Disney

Our family went to Disney from January 10 -14. Fortunately, we get to go every year because my company has our annual meetings in conjunction with the Disney Marathon. We arrived Thursday and pretty much got settled and hung around the resort -- we were staying at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort. On Friday morning, I had meetings and Darin took the kids to the pool....then on Friday afternoon, Darin played golf and I took the kids to the pool. Yes, they really liked the pool. Friday night, we went to a party hosted by the Disney Marathon folks at a club at Pleasure Island. Megan was excited to go to the "Dance Party".

On Saturday morning we ventured out to the Magic Kingdom. Megan is really into the rides. She went on the Tea Cups, the Dumbo ride, the carousel, It's a Small World, and some crazy Winnie the Pooh ride that supposedly told a story as you went through....but I still don't get it. Frankly, it was pretty weird and a little scary. Note to others....don't bother with the Fast Past at the Winnie the Pooh ride. Really not worth it. Anyway, Jake went on the Dumbo ride with us.....but other than that, he was pretty much hanging out in the stroller while Darin tried to keep him occupied. He doesn't really have the patience to wait in line. Actually, he didn't have the patience to hang out in the stroller either and after a while, just wanted to push the stroller around.

We went to go see Mickey Mouse....and before I get to that, let me explain - Jake has been watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show and every time he'd see Mickey's likeness on a bus, TV, sign, etc...he'd scream "mouse!" Well, when we got close to the real deal, he couldn't get away fast enough.

He never actually cried, but definitely didn't want to get near any of the characters. We stayed at the Magic Kingdom for the afternoon Parade with all of the characters....which was well worth the wait because you get to see all of them. Princesses...villians (which Megan didn't even want to look at)...Mickey, Donald, and the rest. The kids were pretty beat by the end of the day.

Oh, yeah....the picture at the top was taken as we were making our way toward the exit. I was getting ready to take a picture of Darin and the kids and right next to me was another family doing the same thing. So, I offered to take their picture and then they did the same. I'm pretty sure that when I took their photo, I actually got Cinderella's Castle in the background. It was actually a really good photo spot, but our stranger photographer didn't take into account all of his surroundings. Oh well.

So, Saturday night, we went to a Running Network dinner and had the kids back at around 9pm. Now, this whole time Megan has been sleeping about the same amount as Darin and I. She would go to bed late and wake up early - ah, the magic of Disney.

On Sunday morning, we went to the Animal Kingdom Park. There wasn't as much to do or see there, so we planned on making it a shorter trip (besides, the kids were pretty beat by this time). We saw the Finding Nemo Musical - which was really well done -- but it was about 15 minutes too long for Jake. And, we went on a ride in Dinoland...something that went around in circles and up and down, etc. There were no lines, so all 4 of us went on. The highlight of the day for Jake was when we saw some random ducks walking around and Darin pushed the stroller really close to them. In this photo, the duck hissed at Jake and that made him crack up. Truly - a belly laugh.

On the way out of the park, we got a quick photo with Dale...

Then, we hung out at the resort for "rest time" and a little more afternoon swimming before flying back to Chicago early the next morning (where it was a welcoming 18 degrees). All in all, a good trip!