Thankful

Thanksgiving is just a few days away and I have so much to be thankful for. My God, my family, my dog, my health.. the list could go on and on... BUT, since this blog is dedicated to our Disney trip... Let me point out the big thing I'm thankful for on that subject.

OUR FLIGHT AND CAR RENTAL ARE BOOKED! IT'S OFFICIAL!

Now there really is no going back. We're going this spring and that's all there is to it! WOOOO HOOOO!

Now to get those time shares booked and make sure all the supplies are organized and packed and we are SET! woo hoo!!!

Woot, It's November!

You know what that means!! It means it's time to be Thankful (isn't everyday?) and boy do I have a lot to be thankful about. Besides being thankful for my health, my family, my church and all the little blessings that happen throughout my day..... I'm thankful that our big trip is now just SIX months away!!! Woo hoo!

Relief

When I was originally looking at getting time shares, it looked like the rules stated you could only stay in one place for one week in a 12 month period. I was bummed by the idea that we'd have to move to two different places on our vacation.

Last night, we were looking up our options (since we'll be able to book soon) and found one of the places that we really wanted to stay. My husband asked the question about length of stay and by asking that he planted a tiny seed of doubt in my mind. I'm glad he did. The place we really want has a policy that you can stay TWO weeks. I'm stoked. Now we can stay in ONE place the entire time. What a relief!

A Disney Halloween

Normally we make random jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. This year, we decided to go with a theme; A Disney theme.

First we start off by prepping the pumpkins in the only way a manly man can... With power tools!A hole saw to cut the bases out of the pumpkins.

Then we attach a kitchen beater to the power drill for quick gutting!

Put stencils on and cut out your designs and viola!

Disney logo and Tinkerbell

Vampire Mickey and Jack Skellington

It's October.

Okay, so the official 7 month mark isn't until Saturday but I'm going to go ahead and share the next on my countdown.

My husband and I have watched this ride on Youtube about a hundred times. We're extremely excited for this one.... However, this ride will still be a tricky one for us. My oldest will NOT want to get on this ride. I'll still ask him but we will, in no way, force the issue. Our youngest might just barely be tall enough for it... Considering that it has no loopy-de-loops, I think we might be able to get him on it but that's not certain. What I do know is that my hubs and I will be figuring out parent swap on this for sure. We LOVE roller coasters and I'm especially excited to ride this one.

And a dog throws a wrench in everything.

So, the original thought was that we wouldn't get a dog until AFTER our trip. That way we wouldn't have to worry about where said dog would go while we were away.
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Then Ella happened. My hubby fell madly in love with a Brittany Spaniel mix named Ella and now she's taken up residency in our home. Don't get me wrong, I'm in love with her too... But it does throw a wrench in my plans for surprising the boys. In case you don't remember, I was originally planning on walking them most of the way to school, having a "chance" encounter with their grandparents and then getting a ride to the airport where we would THEN tell them about the surprise.... Having Ella toys with that.
You see, I could keep to the plan and have Ella in the car with us.. But then that means we have to deal with her terror as the boys scream up and down about where they're going, we have to navigate the airport situation while we're getting our stuff checked in to board and that also leaves my in-laws responsible for getting her to my parents house where she'll be staying.

It's doable... and the idea of being able to wake up and shower in my own home the day we leave is VERY appealing (I love my parents but they have a lot of dogs... You smell like dog when you leave)..... BUT, sticking to the original plan just doesn't seem very convenient or easy when you throw Ella into the mix. The more logical plan seems to be to go down to my parents house Sunday afternoon, stay the night (so the kids don't even think about the fact that they're supposed to be in school) and go from there. I mean, I could always have my in-laws on skype so they don't miss the surprise (they really want to see it)

Pros and Cons of the new idea:

Pros:
1. Less stress for Ella because she'll be able to acclimate back to my parents house for longer before we're gone.
2. The boys won't have to be wearing their school uniforms
3. My parents could give us a lift to the airport and they're a lot closer
4. No drive time for my in-laws.
5. Don't have to deal with leaving Ella in the van OR taking her into the airport

Cons:
1. We'll smell like dogs
2. My parents are notoriously late (the last time I had them give us a ride to the airport we BARELY made it on the plane on time.


I know the Pro's outweigh the cons.. But that smelling like a dog bit is a really big deal for us... And, I really do love my parents... but it's awful how dirty we all are when we leave and I'm just not 100% sure how stressful it will be taking extra precautions to make sure we're all clean and smelling nice when we leave in the morning.

Autograph/Memory books

I got to working on upgrading the kids Autograph journals the other day. Like I said before, I realized that there are way more pages that could be autographed than will be autographed... So, taking a queue from my buddy, Sommer, I started making scrap book pages for the kids to write and draw their memories. Here's what I've got so far.

I gave the boys different themes based on what they liked more.

I also added different things for them based on their age level. So for my Kindergartner I asked him to draw how he feels vs. my 3rd grader who I asked to write how he feels.

This is for me to add a picture of each of them as we're getting ready to enter the park for the first time.