The Disney-fication of our Non-Disney Vacation...an October 2013 TR

[Pixiedust530]

Girl, this Dismeet may end up being a ZOO...let me just warn you. PLEASE don't get overwhelmed, but my car is going to be FULL. Here is what happened:

I knew I wanted Gabe to go so he can play with Caden. Well, he went with me the last time I had an Opry Mills Dismeet, and the girls didn't...so I asked them if they wanted to go. They both said they did, so that was fine There would be four of us coming, NO PROBLEM.

Then I invited Quackattack, cause she is fun; and she had told me a few weeks ago she would love to join next time I had a Nashville Dismeet. She accepted the invitation and the count was 5. Still good!

Well, then when Jillian heard Quackattack was coming she wanted me to ask her to bring her son with her. They went to school together from kindergarten to 6th grade. Now they go to different schools and rarely see each other. So, she wanted the chance to hang out with him. So the count was up to 6...

Well, then last night I get a call from my sister-in-law and they have had a family emergency. They need someone to keep their grandson this weekend while they are at drill for the National Guard. He is 5 yrs old and a really sweet little boy....

BUT now there are SEVEN of us coming to the Dismeet. I am thinking of releasing the teens/tweens to go hang out in the mall by themselves for an hour or two just to thin the crowd a bit. Anywho...I still think we will have tons of fun and I cannot wait!

Sounds like a blast! The more the merrier! I don't get overwhelmed easily. Wayne might be in a little bit of shell shock, but he will be fine. He's just kind of quiet and reserved (unlike me )!

I am really excited for us to meet and for the boys to have a chance to play! Plus...we kind of need the mini-getaway...even if it's just for the day!

 

[FeFeMJ]

That pool does look great! There's nothing better than pool time on an arrival day!

 

[DMGeurts]

Seriously!!!! There better be a TON of Dismeet photos this time!!! I am so floppin' jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys are going to have sooooo much fun!!!!

D~

 

[oopsiDAISY]

How in the world did I miss that???? I guess I was checking out the cute costume and totally missed the Devil Horns. Or maybe my brain had just seen them too many times last week and I totally blocked them out. Better not let Gabe read my TR or you might have the makings of a monster like Jim.

You probably missed it because with Jim around that is probably every day behavior....why would it stand out? Yeah, I may need to limit Gabe's playtime with Jim next time we have a Dismeet...

Sounds like a blast! The more the merrier! I don't get overwhelmed easily. Wayne might be in a little bit of shell shock, but he will be fine. He's just kind of quiet and reserved (unlike me )!

I am really excited for us to meet and for the boys to have a chance to play! Plus...we kind of need the mini-getaway...even if it's just for the day!

ONE MORE DAY!!!!

That pool does look great! There's nothing better than pool time on an arrival day!

Can I just say that I am SO glad you have joined my TR? I am so excited to get to know you! And it makes me smile to see your ticker show up in the comments, since it matches mine.

BTW~ I seriously dreamed about going down the AquaDuck last night! It may have had to to with the youtube videos I watched before I left work yesterday...

Seriously!!!! There better be a TON of Dismeet photos this time!!! I am so floppin' jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys are going to have sooooo much fun!!!!

D~

Don't worry, there WILL be pictures...LOTS of them, I am sure!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Hello Everyone!!! This past weekend was FANTASTIC! Why? Because someone got to go to Opry Mills...to the Disney Store...for a DIS~MEET!!!!

My kids had spent the night with their grandparents on Friday night, so I went to pick them up first. Then we went to get Quackattack and her son...then it was off to Opry Mills. On our way there I was able to tell Quackattack about a recent change to our cruise plans that could possibly help convince her family to join us once and for all. See, this is why I NEED to have a PTR going for the cruise already, so I could actually TELL you what the change was... Anywho, she liked the change.

When we got to Opry Mills we spotted our Dis~friends right away. Did we take pictures right away? NOPE, totally forgot! We all just hit it off so well, we proceeded to talk and shop together, forgetting all about photos. But not to worry, after we had actually made it to ANOTHER store together, we finally remembered...so we went back and snapped the required photos. Because, if there is no picture... it didn't happen!



From the back right we have: PixieDust580, Me (oopsiDAISY), Quackattack, Quackattack's son, Jillian, Charity, Gabe and Pixie's son. As you can see from the picture Gabe and Pixie's son hit it off RIGHT AWAY! Gabe decided when we left that Pixie's son was now his #1 Best Friend...and his two favorite cousins were now #2 and #3.

Pixie's DBF joined in the fun, so I had to get a photo of the entire family....and since Gabe and Pixie's son were inseparble, Gabe became a family member for just a few minutes.



So after lightening the load on our wallets at the Disney Store, we headed to the next best thing...the LEGO store!

EVERYONE had a blast in this store. For real, we all spent WAY too much of our hard earned cash here, and it was FUN!















The new BFF's:



Lego had these bins you could fill up for a flat price...we ALL took them up on that offer. Here are the girls rearranging our bin to be able to fit the maximum number of bricks in there for our money:



After fun at the Lego Store, Quackattack took the teens/tweens to shop elsewhere in the mall while Pixie, her DBF, and I took the little guys to play in the play area.

They were constantly on the run while they played. Somehow, I was never able to get a picture of the two of them together, only shots of just
Gabe. I am hoping Pixie got a shot or two with both of them. Hopefully she will have them on her TR in the next day or two. Here is what I got of just Gabe:





When it was time for Quackattack and her crew to meet back up with us, she brought along someone extra...her hubby! He had been working that morning, but joined us at the mall when he got off work. He and Quackattack had these sly grins on their faces when they met up with us...Hubby says to Quackattack, "Should we tell her?"

THEY ARE GOING ON THE CRUISE WITH US!!!!! As it turns out, they REALLY liked the change we made, and things would work out for them to join us now!

So get ready, because when the PTR does start...it's going to be GREAT, because we will be planning for a BIGGER group! I have invited Quackattack to tag team the PTR with me, so we will see if she does.

We all parted ways then for lunch. The Quackattack family joined the oopsiFAMILY at Salsarita's for lunch, and the PixieFamily treated themselves to a special lunch at Rainforest Cafe.

The Dismeet was SO FUN! Pixie and I got along so well, and ran our mouths NON_STOP while the kids played. She is so much fun, and I hope we can all meet up again some time...after all her son IS Gabe's #1 best friend now!

Something that I have started as a countdown to our cruise is a weekly Disney themed activity or treat of some sort. So far we have watched Fantasy videos on youtube, and had Disney treats. Yesterday we did something really fun...the kids decorated jars to save souvenir money in. We are not crafty people at all, but we had fun and while they are not perfect, we are fine the way they turned out...and they will hold money!

 

[Pluto0809]

What a fun meet! Glad you had a great time.

Jim has now become obsessed with Legos after being in the big Lego store at DTD. He's coming in February for a few days just for the wedding. He's flying in Sunday night and leaving Tuesday. Sunday night we are going to be at Epcot and I'm not going to spend the money for a one day ticket for him to join us. He really doesn't want to go to a park any way. He's already decided he's going to go to DTD so he can go back to the Lego store! I'm just hoping he doesn't get lost because he is very directionally challenged.

ETA: Oh, I forgot to mention the souvenir jars. I think they are perfect!

 

[KatMark]

What an awesome DIS meet! Love it and love you remembered to take picture.

I love that Gabe now has a new best friend...love how kids think.

I'm so glad everything is working out and your friends are joining you for the cruise.

 

[FeFeMJ]

It looks like you guys had a great day! I think the jars are great!

I think it's great that your friends are able to join you on the cruise!

 

[DMGeurts]

Awww... This was a super cool Dismeet!!! I loved seeing pictures of all of you together... It was great meeting Quackattack and I am so excited they are going with you!!!! How awesome is that???? And I love that Gabe now has a new #1 best friend - I can totally relate to him - Dis friends are just the BESTEST and some of my very bestest BFFs are my Dis Friends! I looks like you all had a fantastic time! I hope that some day I can meet Pixie too!!!

D~

 

[Pixiedust530]

I love the pictures you got! So AWESOME!! We had a wonderful day at Opry Mills. It was so cool to meet you and Quackattack both and I really enjoyed the time we spent just chatting. It was like we'd known each other for ages.

Caden has not stopped talking about Gabe. Throughout the day Saturday he kept asking if we were going to see him again. I explained that you guys had left and he was very disappointed by this. How sweet that Gabe has named him his #1 best friend. I think it's safe to say that Caden probably feels the same way! It's too bad we don't live closer or I'm sure there would be MANY MANY more playdates!

I'm so excited for you that Quackattack and her family will be joining you on your cruise! How AWESOME to have friends along for the trip. I can't wait for you to start the PTR. Btw...I LOVE LOVE LOVE the money saving jars you made. That ribbon is totally cool and the kids did a great job on them. Now the fun part...FILLING them UP!!!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

What a fun meet! Glad you had a great time.

Jim has now become obsessed with Legos after being in the big Lego store at DTD. He's coming in February for a few days just for the wedding. He's flying in Sunday night and leaving Tuesday. Sunday night we are going to be at Epcot and I'm not going to spend the money for a one day ticket for him to join us. He really doesn't want to go to a park any way. He's already decided he's going to go to DTD so he can go back to the Lego store! I'm just hoping he doesn't get lost because he is very directionally challenged.

ETA: Oh, I forgot to mention the souvenir jars. I think they are perfect!

It was a fantastic Dismeet! Oh, I remember from the pics you sent me from vacation how much Jim LOVED that Lego store! That is awesome that he has plans to go there by himself in February. Hey...whatever it takes to make him enjoy going to Disney!!

What an awesome DIS meet! Love it and love you remembered to take picture.

I love that Gabe now has a new best friend...love how kids think.

I'm so glad everything is working out and your friends are joining you for the cruise.

You have been blessed to have LOTS of Dismeets, and make LOTS of wonderful Disfriendships....I hope to be even half as blessed!

It looks like you guys had a great day! I think the jars are great!

I think it's great that your friends are able to join you on the cruise!

Yes, now I need to get her over to the thread and FB page, so you all can get to know her too!!

DO YOU HEAR THAT QUACKATTACK? I will send you a PM with links to the cruise pages!

Awww... This was a super cool Dismeet!!! I loved seeing pictures of all of you together... It was great meeting Quackattack and I am so excited they are going with you!!!! How awesome is that???? And I love that Gabe now has a new #1 best friend - I can totally relate to him - Dis friends are just the BESTEST and some of my very bestest BFFs are my Dis Friends! I looks like you all had a fantastic time! I hope that some day I can meet Pixie too!!!

D~

Well, I haven't looked at the pictures close enough to tell if you can see it...but I had my SerendipiD~ with me for the Dismeet! Pixie looked it over really well since she says she has one in her future!

I was so EXCITED that the Quackattack family will be going with us!!! They have been on multiple cruises, so she will be a wealth of wonderful tips and information for me to suck dry...I mean "glean from".

I love the pictures you got! So AWESOME!! We had a wonderful day at Opry Mills. It was so cool to meet you and Quackattack both and I really enjoyed the time we spent just chatting. It was like we'd known each other for ages.

Caden has not stopped talking about Gabe. Throughout the day Saturday he kept asking if we were going to see him again. I explained that you guys had left and he was very disappointed by this. How sweet that Gabe has named him his #1 best friend. I think it's safe to say that Caden probably feels the same way! It's too bad we don't live closer or I'm sure there would be MANY MANY more playdates!

I'm so excited for you that Quackattack and her family will be joining you on your cruise! How AWESOME to have friends along for the trip. I can't wait for you to start the PTR. Btw...I LOVE LOVE LOVE the money saving jars you made. That ribbon is totally cool and the kids did a great job on them. Now the fun part...FILLING them UP!!!

Saturday truly was a blast. I am so glad to have met you. I look forward to many more meets in the future! It's our turn to make it up to Louisville now!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

As you who have followed my reports for a while know, Gabe and Charity started a new school this year. They have always gone to a small, private school that had basically no extra-curricular activities to be involved in.

Charity was very excited to have the opportunity to participate in a team sport this year at her new school. She chose to try out for the basketball team, and was ecstatic to make it through try-outs and actually make it onto the team. Last night was the JV first game of the season.



Since she had never played before, we had already warned her that she probably wouldn't get much time on the court this season. She is perfectly fine with that...so she is going to be their biggest cheerleader from the sidelines:



Her team won the game last night with an ending score of 14-2. I wanted to get a picture of the final score on the scoreboard, but it was cleared way too quickly to get ready for the boy's JV team who would be playing next. I did get a shot of the winners lining up to leave the court after the game:



Even though she didn't get to play, it was a great game and we had a blast being there for it!

 

[KatMark]

for the win! It's so great to see our kids involved in sports. I'm not sure where our youngest would be if he'd not done sports.

Great pics!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

It was the dawning of our first full day in Florida. We started out with a big breakfast of Eggs, Grits, Toast, Ham and Coffee on the veranda. Remember this view?



Such a perfect way to start the day! So, how would we spend our first full day in Florida? Well, Mom and I had already talked the night before, and sort of "mapped out" our week. So, we knew exactly how we would spend our day. We would be going to the big pool at our resort. How big is the pool? The resort boasts that it is the largest pool in the United States! Would it be THAT great? I will let you be the judge...

View #1 from our loungers:



Jillian and Charity are the tiny little heads between the water falls. UNDER that grotto is a HOT TUB!

View #2 from our loungers:



View #3 from our loungers:



Taking a pathway to fun:



The "kiddie pool":





Another hot tub, adjacent to the kiddie pool:



Another fun feature of this pool? Remember the white, round structure with the water falls? It had a LEGO play area on top of it!!! Gabe loved that!



In yet another area of the pool, there was this tower with THREE different water slides coming off of it:



A picture of the Pool Bar and Grill:



They would deliver food and drinks to you in your loungers...fancy!

And one last photo of my favorite guys hanging out on the lounger together:



So, what do you think? Does it live up to the hype? I think...YES!

 

[KatMark]

Holy Batman that pool is HUGE! I love it. What a neat idea to have the legos for the boys to play with, love the waterfalls and the slide looks awesome!

 

[solana131]

Oh my goodness that pool complex is amazing!
Yay for the bball win!
And that is so cool that quackattack is going with you guys....it would have been awesome alone, but having friends on a cruise is so much better!

 

[FeFeMJ]

That pool is amazing! And those loungers look so comfy!

Congrats to Charity's team!

 

[Chicago Mo]

I am CAUGHT UP!!! OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOODNESS!!! your Dis meet looks amazing!!! everything looked like so much fun!!!! Like i said on Pixi's report i think we need a huge Dis meet!!!! i promise if i ever win the millions we will be meeting in Disney!!! ohhhh I loved Quackattack's purse too!

that is one HUGE POOL! i could live there keep having them bring drinks and food and be totally content for the rest of the trip.


can't wait to hear MORE!!!!

 

[DMGeurts]

Congrats to Charity's team!!! That's awesome! She is so cute in her uniform, and I love her new glasses (they are new? Aren't they?)

WHOA!!!! That is one AWESOME pool!!!! I think I want to stay there some day - it looks marvelous!

I think I need a vacation from our Disney vacation - if only I had the time. LOL

Great update!

D~

 

[cheekypoppins]

WHAT???? WHAT????? REALLYY?????? OMG OMG agfjcdkjfgljgfjgjyghg!!!!!!!!!! I did not know you had a LEGO STORE!!!!!!!! OMg and WHAT??? lego at the hotel okay sign me up like yesterday!!!! I'm having a legogasm right now!!! ..........................and then I fainted the end!