Day 2.... arriving at Disney!

A Mickey bar always makes things much better :) Gotta eat em fast though in Florida!!

Brooke and Drew having fun at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground... FYI... it's 4,000 degrees in that place!!

By 7am everyone is up and ready to get back on the road. Since we only had a handful of stuff in the room it was super easy to get everyone out the door. I do a quick check of the room to make sure we have everything. Matt is about losing things so I have to follow after him. This little tidbit of information is important later on. ;)

We offered to stop for breakfast but the kids just wanted to get down there so we ate out of the snack basket in the car. Cheetos and Mountain Dew... breakfast of champions! ;)

We had a 3 hour drive ahead of us and had planned on having the kids play some Disney trivia.... yep complete dorks here! Within 10 minutes the girls are screaming at each other because Hannah keeps blurting out all the answers even when it's not her turn. So we put on HS3... AGAIN.. and tell them to shut up til we get there. Ahhh.. such good parenting skills!

Matt decides he wants to eat a nice dinner in the parks today after all. Previously we had discussed just getting something quick somewhere. And if you know Disney... you know that it's VERY hard to get a last minute reservation.. especially for a party of 5. I spend almost an hour on the phone trying to get something lined up. We didn't have a specific park in mind for today... we were actually going to wing it! So they offered us Mama Melrose ( Italian) at Hollywood Studios. We're not on the dining plan yet but this meal should run us under a $100 so we take it. For you non Disney fans... table service meals are mega expensive at Disney! 10 and over classifies as an adult. We lie about Brooke's age but can't get away with passing Hannah off as 9. ;) So we have to pay adult prices for 3 and kids for 2. Although all of us but Matt pretty much eat off the kids menu! lol

We pull into Disney around 11am. We're staying at All Star Music for just 1 night. Typically you can't get into your room til 4pm but we lucked out and got our room right away. We are all anxious to get to the parks so instead of unloading the whole van we decide just to grab a few things that shouldn't sit in the hot sun... mainly the computers. And the convo goes like this....

Matt: Where are the computer?

Me : You carried them out to the car... so wherever you put them.

Matt: Um no. I carried everything else and you were supposed to grab the computers.

Me: Well I checked the whole hotel room and it was empty. ( and remember I'm perfect and don't make mistakes =P )

Matt: Okay you're SURE that the room was empty?

Me: Yes... I'm not an idiot. You think I wouldn't notice 2 brand new computers sitting there?

Matt: Okay then.. let's empty out the van. I'm sure they're just buried.

Now some of you are probably thinking how could you lose something in a van? but if you look at the picture from yesterday you'll see it was a disaster in there!! So we proceed to empty out the ENTIRE van! Shit everywhere!! And guess what we found... the computer cords... but NO computers!

Matt: You have got to be F'ing kidding me! ( censoring for those of you that don't like our sailor mouths ;) )

Me: Um... I think I know where they're at.

Matt: And where would that be Miss Perfect?

Me: The black computers are on the black bar.. so I must've overlooked them ( said QUITE sheepishly).

Matt: Well now I get to drive 6 hours roundtrip to go get the F'ing computers! Oh my god I can't believe you did this! And I'm going to miss dinner. ( For the record.. Matt does NOT like missing dinner lol )

Me: No... you stay here with the kids and I'll go get them.

Matt: Yea right you would end up in New Jersey and then I would look like the asshole for making you go get them! ( okay he has a point here... I am VERY directionally challenged!) Call the hotel and ask to speak to a manager to make sure they're there. And then we can have them ship them down. God I can't believe you did this!

Now this is the part that if I was a "normal" woman I could make myself cry to show how truly sorry I am. ;) But being that I cry like once every 5 years... I just can't do it. lol So I stand there looking like an idiot as I dial the number to the hotel... which of course I have right with me...because I'm organized and never forget anything. =P so on with the phone call...

Me: I need to know right away if we left our computers in our room

Mgr: Okay maam... I can't get a hold of housekeeping right now so I'll call you back in 4-5 hours.

Me: Um..okay.

Matt: Give me the god damn phone! I'll take care of this myself!

Um yeah... I'm not digging myself out of this hole very well am I? lol The mgr. confirms that yes the computers ARE there! Matt gives them the shipping info. and tells them to bill his work account...which he'll pay for when he gets back .Should only be about $30 or so and we'll have them in 2 days. Matt apologizes for getting upset with me. Are you freakin kidding me? I'm the one that needs to do some serious ass kissing!! Had the roles been reversed I would've ripped his head off for being so careless. =P

So first major catastrophe of the trip behind us... or so we think. More.. much more.. on this as the trip goes on!

We grab a quick lunch and then hop on the bus to studios. To Drew the bus ride is just as fun as the parks. We're buying annual passes so we must purchase these before going in the park. Matt has a hard time swallowing how much these cost us... so he just basically walks away while I get them. lol I remind him that we did save 10% off of them thanks to my friend Julie Weber( thanks again Julie!!). But he's quickly learning that there isn't really any real savings in Disney! ;)

As we enter the park the kids are so excited to be back in Disney! We hit some of our favorites and just take our time enjoying the atmosphere. Drew was getting a little tired and a bit cranky. But a mickey ice cream bar always makes everything better! Messy... but better!

Dinner is fairly early... 4:30. I'm a little concerned that there aren't many people in the restaurant. Table service is always packed regardless of the time of the day... esp. in the summer! We have this same place booked for later in the week so we're hoping it's good. Me being the adventerous eater I am =P... I order a 4 cheese flatbread pizza. The kids gets pasta and Matt orders something weird. Can't remember what it was... but if it's anything other than basic spaghetti or ravioli it's weird to me! We get our food and all realize that this is NOT typical Italian! The sauce is super spicy! And the cheeses on everything taste like they've been ferminting for years! Yuck! None of us care for this place at all. Looks like we'll be finding someplace else to eat later on in the week!

We leave shortly after dinner and head back to the hotel. The kids are dying to swim! They swim for a few hours while I just lounge on a chair and go over the next 2 weeks plans. It's Saturday and Matt's parents arrive on Tuesday. We have a HUGE surprise for them that the kids are just bursting at the seams over. :)

We turn in early as we need to check out in the morning and head to Beach Club. And tomorrow is Magic Kingdom!!

Disney... finally!!

WOW... could I possibly be more of a blog procrastinator??!! I've been home over 2 weeks now and have yet to make a single post about our trip! Good excuse though... these kids and their crazy schedules are running me ragged!

Unfortunately... due to the continues craziness... I can all but guarantee I won't finish a day by day report of our trip. ( ya know... just like last year lol). But I'll atleast give it a shot. :)

So off we go!! The journey down there....

Matt had to go into work for a few hours before we took off... big surprise there! I drove him up there at 5:30am so I could then just pick him up on our way out of town. I thought for sure I would get back home and have a few hours to myself to get things wrapped up. WRONG! Brooke and Drew were sitting on the front porch waiting for me.... at 5:45am! Okay... maybe since they got up so early they'll sleep some on the way down. ;) The plan is to leave the house at 9:30am and then pick up Matt. I'm moving right along getting things in the van when Matt calls and says he's ready to go... a whole hour early! Shit... I should've known I wouldn't have quite enough time! I throw everything else in the van and off we go. All sense of organization in that van has gone out the window!!

Now my intention is to not drive AT ALL on this trip! I really prefer to just play the ring leader with the kids and let Matt do the driving. But a I pick Matt up I see that my plan is quickly going to fail. He hops in the passenger side before I had a chance to slide my big butt over. Damn! He proceeds to tell me how many miles I must drive within so many minutes in order to "stay on track". Alrighty Clark Griswald. ;) We make it Mason ( by big butter Jesus for you non Ohio people) and we SIT! Yep.... 40 minutes into the trip and we already hit our 1st traffic jam. Oh joy! Matt recalculates again how many miles I must make up within the next few hours to keep on track. =P Make it through Cincy and then onto Kentucky. Kids are doing great and havent' even turned on a movie yet! Don't ask about the amount of snacks they've eaten so far though! Then we get my very 1st ding on my new van! A rock hits the windshield and cracks it!! I really hope this isn't an omen for how this trip is going to go. And just a few miles after that... we hit ANOTHER traffic jam!! This one is huge though. We inch our way along and after an hour or so we finally make it out of there! By this time we've spent 4 1/2 hours driving what shouldve taken no longer than 2 1/2! I am DONE driving! I've done my fair share ( fair in my book anyways).

We stop for gas and to get lunch. How the kids are hungry is beyond me though... the amount of snacks being consumed is quite alarming! The restaurant is super packed though so we decide to just get it to go.... and yes the kids are just fine with this! ( We've been known to push our kids without stopping a few times ;) ). Hop back in the car and I make sure my butt is firmly planed in the passenger seat!

The rest of the trip is fairly uneventful. We finally turned on a movie after 6 hours or so. We had about 40 movies with us and all Drew wanted to watch was Mamma Mia and HS3. Hannah was in pure hell. lol We thought for sure the kids would sleep... remember up at 5:45am! But we got about 20 minutes out of Drew and that was it!! Dinner was also eaten in the car... per the kids request. And we arrived in Valdosta about 13 hours after leaving Dayton. We had previously paid for a hotel there because we thought it would be too much to make the trip all in 1 day. Turns out we definitely should've just kept on going straight to Orlando... it's only another 3 hours.

So my van is TRASHED, my kids have eaten their way down to Florida and Matt and I have survived our first leg of a long road trip with the kids. We all agree ( yes even I ) that driving is MUCH easier with a big family than flying. No stress about overwight suitcases, delayed flights, etc. And it's a hell of alot cheaper!!

I had 2 bags packed just for the 1 night stop so we didn't have to unpack the whole van. We grabbed those, the cooler and both computers....Matt had to bring these because we're going to be gone so long that he needs to be able to get some work done daily. We booked a room with 2 king beds only to get in there and find that we have a fold out couch and a double bed. Oh joy. The girls bitch and moan about having to share a bed... but no way are either Matt or I going to sleep on that thing! Drew of course just sleeps inbetween us... as usual. =P