Traveling to Our Favorite Place
***********DISCLAIMER***********
I am a very detail oriented person, so during this trip I used a neat app on my iPhone to document the main points of each day, the order in which we visited each attraction, and any funny situations that arose. A month ago my phone stopped working on the way to the big city (we live 1.5 hours from the closest real mall and Apple Store). I decided to take it in that day without backing it up. They replaced the phone and I lost all of my extra trip info.
Now that I am 2+ months out from the trip, I hope I can do it justice. Maybe as I get trucking through this TR I will magically remember more than just the basics. So...the following TR is how I remember the trip, it's as accurate as I can be without my notes, and with 400+ photos there might just be a reason to stick around!
********END OF DISCLAIMER********
Leaving the boys behind is always hard, but the thought of trying to attend to the needs of everyone while pushing a triple stroller around Disney is insane! We had a wonderful lady come and stay with Easton, Chase, Noah, Tallulah (cat), Charlie (puggle), and Herman (fish) here in our home while we were away. She loves the boys so much, is an EMT, an overachiever, and an overall amazing young lady. If I have to leave them behind, I am leaving them in good, good hands!
Maegan offered to drop us off at the airport so we wouldn't need to park our car and pay the big bucks. I am all about saving a bit of $!! Our van was packed up and ready by 9:00am so we could relax and not rush to make it to our 12:50pm flight to Orlando. We left around 9:30am, and Maegan patiently listened for the 1.5 hour drive as I reminded her of every single detail she already knows about the boys. Routines, medications, habits, sleeping schedules, favorite foods...you name it, I jabbered about it. Hahahaha! Last Disney trip it seemed to be a little easier to leave them behind. I don't know if that was because they were younger, or if they were still technically "foster babies", but this year Easton
knew we were leaving for somewhere special and desperately wanted to come. Thankfully he loves Miss Meagan so much, and I think he thought he was getting the better of the two deals.
The time finally came to quickly pull our bags from the back of the van, say goodbye, and leave the boys. Easier said than done. I was so sad I felt sick. I wasn't expecting this. I had been pretty excited for a break with just the biggers, but leaving the littles was proving to be problematic. As we walked away and watched the van pull out, I had to reassure myself that the boys would be fine, actually super fine, as Maegan intended to take them blueberry picking, to a local fair, a great family oriented play place with their Aunt and Uncle, and an interactive agriculture center. They were indeed in good loving hands!
I pulled myself together and we headed off to the airline check-in with Southwest. Never flew with them before, but since we spent less than $100 on 3 round trip tickets they were our choice of transportation! We usually pack light, and stow away our carry-ons above our seats, but today we got to check our luggage for free (all but the one with my computer and camera...I am less than trusting when it comes to valuables)! Security was a breeze and we hurried off to find a place to eat. I'd been preparing myself for this moment ever since I knew we wouldn't have free dining. Our last 3 trips have been free dining and I wasn't excited to be paying out of pocket for all of our meals.
I know I would've paid for this meal even if we had gotten FD, but it was the beginning of many, many, many meals and I wanted to work hard on not making Michael and Elsa feel poorly every time I handed over money for our meals. It didn't work. Hahahahaha! We paid $30+ for a meal that was just ok. I knew I was going to have to work on this, considering I had 9 days to make peace with this.
I was finally starting to get over the fact that we had just abandoned the boys (dramatic, I know) and now my "vacation" camera was producing blurry shots. Ugghhh. It didn't matter what kind of setting we put it on, the pictures were lousy. The camera is my right hand man on these trips. I love documenting everything I can, and this was unacceptable. I brought my Sony A550 DSLR on this trip, but only because Michael was taking a photography class in the morning at EPCOT, and he begged me to bring it so he could use it. I don't carry it around on trips because I can't handle the weight around my neck. Within an hour or so my back will keep me from doing anything. (2 previous back surgeries, for those just joining us). I was super frustrated, but we finished our meal and headed out to find our gate. Camera or not, this group is heading to DISNEY!
At the gate, while waiting for our flight, we all fiddled with the camera, and no one was able to produce anything that wasn't blurry. Oh well, we would figure it out later, because now it was time to board the plane!
We were a little disappointed that Southwest doesn't have personal TV's, but we sucked it up and pulled out our electronics. We are a bit of a gadget family:
The flight was uneventful, and before we knew it, we were landing in Baltimore!
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My Trip Nails)
UP NEXT:
Our 1st Layover
We had a wonderful time and I can't wait any longer to share it with you all! 
Wanna learn more about us than the bare minimum? Check out our PTR here, or click on any of the links in my siggy for our previous trips. I'm happy to have you here and I hope you enjoy the ramblings of an excitable, Disney die-hard 
Checking in!! Glad to see you're doing a TR ~ I'm sure you've been crazy, busy with school starting back and all the kiddos!
-Amanda
