I'm a planner. Type A personality. First born. So when Loren and I started talking about a family vacation to Disney World, I jumped at the chance to do research about it. Their website is fantastic and has all kinds of information including a Moms Panel. Just full of useful tips and tricks. I bought a Mickey Mouse journal to document the trip in. I have the dates and space for a list of all the characters the kids want to meet (which we will ask them about on the way there). I've also listed a lot of the tips from the panel so I'll have all that info with me during the trip. I'm going to use that as our autograph book too. Loren and I discussed how we would get there, when we would book the reservations, how we wanted to pay for it, and how long we'd stay.
Once we got those details nailed down, I booked the trip and made a deposit. It's a great system because you only have to put so much down depending on your total. And because we booked so far out and paid half of it off with our tax return, we only have to pay $130 a month until November and it'll be paid. We've also been buying Disney gift cards from Kroger to use to pay toward the trip AND we get gas points that way! We are staying at a value resort (All-Star Music) and included the dining plan. Because it's our first trip there, we wanted to stay on site so we can have the full experience.
Our trip dates are December 17th until December 21st. The average temperature in Orlando then is 73 degrees! Paxton's birthday is the 14th so he will get to enjoy the benefits of that. We'll be driving the 8 hours to Jesup, GA to stay with my Gramma for the night on the 16th. And heading down to Florida the next day...a 4 hour drive. We'll have a family party for Pax on his actual birthday and do the reveal then. And of course the theme will be Mickey Mouse, so they won't suspect anything. I had 3 t-shirts made for them, and we'll have gift cards and maps to show them. And I'm going to make an invitation for them to open from Mickey and Minnie. They will be dying the next day waiting to leave on Sunday morning.
The cool thing about Paxton having a birthday so close to Christmas is that he'll get the benefit of a HUGE birthday celebration at Disney World!! And while he won't remember it this year, the pictures will be enough to show him how awesome turning 2 was! And I'd love to make it a tradition. It's a lot of money, but I always look back at my family vacations to Florida and smile!
I'm not sure what we'll do in a couple of years when we start trying for another baby. We have talked about aiming for an October or November baby because all of our birthdays are August or later. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. It would be really cool to expand the small family trip to an extended family trip and have potential baby sitters with us! Ha!
One thing we're definitely doing on this trip is hiring a Kids Nite Out sitter for the Wednesday of the trip. It'll be slightly stressful with three kids under 8, so to have a date night will be nice. And to have a trained sitter who brings age appropriate activities to the room will be comforting.
You'd think I'd be dying for this year to fly by, but I'm enjoying the build up!! I can't wait to see the look on their faces when we tell them, but I'm glad I have all this time to prepare and make this a trip they will never forget!!
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