Summer Recap Part 2: Summer's Last Hurrah

Warning:  This is going to be a long post.  I just want to record it for our family.  Feel free to skip the text and just look at the pictures [grin]

Two weeks ago while sitting at the office, feeling a little melancholic and guilty that we had not done much with the girls this summer, I decided to take a little “break” and do some internet surfing for affordable things we could do.

Looking into cheap airlines, I decided to check on Allegiant Air. I had heard of friends finding these amazing deals, but I had never done any research on it. Mainly because I rather drive than fly places, you know, with my anxiety and control issues. But this day I decided to check them out, and there it was, an “amazing” air fare, $19.99 each way from Grand Rapids to Orlando. In a rare display of spontaneity, I decided we would go to Orlando for a long weekend. I called my husband to see if he thought he could get the time off work, but he couldn’t. I felt a little guilt at just going without him, but decided to go for it anyway. So I bought the tickets and then promptly freaked out. I don’t “do” spontaneous, so doing this was a little out of character for me. But the deal was done, so the plans started. I called the girls and told them the news, and they were shocked but very excited.

At the beginning of the year, the girls and I had joined Disney’s volunteering program “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day”. We volunteered eight hours at our local Goodwill (it took us a whole month since we did it two hours at a time) and when we completed our time we got three vouchers for a free day at Disney. We did not think we were going to be able to use them before they expired, but now it was the perfect opportunity.

We arrived in Orlando on Thursday morning, and after picking up our “tiny” rental car, drove straight to Downtown Disney. Natalie had a one track mind. All she wanted was to buy another Build-A-Dino at the T-Rex store. She couldn’t really enjoy anything until we went and she got her Dino. Unfortunately, I was so hot I didn't even feel like taking a picture. You will just have to imagine her happy face while getting her Dino stuffed. She named it "Ricky" since she had named the one she got last year "Lucy".

Another fun thing we tried was pin trading. A friend of ours collects Disney Pins and she loves trading them at the parks. She had given us some pins to trade for her and although at first we were a little unsure about the whole thing, it turned out to be really fun. The only thing is that Natalie, kept choosing pins that she liked, instead of the pins our friend was trying to collect. So we ended up with a lot of Disney princesses and Minnies and not so many Mickeys or Evils or Toy Story pins.

After walking for a couple of hours in over 90-degree weather, we decided to head out to our “hotel” (it was $45 a night and it looked more like a motel) and check in. The room had a small kitchenette, so we went out for some groceries and spent the rest of the evening just relaxing and trying to keep cool.

Friday was Magic Kingdom day.  We were at the park a little before 8AM ready for the day.

We all knew the drill! Get to the front of the crowd right behind the cord and prepare to sprint towards Space Mountain as soon as the cord comes down. Except it is a lot harder to run when it is so hot and humid. Kaitlin just kept going, but Natie and I were huffing and puffing the whole way.

The forecast said it was going to rain all afternoon, so we hurried along following our trusty Touring Plan.

By 11:00AM we had hit all of the major rides more than once never waiting in line more than 20 minutes. I highly recommend using the Touring Plans, they work like "magic".

After lunch we took a more relaxed approach and visited some of the attractions we had not seen before. Natalie was very impressed with the Hall of Presidents.

We took the train around the park, walked around Mickey's Toontown Fair, and tried not to melt.  In most of the pictures the girls have "suffering" faces but that is due to the heat, not that they weren't having fun.

We had a wonderful time! Even with the heat. Believe it or not I did not take that many pictures because the sun was so bright, it was just impossible to get good ones without harsh shadows. I think that was one of the girls favorite parts [grin] not having to pose for pictures so much.

I truly enjoyed this day. I felt so lucky to be able to do this with the girls. Even though I kept having small anxiety bouts about riding all the rides. Just for fun I will show you what I looked like during our first ride on Space Mountain.

But hey, by the third time I was feeling a little braver. I even opened my eyes and faked a smile for the picture.

We left the park around 8PM exhausted but happy.

On Saturday we drove to Cocoa Beach.  Again, it was so hot, I thought I would surely melt, but this was our last day and we all decided we were going to enjoy it. We "borrowed" a sheet from our hotel room and set up camp. Kaitlin had planned on staying dry and just sit by the water, but she quickly changed her mind when she realized how hot it was. We spent the whole time playing in the water getting trashed around by the waves. Natalie also collected some shells. Even though I put on 55 SPF sun protection I still got horribly sunburned. The girls seem to tan much better than me.

We ended up leaving sooner than expected due to a storm coming. You can see the dark clouds behind Kaitlin. As soon as we got in the car it started to rain and it rained during our whole drive back.

We closed out our day with Dinner and a Magic show at Wonderworks. Dinner was not that exciting, but the show was amazing. Natalie has been in a "Magic" kick lately and she was just in heaven watching Tony Brent do his tricks. It was the perfect ending to our mini-vacation.

And now is back to real life. The girls started school today and I go back to work tomorrow. School year 2010-2011 here we come!

Going Digital

I used to scrapbook frequently, but for the last year and a half have not really dedicated any time to doing it. I have been really itching to scrapbook our Disney Vacation pictures but scrapbooking is an expensive and time-consuming hobby and right now, I am lacking both money and time.

Yesterday I was inspired to play around with the pictures and put together some digital pages. I have been interested in digital scrapbooking for a while, and have fiddled around with PhotoShop enough to be dangerous but not enough to consider myself good at it.

There is a huge amount of freebies available online and I have gathered quite a few kits of digital papers and embellishments, but yesterday while searching for Disney related digital kits I found this website that had a couple of kits that were Disney inspired. You can find them HERE and HERE.

I downloaded both kits and started playing with the different products last night. It took me a while to get going, but it is really addicting. I was up until the wee hours, playing with it. And the best part is no sticky fingers and no mess to clean up :) If I keep at it and like the results, I might send the pages to print and just insert them in an album.

Here are some of the pages I made. Any feedback?

Dreams Come True.... partially

It was a great vacation! I would not say it was relaxing, because Disney World is not the most relaxing place on earth; but it was a lot of fun!

I am, however, in a bit of a funk. I have this problem every time a big event comes and goes. After all the planning and anticipation, it is a big let down when it is over and it is time to return to the regular routine.

We had a good time together, but I wish there would have been less tense moments between the adults. It is hard to coordinate a group that big when everyone has a different idea of what the vacation should be like. Some in our group needed space from time to time, others thought we needed to be together the whole time.

In the year I had to plan this vacation, it always sounded so magical in my head: the kids would be having the time of their lives, jumping from one adventure to another. The adults would enjoy their time together, sitting by the pool sipping cold drinks while the kids played.

The reality turned out a little bit different. Some of the kids got overwhelmed with so many activities, for others it was not quite enough. Some of the adults resented what they perceived was my need to control things. Some feelings were hurt.

The lesson I am learning from this is that although fantasies are just that – fantasies, and real life is never as glamorous or “shiny”, having fantasies can help you set goals and motivate you to strive for them. I know the picture I had of what the vacation would look like, did help me re-focus whenever a negative situation rose.

In the end some of my fantasy dreams really did come true…

The kids wearing their Red T-shirts in front of the Cinderella Castle.



Cute coordinating outfits at the different parks.





Fun at the pool





Bonding time with family







Magical Encounters








Therefore, I am not here whining or complaining. I had an amazing time and thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot wait to start planning our next vacation.

Update from Orlando - Magic Kingdom

A vacation update from Orlando. We are on our fifth day and have already visited three Disney parks. Today we are taking a break so while the kids play in the pool I decided to write a little summary.

Sunday we took it easy at our rented home to recuperate from the long drive. The kids played in the pool all morning.




We also spent sometime Downtown Disney taking pictures and walking around the shops. Natalie decided that she wanted to spend most of her money buying a pink dinosaur at the T-Rex Build-a-Dino shop. It was very hot and the kids quickly got tired of walking and wanted to go home and play some more in the pool.







Monday was Magic Kingdom day. We were at the park entrance by 7:30 AM. This caused some tension with the rest of our group because they weren't quite on board with the idea of being at the park so early but once they got there they quickly understood. The crowds were impressive. We were at the very front behind the rope and when that rope came down it was a mad dash for the biggest attractions.



Because our group included 13 people ranging in ages from 4 to 72 I had decided on two Touring Plans (courtesy of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World) one for the younger kids and one for the older ones. I had this vision of Natalie, just wanting to see princesses and go on cute rides like Dumbo the Flying Elephant, while Kaitlin went on rides such as Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. However, Natalie, wanted nothing to do with the tame rides. The first ride we went on was Space Mountain and she loved it! From there we rode Splash Mountain. By the time it was all said and done (14 straight hours at the park) the big rides won over the cute ones. We did Space Mountain three times, went on Splash Mountain two times and rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.











Of course, we also did our share of "cute rides", got to meet some of the Characters and some of the princesses, and it was as magical as I had imagine it.





For the evening parade, all our kids got chosen to "turn on the lights" and throw pixie dust at the beginning of the parade. All of them, except Natalie, she was completely passed out and missed the whole thing.




I guess that is the magic of Disney. Even after fourteen hours straight in the heat, dealing with unbearable crowds, cranky children (some cranky adults too) and spending a fortune, you still feel like it was totally worth it.