Hello, hello! Getting this party/report started to keep my mind off stalking Hurricane Nicole. As of now we are scheduled to leave Boston around 10am on Friday. I’m trying to stay cautiously optimistic!
The last time all 4 of my immediate family was in WDW was fall of 2019. The kids have been to Disneyland Paris in the meantime but it’s been a bit for WDW. The little one has no memory but DS6.99 is very opinionated about the trip.
The little baby pictured above just turned 4 in October and I cannot believe it. The “big guy” will be turning 7 early in our trip! He requested T-Rex for dinner and a pool day. He’s quite jazzed to be able to ride something alone. (Although $10 says he never ends up wanting to!)
We shall also have some guest stars featured in this trip! This makes me so excited. We have a 17 year old exchange student from Italy who we were able to pull a few strings and get her to come with us for part of the trip.
She is such a huge part of our lives now and we couldn’t imagine going without her. I love being able to say I have a DD and there are many fewer fights over who sits next to Mom now!
The kid’s favorite Auntie WILL be making a repeat appearance at the end of the trip. I’m so glad she is able to come.
And one of MY favorite Aunts is also coming for her first WDW trip since the late 70s. She was widowed in 2021 and I’m really glad that she agreed to come with us. Her one request was Hoop Dee Doo hahahaha.
Jealous of the exchange student sitch. I have always wished for a slightly larger home that would accommodate a student or a visiting hockey player (we call people who host them Billet families). Alas our home would not meet requirements. Maybe in another life.
I almost titled this report as “The Continued Journey of the Traveling Stroller” but here she is back again! The gal on the left took the earlier jaunt around the UK but the true beast is the red one. I actually was going to try and go stroller-free after we had proven that we could do it, but DH likes a place to put our stuff.
I was hunting for a picture of both of us at WDW and there was none! So I will have to rectify that this time for sure.
And we are really lucky to have the space to host. It is generally dedicated to my mother in law but she doesn’t come that often so it’s been great. I will have to look into Billet family options for the future as my little hockey player gets bigger.
One of my oldest and best friends was an exchange student from Sweden in my junior year. 40 years later, Don & I still get together with her and her husband every couple of years…
They live outside of Malmo, which is just across the bridge from Copenhagen. They have no kids, and travel is their hobby so we get to see them on their way to and from way better places than our house.
Spent 2 weeks visiting them in Sweden way too long ago now. Definitely time for another trip - once we get the kid off to college.
Thanks everyone! To update this thread, I tried to get on another JetBlue flight later in the day on Friday but they’ve locked all the flights even though there were a couple decent options. The agent was super sympathetic and just suggested I wait until tomorrow to see how the weather goes and maybe they open up earlier on Friday.
To hedge our bets we booked a Southwest flight to Sarasota that lands Friday night along with a rental car. I’m hoping to be able to salvage Saturday as best I can. All in all this is a long trip so we’ll be fine I just didn’t want to cut Vittoria’s short time even shorter if we can avoid it!
I want travel to be my main hobby!
We’ve been to Malmo! Both DDs studied abroad in Copenhagen and we visited there plus neighboring areas in Sweden. I’ve love to go back at any time.
I really hope you can get there sooner rather than later. DH and I had our last trip booked for the time Ian arrived. We were on and off about cancelling (while watching the weather (and our emails!) constantly. In the end we made it there the first day they fully reopened. I’m glad you have a backup plan!
It’s gorgeous there! Don wants to retire to southern Sweden (I’m not so sure). We did the entire southern coast, and most of the western coast as well.
That’s awesome!! We are definitely making plans to meet up with our student and her family next Christmas in the Italian alps. It’s a German/Italian area only about 3 hours from DH’s family so it’s a perfect setting for everyone. I hope we keep in touch forever.
We went into this program with something of an expectation that we would just “host” someone each semester. But I’ve already declined for next semester because she will just be impossible to replace and it won’t feel right. Maybe again in a couple of years but boy did we strike gold on this placement.
