Day 7, Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig!

Wow, another long day.  Up at the crack of toodamnearly.  Gina gave packing a good try last night, but she was just too out of it to do any good.  If you saw yesterday's blog post before my editing job, you probably know that I wasn't in any better shape.

Day 6, The Final Countdown

Go ahead, try and get that song out of your head now.

Day 5, Nothing's out of reach in the backyard beach!

Time for a day off.  We've done so much walking and sweating, and such light eating, that I've probably lost 30 lbs.  I've had to tighten my belt a notch!  I haven't been this thin since the last time I was this thin.  I could get to like the Disney Diet Plan.  The problem here is that I'm already so thin I look like I only gained my third dimension last month.

Day 4, Living life to it's fullest.

Ah, the Magic Kingdom!  Just thinking about it reminds me of the trip we made when I was 12.  My standout memories of that one are the Haunted Mansion and Snow White's Scary Adventures.  I love childhood trauma.

Chapter 3. In Which Everyone Becomes Dampened.

Ah, Tuesday.  The Plan:  Get up at our usual time, breakfast at the Ice Cream parlor and be ready to hit Animal Kingdom at the 9:00 opening.  Easy-peasy, right?

Day 2. I thought I was tired yesterday....

First full day, and first park visit!  Wore me OUT!

Today started off with some character photos.  Micky and Minnie were in the theater.  Kayla visited with Micky for a bit while Minnie distracted Jason and Emily.  Then they traded so Minnie could have some quality time with Kayla.  Once she had spent some time with each of the stars, they came together and we got some family shots.

Day 1

Wow, I'm pooped.  And we haven't even hit a park yet!!

Image credit: Mr. Blurrycam

Alarm went off at 5:15 and we were ready to go when the limo and van got there at 6:45.  Jennifer and Frank got us to the airport in style and we checked everything in with no trouble.

Arrival!

We've landed!  Security went well, but we had to move to different seats on the plane.  I got Kayla's car seat in place only to discover there was no leg room for her.  They moved us up to the bulkhead seats - extra leg room for everyone!

.1.

Errands, packing, laundry, yard work.  All the usual stuff before you leave home for a week of FUN!

Thanks for the use of the car seat Melanie.  I don't know when they got so complex though.  There's more straps and harnesses on that thing than a parachute.  Which begs the question: "Why does it have to be so beefed up for aircraft use?"  Really, the likelyhood of needing that thing and having it do any good in an airliner is so slim that it really doesn't matter.  On the other hand, its usefulness in a car is substantially more significant but the standards seem to be lower.  Or it's just been so long since I've shopped for car seats that I'm out of touch with the industry.

Limo arrives at 0700 tomorrow!

..2..

The mountains of laundry are now mountains of CLEAN laundry thanks to Gina.  We're down to stuffing some things into suitcases, cleaning the house up a bit and then sitting up all night watching for the limo to show up at 7:00am Sunday.  Kayla is excited, Emily is excited, Jason is getting more and more anxious.  What is it with this kid?

...3...

Continuing our countdown, we now have our Traveler's Checks and a couple rolls of coins for the penny/quarter smashing machines.  The kids don't know about Disney's yet, but love the ones at the zoo.  You know the ones - you go to the zoo so often that you never think about souvenirs and then somebody finds the crank to turn at the Manatee Falls or Insect House.  Then it's all "Daddy, can I?" and "Did you bring any money?" and "No, but you did!" and then "I'm not smooshing my debit card."  followed by much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Ah, good times, good times....  

Who wants to start taking bets on when I lose the TC's?

Wish granters came today!

We now have all the neccessary paperwork!  Thanks to our volunteers, Ashley and Christina (whose pictures I forgot to take - this doesn't bode well) we now have buttons and tickets and reservations.
Kayla got a special MAW Barbie doll and Emily is alraedy barganing to make it hers.  Sorry sweetie, but you will not appropriate this one.

....4....

The count-down is on!  Tickets and itinerary to be delivered tonight.  We'll be putting stuff in baggage the next couple of days, and probably repacking once or twice to minimize the overall bag count.  Checked baggage fees will add up fast if we aren't careful, but carry-ons with Kayla, her car seat and two smallish kids could be a real challenge.  Very grateful to have a direct flight!

5 Days to go!

Just about there, and the kids are as excited as ever.  Tomorrow night we'll meet with our MAW volunteer and get all the paperwork.  We keep saying we're going to start setting aside clothes to pack, but somehow it just doesn't get done.  I can see already we'll be up at 4:00 still trying to cram stuff into a suitcase!

Getting close!

We got the Disney vacation planning DVD in the mail today and watched it twice before dinner!  The kids are excited of course, but Jason freaked out over the 5-10 seconds of video of the Haunted Mansion.  Man up, kid - you're riding it.

More MAIL!!!!

It must be getting close!  We got our map/brochure from GKTW today!  Sifting through the mail: bill, bill, bill, EOB, EOB - Kayla got a big envelope, where's that refund check from Duke?  Wait.  Kayla got a big envelope?  OOHHH!!!!!!

Testing testing, 1, 2, 3...

Chose this one off my phone while testing the email blog post.  Emily is minus her glasses, but Kayla is alert and happy after a long nap.  Yay Princesses!

Planning and data-mining

I've been hanging out on DISboards.com where there is a thread (several actually) dedicated to MAW trips.  Many helpful tips there and good info about Give Kids the World Village.  The various trip reports there have been even more informative.  Things like the fact that GKTW is a gated resort and the guard shack is not staffed 24/7.  Nice tidbit to know, and I'll be sure not to get the van stuck between the gates.  And I will not leave home without my Bunny Book.  Can I get that in PDF for my phone and nook?

Bummer!

Checked the Disney website for park hours, maps, etc.  On the schedule for Magic Kingdom it states that "It's a Small World" will be closed for refurbishment!  That's the iconic ride I remember best from my visit as a 12 year old!  I won't get to share that one with the kids I guess.  Oh well, I suppose we'll just have to make new memories instead of boring everyone with my old ones.

Disney park schedule for September 2010

Wow, things are moving now!

A couple of quick emails and we now have some answers.  Ain't technology grand?

We have a non-stop flight leaving at 0935 so we'll still have the afternoon to explore GKTW.  We get to ride in a limo to the airport and back - that'll be fun.  Kayla's wheelchair will be in a separate vehicle following along, and I think we can put the luggage in there too.  Limos weren't built for cargo!

July's been a tad busier.

So we've had a little action on the MAW front.  We now know that we need an FAA Certified car seat for Kayla and we've worked out a temporary exchange with Melanie for one of Marina's.  We have provided the dimensions of Kayla's chair, presumably for van rental purposes.  And we've done the paperwork for the van rental.

It's been a while...

Been out a while, I know.  Surgery went well, Kayla recovered nicely, everything is hunky-dory.  Her last day of school is tomorrow and then it's a summer of Max's House.

Latest news

My waffeling over the Walk for Wishes is resolved.  Gina's firm adopted the cause and is putting together a team complete with t-shirts.  Guess we'll have to go now.  As long as it isn't cold and wet.  It's always nice to get out in the AM and still have a full day ahead of you.

Kayla had her drool reduction procedure done yesterday.  We were really worried about her handling the anesthesia, but she came through great and we got to come home after only one night on the Critical Airway Unit.  She now has two more scars on her neck, but without the excess saliva we can put her on CPAP without worrying about pneumonia.  Hopefully, Emily will quickly get used to the noise of the machine and will be able to sleep better also without her big sister snoring all night!

Thoughts on planning.

I was just catching up on the disABILITIES forum and am glad I did, except for the part where I have to tough through the posts about the little girl, Mya, who is no more.  I shouldn't do this at work - I get funny looks when I cry.

Shucks....

Got home and checked the mail today - an envelope from MAW!!!  Yeah!  Whatisit?Whatisit?Whatisit?Whatisit?Whatisit?Whatisit?Whatisit?Whatisit?

Aw man, it just a fundraising letter...  Shoot.

On the other hand, if you want something to do on 15 May and happen to be in the Cincinnati area, there's a 5k run/walk centered on Fountain Square.  At 0730.  Good lord, that's early for a weekend.  Still, considering what they have offered to Kayla and the rest of us, isn't it worthwhile to get up early and go for a walk?  It's the least we can do.  Of course, there's the whole "getting three kids out of the house by 7:00 at the absolute latest" and "Where are we going to park with all these cars and a van too tall for the garages?" and "Where the hell did I put my coffee?" but we can work around that.  Maybe we'll just go camping and sleep on the Square!  It's the "Living Room of the City", right?  So I'll just sleep on the couch.  That way I'm already there.  The kids will love it - we'll put "The Princess and The Frog" on the City's DVD player, pop some thugs - err, popcorn - and make a night of it.

So, while it wasn't anything too terribly interesting, at least it wasn't completely junk mail.  We'll likely sign up, extort some cash from the co-workers who still haven't learned to avoid us and then sleep in because it's just too much trouble to get out of bed.

Dates confirmed!

Looks like we'll be traveling Labor Day weekend!  September 5-11 we'll be at Give Kids The World resort.  Gina's conversation included the info that they are glad we switched from Thanksgiving weekend because they were having trouble figuring out where to put us.  Makes me even more glad that we re-thought that whole "travel on Thanksgiving weekend" thing!

Online information suggests that September is among the best times to be at Disney if you don't like crowds.  The flip side is that it will be hot.  Oh well.  Can't be worse than August in Cincinnati!

MAW is checking with GKTW to see what they can do to provide a heat source for Kayla's bed so that we don't have to pack her mattress heater.  Nice if they can do it, but not a big deal if we need to throw in another suitcase to check it through.

Greetings!

I have started this blog primarily to document Kayla's upcoming Make-A-Wish trip to Walt Disney World.  I've made it a less specific at this point because I MAY continue it beyond that.  Should that happen, I will copy all the MAW stuff to a separate blog and make the whole thing specific to that trip.