Count Down to Disney!

So about a month ago or so my Mother and I started planning our summer trip to Disney World in May of 2012. I CANNOT begin to tell you how excited I am about this trip. So far, we are planning on me, Hubby Holmes, Gracie, my Mother, my sister, my Mother's boyfriend, and my Great Aunt will all be going. I'm so excited about going that it has consumed my (almost) every thought!! I feel like I'm 9 again when I went for the first time and just thinking about seeing Cinderella's Castle and seeing Mickey in person just makes me want to giggle like a little girl lol. The first time my family went to Disney was back in 1993. My Aunt was living in Florida at the time and married her then husband in June of 93. They wed on June 13th I believe (I may have the date off by a day or two...) and my birthday is on the 18th of June. Just a day or two after the wedding, we packed up and drove just a short drive (Me, my Mother, my Sister, and my Mimi) to Walt Disney World. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort, which at the time I didn't realise how cool that hotel really was until now looking at the hotel in all of our planning. I just remember how magical and grand everything was. It literally felt like being inside of one of the magical Disney movies that we all love and enjoy, as corny as that may sound. It truly is a kids dream come true to be able to walk through Cinderellas Castle and to eat lunch with Winnie the Pooh or Goofy and Pluto!

I was so lucky to be asked to join my Aunt Laura to go again in the summer of 2004. My younger cousin was having a cheer competition and I got to go!! I was so excited to see how everything had changed and what was still the same! Much of it was just as I had remembered, but there was so much more to see and do! I mean, it was Disney after all and 15 years had passed. Some things were bound to be new! It was alot of fun and I will be forever grateful to have been able to join them!

So, next summer Gracie will turn 4 in August of 2012. We are planning now that way we can make sure to have plenty of time to figure out all the details and plan a perfect trip! Hubby Holmes and I wanted to wait until Gracie was at least 5 before thinking about having another child. So, what better way to spend a special trip with Gracie as the last time she will be the only child (or should I say Princess, that's more fitting I think) and to give her the absolute royal treatment then to take her to none other than the most magical place on Earth. Also, my sister was about 4, I think about to turn 5, when we went as kids. But for some reason, she has a hard time remembering much from her childhood. Literally, she cant remember hardly anything that happened to us as kids, all the great memories we had growing up are to her, like listening to someone esle tell stories about themselves...she doesnt actualy remember being apart of them when in fact, she was right there through it all. So, this trip is serving double duty and giving her a little bit of her childhood back. Hoping to rekindle some of those great memories we had when we first went together as well as to give her many many more! I know she will love it and I cant wait for her to go...again lol!

My original plan when my mother and I started planning this trip was to surprise Gracie and not tell her we are going until the day of. I cant begin to tell you how hard I cried the ugly cry watching videos of parents who have done the same thing with their kids. NO JOKE! Go to YouTube right now! (Okay, maybe after you read this..) and type in Disney surprise vacations and just watch some of the videos of the kids finding out that they are leaving for Disney only moments after they open the box/card/etc.. telling them that their bags are packed and everything is ready to go! If you even have a little spark left inside of you from your child hood then you just cant help but shed a happy tear of joy watching the light in their eyes and the glow on their cute little faces. They are just soooo happy! Its easily compared to winning the lotto for an adult for these kids. Some of them cry and some of them are just jumping for genuine joy. Its amazing!! Okay, so back what I was talking about. My original plan was to do this very thing with Gracie. Now, I realize that she will only be almost 4, so it may not mean "as" much to her as it would if she were a little bit older, like 7 or 8. But, we have talked about Disney World and explained to her that Cinderella and Bell and Ariel all live at Disney. She is a HUGE Disney Princess fan so this made her pretty excited just to know where they live. I ordered that Free Disney Planning DVD and sat down and watched it with her just to kind of see what she would say or do. I never came right out and said "This is were we are going....were going to Disney world". Or at least I thought I hadn't said that in front of her....Nope! I was wrong. Apparently, my own excitement for Disney took over and I must have been talking about it so much in front or around her and not even paying attention, that she now thinks (more like knows..) that were going to Disney. Every time she watches a Disney movie and the part before the credits where the castle comes up and Tinkerbell flies over the castle...she yells as loud as she can...."That's Disney World!! Cinderellas Castle!! I'm going there!!" So, needless to say, my plan is to keep my mouth SHUT! about anything Disney in front of her and hope that she kind of forgets or doesn't think about it over this next year. I really want to surprise her with this trip and just want it to work out perfectly! Right now we are only 316 days away from our trip! That seems like forever, but really its only a little over 10 months and will be there before we know it! I cant wait to update with more details on where we will be staying and some of the fun and exciting things we will be seeing and doing!