A Surprise for Lindsay Trip Report - COMPLETED 3/19!!
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**Colexis Mom** · 02-04-2009, 08:49 AM

Continued pixies for Bethany!!

bethf · 02-04-2009, 12:16 PM

Glad to hear Bethany should be on the mend!

**chezp** · 02-04-2009, 04:04 PM

Continued

**OhToodles!** · 02-04-2009, 04:13 PM

Glad to hear it should be treatable!

**KMB733** · 02-04-2009, 07:39 PM

Continued

for Bethany

**DyanKJ130** · 02-04-2009, 09:51 PM

Gin7274 · 02-04-2009, 09:59 PM

I just caught up with this thread again. I'm so sorry that Bethany is having problems. I hope she will get better soon.

So glad Lindsey and all of you had a good time. Can't wait to hear all about it.

MattUGA · 02-15-2009, 09:42 AM

FINALLY, a trip report begineths...

A Surprise Trip for Lindsay…

Friday Day 1- 1st Update

Lindsay is me as a child. Don’t believe me? Maybe I’ll post a pic of me rocking my leisure suit when I was about 5. Good god, Did I just commit to that?

(They aren't great pics but the similarities are there. haha)

She not only looks like me as a child, she one ups me by being gorgeous and smart. The smart part was worrying me the most this day. We wanted to surprise Lindsay by driving directly from school to Walt Disney World to give her a birthday that she deserved. Unfortunately for my idea but wonderful for her intellectual growth, the kid mastered reading one month in to her kindergarten year. Since then, she has mirrored her Daddy’s youth by reading anything she saw. Books, magazines, STREET signs, you name it.
Anyways, I was really hoping she wouldn’t notice any Walt Disney World signs on the drive down and make it a surprise. With all that on my mind, I arrived at work with the knowledge that I was only working a half day. Working a half day as a teacher is a wonderful feeling. My craziest two classes are after lunch so I knew I wouldn’t see those classes today. Even better! I would teach three classes and then my substitute would show up at the beginning of my first planning.

Have I mentioned that Bethany and I teach at the same middle school now? So she was having the same kind of morning that I was. Once 11:30am rolled around, we both met up in the hall and jokingly started running to the door before something happened and made us stay. It was now time to go pick up Allie from 4th grade and Lindsay from kindergarten. Our elementary schools are separated into “grade centers,” one for K-3 and the other for 4-5 grades. Thankfully they are only a thousand yards apart so I dropped Bethany off at Lindsay’s school while I went to check out Allie. Allie is the epitome of a wonderful big sister. She knew about this trip for three weeks and never once mentioned it to Lindsay. She was at lunch when I arrived which actually made it easier to get out of the school. One of her friends said she was sad that Allie would miss “Fun Friday” which was consisted of eating popcorn and watching a movie. Allie quickly remarked that she was pretty sure she was going to have “Funner Friday” and then gave me a big ol’ wink. Ha ha corny just like her Dad.

Allie and I drove back to Lindsay’s school to pick up Bethany and Linny and they were just walking out the door. Now where could Lindsay possibly think we were going? We had told her the day before that we were driving up to Dalton, Georgia to see Bethany’s grandparents. She was fine with that. She likes them a lot and they live in a log house on a mountain. When I say log house, most people don’t think luxury log house. Believe me, it’s amazing. Anyways, she gets in the car and I tell her she can sit in the front seat with me. She reminds me to turn off the airbag for about the 20th time. For about the 20th time, I remind her that the passenger seat air bag will not activate unless you are over a certain weight which Lindsay is nowhere near. This is the kind of junk that I have to deal with when my kids hang around my Dad for any length of time. They come home questioning my very intelligence. At least my Dad didn’t give them a moral lesson about missing a half day of school

Next, it was time to drive and get Audrey from daycare. Once we arrived, Bethany went in to get her while I got the girls situated. We realized a few months ago that the best way to take long drives with our families is to divide us up: Allie would get the very back row to herself, Bethany would sit in the middle row next to Audrey to care for her, while Lindsay would sit up front with me. I got their DVD players hooked up and had their Nintendo DS’s fully charged. My hope was that Lindsay would be fully enthralled with technology. I had my own toy to keep my occupied. I had received a Garmin GPS for Christmas and I had fallen in love with using it. Primarily it was my testosterone that was excited. I enjoyed seeing the time it said I would arrive and whether or not I could beat it. I never speed unless I’m on an interstate. And I would be on I75 for the majority of the trip. Bethany brought Audrey back to the car and locked her up. As she climbed in, I programmed my Garmin buddy to take me to Port Orleans French Quarter. It was 12:03 pm now. It said I would arrive at 6:03pm. Oh it’s on Garmin.

Up Next: The Drive Down and Did the Surprise stay alive?

**Colexis Mom** · 02-15-2009, 10:03 AM

Great start Matt!! She does look just like you!!

More please!!

**KMB733** · 02-15-2009, 10:22 AM

First Matt, love the leisure suit pic! Great start to the TR! Can't wait to hear how Lindsay reacts to her surprise.

elisa1006 · 02-15-2009, 10:23 AM

So glad you got started. What a wonderful surprise! I can't wait to read more.

MattUGA · 02-15-2009, 10:33 AM

Friday Day 1 Update 2

We started the drive toward Perry, Georgia which is about an hour away from where we work. We head to Perry because that’s the quickest way to get to the interstate. On the way, I knew a shortcut that Garmin didn’t and after recalculating, we had shaved ten minutes off the drive. My testosterone was pumping proudly. Once we got to the interstate, I knew we wanted to stop and get gas and grab lunch. I vaguely remembered an exit about 30 miles south that had a McDonalds/Pilot gas station combo. We had brought the girls Lunchables but we had forgotten our lunch. While driving on the interstate, I was averaging about 85 mph and cars were still passing me with ease. I did notice that I shaved another ten minutes off our trip arrival time. I saw our exit and pulled in. This is where my testosterone level started bothering me. It knew that stopping would kill my race against Garmin which was now predicting my arrival time at 5:45pm. I know it’s impossible for me to drive my Trailblazer to WDW without stopping but logic has no place when a man and his GARMIN are in a race. Lindsay and Allie were busy playing Nintendo so I asked Bethany to go ahead and change Audrey while I pumped gas. Allie and Lin then decided they should go to the bathroom so I took them with me. I got the gas going and then ran into the McDonalds and ordered lunch for Beth and me. I got the girls small milkshakes too. By the time I got back in the car, the gas was done, Audrey was changed, and it was time to pull out. My GARMIN recalculated and said we would arrive at 6:20. I shall have my revenge Garmin! (Did I mention that my Garmin talks in a British male accent? Hahaha)

We weren’t back on the road ten minutes when Lindsay fell asleep in the front. We had been talking and joking most of the drive. She knew that it took about 3 hours to get to Dalton so I wondered if she would ever question what was taking so long. Her nap worked to my advantage. She slept for almost 3 hours. This kid loves sleeping. She falls asleep in the car on our daily 30 minute drive to work everyday. Once she woke up, we were already in Florida. She asked how long she slept and I said “twenty minutes”. Ha ha ha. She said “really?” and I said yep and she accepted my answer. Of course her Daddy would never lie to her. Allie was in her own world playing games, watching DVDs and reading her Kingdom Keepers book. I guess she was fine. Haha. Bethany was reading a book too and Audrey was sleeping. I had hooked my iPod to the car stereo and started playing Disney Podcasts like The Dis Unplugged, WDW Today, and WDW Radio. Lindsay at some point told me that all those Disney podcasts were making her wish we were going to Disney before June. I told her me too. By the 4th hour of the drive, I had regained my Garmin advantage and we were now once again scheduled to arrive before 6:00 which made me happy. Of course I knew that we had to stop soon. I do live with 4 women. Bathroom breaks are very common although I must admit they did better than normal. I do remember dirty looks when I suggested they all wore diapers like Audrey. I told them Audrey understood the importance of kicking my Garmin’s butt. We stopped at a rest stop and Bethany took all the girls in to the bathroom. When they were safely inside, I ran inside to go. I was back in the car relaxing when the all arrived back. I told them it was a shame they didn’t have an iron bladder like me.

My nemesis, Mr. Garmin, now mocked me with a 6:15 arrival time. Please fool. I could overcome that in my sleep. I think we were near Ocala when we stopped which meant that the Turnpike was not far away. Around this time, Lindsay was neither sleeping nor playing games. She was just staring intently around. I tried distracting her by inventing a game. She got a point for every red car she saw while I got a point for every orange car I saw. This kid chose the colors after I suggested the game. Do not think for one minute she doesn’t realize there are less orange vehicles than red. She kept count intently. We played to 200. She won 200-35 and that’s by the grace of god that some transfer truck company uses orange. She kept score and was very accurate. This kept her from noticing most of the Florida signs.

Once on the Turnpike, you are less than an hour to WDW. The more we drove the more signs that popped up that would make you think we were driving to WDW. Lindsay finally saw some of these “signs”and said “There are a lot of Florida tags.” I told her it was because old people live in Florida because it’s warmer but that they were probably going back home to see their grandkids. This sufficed Lindsay because, of course, her Daddy wouldn’ lie. Allie was getting more and more excited and would giggle everytime she would say something. We started playing the alphabet game with signs because I wanted Lindsay to start noticing Disney signs. I’d say.. “Find a D” and she say “There’s one in that Disney sign.” But that’s all she’d say. Allie and Bethany were giggling a lot at this time. By now, we had taken our “Western Way” exit which would lead us to WDW. It is about a 10 minute drive before you exit again and then there’s the huge WDW sign over the road. So we started really trying to tease Lindsay about almost being to Dalton. That’s when my Garmin almost gave it away. Garmin said “Exit in 2.1 miles to Walt Disney World.” Lindsay’s head snapped hard to the left and stared at the GARMIN and said “What did it say?” I ignored her and said we were almost to the Grandparents. She said okay and the car erupted in laughter.

Finally the exit was here and only a couple hundred yards down the road was the WDW sign. At this point Lindsay started her nervous giggle. She finally realized what was up. You could just tell how excited she was. She was SO HAPPY. Lindsay isn’t the type to just hoop and holler. She just soaks things in. She is so cute in the video. ( I had Bethany film her from the back seat for the past few miles).

I do have a video of the reveal and I’m currently trying to upload it. We’ll see if it will work. I’ll post it when and if it gets up.

She was ecstatic and Allie told her how the secret worked. We were stunned that it had worked so well. We pulled into Port Orleans French Quarter a few minutes later. At what time? 5:40pm. Kiss my butt, Garmin.

Up Next: Checking in to Port Orleans French Quarter and a quick drive to EPCOT.