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?

 

[eagles]

ok ok enough! i see coree is laughing now also. g'ssssssss

jenn, this is great. you know how much i really needed a good trip report read! :sohappy:

gosh i forgot everything i wanted to say as i was reading.

i agree about not having enough sunglasses.
i think noah is hitting the "i wanna stay home stage" and he is only 12. thank goodness there are lots more kids here to fill the gap.
love your posses. your family is great for taking photos. i am jealous.
all in all, i can't wait for more, more! loving it jenn and loving your pics. it looks like the heat and splash is getting to your hair.

now no more joking about me! but i think we should plan a get together at disney for all of us!

 

[plaz10]

I'm loving this TR! Your kids are all so cute! I love the one of Roddy w/Lotso! Even if he was sorry for it later

I understand the teen wanting to stay home with the bf. One time when I was in high school my family went and my sister and I each got to take a friend. Well about 2 days in, my friend gets a call that her EX boyfriend went on a date with someone else. She was so upset...she called her Mom who booked her a flight and she LEFT DISNEYWORLD TO GO HOME. I was thinking...if I'm heartbroken...the first place I'd want to be is Disney - not home! Crazy teenage love.

Can't wait to read the rest of the report! :wave:

 

[mouselvrmom]

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

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!

Thanks for following along!!

Looks like such a fun trip. I can't wait to read more!

Thank. I'll get some more up.

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!

Yep, she's crazy!

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.

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

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.

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!

How funny that the hubbys are so similar! That's exactly it!! He's always looking at my bags asking if they're ready yet. And then sighing and spazzing when they are nowhere near ready!! :lol:

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.

I'm pretty sure I could hold my own as well. You know the expression that you mother always says about getting a child just like you when you grow up! She totally jinxed me!!

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!

I can't believe she stayed home!! That is crazy!!

:shrug:

what is this, pick on louella trip report? :ROFLOL:

Aww, you know we love you, Louella!!

ok ok enough! i see coree is laughing now also. g'ssssssss

jenn, this is great. you know how much i really needed a good trip report read!

gosh i forgot everything i wanted to say as i was reading.

i agree about not having enough sunglasses.
i think noah is hitting the "i wanna stay home stage" and he is only 12. thank goodness there are lots more kids here to fill the gap.
love your posses. your family is great for taking photos. i am jealous.
all in all, i can't wait for more, more! loving it jenn and loving your pics. it looks like the heat and splash is getting to your hair.

now no more joking about me! but i think we should plan a get together at disney for all of us!

Now that would be fun, but you'd have to take a picture whenever I wanted!! LOL

I'm loving this TR! Your kids are all so cute! I love the one of Roddy w/Lotso! Even if he was sorry for it later

I understand the teen wanting to stay home with the bf. One time when I was in high school my family went and my sister and I each got to take a friend. Well about 2 days in, my friend gets a call that her EX boyfriend went on a date with someone else. She was so upset...she called her Mom who booked her a flight and she LEFT DISNEYWORLD TO GO HOME. I was thinking...if I'm heartbroken...the first place I'd want to be is Disney - not home! Crazy teenage love.

Can't wait to read the rest of the report!

No way!! I can't believe she went home!! My mom would have told me to get real if I'd have called her from DisneyWorld and wanted to go home!!

 

[mouselvrmom]

Monday July 4, 2011. It was a late night last night, but I was up and ready to go bright and early. I so wanted to be outta there and get on to Old Key West. We had stayed there for four nights last year, and I totally loved it! I was thrilled to be staying there for the entire time. We had an old room last year, which I loved for all its Golden Girls goodness, but I was really hoping to have a renovated room this time. As we were waking up, the kids pointed out something funny to us. Sam had said last year after our three resort extravaganza, that he hated moving hotels so much. He said that this year he definitely wanted to stay put. The kids were like, "Well we ended up staying at three hotels this trip too." Haha. Technically right, but we were still staying in one place for a long time.

They had renovated the Sunspree. The rooms were fine, but quite a bit tighter than the Doubletree. Or at least it seemed that way.

I was like, let's go, let's go, let's go!! We finally got outta there and were on our way to Old Key West. Sam had programmed the address in our GPS as JJ's Bday, which is my nickname that I used to be called when I was a kid. When we arrived at OKW it said, "Turn left into JJs Bday." But it said it in such a strange way that we were all laughing. For the rest of the time when we headed into the resort we would say it iin the computer accent. Another funny one it would say was Turtle Pond Road. We would mimic that one too. Good times.

Anyhow, we ran out of the car and headed for check in. We had the most wonderful CM checking us in. I want to say his name was Carlos. It was something like that. I'll have to ask Sam, he would remember. Anyhow, I had no idea that Sam and the kids knew about the birthday buttons. I didn't think they noticed stuff like that. But Carlos said, first things first, and handed me a birthday button. My birthday is on Thursday. The kids made me put JJ on my button. They thought it was so funny. More on the button later, but I really hated wearing it.

Anyway, Carlos was trying very hard to find us a room that was ready, that would have been awesome!! But he couldn't do it. He did move us into a room that he said would be better for us. He showed us where they wanted to put us, and he was like, no no no. I've stayed here before, and I like this better. It's on the water, and it's close to a bus stop. So he told us where we'd be, and he sent us on our way. We were going to Epcot, but we hit the bathrooms in Olivia's before driving our car to our building.

Here's our building.

It was beautiful if a little overgrown.

Here's one of Lexy's better moments. She didn't seem to want to go home here.

 

[mouselvrmom]

We were going to take the bus to Epcot. We had had enough driving for awhile. Luckily it wasn't too long before one came up. Before long we were in the park and ready for fun! We were starving though. It was probably around 11 at this time, but we hadn't eaten yet. We did have our dining credits ready not though, so we were set.

I decided that I would like lunch in China. Sam used to love their egg rolls, so it seemed like a good choice. We beelined it to World Showcase. I can't believe it, but Sam offered to do a character before we even made it to lunch. Mulan was out with absolutely no line, so we saw her quick before eating. She has such a pretty setting for her picture, but Sam was really hoping Mushu woudl be out. He must not be out much anymore, because we never saw him once and we were in Epcot almost every day.

Yummy food! I had the shrimp fried rice with egg roll. It was pretty tasty! I even thought the ginger ice cream was good, although no one else really cared for it. They must have remodeled the area a little. It looked good.

We felt better after out bellies were full, although we were very hot. We had never seen reflections of China, so we thought that would be a good idea.

It was quite beautiful. I enjoyed it. And it was air conditioned!! Big plus!

 

[mouselvrmom]

I think all of the World Showcase countries are really so beautiful, and China is no exception. There is just such stunning attention to detail. We spent a lot of time in this area of Epcot this trip.

We just kind of walked around having fun. We had dinner at Rose and Crown at 4, so we were just going to hang out and explore until then.

Sam took one of these with Lexy's cell to send to Mitch, the BF.

Me grabbing a coke.

So sad. We didn't see Snow White here. We did see her, but the kids would not let me stop.

 

[eagles]

oh i remember one thing i was going to say, LOVE THE lutso bear! i think noah would love to have one of them.

keep it coming jenn, this is great.

you know i don't mind pics and i love taking them also.. lets plan it ladies. is tomorrow too soon? oh wait, its still too hot for me. not only would my face melt, but i think my whole body would melt off.

 

[WDW_Princess24]

Glad you were able to spend a lot of time in Epcot. I usually end up spending time there each day I am there as well. There is just so many things to look at and the attention to detail is really unbelievable!

 

[mouselvrmom]

oh i remember one thing i was going to say, LOVE THE lutso bear! i think noah would love to have one of them.

keep it coming jenn, this is great.

you know i don't mind pics and i love taking them also.. lets plan it ladies. is tomorrow too soon? oh wait, its still too hot for me. not only would my face melt, but i think my whole body would melt off.

Lotso was pretty cute!! :lookaroun:lol:

Tomorrows not too soon for ME. It's on you, right?

Glad you were able to spend a lot of time in Epcot. I usually end up spending time there each day I am there as well. There is just so many things to look at and the attention to detail is really unbelievable!

Yea, it's a great place to hang out! I think we end up spending so much time there because that's where we usually eat dinner at. It has all the great places to eat!

 

[mouselvrmom]

So my whole entire reason for spending the fourth in Epcot was to see the characters in their colonial gear. It said on the website that you could meet with them after the Voices of Liberty concert. So I was all over that.

At this point, it was super hot. Since we had just gotten down there, our bodies were not used to the heat yet. It was hot back home, but we weren't spending all day outside there. So as we walked by America, we noticed that there was a Voices of Liberty concert starting right away. We decided to sit and listen. It was fabulous! Sam thought it might have been a bit preachy at times, but the vocals were amazing! I had goosebumps, and the kids did too. At the end Mickey and pals come out to be onstage with the performers. I managed to take a few pictures as they were walking out.

I asked a CM if the characters would be available for pictures, but she said no, they were just on stage. Now the sign did say that disney characters would be out at like 5 pm, but I knew we would be in dinner at that time, so oh well, I didn't get any pictures of the kids with them. I'm feeling like such a faillure as a character stalker!! LOL The kids did get their picture with the Fife and Drum Corps.

We went inside the pavilion to cool off a bit, but the kids did NOT want to sit and listen to Betsy Ross even though Sam and I would have enjoyed it. Sam was giving them the lecture about how today was all about dad and mom while the entire trip was usually about them. I'm sure we got a few eye rolls at that point.

Since the kids didn't want to stay, we left and continued on our walk around World Showcase. Now here's where I think the heat may have gotten to Sam a little and he became an evil parent. We had stopped at a kiosk to get a slushie for the kids. I was standing there ready to order and pay. I turned to Sam and asked what I was getting. He turned to the kids to ask what they wanted. They all said, "I don't care." Sam got frustrated and said I guess we're getting nothing. So we left. I was like, "What's going on?" Sam said that if the kids didn't want to speak up to say what they wanted they would get nothing. Then we headed to France and got Grand Marnier slushies. And proceeded enjoy them in front of the kids. Evil.

Here I am immensely enjoying my slushie.

We had made our way to the UK. We stopped in the shops to cool off a bit. It was about 15 minutes until our ADR time. I figured that was good enough to check in. I approached the podium where I was told that they were closed. They told me to come back in 15 minutes. I thought it was strange, but I said okay. We were so hot that we went to the gift shop near the International Gateway to look around and stay out of the heat. It didn't seem that cold in there, we must have been overheating. Bella had a lot of fun trying on hats.

We waited until it was our time before we headed back to the UK and tried to check in again. Now there was a big line to do so. I'm not sure why we couldn't have checked in before, but oh well. Here I am dying in the sun waiting to check in.

And here are the kids smarter in the shade.

 

[mouselvrmom]

We got a pager and headed to the bar to wait. Now we could see that there were plenty of tables inside. We figured that they must just be getting things ready. Our pager went off, so we went back out. The CM started leading us back, and I was wondering why she went so far back. She just kept going, then I realized that she was going to try to give me a table outside. That was just not going to fly. As she stopped at a table outside, Sam said, "Aren't there any tables inside?" She offered to go inside to check. She came back out and said that there weren't any. Sam said that he would not eat outside. He offered that we could be split up. She went back in to check. She came back out to tell us that we could be seated inside at two tables.

After all that, we were seated at two tables immediately next to each other. We just pulled them together. There were tons of empty tables. I'm not sure why they were trying to put us outside, but thank goodness Sam is picky. Our server was completely awesome and we enjoyed ourselves.

Just trying to cool off.

I had the steak and fish. Now I love their fish, but I could have had more. I seriously got one TINY piece of fish that was mostly breading with a hairline cut of fish in there. I suppose when you get two entrees that's to be expected, but I really could have used more fish.

I got the chocolate scotch cake for dessert. It was sooo super delicious. I think all the fabulous desserts is the main reason that I gained 8 pounds on this trip! EEEEKKK!!

It seemed very busy as we walked out. We decided to head back to the resort, but first we had fastpasses at Test Track that we had grabbed when we got to Epcot.

But first a family picture.

The kids love Test Track.

 

[mouselvrmom]

This one turned out blurry, but I still love it.

After Test Track, we were ready to head to the room and unpack our stuff. We were the only ones waiting for a bus.

And here comes the bus! Woohoo!!

We got really lucky with buses this trip. We ended up getting a private bus ride back.

Uh oh. Looks like Lexy wants to go home again.

These chowder heads always head for the back!

 

[mouselvrmom]

I could not wait to get into that room. In no time we were back and there! And, we got a renovated room! I was psyched! I loved the wood floors!! Here's a billion pictures of our room.

 

[mouselvrmom]

I told you, a billion.

Love these pillows.

And this chair pattern.

 

[mouselvrmom]

And the most exciting part of all.........the full size washer and dryer!! I love that it's a full size here! I put this to good use every day!

Sam and I fixed ourselves a drink to take out to the porch and enjoy the scenery.

After a few drinks, we gave in to the kids' wishes. You know what they were yelling for, right? That's right, they desperately wanted to go to the pool. We were near one of the pools, but they wanted the big pool with the cool slide, so we usually just drove to the big pool.

The kids and Sam had fun in the pool. I didn't go in. I just took some pictures.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Wait, scratch that, I did go in the hot tub with Lexy. And before we left, we all briefly hit the sauna. The kids thought they were going to die though.

Oh, I totally forgot. Here's a photopass one from Sunday. Sam had this weird obsession with us lining up this trip. I don't know why. Well, I guess I do know why. He wanted to emphasize that I'm the oldest one out of us all. What a prince. Here he made us line up in order of age and hold up a finger to emphasize our birth order. Yay.

 

[blackthidot]

Why didn't you guys just bring the boyfriend with you? :shrug:








Hahaha just kidding!

 

[fractal]

Love your TRs!

As a father of a teenage girl I can certainly emphathize with the mood swings.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Why didn't you guys just bring the boyfriend with you? :shrug:








Hahaha just kidding!

:lol: I told her that if Mitch and her made it through a year then I'd consider it. But there was no way I was taking someone that she just started dating a few months ago, especially at that age!

Love your TRs!

As a father of a teenage girl I can certainly emphathize with the mood swings.

Thanks! I think that they all have them! Unfortunately! :lol:

 

[mouselvrmom]

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I made my dining reservations, but for some reason I thought an 8 am breakfast the day after we arrived was a good idea. We usually do CRT every trip, but Sam said he had had enough for awhile. So I decided to do Akershus with the princesses.

I did not let Sam into this little plan of mine until we had arrived, but I also wanted to park over at the Boardwalk since I love that hotel, take some pictures and go into Epcot using the International Gateway, since I love doing that. I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled he was with this idea especially since this meant we would need to be at the Boardwalk by 7:30 am. Let's face it, I wasn't even happy to be getting up this morning, but I did it, and so did everyone else.

Sam always gets nervous when going to other hotels that the one we're staying at. He feels the need to tell him every single thing that we will be doing while there. (We ran into that a lot later when we kept hitting up Port Orleans for those awesome Beignets) So we pull up and Sam is telling the guard about how we're planning to check out the Boardwalk and the resort. I'm sure the guard was impressed.

Ahh, the Boardwalk. I always get a good feeling when I'm here. Maybe it's because it was the first Disney resort I stayed at, but I so love this place.

It was already getting hot as we walked our way around to Epcot. But it was so worth it to be in such a peaceful location!

We were the first one at the entrance. Well, heck we were the only ones at the entrance. They weren't even quite open yet. So we goofed off a bit until they let us through.

Sam is always putting his grimy paws on my camera lenses. When he took the camera to take the last picture, he must have smeared it. I didn't notice it until later, but it angers me. Well, at least it annoys me.