Thanksgiving @ WDW 2009; Crazy and Lovin' it! About This Page:

[B.M.]

Were baaaaaack............
We had a wonderful time!
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to go to Disney World!
This will be a hectic few days; I would much rather re-live the trip by writing my trip report, but I'll be catching up on school, studying for finals, doing laundry, and throwing my dd's b-day party tomorrow(o.k., that part will be fun)...... So, it'll be Thursday at the earliest before I get anything posted.......
Thanks for reading and I'll get started sooooon!

[debrabrown]

Welcome back! Good luck getting everything done and can't wait to read your TR!

[chezp]

Welcome back! Looking forward to hearing all about it.

[Colexis Mom]

Welcome back!

[tootogether]

Welcome back!

[OhToodles!]

Welcome back!

[disneydreamer33]

Welcome back.
I can't wait to hear all about it.
I am looking at maybe Thanksgiving next year, so I will be glad to hear how it went for you and your family.

[lazanya]

Welcome back!

[Lemap760]

Welcome back. Glad to hear you had a great time.

[mcc0313]

Welcome back, glad you had such a great time. Can't wait to hear all about it.

[Mommy Princess]

Welcome back! Can't wait to read all about the trip!

[B.M.]

O.K. - I'm finally ready to get started.

I'll give a quick re-cap:

Who?
Me, Brandy
My kids: Wesley (12), Dillon (10), Madilyn (8, celebrated 9th b-day on trip), Austin (7), and Winston (3)
And my Dad.

Our trip was November 20th- November 29th (over Thanksgiving)

I have a LOT of pictures. I will be sharing them. Unfortunately we didn't get a lot of good pics this year. Even the photopass pics didn't come out very good (group shots anyway). I finally realized the problem: it's nearly impossible to get 7 people (especially with 5 of them being kids) to look at the camera and smile at the same time. Towards the end of the trip, I took less group shots and more individual shots and this worked much better..... Anyway, I'll be sharing the pictures anyway- that was just my disclaimer... Here we go-

[B.M.]

Friday November 20th, 2009
Are we there yet?
I took kids to school this morning as usual. I had everyone dropped off and was back home by 8am. They were all excited and bouncing off the walls. Winston cried when I took him to school as usual, I told him I’d be picking him up after lunch and before nap time so we could go to Walt Disney World. This calmed him slightly. The plan was to let the kids stay in school till 11:30 so they would be counted present. I still had some packing to complete when I got home. Once everything was packed, I started loading the van. We have very limited trunks space and it was very difficult to load everything. I had to put suitcases in the floor in front of the little kid’s feet. (Their legs don’t touch the floor anyway) This took longer than expected.
It ended up being 11:45 when I got to Wesley’s middle school. I left his school at 12. Thursday everyone had got haircuts except Wes because he was at an afterschool activity. We drove by the salon and it was empty. I thought we’d be in and out in less than 10 minutes (he gets his head shaved). Well, 45 minutes later we headed to the elementary school for Dillon, Madilyn, and Austin. She was over the top detail oriented with his hair, and I just wanted to go. Ugh… It was close to 1pm when I walked in the office to check them out. They were having a special Thanksgiving luncheon that day (I didn’t attend because the plan was to check them out before the lunch began). With me running late, the luncheon had started. It was chaotic! Because many parents check out their kids afterwards, the school set up checkout stations in each kid’s classroom. So, rather than the office call all three kids to check out; they sent me to their individual classrooms. Ugh- it was getting later and later… I went to Dillon’s class first and his class was empty….. then Madilyn, she was there and very glad to see me… her teacher said she’d been a nervous wreck for the past hour that I’d decided to cancel our trip; lol. Then, we headed to Austin’s class- his teacher was there, but no kids. She said they were at NEST (computer, art, p.e., library, music). She didn’t know what group he was with…. So, with one out of three kids; I headed back to the office. They announced for Austin to go to homeroom and then sent me back to his class to check him out. Ugh, I really just wanted them to call the kids to the office; it would have been so much quicker! So, now I had two of three. Dillon was another story… apparently his class was literally at the luncheon and it was too chaotic to hear announcements. We had to go search for him. We finally found him and he had also been worrying what was taking so long, plus he hadn’t ordered a lunch that morning because he was suppose to be long gone by lunch time and he was worried they would not give him a tray. I felt bad for the kids being stressed out; they know I’m normally on time… It was not my mother of the year moment…
Now, it was nearly 1:30 and we still had to get baby Winston from preschool! In the van ride to get him, I felt horrible! I promised him that morning that I’d pick him up after lunch and before nap. I planned to be there by noon. It was now 1:30 and nap time is at 1pm. In my mind I was thinking he must’ve gone into hysterics when nap time came and I hadn’t picked him up. I let all the big kids go in with me to get him. Sure enough, the lullaby music was on and all the kids were asleep…. Except one- Winston was sitting on his nap mat, happy as a lark. The teacher said he didn’t cry one bit, but he didn’t dare lie down. He told them he couldn’t go to sleep because he was going to Disney World! They said he’d been talking about it all day! He was SO excited to see us.

Now, I had all five kids picked up from school. But there was still another stop to pick up the newest addition to our trip; my dad. His house is a little south of ours, so it was basically on the way to get him. I had to stop and fill up the gas tank and I pulled through McDonalds to get lunch for everyone. A few of the kids had not had lunch yet and the ones that ate lunch at school still had room for McDonalds. I finally picked up my dad and we were officially on the road headed to Walt Disney World at about 2:15pm. (A full two hours later than planned).

[B.M.]

I hoped to make minimal stops, but we were barely on the road an hour before the kids started asking to use the bathroom. I made them hold it a while, but on average, we stopped every two hours for a bathroom break. Ugh! Around 6pm, we stopped at a Chick-fil-A for dinner. Everyone used the bathroom while I loaded up on chicken sandwiches and nuggets; we ate it in the van. Normally we ride in the van with Wes in the front, Dillon and Winston in the middle, and Madilyn and Austin in the way back. With my dad along, Wes got bumped back. The way back middle is the seat no one wants. Rather than make a big kid sit there, I decided to put Winston in that seat. He normally uses a high back booster, but this seat goes across the stomach only. So, I borrowed my sister’s booster seat that does not have a back and is suitable for that type of seat belt. Winston was super excited to ride in the way back! Who would have know he can climb out of that type of seatbelt/booster seat!?! I had to yell at him to get back in his seat about a dozen times on the trip! Most of the time, one of the big kids lured him back, but I had to pull over a few times. Lesson learned- a long trip is not the time to try out new seating arrangements for a three year old! As we neared Disney World, we could see one of the fireworks shows off in the distance. It made the impending arrival all the more exciting. We finally made it to the resort at 9:30pm. (It took 7 ½ hours total and 1 and a ½ tanks of gas) Other than the hourly bathroom breaks and Winston climbing out of his seat, the trip went pretty smoothly.
We parked in the parking lot. Austin was half asleep and stayed in the van with my dad. The other kids were fully awake and went in with me to check in. We did online check in and proceeded to the express check in. There were two people in front of us. In no time, we were checking in. They had a birthday button ready for Madilyn with her name already on it and I got 3 first time buttons (my dad, Winston, and Austin). Winston kept asking where Mickey was. I told him he was asleep and we’d see him in the morning. He kept yelling, “Wake up Mickey, I’m here”. It was too cute.

[B.M.]

We were in the Mighty Ducks building (building 2). It was far away from the lobby and on the second floor (I had requested first floor). But, the rooms were great; we had two connecting rooms. We were right by the quiet pool and the laundry facilities and we were also right by the Music lobby, food court, and bus stop- so we took advantage of that for most of the trip.
We were all wired. The kids and I headed down to the lobby and got our refillable mugs and just walked around a bit. I wanted to explore more, but I knew we had an early morning planned- so I encouraged everyone to get some sleep. On night one; my dad and Austin were in one bed and Wes in the other by himself. In the other room; Madilyn and I were in a bed and Winston and Dillon were sharing. Winston quickly decided he wanted to sleep with me (So not a surprise), so myself, Madilyn, and Winston were three in a bed. Believe it or not, I didn’t even feel squished… A little after midnight, we were all settled in the bed and it didn’t take long for everyone to fall asleep…
The weather today was… Perfect. Low 64/high 79 and clear skies.
The best thing today was… seeing Winston grinning ear to ear, wide awake, and ready for Disney on his mat when I picked him up from school. I’ll never forget that.
The worst thing today was… leaving later than planned.
The funniest thing today was… Winston yelling for Mickey to wake up.
Today we tried… letting Winston ride in the way back.
And the result was… disastrous as he continually climbed out of his seat belt.
The most magical moment today was… seeing the fireworks in the distance minutes before we drove under the WDW gates.