Disney World Part 1

On October 3rd, we started out our trip to Disney World! This was after dealing with a stomach bug that hit Connor and I pretty hard and caused us to miss my cousin Erin's wedding (which was our family's substitute for our Thanksgiving gathering!)  We drove about 5 hours on Saturday and spent the night in a Quality Inn in Macon, GA and drove the rest of the way to Orlando on Sunday.

Eamon on his "bench" in the hotel room.

On the left is Connor's self portrait, and the right is Patrick's picture
of Eamon that Connor insisted he do.  Patrick also enclosed Connor's eyes.

We met out friends the Wootens (Jerod, Britni, Parker and Porter) at Jerod's parents' condo near Orlando where we were able to stay for almost free for most of the week.  We spent every day with them, in some capacity.  It was great to have other people to go on rides with, especially for Patrick and Connor.  A lot of the week was spent with Patrick, Connor and the Wootens going on rides while Eamon and I chilled out or went on rides that we could go on, Eamon because of his height, and me because of my pregnancy.

On Monday, we went to Magic Kingdom.  Patrick and I had the brilliant plan to just wear the children in our Tulas instead of bringing a stroller.  That would have been great, if I weren't pregnant, since we also had a backpack to carry around and no back to put it on!  Jerod carried it for us a lot of that day and that night when we left the park, we went to Walmart and bought a stroller.  It was nice to have a place to store our things instead of carrying the backpack, and also only having to carry one child around.  Eamon was very resistant to being carried, especially when it started getting hotter, and he and Connor fought over riding in the stroller!

Walking to the Magic Kingdom from the parking lot.

Attempting to front carry Eamon.
This didn't last a long time before
it just hurt too much.

Parker in his Mickey ears.

Selfie while waiting for ticket issues to get worked out.

We purchased the Memory Maker package, which means that all the professional PhotoPass pictures and various ride pictures were available for us to download online and we have the rights to our digital pictures.  Such a great deal!  I highly recommend it.

Wootens with Cinderella's castle

Group pictures.

Our picture with the castle has a ton of people in the background because the horse cart was coming up and people were having the clear the road.

While we were watching for our first FastPass, for the Little Mermaid
ride, both Porter and Connor nodded off!  I guess being on their
parents' back was too comfortable.

Eamon and I waiting for the Little Mermaid ride.

Four cute boys.

The Little Mermaid ride was not a hit with Connor.  He was pretty terrified of the dark places and didn't really understand the plot of it. I was nervous he wouldn't like other rides, but for the most part, he did.  Just not anything remotely scary.

Our awesome Totoro Tula.

Waiting in line for It's a Small World.

The boys enjoyed the boat for It's a Small World and they thought the animals were fun.  I was so glad that Connor liked the ride since I thought there was a chance he would hate all rides!

Next we had lunch and went on the Buzz Lightyear ride.  We got some fun pictures from the PhotoPass.  Connor didn't not get the ride at all, which I thought was funny since he loves video games!  I think this whole first day, he was just feeling the park out and getting used to what being at Disney was all about.

Britni and Porter

Jerod and Parker

Connor and me... I'm telling Patrick that it's about to take our picture XD

Patrick and Eamon (Patrick capitalized on my warning)

After Buzz Lightyear, we got Connor some Mickey Mouse ice cream!  We all had some time to kill before the next FastPass, which was for everyone else to go on Big Thunder Mountain.  Since we couldn't get FastPasses for Seven Dwarves Mine, the others got in the very long line to ride it.  Eamon and I got on the train and did a loop around the park before getting off and riding on the carousel.

This melted way too fast.

On the train with my buddy.

Eamon really loved Magic Kingdom.  He still brings up going to Disney World every couple weeks.  Connor could care less!  Eamon loved seeing Cinderella's Castle everywhere we went and if he couldn't see it, he asked where it was over and over.  He also loved the carousel, aka "the horsey ride."

Selfie with the castle, in line for the horsey ride.

We went on the carousel several times
in a row.

Waiting to see if we could see everyone on the Seven Dwarves.

I had no idea how Connor would do on a roller coaster.  After he was not a fan of the other "scary" rides he went on, so I was nervous.  Patrick thought he would do great and he was right!  Connor said, "Four dwarves was so fun!  It hurt me two times, and I just love it!"

The best picture ever.  Taken by the ride.

Happy Wootens!

Disney made this amazing video from the ride!  

I wish they had this set up for every roller coaster.  It's the best.

After Seven Dwarves, we all walked toward Big Thunder Mountain.  Eamon and I realized there wasn't anything for us to do on that side of the park, so we stopped and got an ice cream sandwich and corn dog and hung out next to Rapunzel's tower.  I thought it was super cool looking and I wish that I could have gotten a great picture of it.  There was a PhotoPass photographer set up in front of it for a brief time, but we missed her.

The tower.

Eamon and I made our way slowly to the ride, pausing to look at the steam boat.  Eamon thought it was so cool that it was a steam engine that was a boat.  I also saw a couple wearing Bryan College shirts.  Their son, who graduated WAY after I was there, is the baseball coach.

Big Thunder Mountain was the last of our prearranged FastPasses of the day, because Splash Mountain was down for maintenance.  The others signed up for the TomorrowLand Speedway to go on next and I suggested we take the train, since it is on the other side of the park from where we were.

Waiting for the train.

Wootens on the train.

After the TomorrowLand Speedway we called it quits for the day.  Patrick lost his MagicBand, the bracelet that acted as his ticket on the ride and we spent quite a while trying to get it back, without any luck.  We decided to come back to Magic Kingdom on Tuesday for the morning and go to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon, since there weren't very many things we wanted to do there.

Continued in Part 2!