Turning into a Gustav Report! - We're home!

[coteau_chick]

That picture of Audrey going down the slide in her Cinderella dress is priceless. I am sad your trip report is coming to a end.

I can't believe you have pneumonia. I am worried that Grace may have it again too. She has a horrible cough that sounds like she is chokeing. It is not constant but bad when it starts. She doesn't have fever and is playing like normal and eating and drinking like nothing is wrong. It is just a cough. She just finished up a ten day antibiotic yesterday for tonsilitis again. I am giving her breathing treatments three times a day and she is getting better. You need to make sure you rest. I have heard of soooooooooooo many people I know getting pneumonia this year. Also alot of babies I know had RSV. I don't know what the deal is with all of that. Take care of yourself and get better.

 

[vamassey1]

Loved your AK pictures. The one of Aubrey sliding in her Cindy dress is too cute. I hope your meds are kicking in and you start to mend soon.

 

[DisneyTiger]

That picture of Audrey going down the slide in her Cinderella dress is priceless. I am sad your trip report is coming to a end.

I can't believe you have pneumonia. I am worried that Grace may have it again too. She has a horrible cough that sounds like she is chokeing. It is not constant but bad when it starts. She doesn't have fever and is playing like normal and eating and drinking like nothing is wrong. It is just a cough. She just finished up a ten day antibiotic yesterday for tonsilitis again. I am giving her breathing treatments three times a day and she is getting better. You need to make sure you rest. I have heard of soooooooooooo many people I know getting pneumonia this year. Also alot of babies I know had RSV. I don't know what the deal is with all of that. Take care of yourself and get better.

Thanks for your well wishes. I can't believe poor little Grace is sick again. I will say lots of prayers that she's better for the trip! Worst nightmare, I know!

I'm anxious to see how the ear piercing went. Keep me posted

Loved your AK pictures. The one of Aubrey sliding in her Cindy dress is too cute. I hope your meds are kicking in and you start to mend soon.

I do love that pic too. It's so Aubrey. She's such a girlie girl but doesn't mind getting down and dirty too!

I am actually feeling a little worse today than yesterday. Very tired and weak. I'm going to take it easy to day. Thanks

 

[DisneyTiger]

Just a quick post before I go lay down and rest...

The bus ride back to the hotel was actually really good. Both kids rested so I knew that meant when we got back to the hotel there would more than likely be no napping going on. I also knew that we needed to start packing. We had Hoopty Doo this night and I knew there would be time to do it when we got back or in the morning.

We got back to the room and the kids played while I got everything together. It was sad. Jason could tell how upset I was so he asked if I wanted to take one more spontaneous trip out to DHS. We had wanted to see the Block Party Bash with all the Pixar characters but it just hadn't worked out for us earlier in the week. After a bit of debating, we decided to head down to the dock and catch the boat over to DHS. We got there right before BBB started. I really didn't know what to expect with this show/parade. We headed down to the sourcerers hat. I figured this would be a good place to see things. We actually got a good spot right at the front of the crowd. Everything was fine until a very rude group of people edged their way in and ended up taking over our spot. I was so mad and frustrated. The sun came out and was beating down on us. I realized that this little trip to DHS was probably pushing it. The kids were hot and cranky and so was Jason. I was almost in tears just because I knew our trip was coming to an end. We were a lively crew, let me tell you. So then the show started. I figured it would be worth it for Aubrey to see Woody and Sulley and the other characters. The parade was heading down Hollywood Blvd right at us and then just stopped All of the characters were on the sides of the parade so we really couldn't see anything. And thanks to our rude friends who were now in front of us, the kids couldn't see anything either. I snapped this pic and then we got out of there. It was just not working for us...

Can I tell you how bummed I was?? We decided to head over to Voyage of the Little Mermaid. I knew Aubrey would love this because she LOVES the movie. Her fondness of Ariel had grown even more since she was the first character that Aubrey met on our trip. The four of us took our seats, front row and center. Then, guess what... Brendan got restless so Jason took him out. Shocking I know. Well, Aubrey and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. She was glued to the stage. She got a little scared when Ursila came out but I kept assuring her that Eric was going to save the day. And that he did. It was great. I really think Aubrey loved it.

Oops, I forgot to upload some photopass pics from DHS. Let me go do that and I'll be back...

 

[my2disneyboys]

I LOVED the picture of your little boy sleeping in his carriage! He reminds me SO much of my 18 month old!!! I think they have the same hair?! Or it could be their age?? I dunno- but he is such a cutie!

 

[DisneyTiger]

I LOVED the picture of your little boy sleeping in his carriage! He reminds me SO much of my 18 month old!!! I think they have the same hair?! Or it could be their age?? I dunno- but he is such a cutie!

Thanks so much! Yes, my DS has some crazy hair! I love it though. It fits with his personality perfectly!

 

[DisneyTiger]

Well, photobucket is acting weird so I was not able to upload my photopass pics. I will have to do a whole photopass post at the end of my TR.

Anywho, while Aubrey and I were in the VOLM, Jason and Brendan were meeting all of the Playhouse Disney characters. Those are the pics I was trying to upload. Since I had the camera, he got the photopass photographer to take a ton of pics. There are some cute ones.

So after we met up with each other, it was time to catch a bus over to Ft. Wilderness for Hoopty Doo Review. I was excited to see this show. It had been built up so much to me by others that I wanted to see what the big deal was. Much like MNSSHP, I didn't know what to expect and was pleasantly suprised!

The bus ride to FW was fine. It was when we got dropped off that things got a little crazy. If you've every been to FW, it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, or at least it feels that way. We were dropped off at a bus stop and I swear I heard that old western music playing in my head when we stepped off the bus. There was no one around and we had no idea where to go. We finally found someone to ask and were told to get on one of the internal buses and head to Pioneer Hall. We found a bus along with a very nice bus driver who took pity on us. He told us exactly what to do. Sooooo, we finally ended up here...

To see...

Well, the dinner got off to a rough start when we had a VERY rude hostess seat us - Carol. I will never forget that woman's name. I almost felt like I was at one of those restaurants where the wait staff is supposed to be rude to you. For a second, I wondered if that's how this dinner was. Unfortunately, she was just rude. So we sat at our table. Wow and what a seat it was. We were one table back from the stage right in the middle. That got me thinking about the meal plan. I could have sworn that if you use the meal plan for HDR, then you have to sit upstairs or farther back from the stage. Then I looked at our receipt. Yes, it hit me. I had paid cash for this dinner months ago! Why is this a big deal you ask??? Because I had been hording our last precious TS points for this meal - 2 each!!! Oh, Jason was mad. This was our last night and there was no way we were going to be able to use those credits before we left. I scrambled for an idea and decided to see if Cape May was available for the morning. As luck would have it, it was so I took it. I felt like a big dummy but oh well. Our seats were great and it was now time for the food! So here comes our waiter - Bob. Yeah, he must have been related to Carol because I think that if this man would have even tried to smile, he would have killed over. He basically proceeded to throw our food down on our table and walk away. But there was a silver lining to this meal - free beer! Woo hoo! Well, not free. For what I paid for this meal, we should have gotten our own keg! So the show started and it was really good. I mean, hilarious. I was laughing so hard at points that I was shocked! We really enjoyed ourselves. It was the perfect ending to our trip. Here are some pics...

Salad for dad. Man, he looks way too excited over this. Must be that free beer that's put a twinkle in his eye ...

And salad for Mommy and Aubrey. She LOVES salad so we loaded up!...

Jason and I were pretty delirious at this point as you can see by our faces.

See how close we were...

Brendan enjoying his meal...

At the end of the show, they bring out washboards for everyone to play. Jason really got into this

It really was a great show and I can't wait to do it again one day. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Well, our night wasn't over yet. We still had one more adventure in store. I forgot to mention that before we went into HDR, we saw this outside...

Ooooooooo, spooky. What did the rest of the evening hold for us????

 

[vamassey1]

Great update! I've never done this but I really want to try it. Not sure if DH would be willing. Maybe the beer would help tip the scales.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Great updates! Sorry you had such rude CMs at the show but atleast other than that it sounds like it was good! I think that would be fun to see sometime.

 

[DisneyTiger]

Great update! I've never done this but I really want to try it. Not sure if DH would be willing. Maybe the beer would help tip the scales.

It really was fun. You should do it. I liked it more than I thought I would.

Great updates! Sorry you had such rude CMs at the show but atleast other than that it sounds like it was good! I think that would be fun to see sometime.

Yes, rude people can really take the fun out of things. It didn't start off well especially since it was our last official Disney outing. It all turned around though and we had a blast!

 

[DisneyTiger]

After HDR, it was time for us to go on a haunted carriage ride. Our ride was actually going to be the very first one. In past years, they have done a haunted hayride through the grounds of Ft. Wilderness, but this year they were starting the carriage rides. Oct 4 was the first day and ours was the first ride of the day, so that made us the very first passengers! Pretty cool. Anywho, we walked over to the barn and waited for our carriage. It was starting to get dark outside. Nice and spooky! As we sat waiting, we started hearing the hoofbeats of our horse and carriage. Then up walked this guy...

Ok, this was the biggest and most beautiful horse that I have ever seen. I have always been a huge horse lover, since I was a little kid. Horses just facinate me. And this horse really was the most amazing one that I've ever seen. Here's another pic of his face up close...

Our driver introduced herself to us, Stephanie and the horse's name was Doug. You may recognize him because he's actually one of the horses that they use for the Boo To You Parade. She was telling us all about him and how close they are. They had trained together for years and he loved doing the carriage rides. We were able to take a few pictures in the carriage before we left - killing time until the sun went down.

Brendan wanted to drive! Naturally

So the sun had set and it was time for our journey to begin. There was a prerecorded story of Sleepy Hallow playing. The man's voice was really creepy. It was neat. So we get going on the path and the grounds themselves were creepy, especially with the story playing in the background. Then we came upon this...

Should we turn back??? No, let's keep going.

Then we came to the cemetary...

Now, this is where I started to get a little disappointed. The decorations were a little, um, not up to Disney standards. I'm talking, this is the kind of stuff that I decorate my front yard with for Halloween. Literally, I had this coffin in my yard one year...

I decided to think positively and enjoy the story and the surroundings. Maybe it was better that it wasn't too scary for the kids sake.

It came to the part of the story when Ichabod was attacked by the headless horseman. The carriage stopped so we could get a good look at this. This was all that was found after Ichabod went missing...

So, we're sitting there staring at this hat nailed to a tree. Then all of the sudden, I look over my shoulder and see this coming at us!

We're in the middle of the woods and you could hear a pin drop. Then all of the sudden hoofbeats! I screamed, loudly, like a 5 year old. Freaky!!! And there he goes...

I get chills just thinking about it. The whole ride was redeemed with this appearance of the headless horseman. Aubrey was in shock. She wasn't scared. I think she thought it was really cool. Brendan on the other hand was terrified can't you telll ...

Now that truly was the perfect ending to our trip. Time to head for the dock and catch the boat back to MK and then monorail to Epcot and then walk to our room. Whew! It was going to be a long trip back! More on that later.

 

[carri5317]

WOW! I finally finished your TR. It only took me 4 days! (In between 3 kids, school, housecleaning & cooking ) I love your pictures, and you tells your report so well I was living vicaroiusly thru you! Thanks

 

[DisneyTiger]

WOW! I finally finished your TR. It only took me 4 days! (In between 3 kids, school, housecleaning & cooking ) I love your pictures, and you tells your report so well I was living vicaroiusly thru you! Thanks

Awwww, thanks! I'm so glad you found me and read along! I know how it is trying to squeeze in DIS time with everyday life! I'm glad you like my TR so far. Unfortunately, it's about to come to an end BUT I will be starting a new PTR just as soon as this is done for our upcoming mother/daughter trip. Hope you follow me over there. Thanks again for reading

 

[arizonacolbys]

Another great installment! Love the haunted carriage ride! Hubby & I took a regular carriage ride at FW 4 years ago on our 5th wedding anniversary - it was a lovely evening.

 

[my2disneyboys]

Love the picture of your DS sleeping in the carriage! Also that is so cool- i wish we were going during that time. We would love that!!! Great Pictures and Great Report!

 

[DisneyTiger]

Another great installment! Love the haunted carriage ride! Hubby & I took a regular carriage ride at FW 4 years ago on our 5th wedding anniversary - it was a lovely evening.

Thanks. We really did love it. I would def do it again!

 

[DisneyTiger]

Hello everyone! I have uploaded all of my favorite photopass pics. They are going to be in no particular order so bear with me

Oh, I also found this random picture of our autograph mat. It came out so cute! I ended up putting our picture from Chef Mickey's in it. It's framed and hanging in our living room. I get SO many compliments on it.

Alright, so onto photopass. Up first, Aubrey and Brendan in Animal Kingdom...

The whole fam...

Mom and Dad...

My baby boy ...

My solo pic in front of France...

Aubrey and Brendan too tired to get out of the stroller even for Jas and Al...

Playhouse Disney photopass pics of Daddy and Brendan while Mommy and Aubrey were in VOLM...

MNSSHP in front of the castle...

And on the way to MK for MNSSHP in front of SE. This is where we were getting all of the funny looks! This photopass photographer was very nice. He complimented my camera and told me I made a good choice. This made me feel good since I was still unsure about making that impulse purchase before our trip

Ice cream fun in France. This is when the photopass guy left his post from in front of the Eiffle tower to come and take pictures of the kids since it was so funny!

Mommy and Aubrey's night out to see Fantasmic. Still one of my favorite memories

The last photopass pic of our trip. On our way out of DHS...

These next two pictures are just hysterical. It was the end of our first day in the parks. The kids were exhausted and getting them to look at the camera let alone smile was a joke. See for yourselves

Notice how happy and calm Jason and I look? This was our "just keep smiling and you won't kill anyone" face that we had most of the trip

And that's it for photopass. Although we didn't get a ton of "perfect" family pictures, I still recommend pre-purchasing the CD. It was worth it. I love looking back at these and laughing. What a time we had

Up next... packing and my breakdown

 

[vamassey1]

Your pictures are beautiful. What a special memory of their first trip. Can't wait to start reading your new PTR.

 

[DisneyTiger]

Your pictures are beautiful. What a special memory of their first trip. Can't wait to start reading your new PTR.

Thanks! I really enjoyed the photopass thing. I will definitely do it again

We have such special memories from this trip. I probably think about it at least twice a day. Aubrey too. She's always bringing up different things that she remembers.

 

[DisneyTiger]

Hi everyone. Today is a rainy Saturday morning and there are dishes to be done, clothes to be folded, beds to be changed. So naturally, I decided to get on the DIS I really need to get this TR show on the road so I can start my new PTR, although, I don't know what I'm going to write about. Then again, that's how I felt about starting this PTR and look how far it's come

Alright, so after the Haunted Carriage ride, it was time to head back to the hotel. This was going to be a long trip back. We were told that taking the ferry to MK was the quickest way so we headed over to the dock. Well, we sat there for what seemed like an hour. Aubrey was in rare form. She was not listening at all and at one point almost fell into the water The people around us started giving us "those" looks so I was getting really frustrated. The boat FINALLY came and we loaded up. By this point, the kids were so tired and cranky. Jason took Brendan and I had Aubrey. Her attitude just got worse when we were on the boat. I told her to sit and she yelled in my face like a crazy person. I don't know what came over me. I was exhausted, frustrated, embarassed and before I knew it my hand was on her cheek! Yes, I slapped my child across the face on a boat full of people in the middle of Disney World. I couldn't believe that I had done that and neither could Aubrey. I guess you could say that I was pushed to my limit that night She screamed, people gawked, I cried. But guess what, she fell asleep almost immediately. Uhhhhh, we finally made it to MK and it was now time to board the monorail, with two sleeping kids and a double stroller. 4 extra hands would have come in, er, handy at that point. We managed to get settled on the monorail just to realize that we had to get off at TTC and reboard to get to Epcot. Uhhhhhhhhhh. Well, we made it. And the kids stayed asleep the whole time. We got to Epcot and Jason and I took the opportunity to stroll through slowly and take it all in one last time. We passed through the countries and while I was not a bit hungry, I was determined to get some Fish n' Chips on this trip. Why not. I ordered some and carried them back with me to the room. By the time we bathed the two sleeping children, they were stone cold. I enjoyed them anyway.

It was now time to do all of the last minute packing. We got everything together and ready for the morning...

This is when I began to lose it. I mean, really lose it. Ok, we have been to Disney many times and I have shed a few tears at the end of our trips. This was different. I sat down on the couch with Jason and proceeded to sob like my dog had just died I was truly inconsolable. Poor Jason. He didn't know what to do. I just needed a minute to be sad. This trip was, well, everything for the previous 10 months of my life. I had lived and breathed everything Disney. What was I going to do now.