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.



Story so far:  We were granted a wish about 2 years ago, but the original wish was beyond the abilities of the MAW crew to coordinate.  That's okay; we were warned that celebrity meet-ups can be tough to arrange.  That proved to be the case here and so we defaulted to a WDW trip.

At this point we are awaiting date confirmation and reading the various trip planning reports and stories available on the DISboards.com forums.  Lots of good info and tips there.

We are in the very beginning of planning at this point and my biggest concerns are: 1) airport security, and 2) getting all Kayla's food, meds and equipment to Florida without losing it.

1) In this post-9/11 world I have only flown on one trip.  Going out was no problem, but coming back I would swear that the TSA jerk at the Las Vegas airport had been a drill sergeant (a poor one at that) and still didn't realize we weren't all a bunch of IET recruits.  I don't want to deal with another ass like that while travelling with kids.  Then there's her formula and meds for the day and the ice packs to keep things cold and all this stuff that may or may not be a problem depending on who's trip report you read.  Plan now so that the only problems we encounter are the unanticipated ones....

2)Some things can be shipped in advance, some items can be provided there and some things we can do without IF WE MUST but really should have on hand.  Catheter materials can be assembled and checked in luggage no problem.  Canned formula for a week will get heavy and therefore difficult to move - maybe we should ship that separately.  If it gets lost she'll have to survive on Ensure or something.  That may not be a good idea.  Meds in original containers will be carry-on so it doesn't get lost.  HUGE problems if all her meds vanish.  We need bed rails to keep her from falling out at night, but I'm sure that is a common concern there and it will be handled.

Once there, I look forward to everything but trying to decide when to call it a day!  There's so much to see and do that I almost want to max out every day, but if we do that we'll all get tired and cranky and then no one will have any fun.  At Give Kids The World (GKTW) the food is free and ample.  I just know that at least once the kids will want ice cream for breakfast and who am I to say "No!"?  This is to be a fun trip and certain rules will be relaxed or ignored completely.  Bedtime will probably be self-imposed.  There's no way they can stay awake all night on a busy trip like this, right?  Right?

We are hoping to travel Sun-Sat so that we have time each end to prepare or recover.  Getting back to work and school is likely to be a drag for the kids and a relief for the parents!  Yes, we are taking them all out of school for this.  In an effort to maximize the positives on this trip we want to travel when crowds are smallest. This means sometime in September, just after the beginning of the school year.  They are young enough I don't think they will really miss anything and Jason can catch up quickly.  Emily won't miss a thing in one week of Kindergarten, I'm sure.  And this kind of trumps a week of classes for us.

I hope we can get a day to hit Daytona Beach.  I'd like to take them on a tour of "Dad's 3 years of abject poverty" and tell stories no-one cares about.  Then we'll hit the beach for a bit.

Anyway, welcome and thanks for reading.  News as I think of it!