We're going to WDW! Adventures of a Mom & Toddler the TR! 9/24-9/30/2010 - Page 15 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
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.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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So glad to see you back! Great updates--sorry your mom was a bit of a downer, but chalk it up to generational differences! Can't wait to read the rest!
Sounds like a really nice first day. Gald to hear Skyler is gaining weight too.
As much as I love my family but sometimes being together with them for 24 hours a day can be a little much. Probably just what is happening with you and your mom.
Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments. I'm glad I've gotten some time with all of this snow and freezing rain (meaning no Speech Therapy for Skyler last Friday or yesterday). Things may get a little more hectic between my next few posts, just to give you the heads up, as Friday before Skyler has Speech Therapy (if it's not cancelled again) I have to meet with someone from the Special Ed Department to give Skyler's History to her & Wed., we have a school Psychaitrist coming to observe him and do some tests on him at home (at least we're in the right track, and everything is getting done for him to hopefully go to school soon). I will try over the next few days to get those pictures up (there are over 100 just of DHS alone).
Cam, Thank you. Those were the only sleeping ones of him I was able to take during our trip, as I was ready to pass out when we got back to our hotel too.
Thanks everyone. My mom was a bit of a challenge during our trip, but it was nice having her there with us. I was trying to other than planned meals, and trying to go to attractions we'd all enjoy, I was trying to go with go with the flow, and it was so hard having her try taking some control of our vacation. When she & I got into it (ok, and I will say I wasn't trying to get my way with her, like a little child would) I was really realizing I don't need the same relationship with her that I have with my dad (which now is non-existant). I truely love my mom though, and was so happy we got to spend time with her.
So glad to see you back! Great updates--sorry your mom was a bit of a downer, but chalk it up to generational differences! Can't wait to read the rest!
Heather, one of her comments to all of my tipping envelpes was "Well, I've actually been to Disney more recently than you have, stayed on property, and I've never left tips for the bellhops, or housekeeping." Even just for my daily allotted cash I had on hand, tips for meals, and for Skyler's Hair Cut, I kept getting the comments "You and your tip envelopes."
I'm sorry but they work hard too. I took offense to her continuously taking the Mousekeeping Envelopes out of our room and handing it back to me instead of leaving it for them. They did get their tips from me, and I even left our undrank Water Bottles on our last day for them (actually offered them to them as they came to clean the room) knowing I couldn't take them on the plane and it was so hot, those ladies had to be dying of thirst. But more on how we spread some magic later to come in the TR.
All caught up!
Welcome to Baby Maddy!
Glad Skyler is ganing the weight he needs. Dylan doesn't weigh much more; he's 33 pounds right now and about 39 inches tall. But that kid eats ALL day long! Constantly wants a snack - I guess he's built like his Daddy - tall & skinny!
The beach and the turtles looked like fun.
You sure fit a lot in your first day at Disney! Sorry your Mom was being a debbie-downer, but I'm happy to hear you didn't really let it get to you. (I'm a little worried about so much family togetherness this year as there will be 10 of us!)
All caught up!
Welcome to Baby Maddy!
Glad Skyler is ganing the weight he needs. Dylan doesn't weigh much more; he's 33 pounds right now and about 39 inches tall. But that kid eats ALL day long! Constantly wants a snack - I guess he's built like his Daddy - tall & skinny!
The beach and the turtles looked like fun.
You sure fit a lot in your first day at Disney! Sorry your Mom was being a debbie-downer, but I'm happy to hear you didn't really let it get to you. (I'm a little worried about so much family togetherness this year as there will be 10 of us!)
Thank you so much Kelly. We can't wait to meet Baby Maddy, and I have even gotten Skyler to say "Baby Cousin Maddy" when he sees her picture (with a gigantic smile on his face). Thank you, I'm glad Skyler's gaining the weight too. I actually need to put Skyler on our home scale, but he is 38.5 inches (so not much shorter than Dylan). He is like Erick too, tall & skinny, and eats all day long as well, but Skyler would rather snack on his fruits, veggies, yogurt, & cheese all day. I'm actually slowly but surely actually changing both his diet & mine to Gluten-Free & Casin-Free (so no more yeast, flour, or dairy for either one of us). The good news is I'm not the only one thinking of this as Erick's dad is also wanting to try the Gluten-Free Diet to help him with his Diabetes. We'll see how that goes though for all 3 of us.
Thank you, we had a lot of fun with the Sea Turtles, at the Beach, & Pool. Thanks, my mom was kinda being a Debbie Downer(and that was what I thought with all of her negative comments). In the end, I was glad she had fun with us (even with her innitial complaint on the MNSSHP tickets costing so much, but I was so happy to hear her reaction at the end of the night, more on that in the next post after I can get our pictures up). I don't blame you for feeling worried about 10 of you. Honestly that's kind of how I'm feeling if there are 9 of us going when we head back to Florida next Christmas (2012), even just for a day. I hope she isn't like that when we go to Chicago, as she has complained that Skyler's & my trip is a little too long. I think she forgets that sometimes Skyler gets overwhelmed, and with the number of relatives we'll be visiting, it will be easier to space everyone out during our trip, other than Easter Day, like she used to do with my sister & I.
Oh and Skyler is picking up more on one of Dylan's favorite things, Choo-Choo Trains. He cannot get enough of Thomas now, and all of the trains.
I'm working on getting pictures of our DHS Day in right now as we speak, but to give you something fun while viewing our Play & Dine at Hollywood & Vine Pictures, I am giving you a Hidden Mickey Search There are a few of them. They aren't any that are physically at Disney World themselves, but my mom actually got some Hidden Mickey's in some of her pictures she took of Skyler! Have fun discovering the Hidden Mickeys! There are probably 12 or 13 of them.
Sorry, I'll add all of the Hidden Mickey Pictures later as my last post wanted to lose all of the pictures I just entered in, so I'm trying to get my favorite pictures in this post for you all to see. The Hidden Mickeys will have to come a little later
.
Sorry I forgot to add in the 2 pictures I took of food that day. I'll re-add them after my MK pictures are done uploading. I am going to get in my next update, so I can hopefully wrap up our TR before we head to Chicago.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.