Sorry this last instalment is a little late, but as you can imagine we’ve been a bit tired out from the travelling!

Thursday started, as always with breakfast. Elsie was feeling pretty tired and it was showing! So we decided to hire a buggy for her for the last day to save her legs! It was a decision that Elsie was very happy about…she wasn’t fussed on having to walk to the park to get it, though!!Once we got into the park, we had a bit of a wander around to see if there were any rides that Elsie fancied going on, but she wasn’t really in the mood for anything! We had promised her another visit with one of the princesses at the Princess pavilion, so we went to make an appointment which was for about 2 hours time. We decided to go for a ride on Casey Jr again, which wasn’t working when we got there, so we went on the Fairy Tale boat ride (Can’t remember what it’s called!) Once we’d got off of this, Casey Jr was up and running again, and Elsie wanted to ride with Nanny!

After Casey Jr we decided to have a little walk to some of the areas we hadn’t been to, so we headed for Agrabah and found Aladdin’s lamp to give a rub!! By the time we’d wandered around, it was time for Elsie’s visit to see Sleeping Beauty! She was so excited, and walked in and started chatting to Aurora and had some lovely cuddles with her and the pictures were beautiful! The host said that Elsie was the best visitor they had had all day, as she was the chattiest! My little girl makes an impression wherever she goes!!

After this, we were going to head to the studios as Elsie wanted to go on the Slinky ride. As we were walking through the park, we got caught up in the lunchtime parade, which is the Christmas parade. I really wanted to see it, as did Mum and Ian, but Elsie had said she didn’t want to see the parade as it was too loud. I thought we would chance it, and if Elsie wasn’t happy, then we would leave. We managed to get a good spot so Elsie could see whilst still being in the buggy. As soon as the parade was getting close, Elsie started to get excited. As soon as she saw the first float with Mickey and Minnie Mouse on it, she was so happy and giggling! Then she saw Tinkerbell at the back of the float, and she started waving her Tinkerbell teddy around for her to see!! I started welling up at this point!! I was so pleased she was happy and enjoying it! Mum was the same..she was in tears, too! Elsie was waving at everyone as they passed us, and at the end of the parade she said “I loved that!” That started me off again!!

As the parade dispersed we ended up following it to the exit of the park, and we headed off to the Studios. We had lunch at one of the buffet restaurants which wasn’t one of our better moves…they didn’t serve chips!! Elsie didn’t have much to eat for lunch! After lunch we finally got to the Slinky ride, which Elsie loved!! Then we were able to get on the Flying Carpet ride, which Elsie came on with me and Mum whilst Ian took some pictures! After this, we went to see Stitch Live. This was an interactive animated show. Elsie wanted to sit down the front of the stage, but she was a bit scared to start with so she sat on me for most of the show.

After this we kind of decided that we’d all had enough of the day and we were ready to head back to the hotel. Elsie stayed in the buggy back to the hotel and then Ian walked it back to the park and then went to the local shopping mall for some French retail therapy!! Me, Elsie and Nanny spent the time just chilling out and watching telly until it was bedtime!

Once Elsie was in bed and Ian had come back, we decided to head into the village to do some last minute shopping. There were a few things I wanted to get for Elsie for Christmas, that I couldn’t get while she was with me!! This was the first time of our holiday that I felt the need for my wheelchair. I was feeling pretty knackered by this point, and the rest was well received! (Felt awful that Ian had to push me, though!)

The next morning was spent packing our mountains of souvenirs and Ian trying to pack everything in the car. Another tasty breakfast and then we were ready for the off! It was time to say goodbye to Disney, which Elsie had previously said that she wanted to live there forever!

We’d had an incredibly happy holiday, even though it was tiring! We achieved everything we wanted to, and some more besides! I’m so pleased that I/we were able to go on our Disney holiday and even more pleased that everyone has been able to share it with us and has actually wanted to share it with us!! Having everyone’s support has been phenomenal and we cannot thank you all enough for what you have done for us. We couldn’t have done it all without you!

Hopefully, we will be going on another adventure soon and I will write some more entries so you can all come along for the ride!!

All our love from the Frampton Family. x-x-x-x-x-x-x

So, today we decided to get up early, and use our Magic hours in the Studio park. We got up and had breakfast nice and early, and came back to the room to sort ourselves out and then go! Elsie’s princess hair had pretty much fallen out, but I was determined to leave it in as long as I could. (get our money’s worth out of it!) So I tried to patch it up as best as I could…it wasn’t great!

We chose to walk to the park this morning, which was really lovely. And it felt quicker than using the shuttle bus! The view over the lake is stunning, and the sun was shining, so it was even lovelier!

We had to walk through the village, so seemed a shame to not go in a few shops as we went past! The Lego shop was the one Elsie made a bee line for, and we bought a few things, including a lego Santa and Mrs Claus!!

We made our way to the studios, knowing that there aren’t many rides or things that Elsie would be interested in, but we headed for the Toy Story land, hoping something would suffice! I thought she would love the Slinky Dog ride, but when we got there Elsie was adamant that she wasn’t going to go on! We had a look at a few rides, but Elsie wasn’t interested in any of them apart from the magic carpet ride….which had broken down! Me and Ian managed to go on the Cars ride, but wasn’t much fun! Elsie wasn’t in the best of moods, so we decided to go and have some lunch and then head back to the hotel for a rest.

We had a McDonalds in the village and then spent most of the afternoon in our room! I think we all needed a bit of downtime after the busy few days we’ve had! We decided to eat dinner in the Steak House in the village and then head back to the park for the Illuminations show and the fireworks.

Dinner was ok, but nothing special but the illuminations show was amazing! Elsie thought it was great and enjoyed the fireworks! The worst thing was standing around in the cold…I’m still cold whilst writing this, over an hour later!! We then came back to the hotel, looking forward to a warm up and to get into bed!!

It’s our last full day here tomorrow, and we still have lots to do!! Cant wait to do a little more shopping and hopefully meet one or two characters (but I’m not hopeful!)

This was our first full day in the park. Breakfast should have been at 7am…we didn’t wake up until 6.40am! Oops! We managed to get downstairs for about half 7, so it wasn’t a complete disaster! The breakfast itself was much nicer than when we stayed in the Santa Fe. Much more civilised and the quality of the food was much nicer! After Ian finished his breakfast, he left us to go on a mission to get Elsie booked into the “Princess for a day” experience. This meant he had to go to the Disney Hotel to book it, so he left for the parks before us and we met him a bit later. Elsie, Mum and me finished breakfast and headed back to the room to finish getting ready and then head to the parks ourselves! The extra magic hours didn’t get used today!!

We headed out on the shuttle bus to the park, and met Ian just inside the gates. We managed to take some pictures of the decorations this morning..it wasn’t Elsie’s idea of fun, but that’s what we were doing!!! Once we’d had a little wander around, soaking up the atmosphere, Elsie was very keen to go on the Buzz Lightyear ride, so that’s exactly what we did! Elsie was very keen to start shooting her laser gun to start with, but then she was just drawn into the ride itself and stopped shooting after a while! I, on the other hand was determined to beat the Evil Emperor Zurg, so I shot the hell out of everything!!

Next, we headed back to “It’s a small world”, as this is Elsie’s favourite ride (So far!) My Mum looked like she was about to go crazy if she heard the song one more time!! (I don’t think it will be the last time before we go home!) Afterwards, we went on another one of Daddy’s favourite rides…Casey Jr – The circus train! Elsie absolutely loved it…she was laughing the whole way round the track! After we came off this ride, we bumped into Pluto, but Elsie wasn’t keen on meeting him. (She’s not enjoying being up close and personal with the characters, but we kind of knew that was going to be the case!)

Next was Alice’s wonderland maze, Elsie was quite happy to walk around the maze, but she didn’t want to bump into the Queen of Hearts, as she might shout “Off with her head!” so I had to promise that we wouldn’t bump into her! After this, we managed to persuade Elsie to go on the Dumbo ride, as she hadn’t been keen the night before, and she was up for it! Another ride she smiled the whole way through for…she loved pulling the lever to make us go up and down!

Next was the best part of the day…the Princesses lunch experience!! Elsie was so excited, but she was a bit upset that we hadn’t dressed her up in a princess dress, so I took her to one of the shops to buy her a dress to wear for lunch! She chose to be Tinkerbell, and she looked adorable!! She was now a very happy fairy! We went in and we were seated and all the staff we came into contact with called her a Princess, which made Elsie smile so hard!! Cinderella’s mice came to visit us first, which obviously Elsie wasn’t keen on, but they still tried to make a fuss of her, and gave me and Nanny a hug and a kiss!! Then the Princesses appeared and Elsie went into Hyperdrive!! I’ve never seen her so happy! First Rapunzel came to see us, then Snow White, Belle and lastly Cinderella. Belle had a little dance with Elsie which was so lush and Elsie decided to give Cinderella a small present of a Tsum Tsum in a Cinderella carriage. Cinderella was incredibly happy with her gift and gave Elsie extra hugs! In between all of this was our delicious lunch! Couldn’t fault the food, service or the experience. It was worth all the money, as it has without a doubt been the highlight of Elsie’s holiday!

After lunch had finished, we decided to go on Pinocchio’s ride, then Peter Pan’s flight…we got onto Pinocchio’s ride and Elsie really wasn’t happy. The ride was too dark and scary for her, so we decided to give Peter Pan a miss!! So next we headed for Big Thunder Mountain…AKA the runaway mine train! (One of my faves!) We weren’t sure if Elsie would like it, or even be tall enough for it, but she was! We got to the end of the green pass line and Elsie asked, “Is it fast?” and we said yep!! It was at this point that my mum bailed out! Her stomach wasn’t feeling great after lunch, so she decided to give it a miss! Elsie was still keen, though! We got on, and the first part of the ride is in pitch black…me and Ian both waited for the tears but she was absolutely loving it!! She was giggling like a loon the whole way round!! (My baby is becoming a daredevil!)

After this, we decided to go to where the Princess make over was going to be and have a coffee and wait for Elsie’s make over…we got Elsie an Ariel dress for the make over and some silver shoes and a tiara. We went in and she chose how her hair would be and then she had some make up and her face painted. She looked stunning!! Then she had a mini photo shoot (some pictures better than others!) After this, she was walking around the hotel, spinning and saying she felt like the queen!!

This is where our day ended. We came back to the hotel, and that’s where we stayed!! More fun to be had tomorrow!

So, here we are on the most exciting part of the journey!! We woke up at 5am, despite some of us having a crap nights sleep! Bags were gathered up, we got ourselves dressed and we left to get on the ferry for about 6am!

We were one of the first ones to arrive at the gates and one of the first to board the ferry! We were also the first ones in the restaurant, so we knew the breakfast was fresh! We sat by the window and took in the view whilst we ate our brekkie! Once we had dined, it was time to explore the ship (Mainly the duty free shop!) I purchased some perfume and some sweets and then we went to find somewhere to sit for the duration of the trip! The crossing felt rather brief, which was nice and it was soon time to head back to the car!

Once we got off the ferry, it was the small matter of the 3 hour drive to Disney!! We were hoping that Elsie may have had a little doze on the way, but she was having none of it! Me and Nanny did, but not Elsie! After a few toilet stops (For Elsie!) and a lengthy car ride, we arrived at Disney in the rain and the mist!!

We pulled up into the car park and headed inside to see if we could check in early, but there seemed to be some kind of power cut going on, so it seemed a little chaotic! After a little while at the check in desk, Ian finally managed to get our room keys and our passes for the park (including my green pass which pretty much gets us everywhere!)

We decided to unpack and have a little rest before getting ready and heading into the park…Elsie was rather keen to get going, obviously! She wanted to dress up in her Elsa outfit from Frozen II, including some rather high heeled boots, so that is what she did!

We went outside to wait for the shuttle bus, and it took us the short distance to the Village and the parks. We headed through security and to where the magic happens!!

The decorations are absolutely stunning! It made me feel incredibly emotional and I did have a little cry as we were walking past everything! We didn’t take many pictures of the decorations, but we will! Elsie was incredibly overwhelmed by it all, and was perfectly happy until the parade started! It was very loud and she wasn’t expecting it, so we really didn’t get the best out of her at that moment! All she wanted to do was go on some rides! So we managed to make our way through the crowds to “It’s a Small World”. Ian forgot that we had the green pass, but I said that we should use it. We showed our pass and got on the ride straight away!! Happy Days!

Once we were on the ride, Elsie was all smiles!! The happiest I’ve seen her in ages! She loved pointing out everything she could see and trying to sing along! It was magical! Next was the teacups…again the green pass got us straight on without waiting! Elsie was again, all smiles when we started to turn and spin! She was a little gutted when the ride stopped!! I think she wanted a longer go!

Next we thought we would try Dumbo, and Elsie was very keen…right up to the point of going on! She said it was going to make her dizzy, so we decided to call it a night for rides and head for some food. We went to Annette’s Diner, which seemed quite busy, but we managed to get seated fairly quickly! The food and service were great, and we would definitely eat there again, but only if you’re on the meal plan! After that, we did a little retail therapy at the World of Disney and started on our souvenir shopping!! (I love that place!) Then the shuttle bus home and bed!!

As you can tell, I’m starting to run on empty, but be assured that we have had a lovely afternoon/evening in Disney and cannot wait to go back tomorrow for so much more fun!!

Toodle-pipski for now!! Until tomorrow!

So, today was the day that we started our journey, proper!! We are staying in Dover over night to enable us to catch the early ferry tomorrow morning (7.40am)!

The day has been pretty uneventful, so this will be a very brief post, as you don’t all need to know how many service stations we visited along the way!

Our morning started at about 6am! (Standard practice in our house!) And thankfully we had finished packing the last few things last night, so it was a case of trying to fit everything in the car! (Easily done when your husband is an ex-coach driver!)

Then we had breakfast and the last few checks around the house and at around 9.50am, we were ready to leave to pick my mum up. In between this, I had given Elsie a rucksack with some colouring books and toys to keep her entertained for the journey…she had already got bored of these before we left the house!!

I had also purchased a new Elsa Build-a-Bear for Elsie for the journey, as I knew she would be super happy with this. I also bought myself a Winnie The Pooh bear at the same time, thinking I would have a furry friend of my own to cuddle!! Elsie subsequently found Pooh bear this morning, and has adopted him for her own, even though I had told her he was for me! She then found her Elsa bear waiting for her in her car seat when she got in the car…I was right, she almost stopped breathing when she saw it!! These things are sent to try us, but they are all worth it in the end!!

So, the journey itself went by with no real stress or delay, and we arrived at the Premier Inn at about 3.45pm! We got to our rooms, had a quick freshen up and then down to the restaurant next door for some dinner. Then we headed back to our rooms to settle for the night! Elsie finally fell asleep at 8pm, so hopefully will get a good nights sleep before tomorrows excitement!

I am just about to have a cup of coffee before I turn in, so get ready for the next exciting instalment tomorrow!!

So here we are in the run up to the last few days before we set off for Disneyland Paris!  This holiday has been about 18 months in the planning.  Ian decided to tell Elsie all about it just after her third birthday, so we’ve had a year and a bit of Elsie wondering when the magical day would finally arrive!  I had asked Ian not to tell Elsie, but he couldn’t help himself!

We had booked our holiday with Magic Breaks, due to a recommendation from a work colleague of mine. (I later found out that she hadn’t actually used them, but had heard good things!) We decided that 3 days wasn’t going to be enough, as that was what we had done on our last trip in September 2014 (Just me and Ian) We settled on a 5 day break, so we had the opportunity to fit everything in and not rush around like loonies trying to cram everything in.  We also said if we were going to do it, we would do it properly…this meant staying in a slightly posher hotel, as we had stayed in the Santa Fe hotel before.  The Santa Fe was perfectly adequate, but we fancied a little bit of luxury.  We chose to stay in Hotel Cheyenne, which is one of the 3 star hotels on the complex.  We also booked the half board dining plan.  We like to eat in different restaurants, so this suited us and our needs.  The only other thing we were really keen to do was the Princess lunch for Elsie.  Elsie had become interested in Princess all of a sudden, so we were keen to cash in on this!!

I had also always wanted to experience Disney at Christmas time, so we planned to go in the middle of November in term time (Elsie was only going to be in reception class at this point, so thought she wouldn’t miss much!) This would mean that the Christmas festival would be just starting, but the park should be relatively quiet.  Seeing the decorations and the Christmas trees is something I’ve dreamed of since being a kid! Dreams really can come true!

So we booked the holiday and paid our deposit and planned to pay the rest off In instalments up to August when the full amount was due.  Just a few days after we had booked, I was playing online bingo (my guilty pleasure!) as I hadn’t played for quite a while.   Whilst playing one of the online slots, I happened to win £1000!! (my biggest ever win!) This meant that we were able to upgrade our hotel to The Newport Bay Hotel (4*)!! It also meant that we could treat Elsie to the Princess make over at the Bibbidy-Bobbidy Boutique on the morning of the Princess lunch.  The win certainly made things a little easier financially, so we were thrilled when it happened.

As time was going on, we were preparing more and more for our holiday of a lifetime!  Elsie’s birthday was coming up in August, so we had started to focus on that more than the holiday.  But I had started to develop some pain in my abdomen, which was really uncomfortable.  I thought it was possibly kidney stones or appendicitis, so went to the Doctor to try and get sorted before Elsie’s birthday.  They first thought it might have been a water infection or kidney stones, so was given some antibiotics and told to come back if it didn’t improve.  It didn’t…it was getting worse, so I was sent to hospital for some scans.  I ended up staying in hospital for about 5 days, and the discovery from the scans had found I had a 14cm cyst on my ovary.  They weren’t sure what exactly they were dealing with, so suggested I went home and came back a few days later for a biopsy on my liver, as there was some abnormalities on my liver and bowel too.  I went home, unsure what to think, and attempted to enjoy our weeks holiday for Elsie’s birthday.

The biopsy was performed, and I eventually got the results which showed that I was actually suffering with cancer in 3 places.  My ovary (still covered in the massive cyst), my bowel and my liver.  This was obviously a massive shock as we thought it was something fairly minor.  I was resolved to remain optimistic…they can treat it and cure me!

We had an appointment with the oncologist, and my first question to her was “can I still go on my holiday?!?”  Her reply was that they would do everything they could to enable us to still go.  That was music to my ears!  I was determined to be able to still enjoy this holiday!!  At this appointment, the Dr also told us further information about my diagnosis.  The cancer had sadly spread to my stomach, and this was the part which was incurable.  They could give me chemotherapy to make me comfortable and extend my life, but they could never completely eradicate the cancer.  I hadn’t actually considered that my cancer was terminal.  This was shit…my prognosis was possibly a year of life, maybe 3, but she wouldn’t treat me for any longer than 5 years.  Wow…my life had become considerably shorter within a few minutes.  Scary stuff when you’re not expecting it.

My first thought was what are Ian and Elsie going to do? I can’t leave either of them….they need me and I certainly need them! As we left the appointment with this new information swimming around our heads, I decided to remain incredibly optimistic.  If I only have a short time left on this planet, I’m not going to spend it worrying about something I cannot change.  Easier for me to do this than everyone else.

Anyway, we were waiting for them to sort some kind of treatment out for me and my symptoms were starting to get worse.  My stomach had started to swell quite considerably, and they were getting concerned about how to treat me.  So another stay in hospital, and eventually they decided to move me to the cancer ward where they were going to start me on chemotherapy straight away.  It was either that or invasive surgery to remove some of the mass in my stomach, which would have held up my treatment by 4 weeks…it would probably been too late by then.  I was so pleased to be on the Turner ward as I knew that I was finally getting the chance to fight this.  As soon as the chemo was administered, I could honestly feel that it was working! Weird, I know but true!  I was in the ward for 5 days altogether, and by the end of my stay I felt completely different to when I went in.  I was in a much more positive frame of mind!

Whilst I was in hospital, I had discussed with Ian about creating a GoFundMe page to help with some costs for our holiday.  Obviously my circumstances had now changed from when we first booked it, so my insurance was going to cost a lot more than we could afford, and we were as determined as ever to get on this holiday!! I set the page up and couldn’t have predicted the response we had!  I put my first target at £2000, as I wasn’t sure how much the insurance would realistically be.  Within 24 hours of starting, we had pretty much raised half of our target! We were absolutely gob smacked by everybody’s generosity.  People we knew well, people we didn’t know so well and perfect strangers were donating in their droves to help us achieve our dream.  We are still totally overwhelmed by how much we have been gifted. We will always be eternally grateful to you all!  We had to increase our target, as I had underestimated how much the insurance would be, but thankfully we were able to get it sorted with the money which was donated.

After my first dose of chemo, I was able to come home, much to Elsie and Ian’s delight! I was obviously very weak and immobile, but in good spirits and I wasn’t in any pain.  As the days went on, my legs became incredibly swollen and uncomfortable so there was another appointment to the hospital to make sure I hadn’t developed any blood clots!! (Thankfully not…just lots of fluid!) Thankfully we had been able to acquire a wheelchair to get me from A to B, as I couldn’t walk very far at all.  I couldn’t even get upstairs, so I slept on our sofa for about a month!

As this was happening, I was wondering how viable actually going on holiday was going to be. I couldn’t walk or stand for long, so that wouldn’t be much fun for Ian or Elsie. Plus for Ian to have to wheel me around the whole of the park would be completely knackering.  Suddenly, our holiday wasn’t looking like a great idea.

As the weeks went by and I started having more treatment, my stomach started to shrink and so did the swelling in my legs.  I was becoming more mobile around the house, and finally able to get upstairs and back into bed! (Bliss!)  More treatment meant more mobility and back to some kind of normality!  The chemo was going really well, and I seemed to be suffering from very few side effects.  I was using the wheelchair less and less, and feeling more able to walk further and further.  This has now made our holiday a bit more exciting again!! At least Ian won’t have to push me around the park (certainly not as much as he might have to have had!) And I can feel more independent and normal!

During the past few weeks, my mum decided she would like to join us on our holiday! In reality, it is a god send as it means that if I am feeling a bit under the weather (Fingers crossed, I won’t!) then my mum can look after Elsie whilst Ian is looking after me!

Here we are at the day before we leave, and we are pretty much packed! Last few bits in the morning, and then off to Dover overnight and on the first ferry on Monday morning!

Sorry this first blog has gone on about my diagnosis, but I think it’s an important part of why you’re all reading this!! (I hope!)  My next installment will be written on Monday, once we are actually there!!

Thank you for reading, so far!! Bon Voyage, everyone!!

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