At Christmas we decided to surprise the kids with a present of a trip to Disney. We hadn't been in several years and decided Adam was old enough now. So we bought a Mickey ornament and hid it on the tree. We told them that we had a present for them and that an ornament on the tree represented it. We made sure to tell them that it wasn't a baby, since that is something they had all been asking for. They searched and searched and finally found the ornament but it still took them a while to figure out what it meant. They were so excited. A couple of weeks later we all piled into our new big van and began the long drive. We left at 3:00 in the afternoon and within 2 hours Adam threw up. We thought we were in for a very long drive. Don gave him a blessing and we pulled over and got something to eat. When we took off again he fell asleep soon and slept pretty much the rest of the night. He woke up once at 1:00 and thought it was time to play, but after some convincing he went back to sleep again. We drove all night and ended up in Florida at 7:30 in the morning. That first day we drove by our old house, visited a Manatee Springs, and spent time at the beach. We stayed in a hotel that night between our old house and Disney. Everyone was exhausted and got a great night's sleep. The next day we woke up bright and early and packed up and headed to Animal Kingdom. It was Martin Luther King day and very crowded. We still had a great time and saw some great shows like "The Lion King" and went on several rides, like the Animal Safari ride. Ashley got to be in the Lion King show and loved it. Tat night we checked into the hotel we had the rest of the trip near Disney. The next day we headed to Hollywood Studios. Alexis and Daddy rode the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The last time she rode it she was 8 and it terrified her, so she was nervous to go back on. But she loved it this time and said she was so happy she tried it. We saw lots of great shows that day and got to be one of the last guests to ride The Great Movie Ride, since they are shutting it down next month to redo it. We saw the Disney Jr. show and the little ones were so excited. Ashley even got to see Sofia the 1st. We headed back to the hotel for dinner and then Don took the three girls back to see the evening show there while Mommy and Adam relaxed. The next day we went to Magic Kingdom. This was probably the favorite and went on all the fun little rides like Small World, Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Winnie the Pooh. Adam was SO excited for the Winnie the Pooh ride. We probably rode it 6 times the whole trip because he loved it so much. And the wait in line was great because they had all these interactive things for the kids to play with. We saw the big parade that afternoon and it was close to 80 degrees and we were sitting in the sun. Everyone was SO hot. We met a few characters and saw a few shows and we ate dinner at the Pinocchio restaurant, since we were staying for fireworks that night. The firework show was spectacular and afterwards we just hung out on the sidewalk waiting for the crowds to leave so we didn't have a big wait in the parking lot. The next day we visited Epcot. We mostly visited the front sections of the park and rode a lot of rides. We saw the Crush show where the turtle interacts with the kids and they loved it. That evening after dinner, Mommy took Emily, Ashley, and Adam swimming while Daddy and Alexis went back to Epcot to see the night show. The next couple of days we went back to Magic Kingdom and Epcot and visited the favorites again and saw all the countries this time in Epcot. After a full week of beautiful memories, we were ready to head home and so we left after a full day at Epcot and began the drive. Don pulled over several times to sleep but we kept on going and were home by 1:00 pm the next day. It was so good to be home at last, but we had such a great time as a family and can't wait until we can go back again some day.
