Jon & Kate Plus 8 - Hit the Road

Jon and Kate Plus 8 Hit the Road
The Gosselins take a road trip to Walt Disney World.

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This was the first episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 that I ever watched. I thought this family was adorable and I completely fell in love with them. I am looking forward to recapping this episode because I'm hoping it will bring back some good memories. (Note: This episode was recapped, like all of the others, after it aired.)

Mady is clearly super excited about leaving for Disney World. She shows off the Disney World countdown calendar that they have made. Each night, they get to rip off a number counting down the days. They're leaving in about 24 hours and are super excited.

The family is driving 19 hours to Disney World. The cost of flying and logistics of taking 10 people makes them think it's important to drive. Mady shows off all the suitcases they are going to be bringing and explains all the snacks they'll be bringing. She seems so mature for her age. Included in this pile are a whole bunch of toys that the family's going to need on the trip down.

Before they leave, Kate heads off to get her haircut and family friend Carla hangs out with the kids. I'm surprised that Kate waited until the day before they leave to get her hair done. I feel like she should have taken care of this a few days before. Oh well.

Unfortunately, while Kate's being pampered, Jon calls because he needs to big van to get the trailer hooked up. They make plans to meet at the hair salon and when Jon arrives, Kate gets whiny and asks if Jon can go pick it up another day. Jon puts his foot down and insists he pick up the trailer that night and then he'll be home to pack it up later. Kate, using her helpless voice, claims that she needs his help that evening and that she's exhausted. Oy.

It's finally the day!! The family's leaving for Florida!! They're planning to leave at 5pm and drive through most of the night to South Carolina. Then they're hoping to get up early and finish the drive.

Jon's working hard on getting the van cleaned. With 8 kids messing it up, it's no wonder that it's gross inside. While Jon's cleaning, the kids are milling around and playing outside. Aaden decided that he was going to be an elephant and pretended to be one all day. Too cute.

Kate's trying to do the last minute packing and is having some clothing issues. For some reason, this family always seems to have clothing issues. Kate thought everyone was like this, but Producer Jen reminds her that it's just this family.

While Kate's doing the packing, Hannah decided that she wanted to fold some towels. This is soo cute. I need a little Hannah at my house to help me!

Aunt Jodi told Kate that she'd help out by taking the kids and feeding them dinner. That way, Kate could finish the packing and get ready without having the kids making a huge mess. Aunt Jodi is awesome and is looking forward for the kids to get to Disney World.

Jon gets to work loading the van and the trailer and it seems like the family is taking everything but the kitchen sink. Yikes. If this is what happens when you have kids, I don't think I'll be signing up for any. haha Jon also bought them a present - earplugs. Apparently you can still hear the kids, but it takes off the high decibels of the shrieking.

After all the packing and potty breaks, the family *finally* hits the road!

The family has a camera showing the goings-on inside the van throughout the trip. Of course, once they get on the road, Kate realizes she can't find the camera and they have to stop and find it. I'm glad this happens to them...I tend to forget stuff to. Jon did the majority of the driving and Kate spent the trip bringing the kids the toys and snacks.

The family made it a long way, Virginia, before they stopped to get gas. Hannah didn't seem to happy to be in the car, but the other kids were sleeping. Kate did stand outside the gas station without shoes on. Gross, lady. It has got to be super dirty there and no shoes on...ew.

At 1:45am, they finally made it to their hotel for the night. The worst part of the night was getting the kids shuttled from the van to the hotel room. Jon got his own room so he could sleep without distractions. I don't know what happened if Kate slept with the rest of the kids. But it was probably good that he was alone. Kate then declares that she won't wear bare feet in a hotel room because of the germs. This confuses me because she didn't wear shoes in the gas station. Oh well.

The next morning everyone's ready to go and they hit the road for Florida.

After 980 miles and 19 hours, the family *finally* makes it to Disney World.

Everyone started to get excited and started clapping once they started seeing the signs for Disney World. If I had to be in the car for that long, I'd be excited too!

When they arrived at the hotel, they were greeted by Beth, Britney, Kayla, and Talia. Talia was going to be able to hang out with Cara and Mady. Beth and the the older girls would be there to help out. Which when you have 6 kids that are 3, it would be helpful to have some extra eyes and hands.

Upon reaching the family's room, each person got their own personalized ears. So cute! I think I have a pair from when I was little, but I am determined to go back one day and get my own Mickey ears! The ears also came with a fun note from Mickey, himself, too!

The first day at Disney, the family got up early and had breakfast at Chef Mickey's. The anticipation was building and lead to a Mady breakdown. Poor girl. I think some of it just her personality and some of it is her need for attention. But hey, there's one in every family and she should just be herself.

When the kids could get inside the restaurant, they attacked Pluto and posed for a picture first thing. Then Mickey came in to join them for a quick picture. The family camera didn't cooperate very well, but they were able to get the coveted picture. Minnie Mouse joined them and made the girls' day. So cute. This makes me want to head there now. I'm going to start saving now.

After breakfast, they headed to Magic Kingdom. They stopped and posed for the pic in front of Cinderella's castle and of course, the camera acted up again. But despite the fact that it's finicky, they did get the picture!

The first ride was the Dumbo ride. The kids seemed super excited to get on the ride. And Kate brought up a sad point - that she couldn't see what the kids were feeling. I know my mom always wanted to ride on the rides with us. And she could, because there are only 2 of us. Unfortuantely, Collin didn't understand that when the ride stops, you have to get off. He wanted to keep riding on the ride and it kind of lead to a meltdown. Kate couldn't handle it and *sent* him to Jon. Nice.

The next ride was the teacups. The kids seemed to have fun, but Kate shrieked through virtually the entire ride. She basically yelled at Jon the entire ride to stop spinning the ride. And he was really just trying to prevent it from spinning out of control.

Poor Mady got upset in the afternoon and needed some sort of snack or cool down. It's never good when your kid just starts screaming for no reason. And generally when your kid is melting down, you should have the camera out of their face. Kate probably should have stepped in there. But at the same time, she wasn't handling the stress of the day all that well either.

The family got to meet Snow White, Cinderella, and Belle. The girls ran over to meet them and just kept hugging and hugging them. Even the boys seems excited that they were standing in fron tof them. Of course, that moment was ruined by Kate's complete meltdown.

Each of the kids were given a small cup of vanilla ice cream. But because it was so hot outside, it melted almost immediately. Kate freaked out because ice cream was getting on their clothes (which probably ruins their resale value) and insisted that each of the cups were taken away from them. The adults then hand fed each of the kids. Which caused each of the kids to melt down because their food was taken away from them. Kate didn't think she overreacted. Jon would have rather let the kids just do whatever and eat by themselves.

The Gosselins ended the day by hanging out at the daily parade on Main Street USA. All the characters come out and dance around. I remember when we were there back when I was about 13, I was wearing a Canisius shirt and one of the characters came up to me and asked if I was from Buffalo, because she went there for a year. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. The kids seemed to have a fun time watching all the characters dance by them. They seemed excited and waved to everyone. Unfortunately, Hannah fell asleep and missed the whole thing.

After a few more fun days, it was time to pack up and head home. Ugh - 19 more hours in the car...gross. Jon got all the suitcases rounded up and packed into the trailer. Kate said that the kids started to get sick and that she lost her voice. I wonder if it was because she was shrieking the entire trip?

Jon and Kate seemed grateful that they were able to take their kids to Disney and experience it as a family of 10.

SassySarah's Review: What a fun trip for their family. Even though Kate did melt down in a horrible manner, the kids really seemed to have fun at the happiest place on earth. Two thumbs up.