Disney Day 1

The girls had NO idea we were going! Somehow we managed to keep it a secret for almost 5 months. When the big day arrived, we picked up Bug from preschool, and Leah from McGaughey at lunch time. After they finished eating we told them where we were going. It was anti-climactic. They kind of shrugged like "ok" but about ten minutes later they were bouncing off the walls with excitement. We made it to St. Louis airport and flew to Orlando without any trouble. The trip was off without a hitch.

My parents had rented a 7 bedroom, 7 bathroom house with a game room and a pool near Disney World. It ended up being perfect...their was plenty of space for us to spread out and not feel like we were on top of one another. Anyway, we arrived at the house around 9 PM. The kids were of course wound up, and finally went down to bed around 10:30. Leah and Macy shared a room with two twin beds. Colby, Kiersten and Hattie shared a room with two sets of bunk beds. Matt and Cynthia, Laura and Jeff and Mitch and I all had our own rooms with our own bathrooms with KING beds and we even had one bedroom to spare. 

Anyway, the next morning we were up at 7, had a good breakfast, everyone got ready and we rolled into Magic Kingdom just in time to see the parade at the beginning of the day. It was probably shortly after 9. The kids were a little shy at first but finally got out there to dance with the characters...the danced, but wouldn't get close enough for pictures. They saw Woody, Jessie, Donald Duck, Baloo the Bear and King Louie from the Jungle Book. Most of our dancing was with Jessie...she is pretty awesome .

Then we headed towards the rides. Being early November we didn't wait in lines for too long. We did the tea cups, race cars and Dumbo the flying elephant all pretty quickly. Matt, Macy and Papa did Space Mountain while the younger kids did the rocket rides, Lilo and Stich and the Monster's Inc Laugh Factory. We did It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Ariels under the sea adventure, We all LOVED Mickey's Philhar-magic. It was a 3D show.

Later we headed to frontier land, and while  Jackson and Hattie napped in their strollers with Papa and Gigi close by, Matt, Cynthia, Macy, Leah and Colby went down Splash Mountain. From what I hear, Leah was terrified and shed a few tears. At the same time Mitch and I took Kiersten over to do the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Roller Coaster. Only we didn't tell Bug it was a roller coaster. Of course Mitch and I loved it. We squeezed her in between us. But when we got off the ride she declared "THAT WAS NOT THE BEST RIDE EVER! I'M NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN! DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING?!?!" I just laughed and laughed, but we may have scarred her for life. 

After the others finished Splash Mountain, they went on the Railroad Roller Coaster. Leah went along and then cried and cried. Mitch, Mom and I took the little ones to get some dinner. When the others joined us Leah said it was so fun! I was proud of her for sticking with it. I think Papa was teasing her quite a bit, but she did it!

After dinner we did the Pirates of the Carribean, and then Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride. Then we headed to Main Street. Matt, Cynthia, Gigi and Papa headed back to the house. Colby had fallen asleep in the stroller. But we found a spot and watched a "Frozen" themed show with Princess Anna and Queen Elsa, and she lit up the castle. We stuck around for the Electric Parade light show and then decided it was time for us to head home too. We had been at the Magic Kingdom for 12.5 hours by then, and it was truly magical!