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!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

yeah jenn, she has to come back inside for a refill of the cookies. :ROFLOL:

Oh snap!!:lol:

 

[disneygirl1]

I hope he's out in December too! I'm betting so!

I hope so too!!! Devon's dad actually calls him Thumper b/c when he was a baby his one little leg use to always Thump just like Thumper when he was laying down to get it diaper changed!! :lol: It was so funny! So b/c of that we are always on the look out for him AK. You saw him in Camp Minnie Mickey right???

 

[mouselvrmom]

yeah jenn, she has to come back inside for a refill of the cookies. :ROFLOL:

:lol: You are too funny, Louella!

I hope so too!!! Devon's dad actually calls him Thumper b/c when he was a baby his one little leg use to always Thump just like Thumper when he was laying down to get it diaper changed!! :lol: It was so funny! So b/c of that we are always on the look out for him AK. You saw him in Camp Minnie Mickey right???

That is such a cute story! Yep, he was at Camp Minnie Mickey. They had one trail that said Forest Friends, and he was there. He wasn't there another day though, so I guess you just have to check every time you're there.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Sorry, I've been so bad with this trip report.

So after we got back from dinner, we headed to the pool. We had talked up the different pools to the kids as a way to negate the moving around so much. We told them that they would get to experience three different pools, which they were excited about. So they didn't miss a chance to hit that pool!

Although I hate that the camera is always fogging up in that humidity.

 

[mouselvrmom]

After we let them swim for a bit, we headed back up to the room. We wanted to try to see the light parade from our balcony.

More cool artwork that Lexy thinks is much better than anything in our house.

The view from our balcony.

No pictures of the light parade, I just watched, but here is one from afar before it got to us.

Up next, Saturday August 14, 2010.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Saturday August 14, 2010

We woke up and got ready for the day. The kids had picked up coloring pages over at the Contemporary the night before. I thought that it was so cute that they were sitting and coloring.

The obligatory picture in front of the hotel room door. We were at the very end of the hallway.

And we hit the monorail headed for the MK.

the first character of the day was Pinocchio, one of my favorites!

Mmm, I love the candy store. You know it was hot if we already felt the need to duck into a store!

 

[mouselvrmom]

Sam got us fastpasses to BTMRR, and we decided to ride splash since there was no wait.

I think this is quickly becoming the kids' favorite area in the MK. Being that they are such ride lovers.

Bella's always happy to be going on a ride.

 

[mouselvrmom]

I absolutely love the theming on splash mountain, but really don't care for the getting wet part. It's like I want to ride, but really don't want to ride.

There really wasn't much of a line, so of course the kids wanted to go again. I felt that I had tempted the water gods too much already. We had narrowly missed the water cannons this time, but twice might just be too much, so I agreed to sit it out and take some pictures.

 

[tiaragirl]

Yay, you're back

 

[DisneyGator]

I am LOVING your TR!! I read it all today, so I will be looking forward to you posting more (soon, I hope)! 12 days at WDW is amazing...and I must commend you on surviving 12 days of our lovely Florida heat, especially not being a local who is used to the sweltering heat!!! I live about an hour away from WDW (and yes, I do know how lucky I am...but at times--such as today--it is absolute torture knowing that WDW is only an hour away and the only thing stopping me from being in the greatest place on earth is this damn thing they call work, ugh)....anyway, I have spent some long and very hot days in WDW myself recently, and it is no picnic!

I am loving all of your stories and pictures, the trip seems like it was a blast and your whole family is just adorable! I also stayed at BLT recently, it was definitely a cool place...and I gotta agree with Lexy--I love the artwork in the rooms too!! I love seeing happy family trips to WDW though...it really gets me excited. My boyfriend and I are really looking forward to getting married and starting a family (he is in his last year of grad school, and then we are finally ready)--and one of the things we are both most excited about is bringing our kids to WDW...I just think that is one of the greatest things in the world!

I am actually headed to WDW myself this week....Thursday and Friday I actually have a work meeting/convention thing at the Contemporary (how perfect is that?!?!)--so we are turning it into a little weekend away. We haven't been over to WDW in just over a month, and I am jonesing!!! How funny...it really does feel like it's been forever, and I just looked at the calendar and here I am complaining about 1 month!!! I feel a little bad now! Reading your TR is really getting me pumped for the weekend though. And although we go to WDW all the time, we don't always stay over, so I am pretty excited to be getting to do that this time (after all, with the drive home only being about an hour, we can't always justify spending the money on a room)--so this will be a treat, even though I will be stuck in meetings most of the day Thurs and Fri! I can't imagine how hard THAT will be....knowing that I am IN WDW and not able to go into the parks!!!! :lookaroun

Anyway enough rambling out of me...I really just wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying your TR and how cute your fam is! Looking forward to reading more!!!

 

[Ariel484]

Yay! Love the BLT pool and Splash pictures!

 

[mouselvrmom]

Yay, you're back

I am back!

I am LOVING your TR!! I read it all today, so I will be looking forward to you posting more (soon, I hope)! 12 days at WDW is amazing...and I must commend you on surviving 12 days of our lovely Florida heat, especially not being a local who is used to the sweltering heat!!! I live about an hour away from WDW (and yes, I do know how lucky I am...but at times--such as today--it is absolute torture knowing that WDW is only an hour away and the only thing stopping me from being in the greatest place on earth is this damn thing they call work, ugh)....anyway, I have spent some long and very hot days in WDW myself recently, and it is no picnic!

I am loving all of your stories and pictures, the trip seems like it was a blast and your whole family is just adorable! I also stayed at BLT recently, it was definitely a cool place...and I gotta agree with Lexy--I love the artwork in the rooms too!! I love seeing happy family trips to WDW though...it really gets me excited. My boyfriend and I are really looking forward to getting married and starting a family (he is in his last year of grad school, and then we are finally ready)--and one of the things we are both most excited about is bringing our kids to WDW...I just think that is one of the greatest things in the world!

I am actually headed to WDW myself this week....Thursday and Friday I actually have a work meeting/convention thing at the Contemporary (how perfect is that?!?!)--so we are turning it into a little weekend away. We haven't been over to WDW in just over a month, and I am jonesing!!! How funny...it really does feel like it's been forever, and I just looked at the calendar and here I am complaining about 1 month!!! I feel a little bad now! Reading your TR is really getting me pumped for the weekend though. And although we go to WDW all the time, we don't always stay over, so I am pretty excited to be getting to do that this time (after all, with the drive home only being about an hour, we can't always justify spending the money on a room)--so this will be a treat, even though I will be stuck in meetings most of the day Thurs and Fri! I can't imagine how hard THAT will be....knowing that I am IN WDW and not able to go into the parks!!!! :lookaroun

Anyway enough rambling out of me...I really just wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying your TR and how cute your fam is! Looking forward to reading more!!!

Thank you for reading! I'm so jealous that you are so close and can just head to the World more often than me! And, of course, you're more used to the heat than I am. :lol: Have fun on your upcoming resort stay! Can't wait to hear about it!

Yay! Love the BLT pool and Splash pictures!

Thank you!

 

[mouselvrmom]

After Sam and the kids went on Splash, it was time for our fastpasses to BTMRR. The more that I ride this one with a FP, the more I can't imagine standing in line for it. Unless it absolutely isnt' busy, this is one of the lines that always seems unbearable. There's nothing to look at and it just goes so slow.

After our wild ride, we were feeling hungry. So, we headed to Pecos Bill's. I love the toppings bar here. I get to add extra cheese to my burger. The kids picked out a nice table near this window.

I guess no burger for Lexy.

I'm happy about my yummy lunch!

 

[mouselvrmom]

Is that even a smile from Roddy, who lately seems to be frowning a lot?

After lunch, we walked over to see if Snow White was out. I had heard that she was doing sets by the castle and I thought that was a nice setting, but it was not to be.

We're too cool to wait for Snow White!

We took a look in some shops.

It was decided that since we were staying at BLT only two nights, we would head back and spend some time at the resort.

Still too bad that walkway wasn't open.

 

[mouselvrmom]

We're ready to hit the pool.

I love this little palm tree!

The lounging area isn't too big around the pool and it was BUSY! It was hard to find a few chairs here, but I managed to find a few. It was almost too hot to be laying out though. I don't know how all the people there were doing it, but they must have been dying!

I love the lake here.

 

[mouselvrmom]

I just realized while looking at my previous picture from the hotel hallway taken of the pool, that the chairs don't look busy at all. But don't let that fool you. either in the time it took us to get ready, a bunch of people got out of the pool and went to their chairs, or everyone had towels and belongings on the chairs. :lol:

Hitting the pool slide. Lainey was too scared to try for some reason. She kicked herself later after she braved the slide at SSR and realized it was actually fun!

 

[mouselvrmom]

Even though everyone was having fun at the pool, we had to get out and get ready for Epcot tonight. It was dinner at Teppan Edo. I couldn't wait!

We got dressed and went back to catch the monorail.

When we got in, we decided that a ride on Test Track was in order. It didn't seem that busy, so we waited it out.

Up next, Teppan Edo.

 

[mouselvrmom]

I'm sorry. I'm sure no one wants to read my rambling report that is taking forever anymore, but I need to finish this off so that I can print it up for the kids. You can thank Holly for that- she gave me the idea.

So, we made it to Teppan Edo. I was really looking forward to this because I had never been before and had never been to anything like it before either. We arrived and took a seat to wait for our table.

We were the first ones at our table.

A couple of young girls joined us at our table. I felt kind of bad for them because we are a loud, big family. We like to have fun and get into things. They had been there before, but I think we may have overwhelmed them.

Our chef was fabulous! We were worried that we would get one that wasn't that into it, but he was great! He was very funny! He kept teasing one of the quiet girls about ordering a hamburger, which she didn't, she just kept saying that she ordered chicken.

Are we keeping you up?

I have to say that I loved the food! I got the filet mignon and it was fantastic! The kids really loved it too! I was a little embarrassed by how bad I was with the chop sticks. I never use them. Lainey did pretty good with them though.

I had heard from everyone here that the desserts were terrible here. I was actually surprised to find that I really liked my cake. It was good!

So, we were stuffed when we left.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Japan has beautiful theming! The kids wanted to see the koi.

Roddy patiently waiting while everyone took a bathroom break.

We hit the shops for awhile. The kids love to look at all the toys there. They think the monchichi's are so funny, so Sam and I were singing the song for them. They couldn't believe that they were actually around when we were kids.

Lainey found a kimono that she liked. She tried it on, but didn't buy it yet. She did go back for it. It's funny how when it's their own money to spend, $50 seems like a lot to them.

Lainey is so excited because she says she'll wear this for Halloween this year. She kept an extra pair of chopsticks from Teppan Edo to wear in her hair.

We left Japan and just wandered around World Showcase.

When we walked by here, Sam said he was hungry for pizza. We decided to try it on another day. It was pretty busy tonight and we were full anyway.

 

[mouselvrmom]

I think Germany is Sam's favorite country in WS. He loves the facades of the buildings. He would love a house like that.

We hung around while Sam went to see if he could get his favorite snack, egg rolls. Apparantly they are no longer on the snack menu. Sam was so disappointed.

Roddy went out in his flip flops tonight and I guess I didn't catch it. So his feet were blistering up and hurting. So he bought a pair of crocs. Of course, Bella had to buy a pair too.

It was starting to get late, so we decided to head back. It was our last night at Bay Lake Tower, and we wanted to check out the observation dock.

Roddy thought the sidewalk painters were the coolest things ever!