We came home less than 48 hours ago, and I am not sure where I should begin to explain our short and sweet trip. I will warn you this will be a little wordy up front because a lot changed from the time I booked to the time we left for this trip. I will introduce the cast before we start
Gramma-almost 65
Cetta (me)-32
Joseph-5.5
Sadie-3.5
When: February 10-12 (I know it's too short but you'll see why)
Where: All Star Music
Why?
Let’s start with what triggered this trip…I received twice as much as usual for my end of year bonus…woohoo! So I thought I would spend a little of it on myself (which I never do) and take a solo trip for two shorts nights…flights were cheap, there was room only deal going on, and I needed some time away from real life. I booked my solo trip in the beginning of January for February 10-12, way last minute considering all our other trips have been planned months, if not years in advance. Then two weeks after I booked, I told my mom about the trip, she was intrigued and wanted to join. I was a little hesitant to say yes because I was looking forward to doing what I wanted to do and not stopping but then I thought about the fact that this is my mom, when will I ever get another chance to go on vacation with just my mom and make amazing memories with just my mom? So I told her yes and booked her flight and added her to the room. Now a little bit about my mom….she is turning 65 on March 8th, so this was going to be a pre-birthday gift and the last time she was in Disney World was in the summer of 2001, about six months after my father died suddenly in a truck accident. She doesn’t really remember much of that trip because she was still trying to adjust to her new life and my aunt and uncle came with us and planned it all, we were just along for the ride. I am also extremely lucky that when my daughter was about 9 months old my mother decided to quit her job and watch my children full time. It’s so comforting to know my children are being cared for by someone who truly loves them with all her heart. My mom sends me random texts sometimes thanking me for giving her grandchildren. With my mom coming with me, I had to figure out who was going to watch my daughter, and get my son, off the bus while we were gone. So I asked my in-laws, who are both retired, if they could meet Joseph at the bus stop after school, hang out at our house until my husband got home, and have Sadie sleep over those two nights. My husband would take Joseph to school, they would just have to meet him at the bus stop…super easy right? Apparently not because their response was yes, but Joseph is only in kindergarten so he can miss school those days and just hang out at our house while you are gone. For some reason that was really bothering me.
Every Wednesday my brother’s family and mine meet at my mom’s for dinner, so it’s about a week and half before our trip and my mom is like we should take the kids with us…my brother is like no, this is for you guys don’t waste your time. But the fact that my kids were going to miss school to sit at my in-law’s house was driving me crazy and my kids have been begging for a vacation recently. My son is also really into Peter Pan right now and of course my daughter loves Frozen just like all the little girls out there. So I was kind of starting to feel guilty about it, if it was just me going it would be easy to just tell my kids it’s a work thing and I brought them home gifts from the local Disney store where I went, but with my mom with me now it would be even harder to explain and I was worried my son would end up hating me for it. So I stayed up late Thursday (10 days before our trip was to start) changing our room reservation to include the kids and getting flights for them to join us. This relaxing vacation was turning into a family trip…ugh, I was torn about the choices I was making but I knew the kids would love it.
When it was just my mom and I going we were going to do two days in the parks but when we added the kids I knew we needed a day for swimming so we switched it to a one day park hopper. I also had to change all our fastpasses to include four people…so we had Jungle Cruise, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion…I knew I needed Peter Pan and was checking constantly to change our HM to PPF. I wasn’t getting very lucky until the Thursday before our trip I just happened to check at 5:30am when I was packing everyone’s lunch for the day and there was availability for 10:40am on our day!!! I was finally starting to feel like things were falling into place.
We decided we would surprise the kids the morning we left (I can keep a secret for a week and a half but probably not much longer). It was hard packing and gathering things without the kids noticing, especially trying to figure out if last year’s summer clothing was going to fit still them. Not only that but a bad stomach bug was going around work and school, the week before we were to go my daughter got sick on Monday, then my son got sick on Friday at school and my daughter got sick again Friday night. Everyone seemed fine all weekend, but we decided we would just stay home and not leave all weekend because we were leaving Monday. Sunday night, I was starting to feel sick too, ugh! NOOOOO!!! I couldn’t sleep very well of course but managed to get about 6 hours in. We did our usual Monday morning routine so the kids weren’t questioning things but they started to ask me why I wasn’t making breakfast….um….I came up with the excuse it was a 2-hour delay so they would just have breakfast at Gramma’s house. When we got to Gramma’s house I gave Joseph a letter and told him he had to read it.
Gramma-almost 65
Cetta (me)-32
Joseph-5.5
Sadie-3.5
When: February 10-12 (I know it's too short but you'll see why)
Where: All Star Music
Why?
Let’s start with what triggered this trip…I received twice as much as usual for my end of year bonus…woohoo! So I thought I would spend a little of it on myself (which I never do) and take a solo trip for two shorts nights…flights were cheap, there was room only deal going on, and I needed some time away from real life. I booked my solo trip in the beginning of January for February 10-12, way last minute considering all our other trips have been planned months, if not years in advance. Then two weeks after I booked, I told my mom about the trip, she was intrigued and wanted to join. I was a little hesitant to say yes because I was looking forward to doing what I wanted to do and not stopping but then I thought about the fact that this is my mom, when will I ever get another chance to go on vacation with just my mom and make amazing memories with just my mom? So I told her yes and booked her flight and added her to the room. Now a little bit about my mom….she is turning 65 on March 8th, so this was going to be a pre-birthday gift and the last time she was in Disney World was in the summer of 2001, about six months after my father died suddenly in a truck accident. She doesn’t really remember much of that trip because she was still trying to adjust to her new life and my aunt and uncle came with us and planned it all, we were just along for the ride. I am also extremely lucky that when my daughter was about 9 months old my mother decided to quit her job and watch my children full time. It’s so comforting to know my children are being cared for by someone who truly loves them with all her heart. My mom sends me random texts sometimes thanking me for giving her grandchildren. With my mom coming with me, I had to figure out who was going to watch my daughter, and get my son, off the bus while we were gone. So I asked my in-laws, who are both retired, if they could meet Joseph at the bus stop after school, hang out at our house until my husband got home, and have Sadie sleep over those two nights. My husband would take Joseph to school, they would just have to meet him at the bus stop…super easy right? Apparently not because their response was yes, but Joseph is only in kindergarten so he can miss school those days and just hang out at our house while you are gone. For some reason that was really bothering me.
Every Wednesday my brother’s family and mine meet at my mom’s for dinner, so it’s about a week and half before our trip and my mom is like we should take the kids with us…my brother is like no, this is for you guys don’t waste your time. But the fact that my kids were going to miss school to sit at my in-law’s house was driving me crazy and my kids have been begging for a vacation recently. My son is also really into Peter Pan right now and of course my daughter loves Frozen just like all the little girls out there. So I was kind of starting to feel guilty about it, if it was just me going it would be easy to just tell my kids it’s a work thing and I brought them home gifts from the local Disney store where I went, but with my mom with me now it would be even harder to explain and I was worried my son would end up hating me for it. So I stayed up late Thursday (10 days before our trip was to start) changing our room reservation to include the kids and getting flights for them to join us. This relaxing vacation was turning into a family trip…ugh, I was torn about the choices I was making but I knew the kids would love it.
When it was just my mom and I going we were going to do two days in the parks but when we added the kids I knew we needed a day for swimming so we switched it to a one day park hopper. I also had to change all our fastpasses to include four people…so we had Jungle Cruise, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion…I knew I needed Peter Pan and was checking constantly to change our HM to PPF. I wasn’t getting very lucky until the Thursday before our trip I just happened to check at 5:30am when I was packing everyone’s lunch for the day and there was availability for 10:40am on our day!!! I was finally starting to feel like things were falling into place.
We decided we would surprise the kids the morning we left (I can keep a secret for a week and a half but probably not much longer). It was hard packing and gathering things without the kids noticing, especially trying to figure out if last year’s summer clothing was going to fit still them. Not only that but a bad stomach bug was going around work and school, the week before we were to go my daughter got sick on Monday, then my son got sick on Friday at school and my daughter got sick again Friday night. Everyone seemed fine all weekend, but we decided we would just stay home and not leave all weekend because we were leaving Monday. Sunday night, I was starting to feel sick too, ugh! NOOOOO!!! I couldn’t sleep very well of course but managed to get about 6 hours in. We did our usual Monday morning routine so the kids weren’t questioning things but they started to ask me why I wasn’t making breakfast….um….I came up with the excuse it was a 2-hour delay so they would just have breakfast at Gramma’s house. When we got to Gramma’s house I gave Joseph a letter and told him he had to read it.