We've put off going on vacation as a family for eight years. We've done day trips to Chicago and Wisconsin Dells but hadn't taken the family anywhere for an overnight adventure other than to Noni & Nona's house since well before the twins arrived in our lives. Hunter has been on several vacations when he was our only child; a few to Arizona and once to Florida but he was so young he doesn't remember it. All this changed a week and a half ago. The Collins Family flew to Florida to meet Mickey Mouse. We gave this gift to the boys for Christmas so the anticipation leading up to our vacation was great. We wrapped up new suitcases for the boys and inside was a (home made) ticket to Disney World. They freaked out. Well, Hunter freaked out. The younger ones were more excited about the suitcases I think. I don't know that they really understood what was in store for them.
We left on Saturday, May 16th. Tyler, Brody and Greyson had never flown on an airplane before so this was exciting stuff. After we dropped the car off at Walleye Park (highly recommend) and took the shuttle to the airport we found our gate and settled in watching the airplanes outside the terminal. The boys loved seeing the planes up close and watching them take off.
The airline changed our gate so many times that it became laughable. They apparently did not have an airplane for us due to a mechanical failure and had to send one from Chicago. This set us behind schedule by a few hours which was frustrating. We killed the time by giving the boys some new Leapster cartridges I had purchased ahead of time and brought with. Hunter got a different game that was a hit. When we finally boarded the plane the boys were so excited to take off. Tyler and Hunter got to sit by the windows which they were happy about. We switched the boys half-way through the flight so that Greyson and Hunter got to be by the window when we landed. Brody's comment after take off, "I'm gonna remember this forever!" and Tyler, "That baseball field is as small as an ant!" Brody also commented, "Wow! It's so loud in here!" And sweet little Greyson said when we landed, "That is the silly part! That's why you wear a seat belt so you don't go flying out of your seat!" They were all so cute.
When we landed in Florida we headed to the Magic Express! John had to bust out his Magic Band so that we could board. The boys have been dying to wear theirs but we postponed this a bit longer thinking it would be best to put them on when we were actually going to the parks. We arrived so late in Florida due to the airline delay that we weren't able to get to the parks before the fireworks display like we had planned. So we just headed straight to the resort. After checking in at the Art of Animation we ate some dinner in the food court (pizza) and went up to the room to settle in for the night. Our bags had arrived...all but two. The car seat was missing as well as our bag that contained all of our toiletries. The car seat arrived a bit later but our other bag never did make it to us. This put quite the damper on things as we had important items in that bag. The resort comped us $50 to spend in the gift shop to purchase essentials. We were able to buy some sunscreen, toothbrushes, and a few other items but that was about it. We headed to bed excited about the fun that was in store for us the next day.
I'll write about our first day at the parks tomorrow!
