Friday, January 25, 2013

Just keep planning, just keep planning, planning planning


So I really had to think about where to start with this whole Disney thing I really I still don’t know where I’m starting with this! I think this post will just hit some highlights and then I will continue from there. I will just make the next month of blogging all about Disney and hopefully I cover it all. If there is something you are wondering about don’t be shy ask away and if I don’t know the answer I will try my best to find it or point you in the right direction to find your answer!

                When planning a Disney trip the key is to PLAN! There is no such thing as over planning and its never too soon to start planning! PLEASE DON’T DO WHAT I DID LAST YEAR AND THINK A FEW WEEKS IS SUFFICIENT TIME TO PLAN A MAGICAL DISNEY VACATION BECAUSE IT WILL BE A WHOLE LOT OF HEADACHE AND TEARS AND NOT SO MUCH MAGIC!  I am dead serious about this planning thing, you are going to think it’s a bit excessive but really its not. Here are some of the key things you will want to think about when planning:

·         Disney World consists of 4 theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studio and Epcot. (there are also water parks but I won’t be covering them since I know nothing about them) you will need to think about how much time (days) you want to spend at each park and what you want to see and do at each park each day. Take the time to look on Disney World’s web page and look and the maps and the lists of attractions and figure out what you want to see and do for sure. You can see and do most everything if you plan it out down to bathroom breaks! You’ll need a week or more but it can be done!

·         FOOD! You really want to think about when and where you want to eat each day. Disney has table service meals which are sit down order from a menu meal and they cost more and they also have quick service meals which are a lot like fast food they typically have between 8-10 menu items and that’s it. You can bring outside food into the park so pack snacks! I will go into all of this further in a future post.

·         Hotel. You have to think about whether or not you want to stay on site or not. We did not stay on site when we went last year and we regretted it the whole time. Parking got expensive and we didn’t research our resort well enough and ended up wasting a whole day because we found out the hard way it was a timeshare property! We also couldn’t take advantage of a Disney dinning plan.

·         When should you go? There are some times throughout the year that you will defiantly want to avoid Disney world because of heat and the crowd. We went at the end of March (2 weeks after spring break) beginning of April and the heat was just starting to creep up as were the prices!

·         Disney characters. We went last year I was under the impression (thanks to commercials and TV shows) that the characters just roamed the park and it would be a magical moment when my kids could just run up to Mickey Mouse….WRONG!!!  Each character is located in a specific area of the park and a specific time and you have to stand in line! L  So if you are looking to meet one of the characters you will need to….PLAN.

·         What to bring and what to leave behind. I have seen list after list of things to remember to bring and some things I never thought about bringing but wish that I had thought about it last time!

I think those are the main points (I’m sure there are more but my kids have interrupted me so many times I have kinda lost my train of thought).  My next post I will start with when to go and were to stay! I hope this beginning post has enlightened you to start planning you trip today!  See you soon! Then next post will probably be super long so it will take me a few days to get it up!

Disney bound again!

  This time last year I was planning our first trip to Disney world, I thought for sure that 3 months was enough time to plan it all....NOT!!! This year I will learn from my rookie mistakes and start planning now 11 months in advance! I thought I would blog about my planning so I could help other moms not make the same mistakes I made last year share some other blogger's wisdom I have found thanks to Pintrest. I'm going to spread this planning through out the otherwise this will be on super long blog post and most would give up reading it.
 I have already started on the first blog post and will be posting it later today/tonight! Hoping I can help some that are afraid that Disney cost too much or its too crazy and hectic for toddlers and younger kids but its SO not and its worth every penny (you can make Disney affordable it just takes a little work)!
 
    

“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.”

 ~Walt Disney

Saturday, January 19, 2013

I'm BACK!

Wow my last post was over 2 years ago!! I have a lot to fill in huh?  So a few days after my last post I found out I was PREGNANT!!! I kept wondering why the workouts weren't getting easier....then it dawned on me IM PREGNANT! It was a relatively easy pregnancy until the end when my heart went a little crazy and started beating too fast but some meds and I was fine again until week 36 and it started happening again and they took the baby a week later! We welcomed Sarah Grace into our family on May 23, 2011!
  We still knew something was still off with Isaiah since he was 2 and still not talking at all and going backwards with a lot of things! We finally found a doctor that would listen to us and he referred us to the speech department at the Children's hospital and a psychologist. We got an evaluation quickly with the speech department and they recommended speech twice a week but we were put on a waiting list because there were no openings. I finally heard back from the psychologist and we were on a waiting list for that too. I waited 4 months (this all began in Aug 2011) and still we were on a waiting list for both! Finally just before Christmas 2011 I called Katy ISD to see if they could help and they set us up with an evaluation in Jan 2012. Shortly before the evaluation I found out we were EXPECTING AGAIN! Sarah was only 8 months old! Yes we are a little crazy! Back to Isaiah, we went in for the evaluation and they confirmed what I had known for a long time....Isaiah is Autistic...I cried. I'm crying now! They set up for a meeting with the school that he would be attending so that he could start school on his 3rd birthday! They moved quickly!
 In the middle of all of this I was still trying to wrap my head around another baby and plan a trip to Florida....yes the SEALES were going to DISNEYWORLD! ALL 8 OF US! Yes I said 8 our little family, grandma and Michael's brother's family! We were renting a 12 passenger van and driving to Orlando staying for a week then heading to Miami for 4 days so the guys could go to Wrestlemainia! We all had a blast and were planning our next trip before we even left!
 We got back from Florida a few days before Isaiah's birthday and his first day of school! But we had to postpone school for about a week because he got sick! But he started school none the less and he loved/hated it! It eventually grew on him and he loved his teacher! School was coming to a close and we found out that his teacher wasn't going to be back the next year I had a break down Isaiah had made so much progress with her and I was terrified he would go backwards! Wrong! School started in the fall and it was like he never missed a beat! He LOVES his teacher Mrs. H and hes made even more progress, still not talking but he is communicating with little pictures now and he is so close to talking I can feel it!
 We welcomed Evan Samuel into the family Spet 18th 2012 again a few weeks earlier than expected because the little turkey was sitting in a funny spot and the pain was killing me! I ended up being put to sleep for this Csection so I don't remember much of his birth or the first day or 2 since was was pretty drugged up. My OB put me on the 3 year plan (his words no mine) so no surprise babies for at least 3 years (unless the big man upstairs has something else to say about that).
  We had a great Christmas and are rolling with the New Year. Hoping this year holds potty training and talking for Isaiah (and potty training for Sarah...shes already talking and wont shut up!) . We are already planning our next Disney trip and birthdays. Cannot wait to see what else this year holds for us!