Will the Army ever let me get back to Disney???-our pre-tip report~UPDATED 9/18 PICS

[disneylovinfamily]

Welcome to my pre-trip report! As you probably guessed, we are a military family. DH is in the MD National Guard and is currently serving on his 3rd deployment. I am thoroughly convinced that the Army does not want our family to go to WDW this year. But you know what? I DON’T CARE!!! We are going if it is the last thing I do. (more on all the trials and tribulations that lead up to planning this trip. First let me give to a little background on the fam. This will be out 6th trip to the world and we are all Disney lovers! Well don’t know about DS yet but he must be or he will have to find a new family. Our kids are being raised on the mouse and we try very hard on one-income to make it to the World every year. Throughout this TR you will be seeing lots of pics from prior trips (mini TRs in a TR if you will). Hopefully this will be my 1st successful TR! The last one was rudely ended when the military stole my husband for this year. Did great on the pre-trippie but seeing as he left 2 days after we got back from our happy place, a TR never happened. Sorry to all my readers! I assure you that will not happen this time! Like I said, I am winning the Disney war with the army!

Onto the cast:

ME: Tink--28, disneylovinfamily here on the dis! stay at home mommy, boutique children’s clothing designer, crazy over-planner. I love the planning process and are the person all my family and friends come to to help plan their vacations and give Disney advice. I like to think that I am a good mommy (MOMS club president, active in the PTO, take them to all activities and play dates, ect) and a good wife (be nice Mark!) I love sewing, scrapbooking, taking pictures and well anything creative! Why Tink? I am short, sassy and live for the magic of Disney!

DH: STITCH--29, a soldier, great daddy and hubby, pack-mule  (had to through that on in there) and recently a new disboarder (brokefromdisney)---forgot to add comedian! Favorite caharcters are grumpy and stitch and well all the princesses (more on that later) Why Stitch? DH is short, strong, sometimes destructive  and completely lovable.

DD: Ariel--turning 6 on this trip 11/13!!!!!!!! What a diva and drama queen! I like to think of her (well not really like to but it is my reality) as a mini teenager. She has always loved to ham it up in front of the camera. This is her 6th trip to the world and could be a tour guide there. She loves all things Disney. Favorite characters are Cinderella and Marie. I am so excited to be surprising her this trip! Why Ariel? Well because she is adventurous, spunky and a little disobedient.

DS: Jack Sparrow--2 and all boy!!!!!!!! He is into everything, loves climbing and jumping and anything to give said mommy a heart attack. He has been to Disney 2 times, 7 months and 1, but I am sure has no memory of these trips. If he grows up to be anything than a Disney lover, I will have to find him a new family.  He loves cars and all things pirate. Why Jack? Because he thinks he is a pirate of course! See….

Next up….why I am positive that the army is a bunch of Disney haters that don’t want us going to the world and how I am outsmarting them this time!

 

[sl_underwood]

Great Start! And many thanks to you and your hubby for serving our country!

 

[disneylovinfamily]

Great Start! And many thanks to you and your hubby for serving our country!

Thanks for reading along and tahnks for the thanks I will pass it on to him or maybe he will pop in and say hi. He just signed up for an account last night and has not posted yet. I will have another installment later tonight so check back!

 

[brokefromdisney]

How does this work ? Someone help !

 

[disneylovinfamily]

you did it!

 

[disneylovinfamily]

How does this work ? Someone help !

I am so proud of you! Now go and look around the DIS! you will be hooked in no time. EVERYONE this is Stitch!

 

[brokefromdisney]

I figured it out ! Hi to all and as you can tell my wife is crazy about all this, thats why I signed up. Anyway hopefully the Army lets me leave this godforsaken country they call Iraq and go to WDW. This the third trip we planed since I've been here and I think it will finally happen.

 

[Disney Brat]

Hi I am a lurker and sometimes poster in the Disboutique thread...you guys are so talented!! I am in for your PTR!! Great start!!

 

[twob4him]

Hi! Just checkin in! You're off to a great start! Love the pics and your kiddos are just adorable!!!

 

[disneylovinfamily]

Hi I am a lurker and sometimes poster in the Disboutique thread...you guys are so talented!! I am in for your PTR!! Great start!!

Thanks, you should post more, most people on that board are sweetis!

Hi! Just checkin in! You're off to a great start! Love the pics and your kiddos are just adorable!!!

Thanks Cathy! Your girls are too cute too!

 

[disneylovinfamily]

Ok as Stitch mentioned this is the third time that we have planned a trip during this deployment and the army keeps messing up our plans. But it even goes back before that to the last trip! We had our last trip last September/October. It was a once in a lifetime 10 day trip. We were paying for the inlaws to go (they always go as you will hear soon)~~this will be the 1st trip without them, I am kinda sad but MIL may make it down for a few days (more on that later) ANYWAYS so we were so excited about that trip, free dining, 10 days all was wonderful until the army sent stitch orders. It totally killed the mood for the trip. Yes we had a great time but there was a little cloud over us the whole time and it was called when DH gets back he is leaving for a year. It was highly emotional and stressful. So my fabulous 10 day trip was not what I had thought it would be. We will just have to do another 10 dayer in the future. RIGHT HONI?

So after Stitch had been gone for awhile we started talking about planning a Disney trip and we decided that Roseanna’s birthday (Ariel from here on out) would be a great time to go. So I started making all the plans but was waiting to see if there was a code before I booked. Now I know you are thinking you ARE going down for Ariel’s birthday. Well it has been a long road. So before I even got a chance to book that trip the Army said NO DISNEY FOR YOU! Stitch would be home sometime in September so he would not have enough paid leave to go to Disney in November. Ok so I pout about Disney but am happy he is coming home early.

Month or 2 later I regroup and see free dining was announced and was still available. Great Stitch will be home in September so that would be perfect! I talked to DH and he says go ahead. Ok so I booked on last day of free dining for the end of September at CBR, no values available. So I made all the dining ressies right away like a good disser and also got bbb ressies for ariel. Then the Army said NO DISNEY FOR YOU! They were not coming back early anymore and wouldn’t be home until October sometime. So I saw my Disney dreams for the year crumble because financially we need some sort of deal to be able to go. (well how are you going then you ask?~~just wait as Disney is helping me fight the enemy) So I called and cancelled our ressie and I was actually crying by the time I got off the phone after canceling all the dining and BBB too. DMIL (eeyore from here on out and raraoveseeyore here on the dis) was there with me and gave me tons of hugs and support. I am normally a good military wife and I am so proud of my husband’s service to his county but at the time the Army was the enemy.

So I moped around for months. Mark and I usually talk around 4 am my time and about a week ago we were talking about maybe shooting for feb or march depending on what kind of job he gets when he gets home. It would be fun to hit a P&P party (that is the only one we haven't done yet) He is in the national guard so he has a civilian job too. We also talked about maybe a mommy and daddy only trip next October for our anniversary. FINGERS CROSSED. Well I went back to bed after we got off the phone and I awoke to find the best gift ever in my inbox! A code from Disney for free dining for dates in sept, nov and dec! I forwarded the email to Mark and called Disney right away and booked the trip for the week of Ariel’s birthday. WOOHOO!!! Disney sent in a sneak attack and I think the Army is going to lose this battle and we will make it to the World this time! Operation We are going to Disney is under way!

Next up growing up on Disney a photo history of our kid’s best Disney moments!

 

[sl_underwood]

Glad to see Stitch has made an appearance and glad you were able to get a little Disney Magic with that free dining code. I tried to use it for my sis in law who is a military wife, as this will be her first holiday away from her hubby but never found a nice cm who would let me book it for her. Hope you have a magical trip. You and your hubby are amazing people. Both willing to sacrifice for the rest of us!

 

[disneylovinfamily]

I will be posting said photo history (above) tonight but I had to share my happy news!

I GOT MY PASSPORTER TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

My obsessive compulsive planning can really begin!

 

[sl_underwood]

Woohooo!!! Plan away!

 

[disneylovinfamily]

Glad to see Stitch has made an appearance and glad you were able to get a little Disney Magic with that free dining code. I tried to use it for my sis in law who is a military wife, as this will be her first holiday away from her hubby but never found a nice cm who would let me book it for her. Hope you have a magical trip. You and your hubby are amazing people. Both willing to sacrifice for the rest of us!

thanks so much for your kind words! that sucks that they wouldn't let you use the code for her. Please tell your SIL that she is in my thoughts and prayers (as are you and the rest of your family.) This is our 3rd deployment and the holidays are very hard. But tell her that the time does pass quickly. I also found a great support site for wives, it is militarysos.com and it is a forum like this and it is nice to chat with others that are going through what you are.

Woohooo!!! Plan away!

I can't wait to snuggle up with it tonight Just got off the phone with Stitch and I am gonna update with my new installment then off to the couch with the passporter.

 

[disneylovinfamily]

Because you can never get too many trip pictures, I have decided to do a (ahem) brief (cough) photo history of my kid's Disney lives.

First Up Ariel (Roseanna)

Trip 1 No pictures becuase we didn't have digital yet It was May 03 ASMo and she was 6 months old. this was also my 1st trip to Disney and when the obession began Main memory from this trip was that Ariel got her 1st 2 teeth in Disney

Trip 2 May 05, Fort Wilderness Cabins, she was 2. Daddy was working and couldn't make this trip, went with the inlaws. That is why the next trip happened because stitch felt left out after seeing the fun Ariel had with the characters

more to come in next post.....

 

[disneylovinfamily]

Trip 3October 05 Fort Wilderness cabins. Ariel was still 2. This time daddy got to come and see our princess in action! We did the MNSSHP and Ariel was snow white and me, stitch, mil and fil were the dwarfs---dopey, grump, doc, sleepy. I had just found out I was preggo with capt jack before this trip.

last 2 trips next post........

 

[disneylovinfamily]

Trip 4 Dec 06, Pop Ariel was 4. Christmas in Disney was wonderful!

This was also Capt Jack's (Russell) 1st trip
he was 7 months old

Trip 5 for Ariel and Trip 2 for Capt Jack September 07 ASMu Capt Jack got his 1st haircut

These are just some of the pictures from our trips, I will be doing mini trip reports in this one as we go along so you can hear how a typical family trip goes I have had so many people look at me like I was crazy taking babies and young children to the world because they won't remember or it's so much $ wait until they are older, it is going to be so hard lugging all the baby gear,they won't know what it is all about, and teh list goes on and on but you know what??????????? The reason we did it is because of what I just showed you. All the great memories that we have captured on our family trips. There is nothing like the joy on a child's face when they see a favorite character. i wouldn't trade these memories for anything. Ok off my soapbox now

Next Up SOME PLANNING STUFF FINALLY

 

[msticker97]

Hi, it's Stephanie. Thanks for everything. Great pictures. I love the TR so far. Can't wait to read more. Stephanie

 

[disneylovinfamily]

thanks stephanie! Thanks for reading along! I can't wait to see pics from your trip too! I was so glad to help you out and I will be making us some of the same shirts I did for you! Especially the Epcot, I loved how they turned out.