The Mickey Mouse Club is back

We got home around 11:00 last night from our trip to Disney World. Ethan had a BLAST, Rachel had a great time with my parents, and Clay and I thoroughly enjoyed being back there and seeing Ethan experience Disney for the first time. Our trip got off to a rocky start on Thursday. I had to teach and Ethan had school that day, so Clay stayed home to get the yard mowed, car cleaned and loaded, etc. I called him on my way home from school to find out that he had been stung by a bee right under his eye and one eye was completely swollen shut and the other was almost shut. Yes, I'm serious. So, I drop Ethan off for a nap, go to my parents to play with Rachel before her nap, come back home to rush around and get everything finished that he couldn't do because his eyes were swollen shut and he was knocked out from the Benadryl. We went to pick up Danny & Anna and made it to the airport in plenty of time to find out that our flight had been delayed an hour and a half. Great. We finally board our 6:05 flight at 7:45, and don't end up leaving until around 8:45 because some door underneath the plane wouldn't shut. Thankfully Ethan was just so excited to be on an airplane that he didn't care if we were moving or not. So, we get to Orlando around midnight local time and to the hotel after 1 a.m. - all of this with a VERY wide awake toddler.

Thankfully that was the only negative part of the trip. We got a hotel suite so we could split the cost and it was very nice and had plenty of room. We hit Magic Kingdom twice, Animal Kingdom and MGM, and Clay and Danny spent a few hours riding rides at Epcot. Disney World is one of our favorite places to go, and it was incredible seeing Ethan's little face light up when he saw characters he recognized, or riding rides, watching the parade, and tons of other things. Even though I know he still doesn't "get" the whole thing, it was definitely worth the trip - especially since he was free!

On the way home last night I asked Ethan what his favorite part of the trip was. This was his unaltered and unprompted response: I got to see the muffler on Mickey's car! Oh brother.

We took more than 200 pictures, but here are a few highlights:

Waiting to leave


Meeting Mickey


Waiting for the parade at Magic Kingdom


Mickey leading the MK parade


Ethan pulling the sword from the stone (I didn't think the sword came out, but every time Ethan tried, he pulled it out. Clay tried and couldn't do it, and a hundred other kids tried and couldn't do it...explain that one.)


Ethan, Danny & Anna on a super fast ride (or just the train that goes around Tomorrowland)


Meeting Mike and Sully


Seeing Lightning and Mater was a highlight for E


Clay & Danny were chosen to be in the MGM Backlot Tour show, and of course they hammed it up. A little tidbit about our resident starr...when Clay and I were in Disney World on our honeymoon he was chosen to be in the Indiana Jones show.


This picture cracks me up


One of the elephants we saw on the safari at Animal Kingdom


SFB and Goofy


Ethan loved meeting Minnie Mouse


The end


(p.s. go to clay's blog for his version of our trip)