Disney World 2011??

Ever since our trip to Disney World in 2009, we have been excited to go back.  I was originally thinking that we would go on our next trip in the spring of 2012.  As we entered 2011, I realized that for the first time in our married lives, we didn't have anything major planned.  Looking back over the past years, here is what was crazy in our lives: 

2004-Graduated College, Got Married, Got our first Apartment, Bought a Car, Went on trips to Puerto Vallarta and Las Vegas, Josh started working at the church
2005-We both started new jobs (Speedco & ThyssenKrupp)
2006-Bought a house, Went to Cancun
2007-Remodeled our kitchen, Decided to start a family, Bought a Car
2008-Hannah was born, I quit my job
2009-I started working for the church, Went to DisneyWorld
2010-Jacob was born

I was thinking about all of this and decided I was completely content to stay at home with the kids and have an uneventful, (inexpensive) year for once.  But, that very day, Josh came home from work and mentioned that we had an offer to go to DisneyWorld at 35% off this year and he wanted to go right after Jacob's first birthday, like we did with Hannah.  I wasn't sure, but he spent the whole evening researching and said he had the itch to go.  In addition to the 35% off, we had signed up for a Disney Visa credit card after our last trip.  We have earned 1% on all our purchases towards our next trip to Disney. So, I expect to have another 25% or so off our trip by November when we plan to go!!! 

(SIDE NOTE:  If you think your family will be going on any Disney trip in the next 5 years, (and if you can handle a credit card :), I highly recommend signing up.  As an extra bonus, if you enter my card member number, we'll both get $25 Disney Dollars!  Here is the link: www.disneyrewardsfriends.com Just enter code CZSL along with my number 17738658 ) 

ALSO, here's another deal we just found out about:  We are members of Sam's Club, and they sell $100 Disney gift cards for $98 and some odd cents.  However, each one also comes with a $10 Disney Store gift card!  This is not good toward your vacation or in the parks but is still a very nice bonus for money you are spending anyway!  So, we purchased 14 of these cards.  They are worth $1400 towards our vacation plus $140 towards the Disney store ($1540), and we paid $1384.  That was a fun little bonus!  Now I can get some fun clothes or something for the kids before our trip!

I know it will be a challenge with a 1 and 3 year old, but what can I say, when my husband is excited about something, it's contagious.  And the conservative side of me knows that Disney allows you to cancel your trip anytime 45 days or more before your trip without penalty, so we could still change our minds if needed... And so the planning begins....