Our Type A Vacation

Today the package came!! It was a clear vinyl packet wiht mouse ears in a trail of stars addressed from the Walt Disney Travel Company. It included our itenerary and all sorts of "freebie" vouchers (otherwise known as, "here is a little bit free so you will come and spend a lot more!" vouchers). That totally made it "real." I have been excitedly waiting for this trip since before we had children...that one day we will take our children to Disney World!

Now, I have already been told in the past that it is way too soon to take them, I am aware of this. But, I feel like there are ages and stages in which you can take your children to the "Most
Magical Place on Earth." One of these stages is when they will still believe in the magic. This is for the enjoyment of the children and the memories to be made for the parents. I know they will never remember a second of this trip, but it will always be in my memory and hopefully one day they will look back and pictures and appreciate the trip as much as I will enjoy remembering their excitement (and possible fear) of seeing Mickey Mouse and all the other characters and believing "That they are ALIVE, AND THEY ARE AT DISNEY WORLD!!!!!" (this was a quote from Cameron when he saw a picture on the Disney World website of the Character Breakfast at Hollywood Studios, where we will be having breakfast the first full day we are there).

I have been reading The Official Guide and The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World,

I have also bought The Official Guide to Walt Disney for Kids so they can be included in my madness!!! With the guides I have started taking notes, luckily there is an itenerary online that I can just input our schedule into and voila! it creates an 5.5 x 8.5 page for me with holes (oh, and for this little trip planner book, I have created a very nice cover which I will take to be laminated at our neighborhood kinkos!). Each day so far is planned out as to what time we will be arriving at the park, which attractions we will be getting a FastPass for and which we will be riding and viewing first, and our reservation numbers for our meals we will be enjoying at the park. I will share this with the family when I am completely finished with it...so far I'm stalled at our split day at Animal Kingdom/Epcot and our full day at Animal Kingdom and travelling. I am probably going overboard, but I want to make sure we see as much as possible and I want to fit in time for naps with the kiddos...as I believe they will be WORN OUT by the time our touring begins!

I have also started over-planning our gear and attire!!! I am hoping to get matching t-shirts for my big boys to wear each day. This way, if someone wanders off I will always be able to say, "He was wearing a shirt that looks just like this!" I also bought Safety-tat's for the boys which are temporary tatoos with our cell phone number on it. That is what we have so far for safety, but we will plan on working with the boys on who they should contact in case they get lost and I am even considering making dog id tags to put on their shoes, except that I don't know if they will be wearing the same shoes every day...so that could be a problem. They do have kid id braclets that are made with a neoprene band (Eric wears one when he runs) that have all their information on it and I've considered getting those as well...can you tell I'm a bit nervous? As far as gear goes, I've gotten a new stroller (used from a friend that didn't really use it much) and ordered a "buggy board" for the back so someone can stand while someone sits. Then if all the kids are just exhausted I also bought a second Ergo baby carrier (and one backpack...considering going back to get a second) so we can carry both Cohen and Carson and push Cameron in the stroller! Whew!

I am just beyond excited about this trip as it will be our very first family vacation, EVER!! The last real vacation Eric and I had was our honeymoon, so this will be a whole new experience for us. I know the kids are going to be excited about the trip, they are already asking each night if we are leaving tomorrow and are mentioning little things about it (like Cameron, he has asked, "Can I take ALL my toys with us?"). Anyhow, this is going to be our official trip blog and I plan to update this along my planning way. We will take one of our laptops with us on our trip, so you can check in every night and see our adventures for the day!!! If you made it this far, you are a trooper! I can't wait to share the excitement (hopefully all good excitement and not "how exciting, I didn't know you could throw up THAT MUCH!" type of excitement).