Sick, but sneaking out in PJ's to playJudging by the full night of sleep and lack of "erupting preschooler," I'd say Nolan is feeling better. Thank goodness, because one more night of stomach flu, and our washing machine would have gone on strike!
There are seven days until we board our jet and head toward the sunny shores of Southern California for the John Tracy Clinic summer session program. Seven. Days.
I still have a lot of things to square away in the coming week. I have to give our neighbors our keys, so they can feed our cats, feed our fish, and gather our mail for the three week period of time. These same neighbors are also going to mow our lawn while we're away. Did I mention the fact that we have great neighbors?
I'm making a list of online bill accounts that will have to be paid during our trip, and I need to go shopping for travel toys for the boys. Dollar stores rock. We are reading books about traveling and California this week, to help prepare the boys for our (long) plane flight and the wonderful things they will see in Southern California.
I did manage to get Nolan's extra Nexium supply approved, and we are fully stocked with anti-reflux meds for our trip to California. This is extremely good news, because a refluxing Nolan is absolutely no fun to be around!
For those contemplating attending the John Tracy Clinic summer session, I thought I would log some of the costs of traveling and staying in Los Angeles (it helps to start saving now). We do not need a rental car, so those costs are not included:
- Air travel, via Southwest Airlines x 4 people, Buffalo-Los Angeles = $1895.20
- Housing at the Annenberg Apartments for 21 days, $40/day + 14% LA City Bed Tax: $957.60
- Parking Permit for Annenberg Apartments, $25/week: $75
- Long term parking at Buffalo Airport, $11/day for 22 days: $242
- Total travel/housing cost: $3169.80
- Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with one of the best oral-deaf preschools in the nation: FREE.
10 comments:
Holy cow, Buffalo Airport is expensive! Our plane tickets were less than $900 for 3 people on Continental, and I found a deal at an off airport parking lot for $6/day. I thought I would find a better deal flying out of DC, but Richmond ended up being cheaper. We are paying for a rental car, though (at $650 including taxes). I'm a little worried about bills since they're all new. I haven't gotten my first water bill yet and I'm afraid that it will come and be due while we're gone. We'll call the county this week and try to get that sorted. See you next week! :)
Buffalo is VERY expensive- Cleveland isn't much better (we sometimes fly out of Cleveland because we can get a direct flight). That was one of the difficult things about moving out here from California- we didn't realize how expensive it would be to fly from the Buffalo region!
Great post! I can't wait! We're staying overnight in Baltimore, where we can park for the entire 3 weeks included with our hotel room. We leave pretty early and it's about 90 minutes from our house, so that works well. That's costing us $135. I thought that was a pretty good deal. Our airfare is also about $900 for the three of us. I found us a rental car for $383 for the 3 weeks. I'm prety excited about that. Thanks for the heads up about the apartment though. I thought it was going to be more like $600. I guess I forgot about that 14% extra tax. I will give Nate a heads up. I'm a little worried about paying bills too, but we manage most of those online. Nate's sister is staying at our house to take care of our cats and mail, etc. We're really thankful for that!
The program totally offsets all of those costs though! See you guys next week!!!!!
So exciting! As for the travel toys: I went out and spent almost $30 on a couple of little gizmos that I thought would entertain Ben on the plane ride to Wisconsin last Christmas (a little V-Tech handheld game and a magnetic drawing board). Then a friend told me to take a little pad of post-its. Guess which was the big hit? Ben had a blast putting post-its all over his seat, the seat in front, the floor, his seatbelt, rearranging them, etc. Go with the post-its. Oh, and as you know, planes are poor hearing environments; talk to Nolan about that in advance.
Thank you sooooo much for totaling up all of the expenses:-( Yikes, I've been avoiding thinking about how much money we spent to go to JTC. (Plus we spent $900 to board our dog.) That being said, I would never change my mind about recommending it!
Counting down with you!
The boarding costs sort of caught me off guard- I thought it would be closer to $600, too. I just totaled up the cost/day ($45.60/day, with LA City tax) x 21 days. At least we're aware of it in advance! It is totally worth it- I truly can't wait!
Julia, the last time we flew with Nolan, he was 18 months old and it was... difficult. The post-its are a great idea! The only thing that kept him entertained last time was kicking the seat in front of us. I'll write a separate post on our travel toys- they're mostly "tried and true" dollar store toys, that we know pleased Matt at the age of three. Things very similar to post-its, lol.
Matt is older and plays much differently than Nolan on planes. I bought him a little K'Nex kit to build a toy car, little crayola markers that clip on a caribeener (sp??) and several color wonder things. Nolan just rips coloring books apart on long trips, but Matt will actually color in them. Four and a half is a wonderful age!
That's quite an expense, but you're right the opportunity is priceless. Flights out of Pittsburgh are surely worse in all ways, so Buffalo can feel at least a little superior.
I was shocked by the apartment costs too, mainly because we were told that last years costs were $31a day and there would be a "slight increase" for 2010. When you add in the tax the price went from $35.34 a day to $45.60 a day. A $10increase isn't a ton when you're talking a $150 a night hotel for 1 or 2 nights, but that's more than $200 more than last year!
Noah did fairly well the last time we were on a plane, so I'm not too worried about that. My biggest concern is that he won't handle the time change well and never gets into a normal sleep schedule.
I'm so excited for all of you going! I wish I could've went, but knew it was either that or Disney, so we're hoping to get there next year! This really helps though to know what to start saving for ... definitely a good expense, but worth every penny! I can't wait to hear your stories!!!!
exciting!! I know it'll be life changing for you as it was for me!
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