1...

1...day to go...eek!!!

So I am writing this post a little earlier than usual today as we have a bit of a full day ahead of us.

The morning has started off well though as my Disney's Photopass+ arrived today - phew!  This will be the first time we've used this so it'll be interesting to see the results in a few days time and see just how many photos we can manage!

The morning then struck a hurdle when Virgin Atlantic decided that it wouldn't let me check-in online!!  Which was very frustrating, but after chatting with their online help it would appear they restrict a random selection of passengers from online check-in for security reasons - so that means that we are going to try 'Twilight Check-In'.  So we will check-in, in person, early this evening which will mean that all our luggage will be checked so that tomorrow it will be straight through security and wait for the flight.

So I've had a quick re-arrange of the luggage and Simon has been tidying around the house so that we are already to leave and get this vacation officially underway!

Not sure if I will be able to post whilst we're away but please follow me on Twitter (@JaynePhipps) for regular updates!

See you soon :)

2...

2...days to go!!!!!!

Well we have 2 days to go till we get to WDW!!  And it's all getting very exciting.

So what has today brought us?  An awful lot of packing and getting ready. Simon has been sorting all the tech stuff; cameras, video camera, Go-Pro camera, i-pods, phones and i-pods, you name it and we've probably got it.

While I've been getting everything else sorted and packed making sure we are under our weight limit so that we have the all important space for bringing home lots of Disney goodies.

And to round the day off we are watching vacation video from our last WDW vacation, specifically watching our attempts at playing miniature golf at Disney's Fantasia Gardens and now we're on to Winter Summerland miniature golf at Disney's Blizzard Beach - wonder who will win this year?

3...

3...days to go!!

So here we are with only a matter of days to go...so what have we been up to?

Well the boys in the family paid an early morning visit to the barbers to get themselves all smart and handsome for our vacation and then we were into a pretty usual Saturday.

Our daughter had her usual guitar lesson which meant Simon and I got chance to chill out with s Starbucks whilst she learnt to 'rock out'.  This did get me thinking that our next Starbucks may well be on Main Street, USA!!

This afternoon saw us doing a multitude of tasks; Simon continued with his mission to get our old vacation home videos onto some form of digital format (he thinks he may have succeeded after much swearing and frustration), I continued with getting a few bits together ready for packing tomorrow and making sure that we have directions for our overnight hotel on Monday.  We also went visiting our parents; we are both lucky enough to have parents that live within a 3 miles radius of where we live so we can pop into see them whenever we can.

This evening has involved Simon playing about with the Go-Pro camera and editing some video that he had taken last weekend whilst I've been painting my daughters nails; a combination of orange and green on her toes and a blue/green colour on her fingers!! Her choice!

And now I think I shall put my feet up with a glass of wine and some of my favourite chocolate...well it is a Saturday night after all, I can spoil myself :)

4...

4...days to go!

It's getting closer...and my mind is now in overdrive.  The excel spreadsheet on my laptop is open all the time so that I can note down things to pack, jobs that need doing or new items to our itinerary.

Speaking of which we have today received confirmation that Simon and I will be parasailing this time next week at the Sammy Duvall's Watersport Centre at Disney's Contemporary Resort.  I have to admit that I am both excited and nervous but really looking forward to it, something neither of us have ever done before so it'll definitely be something to remember.

The day started off though with a visit to the hairdressers for my daughter; nothing major just a good cut to get it all neat and smart.  I even had a little trim off my fringe...even though I'd had it cut last week I just knew my fringe wouldn't last till after the vacation so took advantage of being at the hairdressers to have a little more removed!

This afternoon has seen me getting together everything we need to take with us; the toiletries, the clothes, the raincoats, make-up etc etc. So hopefully when we do the packing in a day or so everything will be ready to just go in the bags.  And a first for this vacation has seen me pack my running gear...something I never ever thought I would be doing for a vacation.

We have just rounded the day off with a quick trip to a local sports shop to take advantage of knocked down prices on surf shoes so we are now all kitted out ready to hit the water parks.  And as both Simon and our eldest, who has been working for Simon's company this summer, officially finished work at 6.00pm this evening we thought what better way to start the vacation than a visit to McDonalds - we know how to live ;)

5...

5...days to go

Well it's getting closer but what has today brought...well a combination of mundane tasks and a surprise treat!

This morning started off with general mundane tasks getting done; cleaning the house and more laundry.  The thing is leaving the house for a couple of weeks and arriving home with jet lag means I'd like to come home to a house that's clean and tidy.  Although I'm guessing we may have a repeat of our return last time we went away as depicted by Simon's drawing as part of his 365 Mickey's project...

The downside of living in the countryside - spiders!!

I even ended up doing some more pre-school work today, having to speak to the dreaded Ofsted (our national governing body) about our annual fees...suffice to say I was right and they were wrong!

I then decided it was time for my run (or as I like to call it my bouncy walk), but before I went out I had an idea.  I had been struggling to decide which colour nail varnish to wear for my vacation so I posted a photo on Facebook and asked my friends for some advise.

The possibilities...

So off I went for my run/bouncy walk and did myself proud even if I do say so myself.  I've only been back running a few weeks but I can feel it getting easier each time I go out.  I'm never going to be doing marathons but I am enjoying what I'm doing and am looking forward to a few runs around Lago Dorado in a few days time!

But when I got back I had a number of replies to my nail varnish dilemma all of which contradicted each other but one reply offered another solution.  To actually get my nails painted by a professional...now I'm not one to do this sort of thing I always manage to talk myself out of it but a spur of the moment decision led to an appointment this afternoon and look...

Matching toes and nails, a lovely neon pink in gel nail varnish which should last me over my vacation :)

6...

6...days to go!

So today saw the conclusion to the on going saga with my dollars.  Sure enough this morning I received the order that I had placed yesterday and now no longer require as my original order had eventually turned up yesterday afternoon!

So after a phone call to the company supplying the dollars I was given instructions as to how to return the second order which meant a trip out to my local post office - again!  The lady at the counter recognised me from yesterday and we had a good laugh about the whole situation.  Hopefully everything is now sorted and I can rest easy and start putting dollars into my 'mousekeeping' envelopes.

Talking of 'mousekeeping' envelopes I had some stickers arrive today that will suitably 'bling up' the envelopes...another job to do but a fun easy one.

I have spent the day with my excel planning spreadsheet open and adding things to it as I thought about them.  Mainly just practical stuff like things not to forget to take with us...like the 'mousekeeping' envelopes!

Other than that today has been getting more jobs done around the house, keeping on top of the washing and ironing and confiscating any clothes for the vacation so I don't have to wash them again!

I took my daughter out today to buy a new pair of trainers; we'd ordered some off a well known shopping website at the end of July and they still hadn't been despatched so we'd decided to cancel the order and go shopping today.  Thankfully we had a successful shopping trip as we have a really good sports shop close by!

My daughter is now busy sorting out which pieces of jewellery to take with her...she is 12 years old...don't know where she get's it from!

We also had a bit of a girly night last night sorting our nails out; getting rid of old polish and filing and shaping. So the next dilemma is what colour nail varnish...

Decisions, decisions....at least I'm down to a choice of three my daughter has at least half a dozen bottles lined up to choose from! Wish me luck!

7...

7...days to go!

Well what has today brought..well it's been another quiet day.

I have been catching up on some work related jobs because when we return from our vacation I will be straight back into work the following day!  So I have been getting a few odds and ends sorted just so that first day back can be as smooth as possible.

The other achievement of today has been to sort the matter of the missing dollars!  Now the company I had ordered them from were brilliant they called me back this morning at exactly the time they said they would and were very understanding of the whole situation and promised that I would not be liable for the missing money.  However, they had not been able to find out anymore information from Royal Mail and that nothing could happen until the signature of the receiving party had been tracked down.

Worried that I wouldn't have any dollars for my vacation I decided to place another order this morning.

At 12.45pm I had a knock at the door, and opened it to find my postman with a 'missed delivery card'.  To cut a long story short the original delivery had gone to a similar address in the next village along, but as the occupants weren't in a 'missed delivery card' had been left.  Today the occupants had took the 'missed delivery card' to our local post office who thankfully were doing their job correctly and realised that the delivery did not belong to them!  They then let my postman know about the mix-up and he very kindly came out of his way to drop the 'missed delivery card' off with me.

I then went to the post office and collected the package, quickly tore it open and was very happy to see dollars inside...the only problem now is that I'm due another delivery of dollars tomorrow and so will have double the amount I need - argh!!  Oh well that's a problem for tomorrow to solve!