We'd rather be freezing at WDW than warm at home! LAH LAH's DEC '10 TR! *FINAL 1/18*

[LAH LAH]

...and FREEZE we did!

Welcome! So happy to have you join us!!​

Who is this "us" that I speak of? Well, I am happy you asked.

I am the 35 year old Mom and my name is Melissa.

That pretty little girl is my lovely 11 year old daughter, Elsa.

The totally growing up WAY too fast young man is my 13 year old son, Michael.

We love being at Disney. No, wait. We love, love being at Disney. You know...the kind of double wording you do when you really want someone to understand.


I have really struggled getting around to writing this report as I have been in somewhat of a "boo hoo, the Disney trip is over" fog. (Christmas and New Years kind of took up some time too)

I have over 400 pictures (which I widdled down from 700 or so) and I can't promise I will post them all, but I can promise that I am now ready to dive in.



Feel free to jump on over to my PTR if you want to get the inside scoop!

LAH LAH is finally ready...are you?!!



PREP & TRAVEL:
THE DAY BEFORE
WE'RE FLYING TO OUR HAPPY PLACE
*BIG SIGH* WE ARE HOME!

DAY 1 MAGIC KINGDOM:
WAKING UP AT DISNEY!
WE ARE WARM!
MSEP...HERE WE COME!

DAY 2 HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS:
HAPPY FACES!
"IDIOT". DID I REALLY JUST SAY THAT?

DAY 3 ANIMAL KINGDOM
A NEW DAY, A CLEAN SLATE!
♫ BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE ♫
DO THE HUSTLE!

DAY 4 EPCOT
GIVE ME AN E. GIVE ME A P. GIVE ME A C. GIVE ME AN O. GIVE ME A T.
RIDES, RIDES, AND MORE RIDES!
TO PEARL OR NOT TO PEARL, THAT IS THE QUESTION!
SPACESHIP EARTH!

DAY 5 MAGIC KINGDOM
ONE LAST DAY AT MK
OFF TO TOM SAWYERS ISLAND!
PLEASE DON'T LET THIS DAY END!
WISHES!

GOING HOME
TIME TO GO HOME
IT'S STILL TIME TO GO HOME
FINAL THOUGHTS

 

[jenjolt]

I'm definitely in!! I can't wait to hear all about your trip!! WOOT WOOT!!!
​

 

[princessjv]

I'm in! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[LAH LAH]

I'm definitely in!! I can't wait to hear all about your trip!! WOOT WOOT!!!
​

Woot Woot!

So good to see you again!

 

[LAH LAH]

I'm in! Looking forward to reading more!

Yippeee!

Happy to have you here!

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Joining in! I can't wait to hear about your trip

 

[LAH LAH]

THE DAY BEFORE​

If you didn't read our PTR I suppose I should give you a little more background on our family situation. I am mom...hear me roar! I am a single mom...hear me roar loader!! In addition to Michael and Elsa, we have 2 foster brothers in our house. E is 2 and C is 1. They have been here for 11 months and I tend to refer to them as "the babies" or "the boys". They did not come along with us and this is where our story starts.

We decided to drop the boys off at their respite home the day before our vacation actually started. I wasn't looking forward to it and knew I would be missing them terribly! After dropping them off (and my crying stopped) Michael, Elsa and I went out to dinner at Friendlys. It was weird to enjoy the meal without diaper bags, highchairs, cutting up teeny bits of our meals, and without interupted conversation!

I bet you think we rushed the 45 minutes home to pack our shorts and t-shirts...right? Wrong. We hustled on over to Olympia Sports and bought Under Armour and fleece lined Crocs for our trip. Then we rushed on home!

I was a little giddy about the opportunity to sleep in (for the first time in forever) and as my head hit the pillow all I could think of was "I'm too excited to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!"


Next Up: WE'RE FLYING TO OUR HAPPY PLACE!

 

[LAH LAH]

Joining in! I can't wait to hear about your trip

Thanks for dropping in!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm so excited that you have started you trip report!!

 

[LAH LAH]

WE'RE FLYING TO OUR HAPPY PLACE​

My eyes popped open wide at 7am. WHAT-THE-HEY?!!!! This was my day to sleep in. We had 8 hours till our flight left...didn't my eyes know this? Then it hit me. I still had to pack our empty suitcases and doing some laundry surely wouldn't hurt anything either. So up I got and a packing I did go!

I would LOVE to show you our "Here-we-go...we-are-so-excited-to-leave-the-house-for-our-happy-place!" picture, but Michael accidently deleted it on our 4th day in the parks. He was taking goofy face pictures of himself while Elsa and I were using the bathroom in EPCOT and he accidently erased our 1st vacation picture.

So in lieu of our family photo, I present you with this:

Just imagine 3 of us being extremely happy and smiling huge dopey grins!

We were packed up and ready to travel to the airport. Ours is an hour and a half away so we had lots of time to be excited! Both kids were extremely stoked about finally sitting in the captains chairs in the van on the way. I bought the Odyssey after we took in the boys and they have been strapped in them in their carseats ever since. With the removal of the seats came the great joy of sitting in the coveted seats!

She was so excited she fell asleep!

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and waited less than 5 minutes in security. Where else can you be happily barefoot in a public place?

*notice my limeish green toes?*

Elsa can't wait to get up in the air and leave the snow behind:

Michael can't settle till he reviews the safety instructions:

The clouds were so beautiful!

Michael loved the pretzels:

Our flight was pretty uneventful. Elsa studied for some subjects she was missing during the week and Michael played his DS while I read my book as we all tried to contain our overwhelming excitement!

Next Up: *BIG SIGH* WE ARE HOME!

 

[LAH LAH]

I'm so excited that you have started you trip report!!

You made it!!!!



Good to see you again

 

[broadwaybookworm]

Joining in! Sounds like a fun trip.

 

[sunnysideup3]

Joining in, I can't wait to read!

 

[LAH LAH]

Joining in! Sounds like a fun trip.

Joining in, I can't wait to read!

How exciting!

I have peeps! Woot Woot!

 

[LAH LAH]

*BIG SIGH* WE ARE HOME!!!!​

It's 6:50 pm and we step off our plane. We look like a respectable family calmly pulling our suitcases, but what you can't see is me internally jumping up and down...kissing the Orlando Airport ground...waving and yelling to everyone. Informing them that we are home. Home for 6 glorious days. 6 days where I don't have to cook, I don't have to clean (well, I do shower daily). I don't even have to drive. And if that isn't enough, we get to soak up as much fun as our hearts can hold at the parks. *big sigh*

We made it through the fake monorail this year without losing Michael, so I would consider that a success!

We walked straight through the lines without even having to wait at Magical Express! This was another success!

It didn't take long and we were pulling up to POP, our home for the next 6 days! This was our 1st visit to POP and it didn't disappoint. We quickly checked-in and headed over to our room in the 50's section.

The kids jumped into swimsiuts and we all headed over to the Hippy Dippy pool.

While the kids were swimming I got our re-fillable mugs and some dinner. I think I forgot to mention this, but Disney Pizza is by far my favorite food! After figuring out how to use the dining plan, I walked out with a delicious pizza, 3 full mugs, 2 bottled drinks, 1 chocolate cake, and a groovy tie-dyed cheesecake. Yummmmm...and the best part? IT WAS ALL FREE!!!!!!

It didn't take the kids long to realize it was a bit too cold for swimming...and the pizza was calling our names! We hurried back to our room, ate our pizza, and settled into bed by 10:30 pm.

Elsa and I shared a bed and I thought that was going to be difficult. Not so. Elsa zonked out and didn't bother me a bit. Michael on the other hand should be thankful I don't punch my children! By 2am I had enough of his getting up to go to the bathroom, his loud breathing, and his snuffly sniffling. I calmly leaned over and through clenched teeth said "Michael, you.have.to.stop.and.go.to.sleep." That seemed to work, because next thing I know I was waking up AT DISNEY!

Next Up: WAKING UP AT DISNEY!

 

[jenjolt]

YAY you have arrived WOOT WOOT!!!!

So glad you made and it was an uneventful arrival!!!

Swimming and pizza on the first night, doesn't get much better than that!!!

 

[Lady Lallie]

What a great travel day! I love the excitement of arrival day, nothing beats it. You have your whole trip in front of you and you are just so excited!

I love the bare feet picture, very cute!

 

[LAH LAH]

WAKING UP AT DISNEY!!!​

The 1st morning at your Disney resort is always the most magical. At least it is for me. All the dreaming, all the planning, all the waiting, and then here you are...for real! Opening your eyes and waking up AT DISNEY! I was wide awake at 7:15 am confused3) so I decided to jump in the shower and get our day started!

Elsa also decided the early bird gets the worm and the two of us were ready by 7:50 am. We woke up "Mr. Mckept-us-up-all-night" with strict instructions to be showered and ready when we got back from checking out the commisary and filling up our mugs.

We were standing in line to fill up our mugs and over the loud speaker came a booming voice inviting all guests to make their way to the center of the room to do the Twist! Elsa and I hurried on over and gave the Twist everything we had! They gave us some cute pins of participation:

Michael was showered and ready when we got back so we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. On our bus ride over I downloaded a white noise app on my iPhone. No way was I sleeping in the same room with Michael without this little gem!

Today was supposed to be a high of 76 and to us that sounded heavenly and we were dressed in shorts and short sleeved shirts. I suppose the bus packed full of sweatshirt and jean wearing people should have made me think twice but we were sure we knew something no one else knew.

I was a little worried that the Christmas decorations would somehow take away from the magic. I was wrong. It made it more magical! As we walked through the Magic Kingdom gates we couldn't stop looking at the big tree!

Boy do we look tired!

The classic proof of standing on Main Street:

Take a look in the previous pictures and you would be hard pressed to find anyone dressed like us. We were soooooooooo cold, but we were sure it would warm up, so we soldiered on!

This is always our 1st ride when visiting the MK

...and Stitch is always waiting for us when we come out!

We rode Buzz, Space Mountain, Laugh Floor, and then the People Mover. It was on the People Mover that we all agreed we were way too wimpy to try and tough out the cold. So we headed back to the resort (which is really out of character for us) changed into sweatshirts and jeans, and ate lunch at POP.

Elsa's spicy chicken:

My beef and broccoli:

Michael's sub:

AND IT WAS ALL FREE!!!! I know most people who take food pictures for their TR's are sitting at fancy, shmancy tables and eating fancy shmancy food, but that just isn't us.

It was 12:40 pm and time to head back to MK!


Next Up: WE ARE WARM!

 

[LAH LAH]

YAY you have arrived WOOT WOOT!!!!

So glad you made and it was an uneventful arrival!!!

Swimming and pizza on the first night, doesn't get much better than that!!!

Last year the doors closed before Michael made it on the fake monorail at the airport so I am SUPER happy it was uneventful!

What a great travel day! I love the excitement of arrival day, nothing beats it. You have your whole trip in front of you and you are just so excited!

I love the bare feet picture, very cute!

Wish we were back there for that 1st day

 

[Jennifer48]

I'm in! I lurked on your PTR and glad you started your TR!

Sounds like a great start (despite having to return to Pop to change into warmer clothes!)!