My So Called Road Trip Adventure...A Single Mom's Journey With 3 Kids...Pics Added

[shellynn24]

I am so excited to actually have a trip planned that I just need to write a trip report. Recently, I have been struck with the desire to keep a journal about our trip and having everyone here to share in our journey makes it even better. Come and take a look into my life and see how “interesting” it is and why we need a vacation .

Let me introduce the cast:

Me , otherwise known as Michelle, I am a 32 (33 during our trip) year old single Mom. I work as a civilian for the Army, I process new service members. My job can get a bit hectic but it is always rewarding. I have three “lovely” children.

Child #1 - Nachito (8) is my oldest and my only boy. He is surrounded by a sea of female hormones all the time and likes to find time to be alone so he doesn’t have to hear sister talk/whining. He wants to go to Disney because he is finally tall enough to ride RnR. Will he actually do it? I guess we will have to wait and see .

Child #2 - Leila (6) is my very sensitive very pretty little (big) girl. She is one inch shorter then her 8 yo brother, something that bothers him greatly. She is Mama’s helper girl and loves to clean the house . Leila is very much the girly girl; I have no idea where she gets it from, certainly not from her Army chick Mom! She wants to go to Disney because, Duh, that’s where princesses live.

Child #3 - Karina (3) is my baby girl. I am having a hard time letting her grow up. I want her to be a baby for the rest of her life…maybe not but you know what I mean. She has always been the calm and quiet one; she never complains and is usually smiling. Baby girl loves Mickey Mouse; he is her favorite “person” in the whole world. She has slept with Mickey since the day she was born and now she asks every day if we are going to “dinney worl” so she can see him. I just hope she is big enough to ride the big girl rides.




Now with introductions over, let’s continue. I have been trying to take the kids to the world for a couple years now. They have patiently survived a divorce and the awkward living conditions of a stay at home Mom now forced to find work. Now that I have a steady, decent job, I have the ability to take my kids to the one place they love above all others (no, I have not brainwashed them, they are just naturally obsessed with Disney!). I am going to commit a major Mommy sin and take the kids out of school so we can go during the gift card promotion and my Birthday . And yes, I am going to wear the “It’s My Birthday” pin. A Mom needs to celebrate too.

I have us booked at POR April 18-25. Originally, I was going to fly but it is so darn expensive. I have now decided that I am going to drive down. I know, I hear you…one Mom, three kids, stuck in a car together all the way from Chicago . The kids and I drive to Cincinnati all the time and they do very well. I am very confident in their ability to handle the drive to FL. We do plan to stop for one night on the way there and back. We love the road trip , it is just another portion of our vacation.

I think that is enough for this post, I don’t want to bore you all too soon . Stay tuned for the next installment of “My So Called Road Trip Adventure"

 

[reyasmommy]

I love to Road Trip it to Disney too!

Flying scares me and is just to darn expensive. I hope you have a DVD player in your car?!? That always keeps my DD calm and easy to deal with on road trips.

Your kids sound sweet....... Hope you have an wonderful trip. You're a brave woman taking 3 kids by yourself.

 

[shellynn24]

I love to Road Trip it to Disney too!

Flying scares me and is just to darn expensive. I hope you have a DVD player in your car?!? That always keeps my DD calm and easy to deal with on road trips.

Your kids sound sweet....... Hope you have an wonderful trip. You're a brave woman taking 3 kids by yourself.

We have a portable DVD player We drove from El Paso, TX to Chicago about 2 years ago. It took 3 days They did pretty well...but of course there was a DVD player.

 

[shellynn24]

I left y’all with my basic plans…April 18-25, POR, two day drive there and back. Since there is not a lot of time until the trip, I really need to get my plans together so I can be organized. I hate to be unorganized; maybe it’s the Army in me. I have come up with a day to day itinerary so I know where we will be on each day. I don’t want to make too many plans and itineraries because I don’t want the kids to think Disney World is a road march with full gear . I let the kids pick the restaurants and here are their choices;

Sun Apr 18- Downtown Disney, they chose…T-Rex Café. We shall see if the princess starts shaking and crying with fear. I know my son will love it!!

Mon Apr 19- Epcot, they chose…Coral Reef. They just love to eat fish while watching live fish…it all seems kind of cannibalistic personally, I have never understood it but I am not going to argue they have me 3 to 1.

Tue Apr 20- MK, they chose…Crystal Palace of course. Well, Leila picked Crystal Palace and Nachito is begrudgingly humoring his sister.

Wed Apr 21- Sleep in and Epcot night and they chose…Biergarten. This seems weird but Nachito was born in Germany and he likes German stuff.

Thu Apr 22- DHS, they chose…nothing really, even I don’t know what to chose here .

Fri Apr 23- AK…I thought we would try Tusker House since I haven’t been since they changed it.

Sat Apr 24- Sleep in and MK night, oh yeah, and MY BIRTHDAY. I am trying to get Cindy’s for dinner. I am hoping for a cancellation, if not I will take whatever place they have open that morning.

Sun Apr 25- Sadly this is the day we start the drive home .


That is all I have planned so far, I feel behind because I am doing this short notice. It's actually kind of exciting because I don't have to wait 6 months, its right around the corner. I will post pics of the family later, I know I love a TR with pics and so mine shall have some.


Hello…Is anyone still there? Darn, I bored everyone to tears and they left. If you are still enjoying my witty, insightful pre-trippie join me again next time…

Just one more thing...47 more days till we leave for Florida

 

[shellynn24]

Well, it's official!! I paid the balance due for the trip and made travel arrangements so everything is ready for us to go. I'm extremely excited, so are the kids. Now I need to let the banana dance to show my excitement... He only gets to dance for me when I am counting down for a trip...it's a special occasion dance

I promised pictures so here we go...
My kids on our recednt trip to Ohio

My kids are goofballs and here are some pictures to prove it

Nachito

Leila

Karina

I am going to include a mini TR about or trip to Ohio, we had a great time despite the blizzard that dropped 9 inches of snow. I'll get that started tomorrow. I'll upload more pics to include too because I, personally, think my kids are the goofiest, cutest kids out there. Not biased at all ya know

Bye for now and stay tuned for our thrilling road trip adventure to...Ohio . I know exciting isn't it.

 

[1Princess1Prince2006]

I was just surfing the Trip Boards and came across your PTR and I'm in!

I'm a single mom as well but will be taking my kids in September as a graduation present to myself.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[shellynn24]

I was just surfing the Trip Boards and came across your PTR and I'm in!

I'm a single mom as well but will be taking my kids in September as a graduation present to myself.

Can't wait to read more!

Welcome!! I'm excited to actually have a reader

 

[shellynn24]

My best friend lives in Ohio. We met in the Army and have been friends for many years. She moved away from our last duty station back to Ohio and I was very bummed. We were both happy when I moved to the Chi because we would be close enough to visit once in a while. I decided in February that I needed a break and took an extra long President’s Day weekend to visit her. She was so excited that she planned a Disney World commando style itinerary of funness for the weekend. I say to her “I would like to relax for at least a couple minutes this weekend”…she says “relax when you get home, we are going to have fun”. I say “how are we going to fit all this in in four little days?”…she says “Four Days?! I thought it was only three, now I we will have time for even more fun!”. I am thinking “this is going to be a very long weekend”.

Our itinerary of “fun” stuff:
Thursday- Leave after work and drive to OH

Friday- Get all 4 kids (3 of mine + 1 of hers) ready and drive to downtown Cincy to pick up Amanda. Go ice skating, go to the park, eat dinner downtown, and finally carriage ride around town at night.

Saturday- Zoo (did I mention that it was cold and snowy) and my personal favorite Sky Line Chili for dinner

Sunday- Sledding, sledding and more sledding.

Monday- Sit in house and watch blizzard dump 9 inches of snow.

Tuesday- Dig car out of previously mentioned 9 inches of snow and try to drive back home.


I rushed home from work on Thursday night to get a load of laundry in and finish packing. I could have done this before but why would I when I could just do it at the last minute? The kids sat and watched TV and watched me run around like a maniac trying to get everything ready. By 7:00 pm we were in the car, buckling seat belts and driving off. This is not the exciting part of the trip believe me. It was dark, the kids were tired and after about 2 hours the girls were asleep. Nachito made it a bit longer. He decided to take some pictures.

----> (this is a picture insert spot, I will get them put on photobucket very soon, I promise)


We arrived at Amanda’s house at about 1 am. And I took a couple pictures of the kids before we went to bed.

---->
Up next, the day of too much fun aka “Amanda, I’m all funned out can we go home?”

 

[shellynn24]

My countdown is in the 30's Just wanted to celebrate!

 

[shellynn24]

I am really starting to get excited about our trip. We have 28 more days till we start our drive down . I have all our ADR’s made and our park touring plans all worked out. Now I just need to get ALL the stuff together to start packing.

Anyway, back to Ohio…

We arrived really late to my friend’s house but we still had to get up early and drive to downtown Cincy for our day of too much fun. I am not a city driver! I am a suburban girl, if I have to go into the city I use public transportation so I was not looking forward to driving. I managed to find the building she worked in without causing any major traffic accidents and she came down to meet us so I wouldn’t have to find parking. At that point, she took over driving because she knows I am incompetent . We found parking, which only cost $5 , anyone ever park in downtown Chicago for $5, it’s more like $20.

After we grabbed a quick lunch we went ice skating. I haven’t done this for maybe…15 years or so. I was a little skeered to tell you the truth. We all got skates and hit the ice…literally. My son was not too fond of the ice skating, my oldest daughter took to like a duck to water. She was doing spins by the time we were leaving. The little one did her best which was pretty good. I actually made it around the rink a few times and was ready to go.

Amanda decided we needed to go to the park to kill some time before dinner. It was really cold and my girls were tired but we went. They had a great time throwing chunks of snow in the river and riding a tire swing.

Dinner was at Joe’s Crab Shack. I love crab legs but have no one to go with so we always go when we are together. They have a giant shark hanging from the ceiling which sent Leila into a panic. I guess she thought it was real. It was big…and kinda scary and all full of teeth so I guess I can see where she was coming from.

After dinner Amanda wanted to take a carriage ride through downtown. By this time I was freezing cold and all funned out. I just wanted to go home. The ride was nice and kids had fun. After that we FINALLY went home.

 

[__disneygirl]

Hi Michelle.. i'm IN for your trippie! Cheers to you as a single mom taking your 3 kids down to WDW! Awesome!!

If you still need a restaurant for when you're at Hollywood Studios, I suggest Sci Fi.. it is one of our favorite places. I don't have kids, but when I do, it will be the first restaurant I bring them to at Disney!!

 

[MarieTheCat24]

Hi Michelle!

I'm joining in on your PTR. Can't wait to hear about all of the fun you'll have at Disney.

I'm also glad you enjoyed your trip to my wonderful state of Ohio. And sorry about all of the snow. We've had a weird winter this year.