The birthday, we're posers, I wanna go home trip report: July 1-16, 2011

I'm back and ready to start another trip report if only so that I can remember it while making my scrapbooking pages. Now, just a foreword, this may get a little wordy as there are lots of things that I want to remember. This shouldn't be a problem, as you can just scroll through all the words, or block the report all together! :lookaroun:lol:

So, here goes! This is another road trip from Minnesota from July 1- July 16, 2011. We had been tentatively planning this for awhile, but I wasn't sure that it would actually happen until pretty close to the time we were leaving.

Before I go further, here's who is on the trip.

Me: turning 38 while there, certified Disney lover

Sam: DH 37, had his first trip at the age of 18 with his two sisters and mom, was the only one on the trip that had any fun, and (I believe) is now an even bigger Disney lover that me- he may debate that, but he has a friend at work who is another DVC owner, and they spend all day talking about Disney and sending texts to each other while on vacation.

Lexy: DD 16, not a certified Disney lover! She was actually really excited about this trip until three months ago when she got a boyfriend. Now she wants nothing to do with this trip at all!!! She has been whining that she DOES NOT want to go. She wants to stay home with her Nana and Papa. Not happening!

Lainey: DD 10, my teenager in training. She is getting those eyerolls and sighs down pat from her older sister.

Roddy: DS 9, our easy going one. He will do anything and have a smile on his face while doing it. He is the reason I'm not totally insane now! :ROFLOL:

Bella: DD 7, our thrill seeker. She is here for the rides and little else. She is the one known to complain when she's not feeling things are going her way.

Oh, boy, I have a feeling this is going to be a fun one! So let's get started!!

Thursday June 30th. Sam worked a full day and I was scheduled to work at the dance studio that the girls dance at. I work there a few days a month to help with my dance bill. I was working to 9 pm, which Sam was not happy about at all! He wanted everything packed and ready to go, which it was not. Now Sam is a doer, I'm the resident procrastinator. I always think that I have plenty of time to get things done. We were originally going to leave on Saturday, but then Sam said we should leave on Friday night so that we could get there earlier and go to the parks on Sunday too. We wanted to see the Fourth fireworks on Sunday at Magic Kingdom then go to Epcot on the actual Fourth. We decided to get a room at a cheap hotel we found a deal on at allears for $69 a night on Sunday night. I wasn't sure if they would let me fit all my kids in there for that price, so I said I only had two kids. Flame away! :drevil: So I was under the impression that we were leaving on Friday night. Plenty of time for me to get stuff done.

I got home from working at the studio to find Sam in a complete panic. He does not like things hanging over his head. We decided to hit Cub Foods up to get some things to bring in the car with us to eat. We were at the check out when Sam wanted me to grab something else. I knew that time was of the essence to Sam so I was really hurrying. I guess on my way back, you could hear my flip flops crazily coming. Sam said that the check out person was looking like what is that? There was a stock boy ahead of me that I was coming up behind closely. He kept looking back over his shoulder with a scared expression on his face. I think he thought I was going to run him over. Sam was laughing so hard in the car on the way home. He said that I was giving "stocking" a new meaning. He thought the guy figured I was stalking him. I think that lightened things up for Sam a little, or at least I thought so. It was now getting late so Sam went to bed to get ready for our day of leaving.

Friday July 1, 2011. Leaving day. Again, I thought I had plenty of time to get ready. So I woke up and went on the computer for a bit. I was not scrapbooking, but I was doing things related to it. Sam was furious that I was scrapbooking while he was trying to get things ready to leave. I thought that we were taking naps and such, so I figured I would just skip my nap. Nope, suddenly Sam decided that we were leaving ASAP. Why was I not giving the memo on this? He wanted to leave by like 1 pm. Yeah, that was going to happen. I still had to run to Target to pick up some things, and I really wanted Roddy to get a hair cut. The Justin Beiber look alike thing that he was trying to get started was just not working for me! So after some grumbling, we managed to get out of the house and packed up around 3 or so.
Are we one big happy family or what?
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Coree

Well-Known Member
She thinks 10 minutes is a while!! :lookaroun:lol:

:lol: :lol:

Loving it so far, Jenn. So what route did you take through Illinois? I think I know the answer and if I'm right you drove right by us! I'll tell ya, you and Tammy really need to communicate better ahead of time in your cross-country travels!

And I know exactly what rest area that is in Kentucky. Anna sliced her knee open running up onto that little white gazebo thing you took a photo of. Ah, good times!
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hilarious family picture by the way. Especially the nice lady that took it. :)

Beautiful, right? :lol:

Just joining in, can't wait to read more! I cannot believe you make that drive and with four kids. Talk about super mom!

I don't know about super mom, maybe more like crazy mom!

:lol: :lol:

Loving it so far, Jenn. So what route did you take through Illinois? I think I know the answer and if I'm right you drove right by us! I'll tell ya, you and Tammy really need to communicate better ahead of time in your cross-country travels!

And I know exactly what rest area that is in Kentucky. Anna sliced her knee open running up onto that little white gazebo thing you took a photo of. Ah, good times!

I waved at you. I figured we must have been close to you. I dunno. Give me some major roads. I wanna say maybe 24? Or 57? I know we were on those roads at some time. It's all a blur. :lookaroun:lol:
 

Coree

Well-Known Member
I imagine you brought 57 down through most of Illinois and then caught 24 in southern Illinois. Seriously, you were like 10 minutes from my house.
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
I imagine you brought 57 down through most of Illinois and then caught 24 in southern Illinois. Seriously, you were like 10 minutes from my house.

Wow! We do need to all communicate better. Of course you know I'll be driving back across the country at some point!:)
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We wanted to see the special fireworks tonight, so we staked out a spot in the middle of Main Street. I had not been there previously during that time so I had no idea how smashed in there we would be later on.

We stood around killing time. Lexy was sent to get some waters for everyone with Lainey. That was a mistake. The sidewalks were pretty packed, and she went to the Bakery. She tried to step over a family to walk on the sidewalk and the woman yelled at her. She actually told her that she couldn't walk on the sidewalk. Umm, what? Lexy does not take kindly to anyone yelling at her like that, so she was super cranky. She came back to where we were after getting the drinks and she made a big scene about how she wanted to go home right NOW!! I don't know what she was thinking, but I was watching Fourth of July fireworks, and some lady wasn't going to ruin it for me! Lexy was quite vocal about her wants, and it was pretty embarrassing. Finally, we did get her to shut her mouth though and face the facts that we were there just until the fireworks were over.

Whew! In order to focus on something else, Sam decided to play with the camera a little. Here is more of Sam being the "artist" taking fantastic shots. While shooting, I had to listen to what awesome pictures he was taking, etc. etc. I put the zoom on for him since he said he couldn't get close enough. (He was the only one tall enough to get over people's heads since now there were people crowded all around us). He kept asking me where I got that zoom lens from. Everytime I use it-which obviously isn't often-Sam can never remember that it came with the camera. So he had fun taking these photos.

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As Sam was taking his pictures, they just kept shoving more people in. We kept getting yelled at to take three giant steps forward. There were some people that would not move, and they really got yelled at. I was starting to feel a little bit clausterphobic. I understand that they have to get a large number of people in a small space, but I felt a bit like a herd of cattle. A guy in front of us said that they were going to shove us in nut to butt, which I thought was a hilarious phrase. It became my new favorite. It had started to cool off, but I was soon sweating again because of all the body heat around me. And add to that, that Bella could not see, so I had to hold her in my arms the entire time. By the end my arms were sliding from the sweat and the weight of her. It was all I could do to hold on to her. So maybe not the most enjoyable experience.

I put the camera away for the fireworks. People were just too close, and I wanted to enjoy them. They were pretty fantastic. It was all around you on all sides. Is it sad that I wished they would get over faster though?

We broke our way through to the exit after the were over and we went back to the Sunspree. I checked in again to get our keys, and then I met Sam and the kids over at the Applebees that is now inside the hotel. The waitress kept saying how busy it was there, and our food was over two hours later. We didn't get out of there until after midnight. I couldn't believe it. At that point I didn't really care, I just wanted to go to sleep so that I could wake up tomorrow and head to the REAL part of our trip.
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I imagine you brought 57 down through most of Illinois and then caught 24 in southern Illinois. Seriously, you were like 10 minutes from my house.

Yes, that's how we went. I thought of you as we were driving by! But I didn't imagine you'd want us popping in at like 1 am or whenever it was we went by. Sam even brought it up too.
 

Coree

Well-Known Member
Well, if you had been ready to leave at 1:00 like Sam wanted it wouldn't have been so late. :lookaroun :lol:
 

diddy_mouse

Well-Known Member
Oh goodie! I remember following along with one of your prior trip reports and it was such a fun read. :D And driving from Minnesota? I give you some major props, I can barely make the drive from VA to FL. :lol:

I loved the pictures of you guys on Big Thunder...it looked like you were having a blast. And I totally agree with you about hitting it later at night, the best way to do it!
 

Sarabell

Well-Known Member
Great trip report so far! I love that your teenager was always saying she wanted to go home but you can clearly see she was having a great time! can´t wait for more!:wave:
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
What?! No frickin' way! Jenn!!! And a trip report to boot! Wow. Just wow. I love it.

You and Sam sound just like me and Tracey when we're getting ready to go on a road trip. That will be us in September. Tracey keeps working our departure back minute by minute and eggin' me to add days to the front end of the trip. That sounded familiar to me. Then I always think I have plenty of time to get ready when really I probably don't. And theeeen Mr. Itchy-pants gets all in a fluster stompin' around cursin'...sounds like a 2 year old, really. Every 2 and 3/4 minutes he's asking me, "Is this ready?", as he points to some bag I have sitting out. At some point I have to start saying yes even if it's not just to keep him from stroking-out on me because nothing is ready yet. If I say yes he snatches it up and runs for the trunk. The result is twice as many bags and/or loose objects all thrown into the car and him swearing continually that: A.) It won't all fit ((which it won't if he's packing the car because he totally stinks at it)) and B.) We'll need to rent a frickin' U-Haul. Such fun! I've learned to laugh at the man and keep calling him "Sunshine" which he totally appreciates. :lol:

I'm the night owl, too! Let's hear it for the night owls!!!! Wooot!!!!! :sohappy:

Love the commentary and how you capture what it's like to be in the moment with the teenagers. More fun! You are the one who really inspires me to make sure to put the teen moments out there in our TRs. Oh yes. It ain't Disney without it.

Squeezin' 'em in "nut to butt"! :ROFLOL: I'm with you. New favorite expression here, too. :lol:

Okay...so tomorrow Brian & I will be road-trippin' back home from my folks' house...I can't wait to get back for the next installment. He l l yeah. I'm soooo in, girl! :cool:
 

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
Love the report so far, Jenn! The commentary on your kids is hilarious...I was the QUEEN of eye rolls when I was a teenager, so that description took me back. :rolleyes: :lol:
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Loving the TR so far!!! :wave:

Hearing about Lexy wanting to stay home cause of a new bf reminds me of our trip in 2001. We went the week of Thanksgiving and my sister (then 15) didn't want to leave her friends so she stayed home... She missed a good time!! Her loss!! Typical teenager though... lol

Your kids are adorable! :)
 

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