Pre-Trip You're the State Champion! What are you going to do next? ?? (Completed)

Hi guys! I'm Jennifer. It's been almost three years since my last trip report, but this will be my first report on this board. It may be a little rough at first as I relearn how to do this, but bear with me!

So how did this trip come to be? Well, meet my son, Cameron.

That's him winning 1st place at a meet earlier this year. Cameron is a gymnast. Now, when I say that, let me be more specific. Cameron competes in Power Tumbling and Trampoline. He isn't an artistic gymnast like you see in the Olympics. So what exactly is Power Tumbling and Trampoline? Its this:



But that video isn't why we're going to Disney World. Its the starting point. Junior Olympics, or Nationals, as we call it, is in Greensboro, N.C. this year. We're from Texas. Anybody doing the math here, yet? Yes! Orlando is sooooo (not) on the way home! Now, all thats left to be done is to qualify for Nationals, convince the husband, and make the trip!

So let's back the story up to the VERY beginning. The dates and location for Nationals came out in October. (Greensboro, N.C. June 21-28). One small glitch, JO Nationals is divided by age and level. Nationals for level 5-7 are in Ft. Worth, Tx. Cameron started the competition year on Level 7. So, now he had to hit a mobilization score to Level 8 in all of his events before the State and Regionals meet. Then at State or Regionals, he had to compete at Level 8 and hit a National qualification score. No biggie, right? Right. I was completely confident in him and asked off of work back in December. Our competition season doesn't even begin until January!!!

Sure enough, the kid delivered! First competition out of the gate and he mobilized to Level 8 in two of his events Trampoline and Double Mini! WooHoo! he came close to mobilizing in Tumbling too, but he was just short. Rats! So the season rolls on....and now I have to go to work so I shall leave you hanging! Lol. Will he make it? Or is my title all hype?

Spoiler alert: We don't yet have the complete answer to the above question!!!!

 

[FlaggNL]

Congrats on being mother of a State Champion! Maybe a Champion of the World someday

 

[jingle7147]

Congrats on being mother of a State Champion! Maybe a Champion of the World someday

Thank you! he is a hard worker!

 

[FlaggNL]

Thank you! he is a hard worker!

Nothing wrong with hard working LOL It will bring you somewhere

 

[jingle7147]

Okay, another QUICK installment! The season rocked on and Cameron did GREAT! Aaaannnd not so great . He debuted his Level 8 trampoline routine and his Level 8 double mini routine. But that tumbling routine just gave him fits!

However, it was obvious that there was a high likelihood of him making Nationals. Road Trip! !!! After talking to the other parents, I decided it was in our best interest to take our camper. Well....we've always wanted to camp at Ft. Wilderness. So, of course I priced it out, $2000 for four days/five nights for our family of six! !!! Woohoo! !!! Until the husband said no.

Fine. Washington D.C. is only 4.5 hours away. I've always wanted to take the kids. So I started planning in that direction. My parents got excited. My Dad talked to his cousin that lives in D.C. We were only going to be abe able to stay for three days, but I was still going to get to see some of the amazing historical places of our nation. Super excited!!!!!

 

[jingle7147]

Phooey, just let me tell you there are not enough hours in the day! Can I get an AMEN? Let me see if i can get a couple more pictures in here just as a reference point.

These are all of our kids on the first day of school. Jonathan, Lauren, Cameron, and Stephen.

One of me and the hubby. Not great, but easily available for upload. Lol.

So the current plan is to attend Nationals and then swing up to D.C. for a vacay. Woohoo! Then everything starts to fall apart. See the oldest in the pic above? He comes home, "Hey Mom, remember they offered me that job last summer at the country club?" "Yeah, i remember." "Well, I can't go to Nationals because that would be two weeks of plus church camp. I can't miss that much work." Ugh. Fine. I make arrangements for him to stay with my cousins who live halfway between the training pool for Club swim practice and the Country Club for work. A week or so goes by. The daughter comes home from her appointment with the endocrinologist. "Hey Mom, they're having TWO camps for juvenile diabetes! The one for the teenagers is June 22-27." "Great Lauren, that's the week right before Cameron's Nationals." "that's okay mom. I'd rather go to camp." Ugh. Fine. Make arrangements with hubby's parents to pick her up from camp. Fine, I figure we'll just leave the baby with hubby's sister. Yep, she's down for that. Okay, I am NOT kidding you, hubby comes home. "Honey, I don't think I can get off work that week." (He's an associate pastor for crying out loud. How can you NOT get off work? There are no camps, no VBS. What the hey?) "Well, dear, the sound guy is moving and I don't have backup for anyone to run the computer for the video.." "Are you kidding me? i have been on you since Christmas to get this taken care of. I told you this kid was going to nationals. You've had THREE months to handle this. We leave in THREE months. You're telling me that in that amount of time there is no one in our 500 member congregation willing to learn how to run sound and video???"

In the meantime, Cameron is tearing it up at competition.



As you can see from the video above the new Level 8 trampoline routine isn't great, but its good enough to get the job done. Same with the new Level 8 Double Mini routine. Woohoo! We're going to Nationals. Finally, the Level 7 tumbling routine. Remember, he has to hit the mobilization score which is 50.4. The closest we've come this season is 50.2. By dang, the kid did it! 53.0!!!!! He heard me scream all the way down on the floor. (I was thankful I didn't screw up another kid's routine, from now on I will keep my exuberance to myself!)

So here it is, April 26th. We have Southwest Regionals in one week. He has to hit the Level 8 qualification score in Tumbling in order to go to Nationals in that event. In the meantime, he has bruised his heel. Smh.

I am off to church, but I promise Disney talk in the next installment!

 

[jingle7147]

Okay, let's talk Disney! When I left off everyone had backed out of the trip. My mom agreed to drive cross country with me since she wanted to watch Cameron compete anyway! Well, I got to thinking. I didn't really want to take just Cameron to DC. I didn't think he'd really enjoy it just the three of us anyways. But he loves Disney! !!
I priced it out and the three of us could do a three night, two day stay at Pop for right around $1000. I could swing that! So on Easter Sunday, I called a friend from high school, who is a Disney travel agent and had her book it! !!!! Yay! So, here are the details:
~We leave Tuesday June 23 and begin our trek to North Carolina.
~Arrive on Friday June 26 in Wake Forest N.C. where we are staying with friends.
~Compete in the Junior Olympics Level 8 Power Tumbling and Trampoline on Saturday and Sunday June 27-28 in Greensboro, N.C.
~Get up Monday June 29 drive to Orlando and check in at Pop Century! ~Epcot day is Tuesday June 30. MK is Wednesday July 1.
~We start the drive home on July 2 and expect to arrive hove on the 4th.

It's only two days. I went back and forth and looked at it from every direction and upside down. I just couldn't squeeze in one more day. But, considering our last trip was 10 days in 2012 and we're probably not going back until I finish nursing school (3 more years), I'll take what I can get!

 

[mrdrift]

Two days are better then no days. Good luck on the Junior Olympics and have a wonderful time at Disney.

 

[jingle7147]

We leave tomorrow for Southwest Regionals in Ft.Worth. Actually, Cameron left today. He went down with one of his gym buddies to spend a couple of days at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine!They left right after practice today and will spend all day tomorrow bowing of steam. Hubby and I are driving down late tomorrow night. The tumbling routine is the crucial piece of the puzzle this weekend. Practice for that routine has not gone well this week. Coach had to water it down and pull out his full. So we'll see how it goes!

So, back to Disney. *Snark alert*
A week goes by and of course the husband wants to go. Surprise,surprise, all of a sudden there is someone at church willing to learn to run the video. However, our head pastor is out of town so its another week before he can get the approval to go. In the meantime, all of our housing for the kids who were staying behind has disintegrated!!!!! My mom steps in to save the day. Even though she was really looking forward to seeing Cameron compete, she volunteered to stay here with the other two kids. Oh and did I mention that little brother decided he wanted to go after all? I called Carrie back and had her switch up the reservation. Age swapped David out for my Mom and added Stephen. Whew. Seriously, that is all folks. We are 60 days out and that's the plan!

Up next: Results from regionals, or ADRs and FP+ selections!

 

[jingle7147]

Whew! I know you guys must have thought I abandoned you! Nope! Just got really busy! So you all know that last weekend was Regionals. And you're all just DYING to know how he did! I have good news and bad news. You guessed it...he didn't qualify for Nationals in Tumbling. But, he only missed it by .2 of a point! That's not bad considering it was his first time out with this routine and this is his worst event. So what's the good news? Well, he got a 59.9 on Double Mini. A 60.0 is perfect, although you can score higher than a 60.0 because you can add in points for difficulty. This is only our second year competing, so I couldn't tell you what his routine is actually worth. We would have preferred at least a 60.0. the coach is working on increasing his difficulty before Nationals, which is in about 5 weeks. He did much better on Trampoline also. He got a 51.1 (again out of a 60.0) So, those scores look good, right? Not so much. If this were Nationals, he would place close to the bottom!!! So, he has a lot of work to put in over the next few weeks! We're still super proud of him. He has worked incredibly hard all year and has done a GREAT job of accomplishing everything set before him!

So, let's talk Disney! We're only in the parks for 2 days. Tuesday, June 30 will be at Epcot. We have FP+ for Soarin' 9:25-10:25, Spaceship Earth 10:25-11:25, Mission Space 12:25-1:25. We also have an ADR at Via Napoli at 11:30. I'm not sure where we'll do dinner. My guess is Sunshine Seasons. It'll for sure be CS. My debate is whether or not to take an afternoon break. I'll want to be back in the park by 4:30. I'm just not sure that will give us enough time to really go back and relax. I'm thinking we'll probably take our own car to the park.

On Wednesday, July 1 we'll be at Magic Kingdom. Now, I realize many of you wouldn't pick this as your MK day. It is not a recommended day because they have EMH so likely crowds will be higher. However, we are Rope Drop people. Even though it will be busier, we'll be ahead of the game 'cause we'll be done with the popular rides by about 10:30 (ish). We have FP+ for Space Mountain 9:00-10:00 a.m., Seven Dwarves Mine Train 10:05-11:05 a.m., and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 11:05-12:05. We're planning on eating at Sleepy Hollow. (I want a nutella waffle!) and Columbia Harbor House. We'll take a short afternoon break after the Festival of Fantasy parade and come back around 8(ish) since the park doesn't close until midnight.

Our only other ADR is breakfast at O'Hana's. The boys love Stitch. We ate breakfast there on our first trip back in 2009 on our departure day so the boys wanted to recreate that experience. That's the Disney news! We're 50 days away!

Up next: A video from Regionals (hopefully) and our daily plans according to Touring Plans.

 

[jingle7147]

Okay, quick question. I'm planning our route to and from. Give me your input. On the way out there, we have to go to North Carolina first. I'm thinking of spending the night in Little Rock and Pigeon Forge. I love Cades Cove. It's definitely a detour though and I'm not sure the rest of my traveling companions would be as enthralled with it as I am. I just love how peaceful and serene it is. I am amazed by the Great Smoky Mountains. Remember, we live in West Texas. Mountains and trees are foreign objects to us! So what do you guys think? I also need to keep this trip cheap. So I'm looking for hotels between the $80-$120/night range. The target is about $100/night. I like for the hotels to have a guest rating of at least 4 out of 5. So what do you think? We're pretty much following I-40 all the way out there.

Okay, once you decipher the maze of run on sentences and ramblings of the paragraph above, tackle this conundrum. Where to stay on the way home. We usually go from Orlando to Jackson, MS then follow I-20 back to Texas. Last time, we stayed in Crestview and we had a few hours at the beach. We could do that this time, but I'm finding the hotels around Crestview/Destin etc. to be just a tad more than I want to pay. What do you guys think about Gulfport, MS? I'd like to spend an afternoon at the beach. . Just an hour or two really. We have a 9:20 AR at O'Hana' s that day. What are some good options within my budget close enough for us to get in some beach time, but far enough down the road so we don't have a killer drive into Dallas (my parents house) the following day?

 

[FlaggNL]

Sorry as an European I can't give you input

 

[jingle7147]

Hi guys! Yes, I know. I feel off the bandwagon. In fact, most of you probably thought I feel of the face of the earth! I just got REALLY busy. Since the beginning of May, I've been to Dallas twice and clocked about 60 hours a week at work. In fact, I'm at work right now. Tonight is number 11 out of 13, but when I get done I will have three whole weeks off! !!! Woohoo!

I've also been hesitant to update because I don't have any pictures to post to break up all of the words! Honestly, I've been so busy working I haven't been doing much planning! Our magic bands did come in! Yay! (I've spent 30 minutes trying to post a picture from my phone, but can't. Hmph. )

Anyhow, I only have two more nights of work. Sunday marks 10 days until we leave on our trip! !!! Of course, we have Junior Olympics first and won't get to the Disney part of our trip until the 29th. I have several posts that I want to make leading up to our trip. You'll have to excuse me some next week though because I have to take my grandfather for a small surgical procedure and WI fi is seemingly non existent at their house! I'll do my best though!

Ok, lunch break is over. heigh ho heigh ho is back to work I go! hahaha!

 

[jingle7147]

Another update from work! In 6 hours I will officially be on vacation! !!!! Technically, we are 10 days or from the start of our trip! I'm so excited! I just can't hide it! Lol.

So, I have our touring plan. Here e go:
June 30 Epcot Park hours 9-9 with am EMH at 8.
1. Test Track-1st time since the refurbishment.
2. Mission Space:Green
3. Sum of All Thrills X2
4. Soarin'-FP+
5. Figment
6. Spaceship Earth -FP+
***Lunch-Via Napoli***
7. Mission Space:Orange-boys only
8. Video playground-I'm not sure what this is. I went to add in the Great Piggy Bank Adventure and saw this instead. Of course getting them out of Mission Space dump space could be interesting.
9. Club cool-another first for us. Shhh!
10. O Canada- a first
11. American Adventure/Voices of Liberty. -They are just AMAZING!
12. British Revolution-Mom only
13. Tigger Meet and Greet-boys. I have a Disney Classics album on my phone with the song "The whoop-de-dooper-loopdee-looper-alley-operating bounce." Some people listen to the theme from Rocky before a competition. We listen to this!
14. The Sea's with Nemo and Friends.
15. Soarin-cause this is like my favorite ride! I plan on getting a 4th fastpass. I don't care how much I like it, I'm not waiting an hour in line for it. Nope. Nope. Nope.
16. ***Dinner:Sunshine Seasons**
17. We'll for sure hit up Mousegears and then I'm undecided as to whether or not we'll hang around for Illuminations or head back to the hotel for a swim.

 

[jingle7147]

Okay, before I get started on this post let me get you caught up. The previous post I wrote at work on Saturday night, but then our crappy internet went out. I checked and rechecked 'cause most of the time the posts get saved as a draft, but I couldn't see it. I was MAD! Granted, I haven't had a lot of patience here recently. But the good news is that as of 7:12 a.m. yesterday (6/14) I am officially on three weeks of vacation! I am leaving later today to go to my grandparents. My grandad is haviing a biopsy done on his vocal chords on Tuesday. I'll be back home either Wednesday or Thursday. Our current countdown is 9 days until we leave! Woohoo! So I have several posts to make today. I want to try and post from my grandparents house as well, but we'll have to see how that goes.

Onward and Upward! Here is our touring plan for Magic Kingdom.
Wednesday July 1st Park hours 9am-12am with EMH 8am

1.Welcome Show. I love it. Absolutely cannot miss it!
2. Astro Orbiter
3. Tomorrowland Speedway- (Can you tell I asked for the boys input? Honestly)
4. Its a Small World- I made the boys read Kingdom Keepers as part of their summer reading list. Cameron swears he isn't riding this!
5. Haunted Mansion
6. Space Mountain- FP+
7. Buzz Lightyear
8. Carousel of Progress- Probably at the very top of my WDW attraction list! There's a great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day. Oh there's a great big beautiful tomorrow, just a dream away!
9. 7DMT-FP+
10. Splash Mountain
11. BTMRR- FP+
12. ***Lunch Sleepy Hollow Treats***- Nutella Waffle YUM!YUM!
13. Mickey Mouse meet and greet- I realize the line here may be long, but its indoors!!! And he is my boyfriend!
13. Tiki Room- another favorite attraction of mine. I can't help it. Have you seen them: Its where the birds sing words and the flowers croon! What's not to love? Besides, they all sing so beautiful they should sing solo! Si, solo we can't hear you! hahahaha!
14. Hall of Presidents- Now this attraction isn't as great as it was 8 years ago. Lol. That's a political joke. (For those of you who are overseas, I'm Republican and we currently have a Democrat as president.)
15.Mickey's Philharmagic
16. Aloha Isle for a Dole Whip
17. Festival of Fantasy- I'm so excited! I can't wait to see the costumes.
18. Break at the hotel for a swim then come back about 7.
19. ***Dinner at Columbia Harbour House***
20. Space Mountain- 4th FP
21. Haunted Mansion
22. Wishes
23. Jungle Cruise- hopefully with our friend Zaxby the Great! He is from our Boy Scout troop and went out to Florida for his first College Program experience back in 2013. He is now living in Florida and working part time at MK and part time at Universal.
24. Splash Mountain
25. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

That's it for our trip. We have a reservation at O'hahas the next morning before we start to head for home. But I think we packed in quite a bit for two days.

 

[jingle7147]

Technically this post should have been made yesterday, so I'll have to double up today! I have made a 10 days 'til Disney list. Yes, I realize that we don't arrive in Disney until the 29th, but the point is we LEAVE in just 9 DAYS!!! This post is going to be dedicated to the 10 rides I'm looking forward to in Disney.

10. Its A Small World. Its a world of laughter,a world of tears. Its world of hopes and a world of fears. There's so much that we share that its time we're aware its a small world after all! On our last trip in 2012 I missed this ride. It isn't one that I feel like I have to do every time, but since I missed it last time, I am looking forward to it this time.

9. 7 Dwarves Mine Train. Honestly, I don't expect to be blown away by this ride. It will be a first for us. I think its probably great for what it is, but I guess I was thinking it would be more of a coaster...and maybe longer.

8. Jungle Cruise- okay, Zaxby the Great or not, I love the corny jokes of this ride. Plus, we've never ridden it after dark!

7. Mickey's Philharmagic- I think this is a cute show. And who doesn't love a Duck flying through a wall?

6.Big Thunder Mountain Railroad- On our last trip, Cameron made me ride this like 3 times in a row. He would've made me keep going, but I was done!

5. Splash Mountain- The story of Brer Rabbit is great! Although, I can never decide if the message was meant to encourage people to be happy with what they've got, to appreciate their friends and family. Or, if the message is to not reach and dream for something bigger. Since, Walt Disney was all about dreaming, I think the message is the first.

4.Journey into the Imagination with Figment- I know, by this point in the list you thought Epcot was going to get shut out. But, my love for Figment sates back to my very first visit to the parks in 1983. I LOVED his upside down house!

3. The Tiki Room- When I was in highschool my grandparents gave me a three CD set with classic Disney songs on it. This song was on it and I fell in love with all of the puns.

2.Carousel of Progress- I have a B.A. in History. I think that probably explains it right there.

1. Soarin'- I know the ride needs an update. The film is dirty. Yada. Yada. Yada. But people, we are soaring! And you can smell oranges!

So thats it.

 

[FlaggNL]

Wow thats what I call plans Our plans are not that specific! We prefer going with the flow

 

[jingle7147]

Wow thats what I call plans Our plans are not that specific! We prefer going with the flow

Everyone laughs at me! I use touringplans.com. It generates a minute by minute plan based on which rides I want. The last time we went, I handed out laminated cards with what time to be at each ride!!! Lol. My guess is that we won't follow it, but I like to have it to use as a general idea of what we're going to do each day!

 

[jingle7147]

I was hoping to get in an update today, but I didn't. However, I'm going home tomorrow, so maybe I can fit in a couple. I'm having trouble uploading pictures so that's really slowing my roll.

 

[FlaggNL]

Everyone laughs at me! I use touringplans.com. It generates a minute by minute plan based on which rides I want. The last time we went, I handed out laminated cards with what time to be at each ride!!! Lol. My guess is that we won't follow it, but I like to have it to use as a general idea of what we're going to do each day!

I totally understand. Maybe it is because we are Europeans. When reading a lot of PTR's there are a lot of Americans that plan their trip just like you do. We'll see what happens almost every day, although we plan some restaurants and off course FP+