Finding Joy in the Journey

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Disneyworld: Day 1- Sat, Jan 8th

We got up and were out the door for our drive at 6:45am. We don't have a TV in the van (we had one in our old van) so we ended up listening to a 39 Clues book-on-cd and also to The Witches

About 2 hours down the road Jack threw up. I chalked it up to the pop-tart treats I gave him for breakfast. I knew there was a reason that I never bought those things.

The drive (with stops) ended up taking us 11 hours. Not bad.

We arrived at the house and crashed- ready for the first day.

Disneyworld: Our rental house

Like I said in my last post- I researched all the options. Onsite resorts, off-site hotels, off-site house & condo rentals.

We decided on an off-site house rental for a multitude of reasons. A major factor was the space. We had SO much space. We even had one bedroom that we didn't even use. The garage was turned into a playroom and each bedroom had its own bath. There was a kitchen as well as a washer/dryer AND we had a heated pool with hot tub in the back (that had a great safety fence around it!) Josh and I wanted to enjoy our trip once the kids were asleep and not just have to go to bed at 8pm with them because there was no where else to go/nothing else to do. We ended up watching lots of TV after they were asleep (cable), getting on the internet (wireless internet) , getting in the hot tub and eating!!!!

Once we decided on renting a house and I knew in which area we wanted to be I used VRBO.com to find the house that we wanted. There are so many options- we technically could've stayed in a condo and there were houses that were even cheaper than the one we were in, but the place we stayed had such great review and looked so nice.

Your Disney House was what we ended up choosing.

This house was every bit of what the website describes and shows, plus more!

So much space for our family and such nice amenities. The kitchen was stocked with every appliance/baking dish/etc you could possibly need (even had a panini press!) and the owners were so nice! (we communicated via e-mail and telephone leading up/after the trip) You do have to supply your own detergents, trash bags, etc. They stock the house with TP and paper towels and if you run out you supply your own (but we didn't run out).

They use a managements company in FL so if you have a problem you just call them (we didn't have any issues!) The home is in the Windsor Hills gated community. It's only 5 minutes from the Disney parks, 5 minutes from Super Target (where I went to get groceries) and less than 5 minutes from about a bazillion restaurants (which came in handy the night Josh and I ordered take out after the kids were in bed).

Check-in was super easy- there was a key pad lock box on the doorjam to the house that held the key- you use the code to get the key out and just walk in- same with checkout. SO NICE not to have to go to the management company office after driving for 10 hours.

One more bonus- One of the Windsor hills playgrounds was three houses away (and no one was EVER there) and the other one was a block away (it was a cool castle themed one so it was little busier, but not bad at all)

We pulled in about 6:00pm. This is not long after we arrived and Josh was unloading the van.

The kids made themselves at home VERY quickly. Gracie was already in her pjs before we finished carrying everything in. Jack and Gracen slept in this room.

Cons: The ONLY possible cons were (and believe me- I'm stretching when I try to even THINK of a con!):

1. The landscaping was suffering a little (but it is January and my yard at home is terrible- so I don't really care)

2. It took us 15 minutes or so to really figure out the hot tub. So better directions on that.

Drumroll please........Disneyworld: The Planning

My Disneyworld report is going to be very in depth- I've had a lot of questions about our trip- mainly logistics with a family of our size, but also about finances, what is worth it, etc.

FYI: When I speak of Disneyworld as a whole I mean all four parks in FL.

I guess I'll start in the beginning. We started planning this trip after Christmas in December 2009! We talked to my parents and for our Christmas gifts in 2010 they agreed to help pay for our trip to Disney! I've been to Disneyworld several times- a couple when I was a little girl and then once at the age of 12 or so. Josh had never been. Neither one of us consider ourselves 'theme park people' but I REALLY wanted to take the kids to Disneyworld. Josh on the other hand, didn't care to. He finally gave in, but told me it would only ever be one trip so I better choose wisely when we would go.

We booked our house a full year in advance (so Jan. 2010) and I started researching.

www.disboards.com was an awesome messageboard resource for my planning

My favorite Disney planning book was The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World -Worth EVERY penny. The author also has a website- Touringplans.com that was also worth its weight in gold. I liked knowing when each park was going to be the least crowded by their calculations.

Josh also downloaded a couple Disneyworld apps on the iPhone that essentially told us wait times, had GPS locations, etc.

Packing with 5 kids is a breeze once you get a system down. The house we were renting had a washer/dryer so I didn't have to pack too much, but FL weather in January is varied so we needed a variety of types of clothing (you'll see that in more posts!) I did end up buying a few cute disney themed shirts for the kids (Josh would've died if I bought any for him or I- although I REALLY wanted one!)

This is all the kid's clothes waiting on my dresser to be packed up!

Also, since we were staying in a home and didn't plan on eating every meal at the parks, needed to do wash, etc. I had packed a basket of household needs and a basket of food (didn't get a picture of that!) (YES, those are disposable diapers- we used them for the trip)

Driving vs. flying: We knew immediately it made sense for us to drive. It's only a 10 hour drive, we have 7 people in our family, I wanted the freedom to go to the grocery store, we planned on visiting with Josh's grandmother while in FL and we were staying off-site (meaning not at a Disney Resort) PLUS, Big Blue (the van) has so much space for our family. We packed everything we needed with plenty of room to spare.

Off-site renting vs. Disney Resort: As soon as I started looking into it, I started making spreadsheets. I included prices for parking if we stayed off-site, sizes of rooms, amenities, etc. It was significantly cheaper for our family to stay off-site in a 4 bedroom, 4 bath house with a private heated pool than to stay in a hotel room that would hold all of us (at least a disney moderate level resort) or 2 hotel rooms connected (at a disney value resort). I know that you lose some of the 'Disney Magic' by not staying there, but it was definitely the best choice for our family. More on the house in the next post.....

Tickets: I purchased from a site that touringplans.com suggests and saved $50 or so. Next time I'll buy from disney- I'll explain more about that when I get to day 1.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

2011 Date Challenge

In honor of our 10 year anniversary this year we are doing a Date Challenge.

While we spend almost every evening together around the house, we needed to work on 'dating' each other again.

So......our goal is 48 dates in 2011.

4 a month.

Josh is in charge of Jan, me in Feb, Josh in March, me in April, you get the drill.

Can't repeat a date within your own month.

Already done with January and we're lovin' it.

Picture: At our first date of the New Year- Jan 1st at 12:00am.

Running of the Lights (5k at midnight)

Christmas Day 2010

Josh and I woke up before the kids on Christmas Day! It was already 7:30am and no one was awake.

When the kids were ready we 'opened' stockings. Our family exchanges names for stockings so each child (plus Josh and I) gets the opportunity to fill a stocking for a sibling/parent. They love this tradition and it's probably our favorite thing.

We also do a 'simple' Christmas at our house.

The children get:

*Something they want (generally a small toy/game)

*Something they need (often clothing)

*Pajamas to wear (they open those on Christmas Eve)

*Something to read (a book)

Everett got this sweet hat from Josh in his stocking.

Gracen got a robe with her name embroidered

The aftermath (yes, my 16 month old is eating m&ms in his high chair at 9am!)

It has been our tradition to then head over to my parent's home for a brunch and presents. Megan and Mike wouldn't be coming in to town until a few days after Christmas so it was very low-key over there.

Poor Everett was recovering from croup.....

Christmas Eve

I think that this was our most relaxing Christmas yet.

On Christmas Eve we lounged around and just enjoyed the day.

It is our family tradition that everyone get new pajamas on Christmas Eve, but since we weren't starting extended family festivities until 4pm we let the children open them before we headed out.

All my wrapping was done in brown kraft paper and bakers twine this year- I loved the simplicity.

At 4pm we headed over to where Josh's grandmother lives. For the past couple years his family has taken over the 'workout' room there to have Christmas Eve Dinner. For some reason my camera didn't make it in with me?!

We then head over to Josh's other Grandmother's home (aka Carole). This was hard as we lost his Grandpa (Popie) this winter.

Her tree is always so beautiful- I'm a sucker for white, white and more white.

Look at all of those cute kids! 5 belong to me, 3 belong to Josh's younger sister Michelle and one belongs to Josh's older sister April (plus April was like 36 weeks pregnant!)