From The Past: July 8, 2008
Kevin was given a monetary bonus this year in one lump check. He has never received a bonus of this degree. I won’t give the amount, but I will say that it was enough to get us thinking what we could do to the house or where we could possibly go on vacation. It wasn’t a huge amount; however it was more than we have ever had to just blow. Yes, we could pay on a bill. Heck, we could pay Ashley’s braces off, but what fun would that be?! Since we knew we would never have this sum again, we decided to take a vacation.
I had grand ideas and many suggestions. I thought it would be neat to travel to Pennsylvania and see
HERSHEY’S CHOCOLATE WORLD, The Crayola FACTORY, and the Liberty Bell. I thought we could even keep driving up north until we drove right into Bangor, Maine.
I said, “Wouldn’t it be neat to find Stephen King since he lives in Bangor?” I thought it would be an adventure. We could eat fresh lobster. I’ve never eaten lobster!
To this statement and all others, I thought Kevin and Ashley’s eyeballs were going to roll right out of their finicky heads! Can we all say PARTY POOPERS?
Kevin suggested we go to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
His reasoning is this: Ashley is twelve years old. If we wait any longer, she will be too old to enjoy the true magic that Disney offers. She is old enough to appreciate it and remember it, but young enough to still enjoy it. He also reminded me that this would probably be the only time we would have a lump sum of money of this amount. It is unfortunate that this opportunity never arose when Andrew was a child.
I agreed with him one hundred percent concerning Ashley. He said we could drive, but I thought it would be a better idea to fly. If you drive from Kentucky to Florida it takes twelve hours and thirty-one minutes (I checked) and that’s driving straight there with no breaks. I reminded Kevin that we would lose a day driving down and a day driving home. Also, gas would have been another big expense. The main thing for me though was potentially losing two days of a vacation just driving. Kevin agreed with me and said we should fly.
Kevin checked out all the books on Disney World at the library and I hope he has absorbed it all. He has the schedule of what parks open an hour early and what parks stay open three hours later. He has a map of the parade route and we have pretty much decided what attractions we want to see and experience while there. We received a free DVD in the mail, but honestly, the websites and YouTube videos do it more justice and have more information. You can go to YouTube and watch almost all the rides to see if it is an experience you want to have.
Kevin booked a Disney vacation which means we paid for everything together. We paid for our airline tickets, resort, and park tickets in one lump sum over the Internet. We will have access to four parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
We added the “Park Hopper” feature to our tickets. This will allow us to hop from one park to another in the same day.
A Disney Shuttle Bus will pick us up from the airport and take us to our resort. We will then take shuttle buses to any park we want to visit. Disney also takes care of our luggage. This was all included in our vacation package.
We haven’t left Guido since we traveled to Parris Island in January. I don’t like leaving him, but he will be in very capable hands. My aunt will live here the entire time we are away. When she is not here, my parents will constantly be in and out to smother Guido with love and attention. They will all do their very best to keep him on schedule. I am totally at ease knowing that my aunt will be here to sleep with Guido each night since he has never slept alone.
My problem now is the plane ride. I know I am the one who suggested it; however, I am 36 years old and have never been on a plane. I am afraid of heights. The thought of walking down the runway to get on the plane freaks me out. I have to do this. I am an adult and I have to be mature. My daughter will be watching me … probably laughing. She has no fear. She is so young!