Tour Groups, Weather and an ER trip can't spoil a Birthday Trip! About This Page:

[mfirst]

You can read about our pre trip plans on the Mom's not-so-secret birthday trip:
http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...l#post3849752

The Introductions:
Melissa, 38 and turning 39 during the trip. I’m an English teacher, currently a stay-at-home mom of 3.
Coach, 39. English teacher, football and basketball coach.
Nolan, 7, the initial planner of this trip as a birthday surprise for me
Patrick 4, the “small but mighty” – most excited about ruling Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and training to be a Jedi and hopeful that he’s tall enough for the Barnstormer, Splash Mountain and Star Tours
Cullen, 2 – doesn’t say a whole lot but LOVES Handy Many, Jake and Oso.

The Journey:
We were going to leave home on the 14th around 12 am to start our drive south on I-75. We planned on stopping for the night in Valdosta, Georgia. Would we make it there?

We had paid for 6 nights, standard view at The Beach Club, using the 30% summer discount. We’d requested a daybed and a microwave. We booked our trip through Marla at our local AAA office ( a decision we’d come to regret…)
Our oldest was signed up to participate in the Y.E.S. program, so we we were not able to use the dining plan. Would we be able to maintain a budget for our food? Would we actually benefit from not having the dining plan? We had four ADR’s, and I budgeted our food money by figuring the cost of the basic plan for four days, and the quick serve plan for three days. This totaled $790.00. I had purchased $200 in Disney Gift Cards through our son’s Scrip program at school. Each boy also would receive a $50 gift card from my parents’. The remainder of our food and travel money was in cash.

The surprise is revealed!
We were able to keep the trip a surprise from the boys’ all the way until the 13th of July! Because Coach had football clinics each night that week, and I had worked all week, we weren’t able to pack in secret as we’d originally planned. We knew we needed the 14th to get everything done, so we had to let the boys in on the secret. He dropped me off on the 13th at the salon so I could get a quick haircut while he went to pick up our trip groceries with the boys. We purchased $65 worth of “staples” to take on the trip with us: Diary free bread, Scooby Snacks, strawberries, watermelon, Gatorade, diet coke, water, chips, carrot and celery sticks, bologna, salami, skim milk for Nolan, Rice milk for the younger two, 3 Lunchables and a few microwave meals for the kids as well as some “car snacks” like Skittles , Cheerios, and Capri Suns. Coach also snuck in a couple packs of the wafer cookies because they’re dairy free and the boys “might need something sweet”. I think they were really for him.

While there, he also purchased a card. It had the fab five on the cover and said “SURPRISE!” in large letters inside. He wrote “Nolan, Patrick and Cullen, SURPRISE! We’re going to Disney World!” After I met them back at the van, he handed Nolan the card and asked him to read it to his brothers.

Nolan got a huge grin on his face, Cullen started clapping and Patrick kept repeating “Right now? I don’t have a suitcase packed or my night-night blanket. I can’t go to Disney yet!”

We explained that we needed their help straightening the house, and packing the suitcases. We were going to put them to bed as usual that Friday night, and then get them into the car in the middle of the night to start driving to Florida. Patrick asked if Cullen would be put to bed in his car seat again like last time (I can’t believe he remembered that!). We reassured him that all the boys would go to bed in their own beds and we’d simply carry them out to their car seats or boosters. Last trip, Cullen was still in the infant seat and yes, we’d put him to bed that night in his car seat.
Nolan started talking about the Contemporary’s pool slide where we’d stayed on our 2010 trip. I told him that we weren’t going to be there, but at The Beach Club this time. He then asked if it had a pool. His Dad assured him that the hotel did have a pool, and he was pretty sure he’d like the pool. He said he’d reserve his opinion until he actually saw that it had a real pool.

We returned home, and finished our packing. While I was working on organizing clothes and checking off things on my packing list, I turned on the Disney planning DVD we’d received back in December when we first booked our trip. The boys were completely enthralled! Nolan and Patrick started making a list of things they wanted to do. I was really excited because I managed to pack all three boys’ clothes into one small suitcase…until I realized I’d forgotten diapers, and shoes. So, I repacked things giving Patrick his own suitcase and having Nolan and Cullen share one. Brian and I quickly packed our suitcase then moved on to the “car bag”. We were going to use one duffle bag for all of us for our overnight stop in Georgia. Somehow, I managed to fight overnight clothes, next day clothes, swim suits and towels along with toiletries into a small duffle bag. We finally moved on to the “park bag” which doubled as the car bag for travel. I LOVE this backpack – yep, a left over from my days as an undergraduate at Bowling Green State University. We had each boy pick three videos, we then filled it with a Ziploc with matchbox cars, a Ziploc of Star Wars figures which also double as bath toys, their Leapster and games and some coloring books and crayons. I also put in a snag bag for each kiddo with a mixture of Cheerios, Pretzles, Raisins, Cranberries and Skittles. In Nolan’s bag, I added some M&M’s in place of the Skittles.

Coach decided to work on cleaning up the van before packing. He enlisted the boys’ help in order to get the toys and books they’d drug into the van, back out. Once that was done, he had them help wipe down the inside of the van. I was inside working on packing our medicines and starting our toiletries bag. Somehow, Cullen thought it was a great idea to jump out of the van like his big brothers were doing. Instead of landing on his feet though he fell, and bit his lip. By the time I made it outside, he was hysterical and there was a lot of blood running down his face. I immediately applied pressure and ice while Coach dialed the pediatrician’s office – we were wondering if he would need a stitch or two to close the openings.

This isn’t the greatest of pictures – it was taken with my Android, but you can see the swollen and red part on the corner of his lip. Thankfully, after a quick consultation with our pediatrician, we were told he’d be okay. I did make the mistake of informing coach between Patrick’s post-surgery hemorrhage, and Cullen’s gashed lip, I was “done with my children bleeding.” Unfortunately, as I’d find out a few days later – I wasn’t done with bleeding children.

Coach – the master packer, managed to get everything into the van! No small feat when you consider we had to pack our Graco Quatro Tour double stroller, a full size cooler, 4 suitcases, a toiletry bag, a box of food, a flat of water, an overnight bag for our Georgia stop, the electronics bags and the car bag! We put part of the third row down to help accomplish this – and put a lot of items into the stow and go between the first and second rows. While he packed up the van, I was busy finishing and submitting my final two papers for my graduate classes. We set the alarm and headed off to bed – planning on getting on the road at 12:30 sharp!
Would we make our time goal?

[chezp]

What a wonderful reaction to the surprise - love it! I'm not feeling confident about your trip report title though...

[benjiboo25]

I have been waiting for this! Cannot wait to read more!

I love the picture of the boys in front of the car at BC...we have a similar one of our boy. We LOVED BC!!

[CinderAbby]

I'm glad tour groups, weather and an ER visit didn't ruin your trip but it sure sounds like you had an interesting trip to share with us.

[buzzspal2]

Sorry your little man go a boo boo. What happens next?

[dutchdisneyfamily]

Great start! I'm worried about some of the foreshadowing however.

[MayraLR]

Great start!

[Asuka]

What a great reveal! Can't wait to hear more.

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Sounds like a great start! I can't wait to read further... I'm a little nervous about some of the foreshadowing, lol, but I'm still really excited because I know it must have turned out mostly ok - since your title says all of that stuff can't spoil the trip!!!

[mcc0313]

Busted lip and a smile on his face, guess knowing he was going to WDW helped lessen the pain , love the reveal, how cute that he was worried about is suitcase. But bleeding children...and more of it, got me a bit worried.

[abubbles77]

Sounds like a great reveal. To bad about the busted lip. Can't wait to read more.

[mfirst]

Originally Posted by chezp

What a wonderful reaction to the surprise - love it! I'm not feeling confident about your trip report title though...

Thanks! We were happy that the boys were so excited about the surprise! Overall, it was a good trip with a few "blips"

Originally Posted by benjiboo25

I have been waiting for this! Cannot wait to read more!

I love the picture of the boys in front of the car at BC...we have a similar one of our boy. We LOVED BC!!

Thanks you! We really liked the hotel - especially being able to walk over to Epcot. The boys wanted to drive that car .

Originally Posted by CinderAbby

I'm glad tour groups, weather and an ER visit didn't ruin your trip but it sure sounds like you had an interesting trip to share with us.

It was a good trip - blips and all

Originally Posted by buzzspal2

Sorry your little man go a boo boo. What happens next?

Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily

Great start! I'm worried about some of the foreshadowing however.

Thanks! Stay tuned...

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Great start!

Originally Posted by Asuka

What a great reveal! Can't wait to hear more.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata

Sounds like a great start! I can't wait to read further... I'm a little nervous about some of the foreshadowing, lol, but I'm still really excited because I know it must have turned out mostly ok - since your title says all of that stuff can't spoil the trip!!!

We didn't let anything spoil our trip - just had to make some adjustment

Originally Posted by mcc0313

Busted lip and a smile on his face, guess knowing he was going to WDW helped lessen the pain , love the reveal, how cute that he was worried about is suitcase. But bleeding children...and more of it, got me a bit worried.

Thank you! You'll have to stay tuned...

Originally Posted by abubbles77

Sounds like a great reveal. To bad about the busted lip. Can't wait to read more.

The toughest part about his lip? It made it even harder to understand the few words he actually can say. He also refused to eat much for the first couple of days. Looking at him now, you'd never know he'd hurt himself so badly.

[Cam22]

Excellent surprise!

[OhToodles!]

You guys can't catch a break can you?
Looking forward to more!

[lauriep]

I'm glad the boys are so excited, but sheesh! Now that Patrick's health seems stable, here goes Cullen crashing about! And there's more blood to come?