Date: Thursday, September 20th – Sunday, September 23rd
Location: Port Orleans French Quarter
Cast: Me (Jess), Shawn (my awesome DH), Brandon (just turned 7), and my BFF and her DH
This trip came on the heels of a wonderful 9-day family trip in August (16th-25th at All Star Movies). I have started writing my TR for that one, but haven't gotten all of my Photopass+ pics uploaded yet. It definitely made coming home from that trip A LOT easier knowing that we were going back in a month! Here is one of my favorite pics from that trip:
A little history on how this trip came to be: over the past year, Brandon mentioned over and over how much he wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom for Halloween. Halloween is a big deal around our house, and the Disney merchandise starts showing up in the stores right before our August trips are over. We had never even considered it, since we were just there in the summer, there is school on Halloween, etc - we really didn't think it was possible. This year, we had APs, and we started thinking – maybe we could make it happen. I realized a couple of months ago that there was a teacher work day on Sept 21st, which was also a party day, and it was the weekend after Brandon’s birthday. Great timing, AND he wouldn’t have to miss school! On top of that, I had earned a free flight, and we would share room costs w/ another couple. Our friends had gone on their first WDW trip with us in March (a long weekend, adults only), and they also went back at the end of June by themselves. However, that was the week that a tropical storm came through, so they had a pretty miserable time. This trip was a mini do-over, and I was excited to show them a good time. Seeing as it was such a short trip, we only had one chance to do each park right, so the pressure was on!
To keep everything a secret, we packed our suitcases after Brandon went to bed at night, and we told him on Thursday morning that if he had a great day at school that day, his aunt & uncle (which is how he refers to our friends) would come over and we’d do something special. He suggested Monkey Joe’s. That afternoon, we snuck our suitcases into the car, and then I snuck out of the house and went to pick up our friends. They live on our street, so we quickly returned with the luggage covered with a blanket. We all piled in the car, with him thinking we were off to bounce on some inflatables at Monkey Joe’s. After about 5 minutes, I turned around told him (in a very serious voice) that we weren’t going to be able to go to Monkey Joe’s today. His face fell, and he asked why. I told him we had to go somewhere else today, and then I presented him with a gift bag, and told him there was a clue inside. When he opened it, there was a WDW Halloween shirt inside that I had snuck and bought him on our last visit, and a Phineas & Ferb Halloween book. He stared at it for several seconds, then just stared at us. My friend asked him who was on it, and he replied “Mickey”. She asked what kind of shirt it was, and he said “Halloween”. She asked where Mickey lived, and when he said “Disney World”, we all shouted “SURPRISE!! We’re going to Disney World!”. This was the part where I was expecting a huge reaction – screaming, shouting, and general chaos. I got…nothing. He looked at us, then starting paging through the book. We asked him if he understood that we were on our way to the airport, and he said “you guys are teasing me, we aren’t really going to Disney World”. We uncovered the luggage, and I produced the new Mickey ears he had gotten the week before for his Mickey-themed birthday party. He still wasn’t convinced. He kept saying “Really? We’re REALLY going? Noooo…you’re just teasing”. When we finally convinced him, and told him we were going to the party, I got this face:
Now THAT is more of the reaction I was hoping for!!
Location: Port Orleans French Quarter
Cast: Me (Jess), Shawn (my awesome DH), Brandon (just turned 7), and my BFF and her DH
This trip came on the heels of a wonderful 9-day family trip in August (16th-25th at All Star Movies). I have started writing my TR for that one, but haven't gotten all of my Photopass+ pics uploaded yet. It definitely made coming home from that trip A LOT easier knowing that we were going back in a month! Here is one of my favorite pics from that trip:
A little history on how this trip came to be: over the past year, Brandon mentioned over and over how much he wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom for Halloween. Halloween is a big deal around our house, and the Disney merchandise starts showing up in the stores right before our August trips are over. We had never even considered it, since we were just there in the summer, there is school on Halloween, etc - we really didn't think it was possible. This year, we had APs, and we started thinking – maybe we could make it happen. I realized a couple of months ago that there was a teacher work day on Sept 21st, which was also a party day, and it was the weekend after Brandon’s birthday. Great timing, AND he wouldn’t have to miss school! On top of that, I had earned a free flight, and we would share room costs w/ another couple. Our friends had gone on their first WDW trip with us in March (a long weekend, adults only), and they also went back at the end of June by themselves. However, that was the week that a tropical storm came through, so they had a pretty miserable time. This trip was a mini do-over, and I was excited to show them a good time. Seeing as it was such a short trip, we only had one chance to do each park right, so the pressure was on!
To keep everything a secret, we packed our suitcases after Brandon went to bed at night, and we told him on Thursday morning that if he had a great day at school that day, his aunt & uncle (which is how he refers to our friends) would come over and we’d do something special. He suggested Monkey Joe’s. That afternoon, we snuck our suitcases into the car, and then I snuck out of the house and went to pick up our friends. They live on our street, so we quickly returned with the luggage covered with a blanket. We all piled in the car, with him thinking we were off to bounce on some inflatables at Monkey Joe’s. After about 5 minutes, I turned around told him (in a very serious voice) that we weren’t going to be able to go to Monkey Joe’s today. His face fell, and he asked why. I told him we had to go somewhere else today, and then I presented him with a gift bag, and told him there was a clue inside. When he opened it, there was a WDW Halloween shirt inside that I had snuck and bought him on our last visit, and a Phineas & Ferb Halloween book. He stared at it for several seconds, then just stared at us. My friend asked him who was on it, and he replied “Mickey”. She asked what kind of shirt it was, and he said “Halloween”. She asked where Mickey lived, and when he said “Disney World”, we all shouted “SURPRISE!! We’re going to Disney World!”. This was the part where I was expecting a huge reaction – screaming, shouting, and general chaos. I got…nothing. He looked at us, then starting paging through the book. We asked him if he understood that we were on our way to the airport, and he said “you guys are teasing me, we aren’t really going to Disney World”. We uncovered the luggage, and I produced the new Mickey ears he had gotten the week before for his Mickey-themed birthday party. He still wasn’t convinced. He kept saying “Really? We’re REALLY going? Noooo…you’re just teasing”. When we finally convinced him, and told him we were going to the party, I got this face:
Now THAT is more of the reaction I was hoping for!!
