Our road trip, resort hopping, HOT, HOT, HOT trip report: August 9-21, 2010

I just got back a few days ago, and while laundry waits for me, I was excited to get started on this.

We are a family of six. There is me, Jenn, my hubby, Sam, 15 year old daughter, drama queen, Lexy (or as she has taken to calling herself by her middle name this trip Ariana :lol, 9 year old daughter and mini drama queen, Lainey, 8 year old son, Roderick, and finally 6 year old daughter, Bella.

This was our first trip ever driving. My parents drove down when I was a kid, but we have never driven as adults. I was super excited for this new adventure. Sam was really not excited at all! He kept checking every day for flight prices to see if they had dropped.

I think because of this new experience there was more drama and crankiness before the trip. Sam and I were at each other a bit. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that I had this horrible mosquito bite. I had been itching it for days and on Saturday, the day we planned on leaving, it was very red and puffy looking. Really half of the back of my calf was involved. I asked Sam if he had ever seen a bug bite look like that and he said no. So we headed to the urgent care because I was worried that if it was getting infected that it would only get worse during our trip. So we spent two hours sitting around in a tiny boxlike room waiting to see a doctor for a prescription. It was crazy and not like we didn't have a million things to do. So we were snapping at each other a little, and I think at this point I didn't even want to go on the trip any more. I was ready to just scrap it. But we went home and starting throwing stuff in suitcases. Sam would have loved to been packed already but since I'm the procrastinator it wasn't done. Needless to say we were running late from our self-imposed leave time. Sam said if we were flying we would have missed the plane.

But at 10:30 at night we were finally ready to go. Here is the three little ones excited to get started. Lexy was cranky and too cool for this picture.

I have a picture of Sam before we left, but he insisted on loading the garage with the door closed so not everyone would know we were leaving on vacation so he was hot and sweaty. :lol:

We have a 26 hour drive ahead of us without stops, be we left Saturday night because at this point we don't know if we'll want to stop and rest somewhere. We are due in on Monday the 9th and I wanted to be there right away in the morning. So here we go!

 

[mouselvrmom]

Maybe they can muster more enthusiasm for the barnstormer.

 

[mouselvrmom]

The kids were looking longingly at that boat while we were waiting in line for the barnstormer.

They always have to raise those hands.

 

[mouselvrmom]

After barnstormer, it was looking like it was going to rain, so we decided to get inside and take cover and space mountain was looking like a good bet.

Once again, we would rather wait in a line than get wet. So the kids entertained themselves by being silly inside.

Since being introduced to melontini's recently, I can't walk by this guy without feeling an intense thirst. Have you tried one? They are the yummiest thing ever!!! Notice the green drinks in his hand, just like a melontini!!!

 

[mouselvrmom]

It was still raining when we got out. So we threw on parkas and headed over to Monsters Inc. I think the show is so funny. I took these before the reminded me that there were no pictures inside. I thought that was just when it first opened, I can't believe you can't take pictures of the queue.

Yay! After another funny show, it had stopped raining, so we headed over to Adventureland.

We went on Jungle Cruise. I love that ride!

 

[mouselvrmom]

More wandering around.

We were hungry, so we ate lunch at one of my favorite spots.

 

[mouselvrmom]

The kids were hot, so we went back and hit the pool. I had gotten the idea for this shot by someone in the parks, so we had to try it. It took many tries.

the kids were so happy to be getting to the pool, that they didn't even mind carrying their own stuff to the car. We drove to the pool, it was just easier.

 

[mouselvrmom]

We all enjoyed our time at the pool.

No one was in the hot tub, I guess it was just a little too hot for that.

Okay, maybe I enjoyed myself a little too much, but, hey, I'm on vacation! I won't show you the ones of me doing my pirate face.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Okay, I totally had to go back and check that my child was not giving me the finger!!! :lol: I don't know what hand gesture she is trying to make there, but she is certainly full of sass!

Thank you for trying to make me feel better about my age. I was freaking out because Lexy wanted to have a big party with 50 kids in the basement and dancing and such. I was so stressed out. Then, last night she casually tells me that now she wants to go shopping all day with a friend who just got her license and then have a sleep over with some close friends. I was so thankful that she changed her mind! :lol: And you definitely make 3 look good!

That was so funny about the finger. She even had the right expression to pull it off with flare. LOL! I wouldn't put it past one of mine either. When Brian was maybe 4 he figured out how to do the sign-language gesture for "I love you". He ran up to Tracey's mom all excited, hopping around at her feet to get her full attention, "Mimi! Mimi! Look!!! I love you!", except he didn't hold up the hand gesture he meant to. She died laughing. Thank God she has a great sense of humor. Ever since then if someone in the family is being particularly ornery they'll get the finger + an "I love you" which is consistently good for a laugh. It's so wrong. I know. :lol:

Eek! 50 kids?! And you have a basement?! Wow! I've seen one of those once. :lol: Seriously, I'd have freaked over the thought of 50 kids. Glad she decided to do the shopping thing instead. And you don't even have to go with her. Yay for you! :sohappy: I already look at my kids and think about the things I was doing at their age (think After-School-Special fodder). Now THAT's a scary thought.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I love your family! Seriously! The elevator pic...Sam has the look of a professional wrestler....nobody in particular (not that I've watched wrestling since I was a kid)...the expression says "I'm extremely cool. Feel the intimidation." I love it!

Cape May. Can't remember if I have that one booked for breakfast. I know I do for dinner. The guys want crab and I don't wanna pay Fulton's prices. Love the kiddies with the characters. Nice pics around Beach Club.

I can imagine that MK train ride was hot. I know those rides. It's so hot you don't want to sit back or touch anybody on either side of you. Every little whisp of air movement feels wonderful but the sweltering still in between is unbearably long.

I love the mouse houses, too. I could spend so much time there. My guys all humor me when I want to hang around too long. Well, to an extent they do. Maybe I'll send them to go do something else this next trip since I'm certain this will be my last look.

Aren't the fairies the best?! I've only seen the first Fairies movie. Not read the books. The wait can be so long but I like that when you get there they limit how many people are in the room with them and the interaction is very in-depth. It creates such an immersive experience.

You can't take pics in the Laugh Floor pre-show area? I didn't know that. Doesn't Holly have pics from that area? Hhmmm. The details are so cool in that area. I love that attraction.

Okay. The circular upwards pics are really neat. What a good idea. I liked the 3rd one best, too. Do the kids fuss at you when you want to do that stuff? They all seem so patient and like they are having fun with it.

Silly pics while standing in lines are a MUST. I'm one of those people, too.

Yummy drinky-drinks! Why no pirate face?! That could be fun! :lol:

Another great update. Fun fun fun!!!!! Maybe I will do a pre-trip since I'm leaving here Sunday...... Woot! :sohappy:

 

[mommamouse411]

i love the photos looking down like that...

this seemed to be a great trip!!

 

[tiaragirl]

See? Here's Sam not even caring that we have to sit in this ridiculously slow moving long line just to see a bunch of fairies.

When we went in August of '09, we waited to see the Fairies.. Me 19, Carly 15, Mom, and Dad. Dad was standing in line going "I feel like such a creeper. You guys go in and I'll just wait outside..".

Of course he went in.

OF COURSE Tink hit on him.
Tink: "My, your beard makes you look just like a pirate *stokes beard*"
Mom: 27th anniversary, Tink. 27 years.

 

[plaz10]

I am loving your TR so far! Little Roddy is so adorable...he is going to be a heartbreaker!!!

 

[the1nonlysinger]

I just jumped on board with your TR today- but read the whole thing so far! I really enjoyed following your family's adventure- and all the photos! Thanks so much for sharing! And I think compiling into a book for your kids is such a great idea! Can't wait to read the rest.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Wow! It has been a long time! I've been super busy scrapbooking, but this has certainly suffered. I started editing some of my pictures and realized that they looked much better, so then I was going to edit all the rest of the pictures before I added them, but that's never going to happen, so I figured I'd better just jump right in. I'll have to edit as I scrap.

We're now on August 17th.

We headed back to Animal Kingdom today, and the first order of business was Expidition Everest of course. We got fastpasses, and got in line to wait stand by.

Ack! I hate the new photobucket! It automatically saves everything too big and I always forget to change it when uploading, so now I have to go back and resize everything.

Sam doing his fire power again.

Once was enough for me today, so Sam sat out with me while the kids went on again.

 

[mouselvrmom]

After the kids got their fill on Everest, it was ridiculously hot, so we wandered around and decided to get some drinks.

while we were drinking our icees, we found some friends to watch.

Sam loves nothing more than making me look as dorky as possible.

 

[mouselvrmom]

We found another friend to watch.

Sam was deeply disappointed that he could no longer get his egg rolls at China using a snack credit, so he got one here. I believe Bella took this picture of him enjoying it.

I was happy to come across DeVine, but unhappy that there was such a large group and it was hard to get a good picture, but the kids really enjoyed watching her unfurl.

We were getting hungry. Pizzafari sounded good. And cool.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Jenn!! You didn't abandon your trip report!! Excellent!

Those first two pictures of Divine have me so confused!! I can not figure out where her head is!:lol:

 

[mouselvrmom]

Doesn't this look good?

After lunch, we made our way to Camp Mickey Minnie to see some characters.

This guy was so funny. The lines were crazy long to see characters today. I don't know what all those people were thinking wanting to see them, I mean, I know that I'm crazy, so I want to, but I couldn't believe so many other people were wanting to stand in these hot lines to see characters. Anyway, this guy was keeping the kids entertained while waiting in line.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Jenn!! You didn't abandon your trip report!! Excellent!

Those first two pictures of Divine have me so confused!! I can not figure out where her head is!:lol:

I know, she had her body so contorted! I think she was completely bent and her head was way down by her legs. But I would really have to study them to try to figure it out. I just remember people oohing when she finally brought her head up.

 

[mouselvrmom]

We had dinner reservations at Coral Reef tonight, so we knew we would be leaving soon for Epcot. We thought we would see Lion King again now since we wouldn't be coming back to Animal Kingdom again this trip.

It was good as always.

I really love the monkeys.

And, we were off for a bus to Epcot.