Disney Trip Report

      We just returned from Disney and for a first timer with 3 kids, I really don't think we did to bad.
First our hotel was wonderful.  We were able to stay at the Shades of Green.  Its a Military owned Disney resort.  The rooms are over 400sqft. The hotel has 3 restaurants and 2 heated pools and hot tub. You can stay all year if you are active duty,retired, or 100 % disabled.  If you are a veteran you can stay the months of January and September.  

  First Day was Magic Kingdom.

1. Arrive early see the cute/cheesy show once, then focus on getting in.

2 Pick up a free pin if your celebrating something.  The rest of the day you'll have all the cast members congratulating you.

3. Fast Passes.. use them !

4. Take at least 2 days to do MK.  We did 3 days which was great.   One day to do all the rides, another day to do Character meet and greets and the last to redo all the favorites.

5. Instead of a autograph book we brought picture frame mats for the characters to sign. This was a great idea. The characters love it when you bring them something different to sign. They spent way more time with my kids and showed them extra attention compared to the other kids we saw. Also now we are going to put my kids favorite pics in them and we have a great keepsake.

6 Do the Main street Electrical Parade.. Very cool!

The next day was Disney's Hollywood Studios.  This is a cute park. They have allot of shows and very few rides though. 

1. If you are a Star Wars fan, arrive early and sign up for Jedi Training.  It was the Highlight of Juliet's day.

2. Get in line for Toy Story ride and then get fast passes to ride it again. 

3.  Buzz and Woody are right beside toy story and the line gets long.

4. The Scifi Diner has okay food and cool atmosphere

5. You can get this park done in one day.

Day 3 - Back to the Magic Kingdom. I loved that we were able to get all the rides done . Today we just were able to meet characters and ride our favorite rides. It was so relaxing. 

Tips learned from this day

1. Get a Fast Pass for either the Princesses or Mickey.  Then get in line for the other one. That way when your finished for one. You'll be able to go see the other with little to no wait.

2. If there is a certain character you must see. Go to the Customer Service Place.  They will tell you the exact location and time. The paper the park gives you is "In general".  If we hadn't checked we wouldn't of known Mary Poppins was going to be at "The Hat" store instead of the center like she paper showed.

3. The Fairy line is long. Get their early. Also Tinkerbell is always there but they change out the others. So if your kids want Rosetta , She might not be there. Instead it could be Videa, so ask before you enter.

4 Make friends and take time to talk to the cast members.  They will give you all the inside secrets and may surprise you with a special fast pass.  We were given a special fast pass one day for being so nice.

5.  Peter Pan is a awesome character to meet and greet with.    He sat down with the kids and talked to them for almost 10 minutes.

6. If you have time do the Celebration Parade. You can go out in the streets and dance with the characters.

Day 4- Epcot.

I can't tell you a whole lot about this park. My visit was short.  I came down with a not so magical stomach bug the night before and didn't get to spend allot of time here. I sent Chris and Juliet out early . Allot of their rides are for 40 inches and over. Gabe couldn't ride them so he stayed with me.   We met up at lunch time and started heading for "The World". Juliet then threw up in France and we went home.

My tips.

1.  If your child is 8 and under, get them a stroller. This park has a ton of walking and just if you rent a Disney one for the day its worth it.

2.  Do the big rides early. This is another park with not allot of rides and lines get long fast.

3. Buy a passport if your kids are going to explore "The World Showcase area'  They have passport stamps at each location for you get signed.

4. Turtle Talk with Crush is cute ! They also have dolphins upstairs. You can see them ahead of time I think.

Last day was Magic Kingdom again.

Some more tips we learned

1. Don't underestimate the cuteness of Monsters Ink Laugh Floor.

2.  The haunted mansion can be scary

3.  Always go left in everything

4.  The Harbor House - Quick Service meal was really good.

5.  Book at least one character meal.  They are allot of fun!   We did Crystal Palace at 2pm . The food was great. We had a good amount of time with the characters. It wasn't overly crowded because of the off time. 

6. Use the baby stations.  They are air conditioned and clean. They have high chairs and changing areas.  We took a hour break here and was very happy to do so.

 7. If you don't want to worry about your kids asking for everything . Give them a gift card. We made deals with the kids. We bought them a shirt, hat, and a toy they both could play with.  Then they each had a gift card with $70 on it. They were able to decide what they could afford and want.   After their money was gone they couldn't ask for anything else.   I think it worked out well.





Carter Caves

We just got back last week from a awesome visit to Carter Caves. We're really doing this camping thing and we like it. This time wasn't as organized we forgot a bunch of stuff and I was a little irritated. Thank goodness for my cousin Jada who is a well experienced camper and she gave me some awesome tips. We now have a camping tote where I have put everything we could possibly need for camping in it. Now we shouldn't forget the important stuff anymore. On to our visit at Carter Caves. Its a beautiful place and nice campground area. The caves were great! We took the kids on a guided cave tour.

They loved it! We got to learn about all those fun words like stalagmite and stalactite. This wasn't your normal cave because you got to go in and out of the cave. You would go outside to connect through the next passage area of the cave. The section in between the cave entrances was BEAUTIFUL! The guide said where the cool air is being pulled out of the cave and mixes with the hot air, it creates this rain forest like area.

After camping it got hot and we decided to let the kids go and play in the creek. It reminded me of a tame Gatlinburg area. We found some fun nature like crawdads and turtles. We all got soaked cause of the slick rocks, but Juliet said it was the funnest time she had.

Also I realised the best thing about camping.. no one knows you. I say this cause they had some cloggers and they were playing some music. So I decided to get up and teach my daughter the electric slide . I must tell you I reminded that I'm not young anymore and totally need to get in shape. Anyway I'm glad no pictures of that moment was taken :)

Going Camping w/ the Nichols Family.

Every year Chris and I take turns choosing vacation spots. This year was Chris's turn and he decided he wanted to go camping! We have never camped together as a family. We didn't even own any camping stuff. Juliet's American Heritage Girls invited us on a camping trip. So we had to find some stuff and fast. First thing was the tent. Some would think well we just have a family of ??? so that's the size we need. WRONG! I would say double ! I don't know about most people but I need space. So we went and tried out different tents. We decided on some rules. We had to be able to stand up in it, fit all of us and our stuff in it, and it needed a hinged door ( according to Chris). So we settled on this huge tent and we bought it from Wal-mart because of their 90 day return policy and its a good thing we did. We broke the first tent we got cause Chris decided he didn't need directions. We were lucky they had another tent.

So we packed everything but the sink and drove 1 hr to Cave Run Lake in Morehead. We were lucky the first night. It was supposed to rain and it didn't so that was good. It was beautiful and our campsite faced the lake.

The kids found some clay and made pots. The families all went in together and bought stuff for each meal so no one person was buying everything. The first night we had hamburgers and vegetables cooked in foil. It was yummy! Chris and I brought stuff for smores and shared them around a big campfire. Then it was the big moment! Was our 20 month going to go to sleep or was he going to keep everyone up. On a good note, he did go to sleep. Just not after he was up till 12 am playing with a glow stick that Chris decided to give him.. Grr

The next morning guess who was the first one to wake up ? Thats right Gabe and he just had to have mommy wake up. Now I'm not a big bug person but there was every type of spider on the outside of our tent the next morning .. EWWW. I was okay later with the spider cause later I found out some people slept with some ticks in not so great places. I became a tickaphobe. I'm pretty sure I was 100% covered in deet the whole day cause I was so scared of us getting ticks. I'm not saying deet is a safe thing to put all over your body but hey I was tick free so not complaining! Anyway the kids had a blast they had a water fight the next day. We went on a walk and found some turtles

Chris took the kids fishing and actually caught a very small blue gill. Then we grilled pizzas on pita bread and baked a amazing cake in a dutch oven. I didn't even know you could do that. Then it started raining and we totally wimped out and packed and left. It was a great trip though.