The “I’ve never been to Disney for 10 days before” - Updated 7/15 About This Page:

[Jillybean]

The trip before the trip . . . Wednesday, May 30

Our original plan (okay, not really “the” original plan, but the “last” original plan ) had been to leave early Thursday morning (I’m talking “sun not even up yet” early) so that we could get Thom down to Sea Island, Georgia in time for a morning meeting. In this scenario, he would be dropping us off at the beach resort where our room would hopefully (yet not holding out much hope) be ready and then he would be off to his meeting. While we were doing some packing that Tuesday evening, Thom gave me one of those looks where I knew he had been thinking too much. He was afraid that getting up that early and then chasing the girls around the resort by myself all day would be too much for me. I could have protested that I could easily handle it, but I chose to be honest and quickly agreed. We decided to leave Wednesday night after work instead. Within minutes, I had a room booked for us for that Wednesday night at the resort. And I felt much better about “this” plan.

The day of our departure was crazy. Thankfully, we were able to get everything packed on Tuesday night, so only the last minute items were left for Wednesday. We went to work and daycare as usual, but I managed to sneak out about an hour early to fill the car up with gas and do a last minute CVS run. And I’m pretty sure that I took about a 3-hour lunch break that day, so I won’t be winning Employee of the Month any time soon (if we had such a thing).

By the time that Thom got home with the girls, I had pretty much everything ready to go along with our bags of snacks and drinks. That morning we had sent Mary Devall on a scavenger hunt as soon as she got up, so she had a new Disney sticker book, a Hannah Montanna DVD, Cheetah girl paper and pen and a Princess art set to entertain her on the trip. Maddie even had a new set of Disney board books that fit perfectly in her little hands. The last step of the scavenger hunt had been to tear off the final link on our Disney countdown chain!

We ate a quick dinner of leftovers while we waited for Ralph’s dog spa to pick him up and I waited for the UPS man to deliver some tops that I had ordered at the last minute. In a quick succession of events, Ralph was picked up, my tops arrived and we were on the road. We left at exactly 7 p.m.

Mary Devall drew a little on her art set, but within an hour she was ready to start watching dvd’s. That’s when one of my boo boo’s from a couple of months ago came back to haunt me. I naively opened up a dvd and popped it in the dvd player only to receive the message “Disk Format Error” on the screen. That’s about the time it hit me that I hadn’t tried to play the DVD player in the car since I had spilled an entire cup of coffee in the passenger seat (in which the DVD player is housed) a couple of months before. I had been going grocery shopping on a Saturday morning and wanted to take a cup of coffee with me in a travel mug (to add insult to injury it was a Wilderness Lodge mug ). For some reason, I held the mug by the lid when I opened the door on the passenger side to throw my purse in - - suddenly splat! It went everywhere, but I thought it had only splashed the surface of the DVD player. Apparently the coffee had soaked down into the body of it and killed it dead. Oh well, no DVDs for us on this trip. Way to go, Jill. Thankfully, both girls managed to entertain themselves until they fell asleep.

By 10:30, we were taking the Sea Island/St. Simons Island exit from I-95. We pulled up to the resort by 11 o’clock and were in our room shortly afterwards. We could barely see the ocean in the dark, but we could hear its roar and taste the salt in the air. Yippee! We were on the first leg of our journey! We were all exhausted, so sleep came pretty quickly that night.

[disneydani]

How great you could change the departure to a more relxed pace!

Looking forward to all the 'Mary Devall-isms' coming up (and Maddie, too if she is talking a bit more!)

danielle

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Jill Good planning leaving the night before....I can't imagine what that morning would have been like Sorry about the DVD player! Thankfully that was only a pretty short ride so far

More please

[ariel14]

Yay, you started!!
Sorry to hear about the dvd player, but I think it´s great that you left Wed. night!
More pls!

[clio]

Great start, Jill. I can't wait to read about the girls' latest adventures.
Liz

[MontiMouse]

Macy has shared your DVD player story with several people since you told her about it at Disney. The good thing is she is now being really careful with her portable DVD player and won't let anyone near it with a drink in their hand ! On the plane home we even had to put our drinks on my lap tray and the DVD player all the way on the other side of hers just to make sure nothing got on it .

Can't wait to hear more!

[SHEANA1226]

Great start Jill! It was great meeting you guys!

[DyanKJ130]

Great start!! to hear about your DVD player, but happy the girls were able to manage without it. Hurry back with more

[bsblady01]

more please

[mattnkatsmum]

Wonderful start. I'm certain that you did the right thing in changing your plans.

[Annabel]

Great start Jill! You definitely took things at a more relaxed pace, good plan. Looking forward to more

[Suzie&Jay]

Great start, can't wait for more!

[goofysdtr]

I'm so excited to see you've started your report! Other than the DVD player, sounds like a good start.

[Caldercup]

I managed to sneak out about an hour early to fill the car up with gas and do a last minute CVS run. And I’m pretty sure that I took about a 3-hour lunch break that day, so I won’t be winning Employee of the Month any time soon (if we had such a thing).

That's okay... I'll give you one!


Lovin' the updates and, as a fellow-coffee slosher... *CAREFULLY* put the coffee in the car before doing anything else
Eileen

[PrincessSharon]

Great start, Jill! Sorry about the DVD player. But glad the girls found a way to entertain themselves. Can't wait for more!