Sardines, a Teen, and the Research Queen! June 2010

[tallen429]

Hi all!

Well, here I am, ready to take the plunge! (But not the kind where you fall backward into a giant vat of iced tea, which always looked gross to me and I could never understand...)
Ahh...A Pre-Trip Report! i think I'll give it a whirl! (but not like the Teacup ride...I'd puke)

After deciding that I already spend waaaaay too much time reading on the Dis, I figured I would justify my time here by adding to the magic in my own "oh-so-freakish-and-special" way.

Background:
Until a couple of years ago, I was NOT *gasp* much of a Disney fan. I hear you all sucking in your breath in that horrified way....
Basically, I grew up in a rather large family of nine. We didn't do vacations. Not real ones anyway. Four hours in the station wagon to Grandma's in the summer was the only vaca I ever had.
So, have some sympathy.

So, here is The Fam:
DH Mark
ME Tricia
DS (15) Garrett
DS (7) Logan
DD (4 going on 16) Chloe

June 15-23 POR

*I'll add pics soon*

Join me on this magical journey filled with an overworked husband, a teen chock full o' tude, and two adorable but often REALLY whiny, fussy children (here after known as "The Little Ones") and me, stay at home mom who hubby has dubbed The Research Queen. (more about that later)

 

[tallen429]

So, more background on our travels, Disney and otherwise.

Back when I was a single mom to Garrett, I was on a game show (yes, cheesy) and I won a nice chunk of money. The very first thing I said was that I was taking him to WDW! Having never been there myself, and due to the fact that I had been through some pretty tough times, the joy of that trip was indescribable. I also treated my younger brother to come along, since of course he had also never been. We really went all out. Stayed at WL and had an amazing time! That was almost nine years ago.

So fast forward to 2005 and hubby is offered a position with his company in Germany for three years. Oh heck yeah! We were sooooo there! I won't bore you with too many details, but it was amazing and life changing (DD was born there!) and we travelled ALL OVER. That is how I got my Reseach Queen nickname from hubby.
We only lived about four hours from DRP so of course we had to go! We went in 07. Eh, nothing to write home about, but it was a nice Disney fix. The CMs are NOTHING like American CMs. They just don't get into it as much. Also the food is virtually the same at every. single. place. and it gets pretty boring after a while.
Incase you're interested, some of our other trips included Paris, Rome, Istanbul, Greece, Malta, Ireland, England, Egypt, Holland, Poland and of course all over Germany.
Needless to say all of my kids are very seasoned travellers and do very well on planes, walking long distances, staying in strange places and trying all manner of new foods. Heck, Chloe's first intercontinental flight was at only 9 weeks old! LOL!

So we moved back to the States about a year and a half ago, and to be honest we were travelled out! We said heck, lets do Disney. We went during FD last summer the last couple days of August and the first week of September. Our kids don't start school til after Labor Day. We were able to be there on Logan's 7th birthday and that was SOOOO magical! Garrett chose not to come with us on that trip as he was on the high school soccer team and it conflicted with games and practices. I was afraid he'd feel really left out, but I don't think he cared much at all...

Getting to the present, we had booked the BB for the same time this summer, but we wanted Garrett to come and were afraid of more soccer conflicts. Also, my younger brother decided to (finally!) set his wedding date and it happened to fall on the day we were to leave. So long story short, we got the FQSD pin (which we upgraded to regular DP) and switched to June, a couple days after the kids get out of school.

So now are we all happy??? Weeellllll....not really...but you'll have to keep reading to find out why!
(isn't that just mean of me? I'm such a tease!)

 

[Couturier]

Nice Start Tricia! Cant wait to read more! Where are those pics you are promising????

Dana

 

[tallen429]

Nice Start Tricia! Cant wait to read more! Where are those pics you are promising????

Dana

Pick a computer!! The pics are on my old, crappy laptop..gotta transfer and upload!
Thanks!

 

[winkers]

Great start!
What game show were you on? I don't think it's cheesy at all!

 

[tallen429]

For the life of me I don't know why these are so small, but at least I tried!

Little Two w/ Marie

And since DS would not go within seven feet of *gasp* A Princess i don't have as many good group shots as I'd like.
Here is DD and Hubby

Don't even get me started on the sad saga of my lost PhotoPass pics...*sniff* it just hurts too much....

Great start!
What game show were you on? I don't think it's cheesy at all!

Thanks for reading! I hope you'll understand, but I'd rather not say specifically which show (the Dis is great, but the internet can still be scary)
It's no longer on the air here. It was pretty cool though! I hope you'll keep reading along!