Reading all of the awesome trip reports on here has inspired me to write one of my very own. I just hope mine can live up to the others.
Let me first introduce you to my family of characters.
There is me...the one who does all the planning, the budgeting, the booking...but I love it. I love nothing more than putting in the time and dedication to provide my family with a wonderful trip. There is nothing better to distract you from a stressful job than to plan a Disney vaca...(I am currently figuring out if we can make a December trip of 2012 happen since I work in a school system. Gotta have something to work towards while getting use to a new school year!)
There is my husband....who we shall call "Joe" (cause hey, everyone knows a "Joe"). He had never been to Disney as a child and his first trip was when we took our kids their first time May of 2007. He is now a giant kid at Disney.
We have our young Jedi, who will be ten in January. Guess what he's into...
We also have our daughter, who I shall call Princess P. She lives for Disney. Her favorite thing is meeting characters and it is one of my favorite things to see her light up when she sees them.
Guest Stars:
We also had some special guest stars this trip in the form of my hubbie's brother, sister-in-law and our nephews. Our 18 year old niece (another BIL's stepdaughter) also joined in. (They all decided to stay at The Cabins at Fort Wilderness)
Being this was the year of celebrations, of course we were all celebrating! My hubbie and I are celebrating ten years of marriage. We actually got married 5 days after 9/11. I knew I wouldn't be able to get the time off from my school to go on our actual anniversary, so that is why we choose August.
My BIL and SIL are also celebrating ten years of marriage (they got married 3 weeks after we did).
And my niece was celebrating graduating high school. This was huge as her last few years of school were tough dealing with family issues. She has essentially been "adopted" by myself and my SIL. We were her "moms" at graduation night and couldn't be more proud of her!
The Trip:
August 21-27 staying at Wilderness Lodge. This was huge for us as we had always stayed value resorts (ASMovies and Pop). I did fear that once we went Deluxe, we wouldn't want to go back.....yup, that fear came true!
I did make a stipulation to the kids. I asked them to each pick the one thing they wanted to do. I told them that it will be hot and that we won't be able to do everything. But if they told me the one thing they wanted to do, I would do everything to make sure it happen. And then everything else that came would be bonus! Well you can all guess what the young Jedi choose....Jedi Training camp, you say? how didja guess? Princess P choose off all things, Kim Possible Mission in Epcot. This actually really excited me cause I wanted to explore Epcot more in-depth and figured we could do it easier now that they were older.
Side note:
Both of our children are autistic. Four years ago, it was shocking. What most know is that autism affects boys at a much higher rate than girls, so to be a family where both our son and daughter have autism was huge. And to add on top of it, our daughter was actually more severely affected than our son was. Our extended family had never dealt with anything like this and our school district had very little experience with a child as severe at the time as my daughter. They did years of intensive therapy and my kids are two different children than they were 4 years ago. I mention this for a few reasons.
1. The reason why my hubbie and I are huge Disney fans was because WDW was our first real vacation as a family. We took the kids in "07 when Disney was offering their trip for 4 for $1600. We splurged with our tax money and jumped in to go. It was the best splurge we ever made! When we went that first trip, we were in the middle of the diagnosis process. It was a much needed break of doctor's visits and school meetings and questionnaires...if you have never been through it, I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy. It is long and stressful and draining. That May, when we arrived at Disney, they made us feel like a typical family. It would become one of the most wonderful times we spent together as a family. We officially became Disney addicts that week, knowing every vaca we took would be in Walt's World.
2. My kids are not what most people think of when they hear Autism. Those parents who live with it usually dislike certain terms like high-functioning, low-functioning, verbal, non-verbal. You can't categorize these things since each child truly is different. But for lack of better terms, my children would be put in the high-functioning category. Meaning that you probably wouldn't know they were unless you know someone with Autism. My son's ADHD actually is more prevalent than his Autism. If you meet my daughter, you may think that she is overtly social and has no filter (this provided many entertaining stories from this trip in fact). When most people think of someone with Autism, they think that they are more anti-social. This is so not the case with Princess P.
That isn't to say there weren't 'tism moments that showed up in our trip (of course the repeating of the seagulls "Mine, Mine, Mine" proves very entertaining to the autistic crowd...thanks Pixar!)
The reason I say this is because our daily life is always full of worry if they will be bullied or understood. The school wants them to be this way or that way. The talk is always about how we change them and teach them how to fit into society...
But in Disney, they are fully embraced for who they are. As a parent, this is the most wonderful thing. All the things that makes them different is celebrated in Disney. They are autistic...it is a part of who they are but it is not all that they are...Disney embodies the spirit of that for us.
So that is us....our little family of four....
Now on to what would be another magical stay in the house of the Mouse! (and to figure our how to add pics not through a URL address....hmm)
Let me first introduce you to my family of characters.
There is me...the one who does all the planning, the budgeting, the booking...but I love it. I love nothing more than putting in the time and dedication to provide my family with a wonderful trip. There is nothing better to distract you from a stressful job than to plan a Disney vaca...(I am currently figuring out if we can make a December trip of 2012 happen since I work in a school system. Gotta have something to work towards while getting use to a new school year!)
There is my husband....who we shall call "Joe" (cause hey, everyone knows a "Joe"). He had never been to Disney as a child and his first trip was when we took our kids their first time May of 2007. He is now a giant kid at Disney.
We have our young Jedi, who will be ten in January. Guess what he's into...
We also have our daughter, who I shall call Princess P. She lives for Disney. Her favorite thing is meeting characters and it is one of my favorite things to see her light up when she sees them.
Guest Stars:
We also had some special guest stars this trip in the form of my hubbie's brother, sister-in-law and our nephews. Our 18 year old niece (another BIL's stepdaughter) also joined in. (They all decided to stay at The Cabins at Fort Wilderness)
Being this was the year of celebrations, of course we were all celebrating! My hubbie and I are celebrating ten years of marriage. We actually got married 5 days after 9/11. I knew I wouldn't be able to get the time off from my school to go on our actual anniversary, so that is why we choose August.
My BIL and SIL are also celebrating ten years of marriage (they got married 3 weeks after we did).
And my niece was celebrating graduating high school. This was huge as her last few years of school were tough dealing with family issues. She has essentially been "adopted" by myself and my SIL. We were her "moms" at graduation night and couldn't be more proud of her!
The Trip:
August 21-27 staying at Wilderness Lodge. This was huge for us as we had always stayed value resorts (ASMovies and Pop). I did fear that once we went Deluxe, we wouldn't want to go back.....yup, that fear came true!
I did make a stipulation to the kids. I asked them to each pick the one thing they wanted to do. I told them that it will be hot and that we won't be able to do everything. But if they told me the one thing they wanted to do, I would do everything to make sure it happen. And then everything else that came would be bonus! Well you can all guess what the young Jedi choose....Jedi Training camp, you say? how didja guess? Princess P choose off all things, Kim Possible Mission in Epcot. This actually really excited me cause I wanted to explore Epcot more in-depth and figured we could do it easier now that they were older.
Side note:
Both of our children are autistic. Four years ago, it was shocking. What most know is that autism affects boys at a much higher rate than girls, so to be a family where both our son and daughter have autism was huge. And to add on top of it, our daughter was actually more severely affected than our son was. Our extended family had never dealt with anything like this and our school district had very little experience with a child as severe at the time as my daughter. They did years of intensive therapy and my kids are two different children than they were 4 years ago. I mention this for a few reasons.
1. The reason why my hubbie and I are huge Disney fans was because WDW was our first real vacation as a family. We took the kids in "07 when Disney was offering their trip for 4 for $1600. We splurged with our tax money and jumped in to go. It was the best splurge we ever made! When we went that first trip, we were in the middle of the diagnosis process. It was a much needed break of doctor's visits and school meetings and questionnaires...if you have never been through it, I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy. It is long and stressful and draining. That May, when we arrived at Disney, they made us feel like a typical family. It would become one of the most wonderful times we spent together as a family. We officially became Disney addicts that week, knowing every vaca we took would be in Walt's World.
2. My kids are not what most people think of when they hear Autism. Those parents who live with it usually dislike certain terms like high-functioning, low-functioning, verbal, non-verbal. You can't categorize these things since each child truly is different. But for lack of better terms, my children would be put in the high-functioning category. Meaning that you probably wouldn't know they were unless you know someone with Autism. My son's ADHD actually is more prevalent than his Autism. If you meet my daughter, you may think that she is overtly social and has no filter (this provided many entertaining stories from this trip in fact). When most people think of someone with Autism, they think that they are more anti-social. This is so not the case with Princess P.
That isn't to say there weren't 'tism moments that showed up in our trip (of course the repeating of the seagulls "Mine, Mine, Mine" proves very entertaining to the autistic crowd...thanks Pixar!)
The reason I say this is because our daily life is always full of worry if they will be bullied or understood. The school wants them to be this way or that way. The talk is always about how we change them and teach them how to fit into society...
But in Disney, they are fully embraced for who they are. As a parent, this is the most wonderful thing. All the things that makes them different is celebrated in Disney. They are autistic...it is a part of who they are but it is not all that they are...Disney embodies the spirit of that for us.
So that is us....our little family of four....
Now on to what would be another magical stay in the house of the Mouse! (and to figure our how to add pics not through a URL address....hmm)
