The Super-Fabulous Graduation Celebration Trip of 2011!

[ajh88]

Hi Everyone!

I'm Amy and I'm on summer vacation with not a lot to do online right now, so I thought I might try my hand at starting a pre-trip report. We'll see how things go and if I manage to stick with it for 2 whole years.

I just finished my 2nd year of pharmacy school, which is a 2nd career for me. I've been a "scientist" forever, but officially for about 9 years, since I graduated college back in 1997. I'm half-way done in my doctor of pharmacy program - in a way, the past 2 years have gone in a flash, but at the same time, 2 more years seems like a long way to go!

My DH, Tim, is wonderful and incredibly supportive - though he did inform me the other evening that our 2011 trip will have a different theme for him. It will be the 'death' of Student Amy (who is quite serious and can be a bit crabby, especially before exams) and the 'birth' of Pharmacist Amy, who I'm sure he's hoping is more like the fun-loving wife he married nearly 10 years ago.

My beautiful DD, who I'll call MJ (simply to protect a wee bit of privacy in her life), will be 10 years old before I graduate. It makes my heart ache a bit to think of some of the time I've missed with her because I've been studying. I try to make up for it as best as I can and she still loves me anyway.

And speaking of making up for lost time, we went and saw "Up" today - I was weeping at the end of the back-story sequence at the beginning of the movie. I knew it was there, I just didn't expect it to affect me that much. I got misty every time he looked at the Adventure book...


My step son, JD, will be going on 20 at the time of this trip and as of now, it is uncertain whether or not he'll be joining us. At the moment, he's trying to figure out where to go to college and how to spend his senior year of high school (that is a very long story for another time and place). He's generally a good kid, but sometimes 17 year olds do silly things and he is not immune from that. Regardless, we love him and we hope he'll be there with us for at least part of our time at the World.


I suppose that'll be all for now....maybe I'll actually talk about my trip next time! And if anyone know how I can link future "episodes" in this post, I'd love to know how to do it! Thanks!

Episode Listing:
#1 - Cast of Characters Click here

 

[OhMari]

Hi,
I'll be going in 2011 too,
seems so far away.

Just edit your first post and add the link with hyper link above.

 

[ajh88]

I thought maybe I'd put some faces to some names. I know I said I'd give DD and DSS a modicum of privacy, but I figured a couple of photos from our last trip wouldn't hurt TOO much (of course, I'm not a 17 year old boy).

Me: Amy with DH Tim:

My DD, MJ, all dressed up for our adventure to the 2008 MNSSHP - she was Sharpay but people kept mistaking her for Miley Cyrus, which did NOT make her happy.

My brother in law works at Disney - he helped design a lot of the decorations for MNSSHP and he said he named the scarecrows after us (how cool is that?!?). This is Tim with DSS JD in front of Tim's scarecrow.

And just so my scarecrow doesn't feel left out, here she is:

DH and I got married in 2000 and since then, we have been to the World 5 times:
2001 - August -Dixie Landings
2003 - August - Caribbean Beach
2005 - December - Caribbean Beach (my parents, sister, and nephew went with us this trip)
2007 - June - All-Star Sports - Star Wars Weekends
2008 - October - All Star Sports - halloween - possibly my favorite trip so far

I did go once as a teenager with my parents - I think in 1991 or 1992. We stayed off-property that trip but I don't remember where.

On this last trip, DD finally started doing some pin trading - here she is with a newly traded pin and a canine companion at DTD:

We also decided to decorate our window in the spirit of the season. DH found various pictures online then laminated them and cut them out. He then punched holes in them and fastened them to the cloth curtain with safety pins. It was quite an undertaking but he enjoys that stuff - I like the end result but not the process!

MJ decided to howl at the moon a la werewolf style after we got the window done:

And one last one that cracked me...Pirate MJ at the MNSSHP:

I was just flipping through all of our 2008 photos, and I realized that I should be calling our trips "Monorails, Billboards, and the Castle", as those photos comprise about 75% of our photos!

Up next: I really haven't decided yet - maybe a recap of some of the things we've done already and things we're still looking forward to!