Two Chips and a Dip (The Appetizer Trip) Nov 30 thru Dec 5, 2007 - With Final Thoughts - COMPLETE - Updated 2/21 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
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Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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Two Chips and a Dip (The Appetizer Trip) Nov 30 thru Dec 5, 2007 - With Final Thoughts - COMPLETE - Updated 2/21
Two Chips and a Dip – The Appetizer Trip – Nov 30 thru Dec 5, 2007
As with most of my trip reports, I have my husband to thank for the title. Even if it is a major snark on me, I adore it!
For "starters" (oooh, I crack myself up!), the Mousefest trip with Sharon was determined waaay back early last spring. After our grand fun together at the Girls Only DLR trip, Karen decided to join us -- and another CrazyLadyTrio (CLT®) trip was finalized. Then, when my dear husband’s work schedule grew exponentially difficult over the summer and our Free Dining trip collapsed under the weight of office pressures for both of us, it seemed as if buying my DH and DS annual passes for our LeeNee-palooza trip in 2006 wasn’t the wisest choice. (I’d gotten 11 days use out of mine, but Bob and Calder would’ve only used their’s for 8 days.) Then, inspiration struck. Since I was already going for Mousefest, maybe they could come with me a little before everyone else arrived – an “appetizer” to Mousefest, as it were.
In my head, it’s been the Appetizer Trip ever since.
So, when it came time to name the pre-trip (now that I’d FINALLY finished the TR for the *last* WDW trip ), I asked Bob for inspiration on the title. Despite my springing the question on him as he was pulling himself out of the depths of his deep, hibernative sleep yesterday morning, he said I should name it after some form of appetizer. While I liked his suggegstion of “Crew-de-trip,” I thought it was a little esoteric and took too much thinking to make the joke. Then he suggested "Two Chips and A Dip" as a take on the old Chip and Dale Cartoon with Clarisse… and that was that! Purrrr-fect!
Which is a great segue into introducing myself and the two chips – er, the two men in my life.
Bob and Calder are both blonde and cute and cheerful and have complete possession of my heart. Bob is my hubby of almost 17 years and Calder is a ginormous (to me, at least) 11 year old who I keep telling to stop growing because I’m not ready to give up having a young child.
Bob is 41 (almost 42) and is a ride designer who has won awards for his work making rip-roaring adventures that both entertain and educate. He’s a fanatical Cub’s fan and bleeds Cubby blue six months out of the year. He is my beloved partner, colleague, and the funniest person I have ever met – if I wet myself laughing, it’s probably his fault.
On our “young and skinny” Honeymoon.
On our most recent WDW trip.
Calder is a straight-A student in the 6th grade and will be getting his black belt in tae kwon do two weeks after we get back. He’s also approaching that I’m-too-cool-for-this-nonsense teenagery attitude, but I know he’ll throw all of that to the wind when he sees Stitch again.
Calder during our first trip to WDW
Five years later! (Gosh, he could almost be a "friend of Stitch" at this point. )
To some of you, I need no introduction as I’ve been here for many years now. For others, don’t believe what you hear about me – I’m really pretty sane. I just celebrated my 41st birthday (the day after Mickey and Minnie’s), am obsessed with my scanner and PhotoShop, and pretty much stalk Minnie Mouse whenever I’m in the parks. I have been blessed with many trips and have met many PassPorters in the past few years. Especially important to me are my two BFFs, Sharon (PrincessSharon) and Karen (zacksmom_1993). More on these two and the CLT® later!
It all started here… in 1990.
.. and continues to this day!
Our family history at Disney is as follows:
Bob lived in Miami as a teen and went to Disney a few times. I went once with my mom in the 70’s
Our honeymoon in 1990
A solo (for me) trip with my brother in 1994
Our first family trip in December 2002 (first set of APs)
May 2003 for the Flower and Garden Festival
October 2003 to try Mission:Space and Mickey’s PhilharMagic
May 2004 Surprise Mother’s Day trip for Calder and me (2nd set of APs)
September 2004 Calder and I slipped in between two hurricanes to try the AKL
November 2004 to join DH at his annual convention in Orlando
May 2005 we celebrated a Grand Gathering with my step-brother’s family (and I met Karen for the first time – “this is the start of a beautiful friendship!”)
December 2005 Mousefest with Karen and Zack (3rd set of APs)
June 2006 AKL concierge/Beach Club with Karen and Zack
December 2006 my 40th birthday grand gathering with my siblings and families. (4th set of APs)
So, that makes the “Two Chips and a Dip Trip” my 14th WDW trip, Bob’s 10th trip and Calder’s 10th trip. (Bob and Calder have also been to Disneyland once and I’ve been twice.)
Phew… not that I want to break the pattern, but my husband is right – we do travel to Disney A.L.O.T.!!
Up next: the plans and arrangements!
Last edited by Caldercup; 02-19-2008 at 09:34 PM..
Yeah!! I LOVE reading your work And that title! FAB! I had to smile and share with Andy your dates....those were our exact dates 2 years ago.. Nov. 30 - Dec. 5.... and that was our longest trip at that time and here it's just your little appetizer Can't wait for more!!