Who Knew We Were Virginians?

[jenseib]

Great report! Even though it wasn't Disney, I'm so glad you shared this with us!

I hope you are able to get your husband to agree to a cruise on the Magic. We are also thinking a cruise for our next Disney trip, maybe Feb 2015? Fingers crossed for you!

How awesome Claire got her picture in a magazine with Mary! It's an adorable picture, I can see why they picked it!

It was a fun trip,but I am ready to get my Disney fix now!
And those cruise dates are out! Just letting you know!
We still are not booked, but lots of stuff with the weather going on here. I did mention it again the other day. He doesn't get it though. He thinks you can walk up to a ship and board. LOL He knows much more about the travel industry than I do......

Awesome pic! That was your old profile pic, wasn't it? or in your signature, something like that!

How awesome that you have a spring trip planned! What timeshare are you at?

We did Legoland this last year, and DS had a blast. Claire is right at the perfect age. If you are there at opening, they choose one kid from the front of the crowd to help Buddy (their mascot) open the park. It was DS's 8th birthday, he had a lego tee on, and made enough commotion they chose him to help. We all got to enter the park through guest services, everyone counted down, and he helped Buddy throw the switch to power up the park.

He got a button saying he was Buddy's BFF for the day, a minifigure (everyone at the park has them on their nametags, and you can trade, their version of pin trading). He also got one cut to the front of the line at any ride pass, lunch for 4 at the all you can eat pizza buffet (which was really good) and a pic of him throwing the switch. Lots of swag!

They have 4 coasters that are low intensity, most Claire can ride by herself. Most of the rides are kid designed, and not very adult friendly size wise.

Other things you must do - ride their sky carousel thing. You get a great view of the lake and area. Do NOT miss the old cypress gardens and the Banyan tree. You will want to take TONS of pics here. Definitely do the waterski show!

Also, does Claire get Lego Club or Jr. magazine? You can sign up online or with the card that is in most lego sets. There are often buy one adult get a kids ticket free for legoland in there, or also in some of the lego videogames.

Yes. I think I had that one or one like it in my signature are one time. I think it was at a different location...the one in my sig...because I still use that oe on cruise critic and that is where this person found me and asked to interview me.
I am loving all your legoland info. I am not sure how early we will get there yet. The plan is to do it the day we get off the cruise. But I really have done very little actual planning for this trip so far. I hav been super busy with work...and gossiping with my friends on facebook.
I actually have 2 free tickets to Legoland, so we would only have to pay for 1 as it is right now. But I have heard of those discounts too.
I think I might have been to Cypress Gardens when I was like 4. I forgot this was built there.
Claire is very excited about this as she is a Lego freak!

Jen,

It was fun to follow your trip. Looks like a lot of great history to be found... With 4 kids of varying ages a trip like that might be difficult for our family trying to keep everyone's interest... So it was fun to follow along in your pictures!

Mark

thanks for following along. it took me years to get there. I have wanted to since my early 20's and lets just say I am in my 40's now.

Oops, I missed your posting the pic in Orlando Magazine. How cool is it that you were quoted and your picture was chosen! Now you AND Claire are famous! I remember several years back one of my tips was chosen by Passporter and was published in their book. It felt so cool.

It is neat. I once had one of my pictures chosen for the passporter newletter picture of the month or something like that. That was pretty cool too. and They asked if they could use some of my Universal pictures for their Brittish Holiday book. i don't know if they were ever put in it or not.

So Claire is famous now! Yippie! Thanks for posting it, Jen.

We have to change our phone number to stop all the harrassing calls to talk to my star. Actually I was way more excited than she was. I guess she thinks it is normal to have your picture in a magazine.

 

[scottny]

That is nice about the magazine.

 

[Beth D]

The plan is to do it the day we get off the cruise. But I really have done very little actual planning for this trip so far.

You can definitely do the entire park in one day. I think they're only open until 6 or something like that. I think it took us about 45 minutes driving from the Buena Vista area of Orlando. Coming from the coast you might be able to find a more direct route from the port, and bypass Orlando altogether. Make sure to leave room in the suitcase for new LEGO sets!

 

[Kathy Jetson]

Claire is a celebrity
Claire may not have thought it was a big deal she was in a magazine but River sure did. I showed him and he said COOOL!!!!!! then he asked me if her mother was a famous photographer I told him well she is on the DIS!

 

[jenseib]

That is nice about the magazine.

I was pretty excited!

You can definitely do the entire park in one day. I think they're only open until 6 or something like that. I think it took us about 45 minutes driving from the Buena Vista area of Orlando. Coming from the coast you might be able to find a more direct route from the port, and bypass Orlando altogether. Make sure to leave room in the suitcase for new LEGO sets!

Great. I haven't looked yet, but i did know it was not that close to WDW. But close enough. I hope I can find a more direct route too. Oh man...I didn't even think about the new lego sets....UGH!

Claire is a celebrity
Claire may not have thought it was a big deal she was in a magazine but River sure did. I showed him and he said COOOL!!!!!! then he asked me if her mother was a famous photographer I told him well she is on the DIS!

Thats so cute. I will give him my autograph if he wants.

 

[jenseib]

I may be adding a little mini trip report of our weekend trip this past Sept. I edited all the pictures a while back with that intention, I just haven't started writing it yet...but stay tuned!

 

[dizneeat]

I am here. Ready, whenever you are, Jen!

 

[jenseib]

I am here. Ready, whenever you are, Jen!

And I am ready to start!!!!!

 

[jenseib]

An American Girl Adventure​

Welcome to my short weekend trip report. I am Jen for those who don’t know me.



I have 3 children, Michael, who is almost 25, Paige who is 21, and Claire, who is now 9. I am married to Skip. We live on a dairy farm in Ohio, about 30 minutes or so away from Toledo.







And this is what my backyard has looked like the last few weeks….YUCK!







Snow is not a dairy farmer’s friend, I can tell you that!

This past year has not been the greatest and I was very happy to say goodbye to 2013. May she never come knocking back at my door again!

But that being said, we had some great times as well. Claire and I went with my parents and my sister Amanda to Williamsburg, Virginia and had a great time with new experiences. But as many of you who know me, that’s not quite the same as a Disney trip.

Over the summer I started looking at a fall cruise with some girlfriends. It just never worked out. The rates weren’t where I wanted them to be, many of us could not coordinate the dates to work for all of us and in the end it just wasn’t doable. My Mom also talked about cruising, but she was in Union negotiations at her work and she was one of the top people doing this. She had hoped to be done by mid Oct. but it took longer than expect, so the cruise dates we looked at came and went as well.

In the meantime, my daughter Paige was in a very bad car accident, so I spent a week at the hospital with her and then she recovered at my home as well. During that recovery time I was in a car accident and though I was fine, my car wasn’t and we had to buy a new car. Things just were not looking good for any type of vacation.

We really needed to get away though. I was about to go stir crazy.
An American Girl Doll Store had opened up in Columbus, Oh over the summer. Columbus is where my sister Amanda lives and is about 2 ½ hours away from my home. My other sister, Gail, went down to visit Amanda with her girls and visited the store not long after it opened. I showed Claire the pictures that Gail had posted on facebook. Instead of excitement I got a full out crying session. She has always wanted to go to a store, it’s not fair they went without her….you know all the drama an 8 Year can muster up.
So I told her we would plan a trip there in the near future. Of course all the accidents started happening and we just couldn’t set a date, even though she constantly reminded us of it.

After things started to calm down, my sister Gail told me she did have a reservation at the Bistro in the American Girl Doll store for Sept. 21. Since they had already gone down, she would give it to me. That sounded like a nice plan and we started to plan a weekend trip. My mom decided she would like to join us as well. We then realized that Claire had that Monday off from school so we could make it a little bit of a longer weekend. Mom however had to work Monday, so she decided to drive down separately so that she could return home on Sunday evening. It was also a great chance to see how my new car would handle its first road trip!

Please join me as I relive this quick, but fun weekend trip in Sept.

 

[natebenma]

That is so cool about Claire's picture in the magazine!!!

I am with you in wanting to kick 2013 to the curb. I didn't know about your daughter's car accident or yours. How incredibly scary!

Although with two boys it will be hard for me to relate to an American Girl field trip, I look forward to following along, seeing your pictures and hearing all about it.

 

[littlenellbell]

I'm excited for this report! Alexa is really starting to get into American Girl. I don't know if you remember but, we took her down right before Christmas for a weekend trip with the Grandmas. We had such a good time, I made reservation to have her birthday party there March 1st. Did you know that Shutterfly offers an American Girl themed photo book? Here is the one I made for Alexa from our trip. Hopefully the link works. It might be something cute to make for Claire. I had a code for a free book, so I got it for free.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AYuWzRy0cOFFmM

Hasn't this weather been brutal this year!? This week is supposed to be bad again! I'm so sick of it!

 

[dizneeat]

for the start of your trip report, even though I had to google American girl.

Jen, even though I read about all that happened in 2013, WHEN it happened - boy it was scary to read it all in one post. I do not blame you to be happy 2013 is over.

Okay, you may now go on with your trip report.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I love the look of your backyard. I grew up with snow and I do miss in.

Corinna

 

[Dizzy4DL]

On board for your American Girl report!

My dd always loved American Girl, and read the books/watched the movies. But she was never enamored with it, so I skipped the $100+ dolls.

As for 2013. It was the worst, bad things happened one after another. Except for our trip to Hawaii, that was wonderful. I'm trying to be positive, but if nobody ever mentioned "2013" to me again, that would be great.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Jen, I know that you were more than ready to kick 2013 to the curb and ring in a fresh new year!

I'm excited to hear about your trip to American Girl and am looking forward to reading about it.

 

[jenseib]

That is so cool about Claire's picture in the magazine!!!

I am with you in wanting to kick 2013 to the curb. I didn't know about your daughter's car accident or yours. How incredibly scary!

Although with two boys it will be hard for me to relate to an American Girl field trip, I look forward to following along, seeing your pictures and hearing all about it.

I was super excited about that magazine picture. I open it up occasionally and just smile!
Paige turned 21 last year in June and let's just say she went at it full speed ahead. She was the one we thought had a good head on her shoulders and she does in some respect, but this past year she has made some very unwise decisions and is going to make me go grey!
I never thought Claire would be so into the American girl stuff as much as she is, but they are cute and wholesome.

I'm excited for this report! Alexa is really starting to get into American Girl. I don't know if you remember but, we took her down right before Christmas for a weekend trip with the Grandmas. We had such a good time, I made reservation to have her birthday party there March 1st. Did you know that Shutterfly offers an American Girl themed photo book? Here is the one I made for Alexa from our trip. Hopefully the link works. It might be something cute to make for Claire. I had a code for a free book, so I got it for free.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AYuWzRy0cOFFmM

Hasn't this weather been brutal this year!? This week is supposed to be bad again! I'm so sick of it!

I do remember you telling me about going down there. I am glad she enjoyed it. If I remember right, I think I notified you back in 2012 about the dolls on sale too. I might have started an addiction at your house too.
You took a lot more pictures than I did. I seemed to have my hands full and I was sweating the whole time in the store too. Claire was a crazed woman on a mission though.

I didn't know about the books, but I might look into that if we go again and do one.
Yes this winter is so awful. So cold and cruddy and snowy. We had pipes freeze up here and our wonderful renters (NOT) decided they couldn't afford gas, so they only heated the place with space heaters and the pipes there froze and broke in at least 6 different places...and it's their fault! My husband told me he talked to them once again and said he won't charge them rent till we get it fixed (which he says if they aren't going to run heat, he won't do it till Spring). UGH! We use the rent to pay the mortgage on the place, so he will be griping each time we have to pay for that.

for the start of your trip report, even though I had to google American girl.

Jen, even though I read about all that happened in 2013, WHEN it happened - boy it was scary to read it all in one post. I do not blame you to be happy 2013 is over.

Okay, you may now go on with your trip report.

LOL...You mean you and Tom don't have a couple of them sitting on your shelves?

This past year was really rough and I didn't even post all that happened. Many involved Paige too. She was not using her head at all many times or things could've been avoided. let's just say her latest issue happened on Dec. 27 and it involved her calling me from the Police station and asking me to pick her up.

I love the look of your backyard. I grew up with snow and I do miss in.

Corinna

Thanks. We have a pond out back and it can make for interesting pictures at times. you can't really tell in those pictures though. I do like country living as we have a lot of yard...though cows take up a good portion of it.
I only liked snow when I was little. now I just hate it. I can do with it once a year and then I am good and done.

On board for your American Girl report!

My dd always loved American Girl, and read the books/watched the movies. But she was never enamored with it, so I skipped the $100+ dolls.

As for 2013. It was the worst, bad things happened one after another. Except for our trip to Hawaii, that was wonderful. I'm trying to be positive, but if nobody ever mentioned "2013" to me again, that would be great.

Yes the dolls are NOT cheap at all. But they do last pretty nicely compare to the $20+ ones from Target and other places.
How nice to have gone to Hawaii! I would love to go someday, but with my husband, it's doubtful.

Jen, I know that you were more than ready to kick 2013 to the curb and ring in a fresh new year!

I'm excited to hear about your trip to American Girl and am looking forward to reading about it.

It was such a rough year. Especially the 2nd half. oh wait....the first half had Skip with another hip replacement...and then it got infected and then another surgery to cut that out...Oh yeah, the whole year sucked!

I decided to try and remember some more of the good times we had and write about that!

 

[MEK]

Well, just when I thought this TR was completely done I noticed it keeps get bumped up again. So I decided to check things out and Yay you are going to right about your weekend trip.

Also - Claire's picture is SO cute! She totally deserves to be in that magazine with all her cute and amazing outfits!

 

[jenseib]

Well, just when I thought this TR was completely done I noticed it keeps get bumped up again. So I decided to check things out and Yay you are going to right about your weekend trip.

Also - Claire's picture is SO cute! She totally deserves to be in that magazine with all her cute and amazing outfits!

I did...now I have to start writing it up, but it shouldn't be too hard.

I was so excited to have her in the magazine.

 

[Wicket's Mom]

I have three of the dolls, the last one due to your posting about the sale! I would love to go to the American Girl store, but don't have any little girls to go with.

 

[jenseib]

Friday, Sept. 20,2013

Our trip started Friday, Sept. 20. The plan was to head down to Columbus after Claire got out of school.
I had an eye Dr. appointment this morning and I did that after I took Claire to school. And as I feared…I was in need of glasses……bifocals. I can’t do anything easy now can I?

I got us packed and put everything in the car in the early afternoon so we would be ready to head down. Since my car was brand new, I took a few pictures…of Tom. Yes, my car has a name and it is Tom. It is a Chevy Cruze and Skip thought it should be called Tom Cruze….yes he is full of laughs just like that every single day.









I picked up Claire and I believe we then headed into town to meet up with my Mother at my sister Gail’s house. I think she had to drop something off there and it was close to her work, so it was a good spot to meet. We set off shortly after that and I could not believe all the traffic. Normally after you get a few miles away from the Toledo area traffic thins out quite a bit, but this was not the case today. It was bumper to bumper for miles and miles. And let’s just say….mom was not in any hurry either. She seemed to be going under the speed limit and I was tempted to pass her a few times. But it was so heavily congested that I was afraid if we did, she wouldn’t be able to pull around and catch up with us.

Then came the rain…and I mean it was POURING hard. We had to slow to about 30 miles per hour because it was so hard and semi’s were not staying in their lane either. I had to honk more than once at a truck who felt that he was entitled to 2 lanes, even though other cars were in the 2nd lane he was trying to take over. It was kind of scary and this was my first time driving the new car in rain. I wasn’t even sure how to use the wipers at first.
We did reach sunshine again eventually, thank goodness. Skip called a few times and he just didn’t believe I had been through such bad rain….because I guess the world’s weather revolves around what we have at our home…

At one point we made a stop at a rest stop to use the bathroom and stretch a minute. It was just a very slow going trip, and I am not a patient driver.

I do pass the time by listening to books on CD when I make drives like this and Claire brings her kindle along to entertain herself.

As we got closer to Columbus the traffic really picked up again. This is normal. When you arrive in the rush hour time, this road is always stop and go, but today it was even worse than normal as well. We were only about 10 miles from Amanda’s but it was going to take us a long time to get there at this rate. And little bladders can’t hold it that long either, so we once again had to make a stop to use the bathroom for Claire before she exploded.

We did finally make it though. Amanda lives in a Condo complex and each place has 2 parking spots in front of their place. Amanda was nice enough to move her car over to the overflow area and let Mom and I park right there.

We unloaded quickly and then piled back into Mom’s car. We were starving and our favorite Columbus eatery was calling our name! The Cheesecake Factory. We let Amanda drive moms car since she knows the area best and she let us off near the front and I went and put our name in. It’s always a long wait here. I think it was supposed to be 30 minutes today, which wasn’t too bad.
We decided to wait outside since it was still a nice evening and enjoy the fresh air.













I was starting to get annoyed. The time had come and gone and I was noticing people who came out after us to wait were being called. I went in and stood at the desk and watched to see if our name was being called and then after a few minutes I asked if they missed us. They checked our buzzer thing and said it would be about 20 more minutes. Well I am not about to keep my mouth shut and asked if they were sure as I have seen people who arrived after us being seated and we were well over the 30 minutes we had been told already. They gave me some excuse that tables were not being cleared fast enough. But I saw them huddle around in whispers. I gathered the family and sure enough we were called next. I swear I must have something written on my forehead that says “Please lose our name” because this has happened more than once here.

We were seated and had a look over the menu. Amanda has been having some stomach issues, basically most of her life, but she went to a new Dr. who decided to try some new things to figure out what is wrong. I am so glad this is happening finally because her other Dr.s just kind of let it go. She is now on a diet to eliminate things and then she will slowly introduce them back into her diet to see if she has a reaction. She had just started this about a week or 2 before we came down, so she was still trying to figure out what she could and couldn’t eat when she went out to restaurants. I think this was actually her first outing. Several month later, she is now introducing things back into the diet. She is very excited and she thinks she has an idea on what might be the culprit. We have been teasing her for months now because we said her diet looked like it would consist of twigs and pinecones. Her birthday is in Feb. as is mine and just today we were talking about where we want to celebrate it with the family. She listed the places she could eat and we chose one, but then she said that week she would be able to have butter added back in her diet….so she requested a pinecone with butter for her cake! LOL

Ok, back to dinner. Amanda had to make some hard choices, but end the end she found some things that worked for her.
I didn’t take pictures at dinner, but I got the chicken parmesan, which is becoming one of my favorites there. Claire and I ordered cheesecake to go.
We had a nice time, but service was slow. It seems to be the theme here the last 2 times as well.

Amanda took this picture of Claire and I. Probably the only picture of me from the weekend.



We headed out and stopped at Meijer afterwards. Amanda wanted to get a key made for her house since I wasn’t leaving till Monday and would need to lock up after I left. Her spare key was with another friend still, so she made 2 extras tonight. We also bought a few items to have in the house during the stay since Amanda was only eating twigs and berries.

We headed back to her condo and watched a bit of TV and ate our cheesecake.






MMMMM! I love that stuff! Of course I was still full so I only ate a few bites and would just snack on it all weekend.

It was time for bed now. Tomorrow was the big day. I believe the store opened at 9 (I could be wrong on that time), but whatever it was, we wanted to be there at opening. Claire was almost too excited to sleep.