lklasing

What an awesome trip! I was worried about everything coming together. So many people, so many schedules, so many issues, but it all was so wonderful. I don’t know about y’all, but I grew up with no cousins at all. My dad was an only child and my mom’s only sibling is 11 years younger than she is, so Tiger and I actually had no cousins while we were young. I am so thrilled for my girls to have so many cousins, aunts, uncles, and so much love! And then, for them to get to enjoy all those blessings in such a wonderful place as WDW is just amazing. Here’s a few random thoughts for your consi

Thursday thru Friday, March 22-23: The organized portion of this TR is now over. Once I leave WDW, the only one who cares enough to take good notes and too many pictures is gone. But, I’ll do the best I can with the last couple of days, as they did get some fun pictures. On Thursday morning, Daniel drove us to the front, where we were met by our trusty driver from Sunray (love those guys), and then we were off. Back to the real world. I was sitting at my desk by 10:00. What kind of complete suckage is that? Here’s the three that returned with us that day, trying to look happy to be on the

After the Wave, Ray and I headed back to the trailer to regroup with the gang, who all were just finishing their lunch. But on the way back, they had some rest time and then recreated the second of the three before and after pics: Before: After: After lunch, parts of our group headed back to the MK and other parts stayed back at FW. Elise and I went shopping at the Meadow(s) Trading Post, where I was so happy to pick up my one souvenir from this trip (being modeled by Abby in current time - sadly she wasn't invited on this trip): I absolutely love my FW blanket. Despite the picture

Hope y'all are still hanging in there. Sorry I haven't finished yet - I thought I would have, but I forgot about how behind I got with work last week. But now it's the weekend again :jumpforjoy and hopefully I'll be able to wrap this one up. Next installment momentarily.

You got me. As they would have said in the Wham! days, you're totally awesome.

Yay - another TCD report. And, it's one that may feature Yuri even! I'm definitely in for the ride, even though I as always am late to the party. The only problem is that I now have Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go on my mind. Thanks for that. Not.

After grabbing FPs for Buzz, we ambled to the HM, which I absolutely love. We skipped the fun queue, though, as crowds were definitely building that day. After HM, we headed to Splash to use FPs that Daniel had grabbed earlier that morning. Again, the new FP system takes more planning and definitely more crossing the park, but Daniel was an excellent planner and I feel like we took great advantage of the system. These guys didn’t look very excited: But, not being a teenager, Elise gave me a good smile: More Splash fun: Gotta love this one: Splash was another first for Elise and of c

(Wednesday, continued): While the rest of us were still taking pictures, Ray ran and got FPs to Space Mountain. Once we all finally finished, we headed out and hit the Jungle Cruise and POTC and then criss crossed over to Space. (The new FP system was in effect by this trip and while it wasn’t too bad, it did require a lot of walking to make sure we made it to each attraction while our FPs were still good.) Rhinos on the Jungle Cruise: I couldn’t believe when I saw a woman wearing these shoes: Here is the first of 3 pics I have been wanting to recreate for several trips. Before:

I thought y'all would like Evan's plate at CP. I couldn't believe it when I saw it! Thanks for the dimple compliments - I gotta say that I love that they run through us like they do. Tiger once convinced a group of 5 year olds that you could buy dimples at the Piggly Wiggly in boxes near the pop-tarts. But, he warned them, they only come one to a box, so you have to make sure to buy two. :rofl3: TCD, I love that I've got you stumped with my family! We only have the same 17 at the Mickey statue, though I'm betting you are getting confused by Michael and Brad. Michael's family arrived one

Wednesday, May 21 I was so sad when I woke up and remembered that it was my last full day. :'( We had reservations at CP for 8:10 (yes, it was that kind of Pooh, not the Stall 2 kind!), so we all met at Buddy and Paw Paw’s camper at 7:00. Even worse than it being the last full day for several of us was that it was the day Tiger was leaving us. He had pretty much been living out of my car while staying in the camper and he had gotten it far more organized since I saw it the night before. After I helped him put Evan and Elise’s bikes in, it was time for us all to say bye to Tiger. There w

She made it! Actually, it was 12:31, but I heard her running into the house from the driveway,and since she doesn't drive yet and therefore didn't have 100% control over her arrival, I have her a pass on that one minute. We are now at the tail end of a big weekend, with the ball and theater performances, but it was a wonderful, positive one after last week. I cried at church this morning, especially when they prayed for my aunt and Buddy's dad, but it was more of a refreshing, start over kind of cry. I'm now able to look forward to this week and getting back into the usual routine. So,

Hey guys - as always, thanks again for reading and your sweet comments, especially about our week this past week. Happily, things have continued to improve, especially as compared to the last couple of weeks. Tonight, Danielle has been at a ball and I've been waiting up for her. Her curfew is 12:30 and it's 12:23 right now. Let's all cross our fingers that she makes it back in the next 7 minutes. Anyway, while I've been waiting for her, I've been working feverishly on what's left of this trip report. As always, it will have lots of pictures and more issues with a tooth. I'll let y'all sp

Once back at FW, the littler kids and a bunch of adults hit the Meadow pool for swimming, playing and napping (depending on how old your kids were). Meanwhile, Jodi, Brad and even Evan (who was clearly enjoying being one of the “big kids”) stayed behind in the trailer to nap, followed by fun times on the basketball court. Here’s me happily driving my Kenny cart: Here was my view from the second row of pool chairs: Elise: Ray and I cleaned up and went to dinner at California Grill. We had had reservations at Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge, but Ray decided it was too “pansy” and wan

Lorna - so sorry to hear that you have had such a rough week too! Glad though that your uncle's service was so nice. I will pass your sweet words along to Buddy - she'll definitely love hearing from you. I hope next week is a better one for you!

Thanks, everyone, for your comments, thoughts and prayers! We had Buddy's dad's funeral today and it was wonderful. He was an amazing person, and my family is so blessed to have become a part of his when my dad married Buddy over 25 years ago! I just talked to Buddy and she sounded good, I saw my cousin earlier today (the one who buried her mom on the same day she was robbed at gunpoint) and she looked great, and my family seems to be getting better rested and better put together finally. So, thanks again for your patience and support! I'm finally back in the TR mode without so many diff

Here's a few miscellaneous pictures that wouldn't cooperate last night:

After EE, we were ready to cool down on Kali River Rapids. Get ready for far more pictures than you want to see on this one: I absolutely love this one of Elise: And this one is awesome with Brad having so much fun: Believe it or not, that’s just a handful of the pictures from KRR that day. Sometimes I think I need to get a real life. Next, we headed toward Safari to grab FPs and lunch, but first we had to have fun with the coolest water attraction at WDW. Buddy and Paw Paw left around now to head back to the trailer to check on the dog and get dinner going. The re

Thanks everyone for your sweet comments. It has indeed been a rough week. We buried my aunt yesterday and then heaven forbid, her 22-year-old daughter (my cousin) got robbed at gunpoint last night. She wound up on my doorstep at 1:00 crying and still shaking as she didn't know where else to go. Thank God she was okay, but what a terrible day for her! She is better today and things are hopefully moving in the right direction for her now. She will be moving in with us until she finishes with her exams, which will be good to get to keep a closer eye on her. We have Buddy's father's funeral

Tuesday, March 20 Of course, I was up early again, but that’s my MO at home, so I don’t mind. Waking up at any time at FW is better than sleeping in at home. We had the usual pandemonium of breakfast at cabin and simultaneous pandemonium of breakfast for those that slept at the camper. The fun part of this morning was the discovery that Tinker Bell had helped the Tooth Fairy overnight, and brought Ryan a dollar for his first lost tooth! If anyone is paying attention (which TCD clearly is not), you’ll notice that it is Ryan, not Evan (the tooth wiggler in the pictures) who lost the tooth. W

Hey guys - Thanks for hanging in there with my tough week. I'm going to get an update up in just a minute, but then it will probably be a while before I can get another one up. Sadly we have the first of two family funerals tomorrow, with the second on Friday. My 52 year old aunt and my 94 year old step-grandfather. One didn't get to live nearly long enough, and both will be missed terribly. So, there's my sad story this week. But, it's good to be among fiends, and it is a nice break to get to work on this report when I get a chance to take a break from all the family stuff. More in a s

Hey everyone! Thanks for reading and commenting! We've got a pretty rough week coming up so I may have to slow down a little in posting updates, but I'll try to keep on top of it. But for now, here's a couple of short stories which cracked me up from Monday night. First, right at bedtime, Ray was already asleep when this HUGE bug was flying around the TV scaring me. So, I did what any reasonable person would do – go get Daniel out of the bed to come kill it for me. What I didn’t realize was that he was actually asleep himself. :faceplant2: Here’s evidence of the killer bug: Second, i

(Monday continued:) After a while, I grabbed biggest 6 kids and headed off to DTD for trip to Goofy’s Candy Co. I have no idea what someone said right before this picture was taken to get this reaction: On the way, we had to recreate a few photopass pics we hadn’t had yet on this trip. (I think they took a few creative liberties with some of them…) Even 17-year old Brad got into the spirit Right before we arrived at DTD, Danielle noticed that Ryan’s loose tooth was bleeding. It became clear that it was time for Ryan to lose his first tooth! Once we got there, I washed my hands a

Cosmic Ray - I love it! It would appear that the only things he remembered to bring that morning were his magazine and reading glasses. :flush2: Thanks for reading! More shortly.

Thanks for reading, y'all! :wave1: More tomorrow.

I've gotta reply to this one. The non-sibling cousins almost always get along great. The sibling pairs are a completely different story. But, that's what I love about WDW - I have so many fewer times of threatening to ground, kill, strangle etc. any kids than I do at home as everyone is always either in a great mood or completely exhausted. (Not to say that there wasn't some heavy drinking strangling that happened along the way anyway...)