So, summer has been busy around here. About a week after Ally's school ended, we took the girls on their first trip to Disney World! It had been a secret up until two weeks before, when I screwed up and said the word "Disney". Mike and I had both said it before, but the girls never noticed. Until that night when Ally figured out what we were talking about! Mike and I had been to Epcot years before, but this was our first real trip. It was also the girls' first flight and I was incredibly worried about how they would behave. Not that they misbehave often, but when you take into account how early you have to get to the airport, and then add in the actual 2 hr flight, it is a long time to stay still. We flew into Tampa, since it was cheaper (and we were planning to visit my family out there while we were down), but then we still had a 90 minute drive to Orlando.
The girls actually did really well on the flight. Mike sat into between them, and I was on the other side. I hadn't flown in 9 years, and it bothered me much more than it had in the past. I didn't even want to try to look out the window! Neither of the girls were scared, thankfully they were more excited than anything. When we landed, we drove out to Clearwater just to walk in the sand and play in the water a little. Ally and Kelly had never been to the gulf coast area, or even to the Atlantic area.
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| Playing in the water! |
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| They preferred to play in the sand, burying my feet! |
The first day we went to Magic Kingdom and told the girls there was a big surprise!
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| It was imperative that we meet Rapunzel. |
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| This is at the Lego store in Downtown Disney. They have all kinds of characters made out of legos--phenomenal. |
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| We had to meet the Mouse family, of course. |
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| And, last but not least, we finally met Princess Tiana. She was much more popular than I expected! |
However, it was 93-95 degrees almost every day and I sweated like I have never sweated in my life. We usually only stayed for about 4-5 hours before we were all done for the day--hot, tired, hungry. I don't think that I would take them again in the summer. I would rather yank them out of school in March or November--and I don't normally advocate that. But it was much too hot to truly be able to enjoy and appreciate the parks.
And on our "off" day, we went to explore Downtown Disney. Huge Disney store with all kinds of merchandise. A huge Lego store (as referenced above) with Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs and other characters made out of legos. Kelly was whining that her belly hurt, so we thought she was hungry. We got in the car, she started to cough right after we pulled out of the parking spot. I looked at Mike and yelled, "Is she going to puke??" Mike stopped the car and yanked her out. He barely set her down in the lot before she threw up. Mortifying all around. At least the kid learned somewhere how to avoid her clothes and most of her shoes. I took her back in the bathroom to see if she was done and to try and clean her up. By the end of the day, she was eating and playing and laughing. I was hoping that it was a fluke thing, maybe because of the heat. But unfortunately, the next two days we continued to hear about her belly. To the point that she was hysterical and didn't want to meet any characters. She just wanted to go home--less than 2 hours after we parked at Animal Kingdom. The cast members were great, trying to cheer her up, but she was in pain There isn't much you can do for a 3 year old with a tummy ache. But both days she perked up and felt better and was able to enjoy herself. Thankfully, she didn't get sick again and the flight home didn't bother her.
Even with that, it was a great trip. I have almost 400 pics--we had to stop and buy another Disney photo album before we left! :) Maybe I'll post some more later!
