My very first PTR - Can you hear the music? ~ We're off tomorrow & it's MAYHEM here!

[lisalonglash]

So, I thought I’d attempt a PTR – my first one ever. I will admit I’m a little nervous about this, so bear with me.

First up, the cast will be:

Me – Lisa: wife, mom, homeschooler, lover of travel, stay-at-home mom, self-employed doing p/t at-home office administration. My favourite Disney character is, without a doubt, Pluto – I him!

Dh – we’ll call him Grumpy: husband, dad, lover of travel, isn’t all that “into” Disney, but knows how much fun we all have there so tolerates it well. His favourite Disney character is Tinkerbell – if was actually a real person, my marriage would be in trouble!

Ds#1 – we’ll call him Tigger : 10yo, gifted academically, handsome dude, extremely spirited, very active and, if he only knew he was going back to WDW, he’d be over-the-moon thrilled! His favourite Disney character is Pluto with Mickey a close second.

Ds#2 – we’ll call him Mickey : 7yo, also a handsome dude, very smart, very sweet and loving, loves his big brother to bits, loves playing baseball and gets unnaturally attached to pants that are too short for him! His favourite Disney character is Mickey.

I will try to add pictures where I can – I’m not a very conscientious picture-taker, but I’m getting better at remembering to have the thing with me these days (hard to take pictures without actually having the camera with me!)

The idea of this trip was born on Dec. 28, 2008 (our 15th anniversary). A little background first: We went to WDW last October with most of dh’s family. I was surprised by what a great “fit” WDW was for us and, particularly for ds#1, whose behaviour was stellar and was so obviously enjoying himself every single day. Thinking about the joyous faces of both of our boys made WDW the obvious choice for a future vacation. However, finances being what they are, a future vacation looked to be quite far off in our future – we figured it would be a couple of years before we could take a trip again.

However, my sweet dh evidently had a secret plan!

When I woke up that morning and came into the kitchen, there was quite a surprise waiting for me. My studly dh was sitting at the kitchen table smiling at me and nodding towards the middle of the table – in the middle of the table was a bottle of my favourite champagne (Moet et Chandon Imperial Rose) surrounded by cash! Yep, cold hard cash splayed in a circle around my champagne! He laughed at my expression of disbelief, then was mildly offended for a second when I asked him which bank he robbed . When we stopped laughing, he told me that the money was most of his bonus from work – with which I could plan a vacation.

When I started looking around for destinations, WDW was on the list, but so were a lot of other places (Nice (we really loved it there), the Caribbean, Hawaii, Disneyland, etc.). I ran the numbers for every conceivable vacation and found that WDW was really the most cost-effective trip for us. So, once I had called our amazing TA (Christine at Fairytale Dreams & Destinations in Ontario) and put a deposit down, I really started to watch airfares out of SeaTac and keep an eye out for WDW discounts.

What kind of deal would I find for airfare? Would I get the flights we wanted? Would a WDW discount become available for our dates? Hmmm…..

Handy-dandy update links:
Pictures of the cast
First shot at our itinerary
Airfare update
Some of my favourite pictures of our WDW trip last October
One of the best pictures I've ever taken LOL
Menus, NOT Disney binder and Atlanta airport
ADR worries, not a Disney binder, how to tell the boys
Hopefully final itinerary
Final itinerary #2 LMAO
Mini-meet poll!
TRULY final itinerary, at least for park days! LOL
Things I'm pondering...
ADRs made, thank you Christine!!
Life update, mini-trip update too!
Tigger's trauma and kitty dilemma
Tigger & Poley update and Mickey's new milestone!
Time for an on-topic PTR post! lol
Ramblings and Jenn/Sophia
To cooler or not to cooler, that is the question
An O/T update that's out of this world
Disney maps and shopping has finally begun!
Trip update and baseball weekend
Profitable baseball game and trip update!
Budget, surprise and fridge updates!
Surprise reveal timing change
The boys know now - finally!! LOL

[lovemyblt]

OH Lisa Your DH Rocks!!!! What a Great Gift! Don't ya just love when our DH's suprise us??

I'm First and Here for the ride with you I just started my own Pre-trip.... MY first ever as well it is very unnerving, I kept thinking what if no one looks LOL!!!

[lisalonglash]

Originally Posted by lovemyblt

OH Lisa Your DH Rocks!!!! What a Great Gift! Don't ya just love when our DH's suprise us??

I'm First and Here for the ride with you I just started my own Pre-trip.... MY first ever as well it is very unnerving, I kept thinking what if no one looks LOL!!!

Thank you! Yes, he does rock

I'm off to read your PTR - we newbie PTR-writers have to stick together!

[OhioDisneyLover]

I followed you over from inkedupmomma's PTR. Subbing. Can't wait to hear more.

[inkedupmomma]

Lisa, I am thrilled to pieces that you started a PTR on here I can NOT wait to see pics of your handsome fellas! and wow wow wow, your Dh totally rules! Perhaps when we meet up, he can give my DF a few pointers on what a girls wants..what a girl NEEDS! MONEY FOR A DISNEY TRIP!!!

Looking forward to reading more, and subbing!

[inkedupmomma]

jus' sayin'.....

[lovemyblt]

Lisa my dear where ya been????

[lisalonglash]

Originally Posted by OhioDisneyLover

I followed you over from inkedupmomma's PTR. Subbing. Can't wait to hear more.

I'm working on it!

Originally Posted by inkedupmomma

Lisa, I am thrilled to pieces that you started a PTR on here I can NOT wait to see pics of your handsome fellas! and wow wow wow, your Dh totally rules! Perhaps when we meet up, he can give my DF a few pointers on what a girls wants..what a girl NEEDS! MONEY FOR A DISNEY TRIP!!!

Looking forward to reading more, and subbing!

Thanks It's freaky to write one, but I'm hangin' in LOL Yes, my dh is a sweetie - after 15-1/2 years of marriage, I still think he has the best butt in captivity

Originally Posted by inkedupmomma

jus' sayin'.....

Originally Posted by lovemyblt

Lisa my dear where ya been????

I'm here, I'm here! I'm just finishing up our homeschooling reports before I update my PTR - only 3 more HS reports and we're done for the "school" season I have to say, though, that the boys and I are having a great time spending the moolah we receive for those reports - so I really can't complain

Update (and pictures!) coming up soon!

[lovemyblt]

Ohhhh do you do the reports to the school?
We chose testing this year instead of an evaluation.... believe or not the kids wanted to be tested hey they saved me 50 bucks

[lisalonglash]

Originally Posted by lovemyblt

Ohhhh do you do the reports to the school?
We chose testing this year instead of an evaluation.... believe or not the kids wanted to be tested hey they saved me 50 bucks

Nope, I send the reports to our Learning Consultant via email, who works for the umbrella homeschooling organization we registered with. I really like how it's all handled - I just submit a report every week that's just about some of the stuff they did or saw or talked about or whatever; and they give me money (in the form of a VISA card for each boy) to be spent on educational resources (which is a VERY broad range of items LOL) - no testing, no evaluation, no nothing else if I don't request it.

We're almost through the money now (it needs to be spent by the end of this month or it's gone lol). We're going to HMV today to get the Blue Planet DVD full set and to Wal-Mart to get skateboards and knee/elbow pads - yes, the definition of "educational resources" really is that broad LOL

Wooohoooo for saving $50!

[MinnieNurse]

Just found your report I am in. I am also doing my first trip report, my DH is also called Grumpy in my report, and I have a 10 y/o DS.

What a great surprise from your DH. Great start cant wait to learn more.

[lisalonglash]

I think I may have figured out how to add pictures. Here goes:

My grandma, me and Mickey at Easter brunch:


Grumpy, Tigger and my stepmom at Easter brunch:


Tigger playing rugby:


Mickey playing baseball and having his turn at being the backcatcher (truly his favourite position - mostly because he can lean back against the diamond, the lazy scoundrel LOL):



Oh, and a bonus picture - taken by Mickey, who LOVES using his camera! Here is his favourite stuffy, posed by Mickey LMAO:

Sorry, I realized after seeing if these pictures actually posted that one of the several jocks in our house is in the background - for anyone who doesn't have boys/husbands who play sports, I apologize for the picture, but ds#2 insisted that you all need to see Wall-E LMAO

Now, to find the pictures from WDW last year...

[OhioDisneyLover]

cute pictures.

[WDWRocksMySocks]

Woo!! I'm so glad you started a PTR, Lisa. Very nice start! I still can't get over how your DH surprised you. What a sweet and fun thing to do. I still think you should've rolled around in the cash, though.

Nice pictures, your boys are so cute!

[lisalonglash]

Originally Posted by OhioDisneyLover

cute pictures.

Thank you

Originally Posted by WDWRocksMySocks

Woo!! I'm so glad you started a PTR, Lisa. Very nice start! I still can't get over how your DH surprised you. What a sweet and fun thing to do. I still think you should've rolled around in the cash, though.

Nice pictures, your boys are so cute!

Thanks, it's scary, but it's getting a little bit fun too Yep, he definitely has his moments - you know, the moments that make you conveniently forget the tooting and snoring?

Thanks for the compliment - I think they're pretty darned cute too