The Half Marathon was on January 12, 2013. Sure, we could have flown down on Thursday the 10th or even Friday the 11th and made it all work. But with Bambi's birthday being January 9th, what's a few more days out of school for the kids in exchange for Bambi getting Casey's Corn Dog Nuggets and a Dole Whip on her birthday? Exactly. So we booked the flight for the 9th.
Madison and Evan did go to school for a couple of hours while we finished up the last minute packing. We picked them up around 10 and made it to the airport by 10:30ish. The security line was pretty long but move quick enough that we made it to the gate before our plane did.
Cute picture of anticipation.
There is a nice little pizza joint down Concourse C in Milwaukee, so we grabbed a couple of them for lunch. Unfortunately, they only sold Pepsi, but a quick stop next door at Auntie Annie's Pretzels saved us with some Diet Cokes.
The one and ONLY thing I dislike about Disney is that they serve COKE products. I'm a Pepsi girl all the way.
The flight was pretty uneventful. Ryder slept just about the entire time, except when he was browsing SkyMall for the latest cool stuff.
That woman in the other seat looks like she is praying that Ryder doesn't start screaming or something.
Madison and Evan watched some movies on my laptop and phone and played with the toys they packed.
Gotta love technology.
We met Bambi's parents at baggage claim and packed all of our stuff into and on top of their van. Which wasn't the easiest, considering it was 80° and humid and I was still wearing my Wisconsin winter clothes.
In no time we were arriving at Old Key West dropping all of our stuff into the room. A quick picture of the kids' balloons (compliments of the front desk) and a towel flower. So pretty!
So....what did you think of OKW? Was it your first stay there?
In no time we were hopping on a bus to Magic Kingdom.
WOO HOO!!!!!
To our surprise, the Magic Kingdom was still all decked out in it's holiday finest. I would have assumed that it would all have been down by January 9th, but it was nice to see.
A nice surprise.
Evan, showing off his strength by holding up a Christmas Tree. The kid loves his vegetables, and it shows.
I knew that kid was strong the minute I met him.
We wandered up Main Street, just taking in the atmosphere.
Nice photopass picture.
But it was dinner time, and we had Casey's on our mind. No, it's not exactly gourmet, but it's what we like. So there. Here's Evan's chili dog and my BBQ Slaw dog. It was OK, but the bun sucked. Next time: stick to the corn dog nuggets.
The fries were a big hit with the toothless crowd, however.
Not a fan of Casey's...got sick the one time we ate there, but glad Bambi got her birthday dinner.
After finishing up dinner, we made a bee line over to Aloha Isle for a Birthday Dole Whip. (Please excuse the washed out iPhone picture.)
A very happy wife!
Which, with those cute little puppy dog eyes Ryder makes, quickly turned into his first Dole Whip.
Who can pass up baby puppy dog eyes?
After the Dole Whips, we crossed the path to Tinker Bell's meet & greet.
Right after Tinker Bell was Periwinkle, who is evidently Tinker Bell's sister or something. Madison has seen the movie and I got the "Madison Notes" version, which is basically the entire thing, but in some completely random order with a bunch of commentary mixed it.
Evan was less than pleased to have to stand around while Madison mixed and mingled with the fairies, so we let him pick the next attraction. His choice? The Jungle Cruise. Chip off the old block, there. First time we rode it at night. Interesting experience.
Ryder doesn't look thrilled about the fairies either.
UP NEXT: The Race Expo, Packet Pickup, and a Jammed LA Freeway.