On D Day I woke up at 4am!

That would have been great if I had an early flight, but our flight was not until 1pm.
I didn't really mind waking up at 4am. One of two things usually happens to me when I am excited about a trip:
1. I can't fall asleep! (I HATE this!)
2. I get up at the brink of dawn like at kid at christmas!
Personally, I prefer #2!
Of course, once my cats heard me stir they were all over me for food. So I got up, made coffee, fed the cats, and started doing my final preparations, which took all of, hmmmmm, two hours.
OK - now its 6am and I still have time to kill. So I dis'ed for awhile. I said goodbye to LL's and to Lurkyloo's TRs. I'm sure I checked Caitlin and Dawn's TR. I thought about CP, already at the AK. I regret that I didn't hop on CP's pretrippie until she was almost ready to leave. I would have gotten to know her alot better had I joined in sooner!
I also gave some thought to what type of "fun" photos I might take. I love all of LL's light fixtures and Lurkyloo did a montage of the Epcot water fountains. In one of Memom's posts she suggested hidden mickeys, drinks, and boats.
I liked the boat idea. Out of the three, that was clearly the easiest for me since boats are relatively easy to spot. So I decided to photograph all the boats I saw at Disney. I regret to say there aren't nearly as many boats as there are light fixtures, hidden Mickey's, and beverages. But I did my best and I will try to post each and every one!
So.... By 9am I was trying to wake the kids up. The operative word....TRYING! I knew that DS's friend would be arrving around 10am and I wanted my kids out of bed. It took awhile, but they finally got up. FINALLY!
We left for the airport around 10:20 and we were on the airport shuttle around 11:15. I called my SIL to tell her we would be at the airport in "5". I found myself really wishing that she did text messaging, but at least she keeps her cell phone on! (unlike my DH)
Just as we exited the shuttle, my nephew, (LJ from this point on) and his entire family emerged out of nowhere. They scared me a bit cause I kept thinking the 6 year old was going to get hit by a car. Plus I had no idea the entire family was going to show up for the grand depature. My brother even took the day off from work.
We did curbside check in and my brother's family walked us to security. They seemed surprised when I told them they couldn't go through security. Neither of them had flown post 911. They watched and watched and watched until we were completely out of sight. I felt bad, cause I knew they were all worried about LJ. But we had reached the point of no return and LJ was now completely under my Disney Spell.
Or so I thought. After security (my DH did not leave his belt there this time - thank god

) we went to find our gate and get some food. I found out that LJ adhores chicken nuggets. Trust me, this was the first of many chicken nuggets on this trip.
Just as we are finishing our healthy, nutritious fast food lunch I look up to see my sister in law. Whaaaaaaaat? I am completely dumbfounded. How the heck did she get through security?????? Then I see the rest of the family emerge. What the.........? So much for my Disney clutches. I was hoping that LJ could make a clean break. He seemed totally cool with this trip and I was really worried his family was going to make him nervous.
So my SIL and brother tell me that they got visitor passes from security.

What the heck???? I didn't even know this was possible, but apparently it is. So here is this family with at least two ancy boys hanging out in the southwest terminal.
Now I really started to feel bad. Why you ask?.......well my 2nd oldest nephew, who is 7, looked so sad. He is a quiet kid to begin with and now he is just sitting in one of the chairs basically speechless. I know he had to be so disappointed that his brother and cousins were leaving without him. This just broke my heart. Early on in my trip planning I had mentioned to my DH that maybe we should have asked dear nephew,7. After all, he was 7. My DH said, "No. We are already taking two kids. That is enough". When he said it, he meant it. There was no negotiating. End of discussion.
But now I was completely second guessing myself. I was actually wondering whether I should even be taking LJ. Had I turned into the ultimate homewrecker?????
My nephew, 6, seemed to be handling the situation a bit better. That is because he was so fascinated with the airport and the myriad of planes sitting on the runway. Of course, I should mention that DN,6 called me every day for the week leading up to the trip, asking me if a 6 year old was old enough to go to Disney.

uggghhhhh! Imagine those phone calls!
So, our plane was due to depart at 1pm, but we actually didn't push off until 1:30. That's actually pretty good for PHL. If you have ever flown to or from PHL you know that it has one of the worst on time records!
Once you took off our flight was uneventful! LJ took his first flight in stride. Of course, it was "awesome", but he demonstrated no anxiety what so ever. He had the window seat, watched the take off and landing, and played DS in between. It was a quick 2 hour flight and we landed on time despite our late departure. I started getting into the book I was reading and I even dozed off for 10 or 15 minutes.
This is my DN,7.... See what I mean? Doesn't it just make you want to scoop him up and put him in your carry on?
Here is my first official boat picture. I hope this counts. Sure, its not a Disney boat, but I did take it on the way to Disney. That should count for something. I love the skymall magazine.
At 3:30 we arrived safe and sound in Orlando. I know all you moms can guess what the first thing I did was????? Of course, I had LJ call his mom to tell her we had arrived safe and sound.
We were basically the last ones off the plane. LJ, DH, and I weren't. But we might as well have been, since we had to wait for the dreaded teenages in the back of the plane. After we shuttled over to the main terminal I suggested DH go and pick up the van while we got the luggage. Unfortunately, our timing was a little off. We basically walked down in time to pull our luggage off the belt. I guess there are some advantages to sitting in the back of the plane...no wait for luggage! Who knew?
Once we had our luggage we decided it would be fruitless to wait for DH to pick us up, so we set off to find him. IMHO, DH actually got the better end of this deal. He carried no luggage while the rest of us struggled to get it over the rental car parking garage. Well, I struggled. The teens did just fine!
I didn't take a picture of our lovely rental van exterior, but I did take a few inside shots:
Oh yeah.....I think these boys are ready for some florida fun!
A photo of our trusty GPS, Ellie. It always take Ellie a few moments to get her satellite oriented after we get out of the parking garage. This always freaks out DH, "which way do I go???? which way do I go??????" I remind him that we have been traveling to Florida long before Ellie became part of our life.
So on the way to AKL we made to split second decision to do grocery shopping. My original intention had been to wait for the following day. But Ellie went on tracking mode and found us a Chik fi la (I always forget how to spell this) and an Albertson's grocery store. So while DH did the drive through thing, I did the fastest grocery shopping, EVER! I was out of that store in 10 minutes. I felt like someone wound me up and spit me out of a cannon. I found water, gatorade, ice tea, beer, breakfast foods, milk, fruit, and miscellaneous sundries in no time. There was a fast checker, a fast bagger, a quick scan of the credit card, and we were on the road.
Next stop....[
B]ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE KIDANI VILLAGE[/B]
BUT NOT BEFORE WE PASS THROUGH THESE:
AND FOLLOWED ELLIE PAST THIS SIGN: