Truck.

The kids woke up dark and early at 5:00 AM and were SO EXCITED to go to Disney World!!!!  Or as Lily calls it, Disney Wor-r-rld.  Is it time to go yet?  How about now?  Maybe now?  In order to try to get a few more minutes of shut eye, I sent them downstairs.  And then I heard them shout “Mom! Dad!  You have GOT to come see what Iceman is doing!!”  Iceman is our family Elf on the Shelf.  He has been coming to visit around the holidays since 2012.  He’s a silly little fella.  He pays very close attention to what is happening in our lives.  This morning he set up a fantastic Disney castle scene – perfect start to the day.  

Lily ripped the last paper chain ring off the wall.  We tried to sit down and have a good brekky of bacon and eggs, but it was pretty much a lost cause.  Who can eat when all you can think about is going to Disney World!!!  Just as we were about to pack up the truck, the kids noticed that it had started to snow.  It was a pretty snow, but it wasn’t what I wanted to see when we had a 2 hour drive to Omaha ahead of us.  So we quickly finished our last minute packing and hit the road by 9:20 AM.  

It was a bit slick, had to use 4WD, and an accident on I80 forced us to take a southern detour, but we made it to the Omaha airport despite Mother Natures attempts to slow us down.  

Plane.

We met up with Mema and Papa (and Aunt Staci who chauffeured Mema and Papa to the airport), got checked in, ate lunch, breezed through security, and after just a short wait, got on the plane at 2:00.  We had row 26, boys on one side, girls on the other.  Mema came with the best travel goody bag ever for each kiddo, and they loved everything!  Books, small toys, Legos, games, markers.  Both bags were jammed full of awesomeness.  The flight was relatively smooth, a little bumpy going through the clouds, and a little bit of ear pain, but they were both great on the flight. 

Train.

We landed in Orlando at 4:30 PM and took a short train ride through the terminal to the ground transportation area.

Bus.

From there, we hopped on Disneys Magical Express and got to use our Magic Bands for the first time.  Super slick.  

After about a 30 minute bus ride, we arrived at Saratoga Springs.  I had received a text message earlier saying our room was ready, so when we arrived we just picked up our rental stroller and went straight to the room.  Magic Bands let us inside to a perfect and adorable 2 bedroom suite.  Huge thank you to Gary and Judy for helping us with the resort!  We dropped off our carry on bags and headed out to find some dinner. Everyone was hungry at this point.  We ate a good dinner (paid with our Magic Bands), picked up a few groceries – the essentials of breakfast, milk, bread, wine and beer – and Jay took the kids for a quick night swim.  Way too chilly for me, but apparently the pool was heated.  By the time we got back to the room it was 9:30 PM. Our luggage still hadn’t Magically appeared yet, so we tucked the kids into bed in their travel clothes and let their happy dreams prepare them for the next day’s adventures.  It has been a long day of traveling on a lot of different things that go, but it was a fairly easy day.  The kids are in good spirits, the adults are happy, and I have smiled more in the past 12 hours than I have in the past 12 days.  Tomorrow’s adventure is Epcot – or as Lily calls it Epic-ot.  Should be pretty epic.