Hey kids, want to go to Disney World today?

That's basically what we said to the kids on the morning of departure.  We booked our Disney trip last March with the Hammonds, and much to our disbelief actually kept it a secret from the kids until the morning we left!  It worked out for the kids to spend the night with Nana & Poppa on Friday so that Clay and I could pack and jump up and down and scream with excitement (and eat at Fuzzy's Tacos) by ourselves.  We showed up at Nana & Poppa's Saturday morning and walked in with Mickey and Minnie hiding behind our backs.  We asked Ethan what he thought we should do that day and he said play.  Then we asked them if they wanted to go to Disney World - right then - that very moment.  They screamed and Rachel said, "This is the best day EVER!"  Well worth keeping a secret for months.  So, my Dad drove us to the airport and the day of travel began.

This is the first year that we've used a day just for travel (not trying to cram in a couple of hours at Magic Kingdom after throwing our stuff in the hotel room and chasing after the bus).  If you have small children and have never been to Disney before, I would HIGHLY recommend using your first day just for travel.  Our flight got to Orlando around 2:00 or so and the adults, I mean kids, were beside themselves!   This was another year of firsts in that we stayed at a little nicer resort - Port Orleans Riverside.

When we got to the hotel the check-in line was ridiculously long - apparently all of the resort computers had gone down just before we got there.  But we did get 4 free park passes to use on another trip.  While the guys were waiting in line Anna and I took the kids and walked around the hotel, played at the playground, tried to explain why their horrible mothers didn't realize there was an outdoor heated pool and therefore didn't bring their swimsuits, and watched the ferry boat go by.

We finally got to our room and then headed out for dinner at Downtown Disney.  I'm not sure what Rachel had in mind for her first Disney experience, but I'm pretty sure that waiting for an hour in line to get seated for dinner was not part of the deal.  But the ferry boat ride to and from dinner was cool and we were able to get back to the hotel at a decent time to rest up for day one of pure happiness!