Disney World Part Uno

Well hello!  It's a quiet night here in our hotel at Disney's Coronado Spring's Resort-- not a whole lot to do when you want to get your 3-year-old to go to sleep so the TV is off.... so why not blog about the first couple days of our Disney vacation?????  Okay, let's go!

We awoke Saturday morning bright and early (actually not bright, DARK) at 3:30 am to get ready, pack our last few items, and head to the Des Moines airport for our 6:15 am flight.  This was the beginning of a very long, tiring day!  Jeremiah did AWESOME for all the trekking around airports and 2 flights, not too mention being woken up at 4:00 am!!!!

Watching a little "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" on the first flight.

Drawing with his brand new "Cars" stamp and colored pencil set!

Wow.

Fun times at the Newark airport.

From Newark to Orlando, we were on a bigger plane, so we got to enjoy luxuries like individual TV's in the headrests..... so cool!  And we didn't even have to PAY to watch movies!  Jeremiah watched "Monster's Inc," I watched "Identity Theft," and Adam watched "Oz: The Great and Powerful." And halfway through his movie, J wanted to stop watching and lay down in my lap (he MUST have been TIRED!!!).  He proceeded to fall asleep and was zonked for about an hour, barely even flinched when we touched down in Orlando!

After making our way to the hotel, we made the rather poor decision to head down to Downtown Disney for dinner.  We were EXHAUSTED, and in hindsight, should have probably just stayed at the hotel!  Oh, and it poured rain, too.  Apparently EVERY afternoon there is a thunderstorm in Orlando?  Who knew?  But it has held true every day we have been here!

Anyway, we hopped on the bus for Downtown Disney, walked around there for a bit (in the rain) and then grabbed dinner (which was not all that great, but at that point we were not picky).  Then we walked back to the bus stop and waited FOREVER for a bus to get us back to our resort.  It was miserable!!!  All we wanted was to crash, and all we could do was sit and wait.... I'm sure the wait seemed a lot longer than it actually was, though!

Waiting..... and waiting.......and waiting..... and thankfully still smiling....

Oh, one of the best things we did for this vacation?  Rented a super awesome jogging stroller from Kingdom Strollers!  Seriously, that thing has been a lifesaver!!!

So, finally, we did get back to our hotel and got some much needed rest.  Good thing, because the next day we were off to the Magic Kingdom!!!

We got there about 8:40 am on Sunday (Happy Father's Day!), with just enough time to grab our tickets from will-call and see Mickey Mouse open up the park!  J loved seeing the train arrive with all of his favorite characters on it!

We headed straight to Fantasyland to do "Peter Pan" first-- I am pretty sure that I enjoyed all of these rides just as much as J did!  Brought me back to my childhood.... so fun!  We only had about 10 min to wait to get on the ride (overall, we were very pleasantly surprised with how little time we stood waiting in line throughout the day-- it was awesome!!!).

Then we hopped over to "It's a Small World," honestly, for my sake more than anyone else's! :)  And, no line at all!!!

Lots of wide-eyed looks from this guy!

A tribute to our heritage!

Next, we headed over to "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," which was so cute!  And they had lots to keep the kids busy in line-- so nice!  Our wait was only about 20 min, but it helped pass that time quickly!

Playing the drums!

Still in Fantasyland, we made a stop at the carousel at the request of Jeremiah.  And again, no line!

After that, we went over to Tomorrowland to do the "Tomorrowland Speedway."  Definitely a highlight for Jeremiah!  I let him steer the car, and yes, I will be suing him for the whiplash I received.

Eyes on the road!  And 10 and 2, not 3 and 6!!!! Sheesh!

Some time in here, we also hit the Peoplemover..... but I don't remember when (but what a nice way to cool off and rest our legs)!  Then it was back over to Fantasyland to do the Dumbo ride.  LOVED it!  And only about a 10 minute wait-- we didn't even stop in the cute little circus area to play (although it looked so fun!)!

Before lunch, we did one more ride-- the Mainstreet Railroad USA-- a nice, relaxing train ride around the park.

Cousins on the train!

 Then it was time for a picnic lunch-- PB&J, chips, and fruit.  Nothing fancy, but it was cheap and very good at that point in the day!

And after lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a nap (for ALL of us-- I don't think we were recovered yet from the day before)!

And if you have made it through this entire post, congratulations!  This is where I am going to stop. :)  I will pick up with the rest of our day at Magic Kingdom soon (and hopefully I remember the order of events)!! :)