Trip Report 5 Adults vs 1 ten month old. Guess who won?!

Hi All!
Back from another stay at WDW and it was different for sure!
We had a new traveler with us and definitely did Disney differently for that reason and a few others.

I would like to give you guys a heads up before you read any further.
If you have read my trip report from last year you may be aware that my husband (Gary) is being treated for cancer and there are some references in here to how he is doing, because that changed a lot of how we toured this year.
If you are uncomfortable following along because not everything is pixie dust in this report, I will not in any way be offended if you click away. (I much prefer a sexy vampire book myself to a story that has moments of sadness)!
Luckily there were some great family/baby/children moments that brought us joy and new memories were made!

So with warning given and to those who are going to hang around, let's begin!

Our group consisted of myself, Cindy, my husband Gary, my son Seth, my daughter Aleisha our son-in-law Julio and our now 10 month old granddaughter Una. (And PS, she is a crazy girl)!!
We stayed at Bay Lake Oct. 21-27th.

Cast and crew (and one of my favorite pics of the whole trip).

To arrive at Disney everyone was coming from different places at different times. Gary and I headed down from Pittsburgh with an afternoon flight. We left around 2:15 pm and got in close to 4:40 pm-ish.
Us headed to the air side on our version of the monorail.

We had time to eat at Friday's (I think it was). Gary had some potato skins that he liked and I had a kids mac and cheese and french fries that I thought tasted pretty good.

In the meantime my little sleepy head was headed to Orlando from Sacramento with her mom. They started out at 6 am-ish, west coast time.

She did seem to perk up to her usual nosy self once they were on board!

One thing you will notice this trip is a disproportionate amount of baby pictures!

Seth headed down from Georgia, deciding to drive.

As crazy as it sounds, our 2 flights landed within 6 minutes of each other and we were able to meet Una and Aleisha as they got off of the monorail thing!
So excited to see this Mickey 50th wrap on one of the cars.

And Grandpap and Una's airport meet up!!

Julio wouldn't be arriving till the wee hours of Saturday am so we don't have any travel day pics of him.
Next up, is grabbing 800lbs of luggage and off to the Magic Bus!

 

[BuckyMom]

Thank you for the trip report. What a wonderful family you have been blessed with. Please do keep us posted on Gary. Despite not feeling well, his joy in the baby is obvious. Have a great trip and a wonderful Christmas.

 

[MickeyCB]

Great TR!! I enjoyed it & I’m really glad that the whole family was able to go!!

Thanks, and yes it was nice having everyone there!

 

[MickeyCB]

Thanks for the update on Gary; I really wanted to know and wouldn’t have felt comfortable “prying”. I’ll keep him in my thoughts and I hope your family Christmas is fabulous (how could it not be with that pistol/firecracker/cutie patootie?)

And I absolutely love love the picture of you, Aleisha, and Una

Never feel like you're prying!
I appreciate the kind thoughts and I too like that photo.

 

[MickeyCB]

Thank you for such a fabulous TR. It was lovely seeing you all make so many wonderful memories.
Have an enjoyable Christmas and please keep us updated on Gary in 2022. I know we don’t know each other but following along on these wonderful Tr’s makes you feel you do know and care about everyone

Thank you very much for following along. And I agree, you really do start to feel like you "know" people. And then sometimes you get lucky enough to actually meet them! It's a good place on here.

 

[MickeyCB]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us! It is wonderful that you were able to take it with your whole family and that you will be together again at Christmas! Cherish the time you all have together! I hope Gary's rib is feeling better soon and that he continues to feel well enough to do stupid things like climb on the roof!!

Thank you for following along! And I was hoping someone would comment on his antics!

 

[MickeyCB]

Thank you for the trip report. What a wonderful family you have been blessed with. Please do keep us posted on Gary. Despite not feeling well, his joy in the baby is obvious. Have a great trip and a wonderful Christmas.

Thanks for following and I am blessed with this family for sure. I will update if people don't mind.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Excellent TR. Thanks for keeping it real.

I talked about this TR to my husband and he could see my wheels a turnin’. He pointed out several times that this was 5 adults vs one baby. And we would only have two.

Thanks for the update on Gary. Keeping him (and you) in my thoughts. Hoping for an uneventful and comfortable holding pattern and good news in January.

 

[MickeyCB]

Excellent TR. Thanks for keeping it real.

I talked about this TR to my husband and he could see my wheels a turnin’. He pointed out several times that this was 5 adults vs one baby. And we would only have two.

Thanks for the update on Gary. Keeping him (and you) in my thoughts. Hoping for an uneventful and comfortable holding pattern and good news in January.

BES, you just reminded me I forgot to put the final tally on the score!!!!
I think we ended up adults 1 baby a zillion but I lost track!! (I'm going to edit the last trip entry).
And thank you for your kind thoughts.

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks for following and I am blessed with this family for sure. I will update if people don't mind.

We don’t mind

 

[Swissmiss]

Excellent TR. Thanks for keeping it real.

I talked about this TR to my husband and he could see my wheels a turnin’. He pointed out several times that this was 5 adults vs one baby. And we would only have two.

But three of those adults don’t necessarily have to say no and mean it … and kids are smart; they see that laugh starting and they move in for the kill.

 

[Songbird76]

Firecracker for sure is making sense! Aleisha sent a video yesterday of Una on the rocking horse Gary made her when she was born. And she was STANDING on the seat rocking!

Grandma Diz. Not sure how I'm going to like that one!

Was this a method you created or one you learned about somewhere? There are so many things online for young parents now.

Oh my!! I caught one of mine standing on one of those walk and ride things....trying to get to something in the bookcase. It about gave me a heart attack, because it has wheels, so if it rolled, the kid could have fallen and hit their head on the piano next to the bookcase.

This was a method I saw on Dr. Phil probably close to 15 years ago. There was a mom on who couldn't get her kid to sleep in his crib, and they had some sort of expert on. I also did the Happiest Baby on the Block thing when they were newborns, with swaddling, swinging, shhhhhing, sucking and I don't remember if there were more. But I saw Dr. Harvey Karp on either Dr. Phil or Oprah, and he said the key with the swinging was that their head has to move....you can't be afraid to really swing/shake hard, because it's that rocking motion that settles them, and while you feel like you're shaking really hard, THEY aren't. They are just swinging gently....your imitating the movement from when they were still in utero and they sway as you walk. So I'd put my daughter down, all swaddled, and I'd SHHHHHHHHHH really loudly because I didn't have a white noise machine, and I'd shake the stroller really really hard, and even that was just enough to make her head jiggle the slightest bit. I was the only one who could get her to sleep because I was the only one who dared to shake the stroller. But if I swayed or whatever while I was holding her, she'd go to sleep and then wake up as soon as I set her down. So I had to put her in the stroller and shake it and shhhh at her and then when she fell asleep, I could gradually slow the shaking down. If I stopped too soon, she'd be awake and I'd have to start all over. My son didn't require the shaking. He went down pretty easily for the first few months, but then he got too big for the stroller basket and we had to switch him to the crib, and that's when I started with the taking a step towards the door with him. But my MIL could not get my daughter to sleep, ever. She wouldn't shake the stroller because she was afraid it would hurt her, but that's the only way she'd settle down. And the girl is 15 now, at the top of her class in an AP school, so obviously she's not brain damaged. It really didn't move HER that much at all.

 

[Songbird76]

So to all of you that hung in through the whole trip report, thank you very much.
I tried to write the report as we experienced it, not with the knowledge we gained after we got home.
This post has bad news and maybe some positive news. It's weird to put all of this on here in an online forum, but some of you have met Gary and others have followed along with us on this journey.

As I mentioned throughout, Gary had a really hard time eating. It was uncomfortable and he wasn't hungry. The second change was the cognition.
We got home on Wednesday and the next morning I texted my friend who is a gastroenterologist and believe it or not he got Gary in for an endoscopy 4 hours later. We found out he had all kinds of erosions and inflammation that was keeping him from eating. The doctor put him on a few meds and it improved greatly, in a very short period of time.

But, the real problem was found out on Friday. He was already scheduled for a routine PET as I mentioned in the report, but his PCP that I had talked to before the trip added a brain CT.
That showed that Gary's cancer has spread to his brain. It also was associated with bleeding and that is why he began to have the cognitive problems.
Needless to say, devastating news. We had a very frank discussion with his oncologist and he was told his prognosis is not good.

But, then as in all things it gets weirder. We were referred to a radiation oncologist at Shadyside who walked in the room, crossed his arms over his chest and said, "I can't see any cancer, there's too much bleeding, let's recheck in 8 weeks."
Say what?!
An MRI was done that day that didn't reveal much more and they wanted another CT brain.
This was done last week and the bleeding has stopped, and the associated swelling is way down.

So right now we are in a holding pattern. He's getting chemo but not the full regime because one of the drugs can cause bleeding. He will get another MRI in Jan. to see where to go from there. If indeed there is cancer he will have radiation treatment.

I asked Gary where he wants to be for Christmas and he has asked to be home. So we will got to Sac. for Una's birthday and then they are flying home with us. Seth will be coming up from Georgia too.

Oh, and to just add a little humor (sort of) to this mess. You can not keep this man down.
The week or so after we were home it was beautiful outside and Gary decided to go fix something on the porch roof, slid off the ladder, struck his chest against the roof edge and fractured a rib!

Thank you all for your kind words to us, they have been greatly appreciated.

I'm so sorry you got such devastating news. Good that you have some time with the family coming up. Hopefully that will raise spirits a bit, and they say laughter is the best medicine....how can he NOT laugh at Una's antics? When is her birthday?

 

[amjt660]

Hello @MickeyCB
Thank you for letting us come along during this trip
My thoughts are with Gary and you
I hope you have a safe and happy trip to see Una and quality family time back home for Christmas

Take care

Max

 

[Zipadeelady]

I loved following along on this trip! Praying that all goes well with Gary and have a Merry Christmas!!

 

[erstwo]

Loved the trip report! Your Una is just the cutest. Sending you thoughts of hope and healing for Gary. Wishing you and your family a joyous holiday season!

 

[cgersic]

What a great trip you've taken us on! The photos that you have are memories to be cherished for sure and I love that it makes Gary smile. My dad is disabled and the one thing that makes him happy these days are seeing photos of his great grandchildren. Praying for all of you for a good prognosis and successful treatments. Merry Christmas and we'll "see" you in the New Year! Camille

 

[Disneycampfan]

Praying for Gary. Really loved reading your report. I too have a new granddaughter who lives far away.... Anticipating her first trip to Disney this coming year.

 

[Darstarr]

except for the parts that weren’t….
Una is such a strong willed being, like her ladder climbing Grandpa
Thinking of you always my friend….

 

[MickeyCB]

But three of those adults don’t necessarily have to say no and mean it … and kids are smart; they see that laugh starting and they move in for the kill.

Baby shark doo doo doo...

 

[Tuvalu]