I might as well just buy them. Of course they were shipped in 2 shipments – books 2 & 3 arrived today – the first one should come sometime this week – Tyler’s excited to start reading them.

 

[lledman]

Impressed by all your planning and also bec. you're taking a family of 5 to WDW and camping too! Went to WDW for the first time in my life last March and had a blast. Went with DH and DD (age 5). We got annual passes so we are going more times this year to make it worth it. So I'm looking for ideas from all these expert moms. DD loved it and DH came around too. We're staying on Disney property in a non-Disney resort. Love the ideas of gifts from Tinkerbell to keep everyone excited!!

I hope you enjoy your annual passes. I'd love to hear more about your first & future adventures - I love reading about others trips - if I can't go myself I might as well enjoy it through others. I'd love to have annual passes one year, DH isn't sold on doing Disney that often though. Maybe when the kids get just a little older I'll attempt to do a trip on my own with them and if it's successful we'll make the purchase. We went twice in 2008 and I loved it - both trips were sooooo laid back b/c on our first trip if we missed something we knew that we'd be back just 4 months later and when we went in August it was nice to take it slow in the heat b/c we had just been 4 months earlier - plus we also got to try out a water park and Disney Quest - something I probably wouldn't have done before but now will make time for in the future. Since we drive and it’s a 16 hour trip, I will admit that it was a lot to do with smaller kids but they are great travelers so that helps.

 

[lledman]

We had a great weekend camping at Kings Dominion – Camp Wilderness. We only made it to the park for about 40 minutes Friday night and a couple of hours Saturday night but we were able to ride a lot and not have to deal with the heat (the boys practically walked on the Intimidator 305 – the newest/coolest coaster - on Friday night). Chris loved his father’s day gift yesterday – a NASCAR driving experience at Richmond International Raceway.

I took too many photos to choose which ones to post - http://classic.kodakgallery.com/ledmanfamily/camping/fathers_day_weekend_camping?

 

[lledman]

I can’t believe I forgot to mention – Chris actually compared Kings Dominion to Disney World this weekend – noting how clean and maintained Disney is – KD is clean but a lot of the buildings, walkways and rides are dated - he mentioned how everything at Disney always looks new. I know this may not sound like much but coming from him it nearly floored me

 

[taymacsmom]

I can’t believe I forgot to mention – Chris actually compared Kings Dominion to Disney World this weekend – noting how clean and maintained Disney is – KD is clean but a lot of the buildings, walkways and rides are dated - he mentioned how everything at Disney always looks new. I know this may not sound like much but coming from him it nearly floored me

Sometimes my DH won't admit he's a Disney lover either. But then he will do the same thing, comparing other places/vacations to Disney. Makes me very happy! Glad you had a good weekend!

 

[BippityBoo]

We got the same necklace cages as well!!! My DD is soooo excited to use them! Did you know that the CreativeDisign board has an invitation you can print out inviting your little girl to pick a pearl? It is pink and so cute!

 

[lledman]

We got the same necklace cages as well!!! My DD is soooo excited to use them! Did you know that the CreativeDisign board has an invitation you can print out inviting your little girl to pick a pearl? It is pink and so cute!

No, I will have to go do a search - thank you. She's only 3 but I think she's old enough to think that is pretty cool.

 

[lledman]

Just saw that the Disney on Ice coming near us in October is going to be Toy Story 3 – presale tickets are available next Tuesday

 

[lledman]

We saw Toy Story 3 on Sunday. It was a good movie but it didn’t move me like it seems to have others. Devin loved it so that’s all that matters. I just purchased us tickets for Disney on Ice when it comes near us in October (if you call 90 minutes away near us) – the show – Toy Story 3 – I can’t wait to see it on ice now after seeing the movie.

 

[lledman]

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. We went camping over to Kings Dominion for the weekend. I was surprised how empty the park was Friday night – but by Sunday they were slammed with visitors. We had a great time though, with having season passes and camping there several times I feel like there is always a next time and we are never rushed to try to do it all each visit. It really cooled down last week but boy is the heat back in full force today - I think we are supposed to reach 105 tomorrow

 

[taymacsmom]

It's definitely hhhooootttt here too. Over 100 yesterday and supposed to be around 98 today! Thank heavens we have ac! Never been to Kings Dominion but I am sure my family would love to go one day. Which one do you go to?

 

[lledman]

It's definitely hhhooootttt here too. Over 100 yesterday and supposed to be around 98 today! Thank heavens we have ac! Never been to Kings Dominion but I am sure my family would love to go one day. Which one do you go to?

Kings Dominion is owned by Cedar Fair now and is located is Doswell, VA - it's about 2 hours from us but with taking a few weekends camping our season passes have more than paid for themselves this year.

 

[lledman]

140 days and counting

I finished the first in the series of the Kingdom Keepers books that I bought for Tyler for his upcoming birthday - I gave them to him early - he's on chapter 3 and I finished the thing in 2 days

 

[lledman]

Finished the 2nd Kingdom Keepers book last night - had a busy weekend so this one took me 3 days to read

These books are great - the endings leaving a lot open which is a little disappointing to me b/c it just leaves me wanting more but the books themselves are full of details that really make it feel like you are right there in the story.

 

[lledman]

Happy 115 days until my trip

Sorry to not really have any Disney updates but all reservations are made and things are pretty much quiet on the Disney planning front. I started making a countdown chain for the kids this weekend but didn’t get too far on it. We have been busy though. Friday I took the boys to a water park with Tyler’s 4-H group – it was a lot of fun but who knew just laying around in the sun all day would make you soo tired. That night my cousin called and invited us to Kings Dominion on Saturday with her family. Even though we are camping there this weekend we went anyway. The weather was great – high of maybe 85 – which made the park more crowded than we were used to but since we were with friends (another set of friends joined us too) it was still a good day and we did get to ride a lot – even if we had to wait in lines to do it.

Oh and the 3rd kingdom keepers book has been read - can't wait for the next to be released - or how about a movie based on the first 3 books

 

[MHTeacher]

Hi Lisa! I followed the link in your sig from where you posted on my TR.

Sounds like you've been making a lot of plans for your Nov. trip. I LOVE the flag you had made! Too cute.

Your children are beautiful. Looking forward to hearing more plans.

 

[lledman]

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching (and number crunching) lately. Hubby’s job has been really slow this summer – he’s only been working 20-30 hours a week – we know to expect this in the winter but not the summer – he has worked 60-70 hours a week in summers past. With that said all money that I should have been saving for Disney has been going to our general household fund to pay our bills. I have come to the realization that if we do Disney this year for Thanksgiving that we are going to have to scale back our plans drastically. I think I’m to the point where I’ve convinced myself that it would be better to just postpone the trip until we can do it right. Hubby is in the process of looking for a new job but it’s hard with the market as tight as it is and he really doesn’t want to have to commute over an hour each way to make a decent salary. I’ve talked it over with Tyler, telling him that for Thanksgiving we’ll take an extended weekend trip to Hershey and I think he’s fine with that since we’ll still be going away. I’ve got our room paid for, Disney Dollars bought for our character meals and we have our tickets from my MIL from last trip but there are still a lot of little extras that add up along with the cost of fuel. I am not going to cancel our reservation but I am going to roll it over until next year. Now the problem is selecting new dates.

My logical thing to do would just be to book the same trip but just a year later. My cousin has rescheduled their trip for this time so we could once again be joining their family. I loved going in November for our first trip and seeing all the parks decorated – I’d love to see the Fort decorated. I’ve got all the planning done – it will just be a matter of rebooking all the reservations I wan next year. But that’s more than a year away and I’ve already done the year + countdown once.

I think my SIL & BIL are both planning to go next year for Spring Break – I’ve read that this is a super crowded time of the year to go so I think we’ll pass – plus we already have reservations to camp at a Yogi for Easter with 2 sets of friends so I’d like to do that instead. My SIL is planning to get married and her date was going to be 7/23 but since she is joining the Catholic Church her priest wants to baptize her on Easter and then marry them on May 7th so this would put her Disney trip on hold. Not sure if she’s going to changer her wedding date or what.

Then I get the thought this morning – we’ve done August before and survived, July can’t be any worse than that right (trying to convince myself here). Wouldn’t it be cool to be at Disney on my birthday??? The kids wouldn’t have to miss any school, we would have the July 4th holiday from work, we could do the water parks. But then I remember it was hot - I don’t like hot and it rains a lot in the summer – I don’t like being wet and the 4th of July is a big holiday – I don’t like crowds.

Ahhh decisions, decisions, decisions

 

[lledman]

Well it looks like we are now settling on Spring Break offsite, yep the least favorite of my previous options - you have to remember how I talk my self in circles in and out of things by justifying this or that .

Not exactly the trip I was originally planning but I think we can still make it great. We know 6 families now that have been to Florida with their campers this year and those same 6 families all have had flat times on their campers – can’t be a coincidence – they all complain that the roads are horrible. I can’t imagine having a blow out on the camper I mean if there is too much damage we couldn’t use it to camp for a week. DH has not come out and said we shouldn’t camp at Disney but he has joked that maybe we should only plan camping trips North. So this made me start thinking about hotels – well we are looking at close to double the rate we are getting at the campground to move to a hotel – we’d loose our kitchen though so that would also increase our food budget. Solution - my aunt and uncle are giving us a great deal on staying in one of their 3 bedroom timeshares (location yet to be determined). My SIL along with her family and my MIL will be staying with us. Because I always estimate highly for fuel we’ll save $300 from what I’ve been planning (probably closer to only $200 but saving is saving) by not towing the camper and another $300 on lodging. Granted we’ll now have to pay for parking at the parks but I still only plan on visiting the parks for 3 or 4 days so that’s not too bad. With having the timeshare we’ll still have a full kitchen like in the camper so we can prepare some of our meals like we would have in the camper – only difference is on our park days we may not go back for an afternoon break (if the kids will allow) so I’ll have to add another $30 per day for our food budget too or make sure we eat every meal at the timeshare on our non park days to make up the difference.

Since we aren’t camping, we won’t need a golf cart so that’s another $250 savings.

I hope to make the same 3 dining reservations like we were planning for Thanksgiving.

Ty really wants to do mini-golfing again so I am going to try to keep that in the budget but if money is tight I’ll be canceling the extra activities like BBB & the pirate cruise.

So for my update recap – no more camping at Thankgiving, we’ll now be visiting for spring break and staying offsite.

 

[lledman]

How do I go about changing the title of my thread???

I’ve got somewhat of an update – I think we have settled on going for Spring Break (the week before Easter) with DSIL’s family. I know it will be a very crowded time but my DMIL will be going with her so I’d love to tag along at that time. We are going to be staying offsite now at a timeshare we are getting from my aunt & uncle – I hope. (We still have plenty of time but we are holding out for a 3 bedroom unit – so far there are only 2 bedroom units available for trade – that just will not work for the number of people we’ll have staying together. There will be 13 of us total which I know is above the limit but 5 of them will be age 5 and under so I’m only counting them as ½ people) If the timing doesn’t work so that we can get a 3 bedroom unit then my family will be holding off and going the 3rd week of June – when school lets out – the more I think about it the more I don’t want to pull the boys unless I truly have to. June won’t be horrible – we’ll just spend more time at the resort pool or it will guarantee a few days visiting the water parks.