Tuesday, May 19, 2009

DISNEYLAND!

This is a picture of our family along with Rob's mom in 2007. It was such an unforgettable amazing trip! We're sad that Mee Maw won't get to be there with us, but part of her legacy lives on in each of our future Disneyland trips. May they come often and be full of fun!

I went to Disneyland for the first time after I graduated from high school and spent 3 days in the park.

I went again after I graduated college and spent another 3 days in the park.

I went for 1 day in early 2007 as part of a children's ministry conference.

I also went for 2 days in late 2007 with Rob's mom and our family when we down to Southern California for Mike and Becka's wedding.

As we were on our way back from our last trip we decided that we were going to start saving and planning for our next trip. We determined that we wanted to go during a slow season (our last trip had been in August and it was hot and the lines were long!), during the Christmas Season so we could see it all lit up with Christmas lights, and for at least 5 days. I've had so many short trips, that we're ready for the do-all, see-all trip of a lifetime!

So we started to put money away, $5 here, $50 there. Anytime we had money left over in one of our budget categories we'd skim a little off the top and put it in our Disneyland envelope. We've put nearly every gift card we've been given for the last year and a half into our envelope to use on our trip. Most money that we've been given as a gift, or that we've earned above and beyond our regular pay-checks have gone into the envelope too. Lo and behold, thanks in-part to a nice tax return this year our trip is fully funded and we're still 6 months out. We're SO EXCITED!

Okay, the kids and I are excited, Rob is OBSESSED! I truly don't think there's been a day that's gone by that Rob hasn't used the word Disneyland at least 3-5 times. He watches the Disneyland planning video for fun--often. He watched it 8 times this Friday and Saturday alone!

We were able to finalize some of plans yesterday, including a super, beyond incredible price on a hotel suite thanks to connection of one of my best friends. So, we'll leave by train after church on November 29th and it's going to take us 28 hours to get there. We'll spend 6 days in the park, and we'll have several down days relaxing by the pool too! We'll even get to enjoy Titus's Birthday at Disneyland!

The dates are set, the money's saved... and we're counting down the days (er, months!) Disneyland, here we come!

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

Oh my gosh, I am so excited for you. I can't wait until the time my family can take a real vacation too!!

SaraJane Campbell said...

Hey I should crash your party!

alexanders said...

that's so exciting!! great job on saving the money too! 6 days--what a nice, long trip for the family!!

rob said...

Okay, obsessed...is such a strong word. And 3-5 times a day is also a pretty humongous exageration....

I do have a friend and his family that are headed to Disneyland today though. I ran into him at Starbucks at 8am and he was gettin' his caffeine en-route to PDX. He, wifey, and two tots, plus our bear back-pack (Titus's leach)should be at Disneyland tomorrow. Disneyland is cool, but to say that I'm obsessed, would not take into account the fact that I really would like to go to Disneyland at the end of this year...Disneyland, for sure, that's going to be fun...