Princess Kimmy and Landon Bear Return Home!!

[princess_momma]

Hello everyone!! Sorry for the delay in starting this tr!! Life gets crazy!!

The cast:

Princess Kimmy - 21 years old
I'm a real life princess and huge Disney addict. I mean, they own all that is great in the world from Disney (obviously) to ESPN to Marvel. I remind this to any haters I encounter in real life...mostly boys who love the latter two. This is my third trip and I had been aching all year to ride ToT again! I hoped it would be as magical as the previous trip where I had ridden 11 times in one day! I'm a high energy person, so I love Disney. Back home, I play on a semi-competitive flag football team (and for the record, the only time my team has lost this season was the week I was in Disney. ) and I JUST signed up for the Dirty Girl 5K obstacle course. So throughout this tr, there may be little training updates sprinkled in! That's in September!

Landon Bear - 2 1/2 years old
Landon is my favorite little man and this was his 3rd trip. He loved it as usual and I love watching him react different every single year. He had the most fun this trip and I loved watching it. I got some great pictures from the few times he would actually look at the camera, but that was a struggle throughout the trip! He was way to busy to stop for more than a second for a picture!

Expect quite a few guest appearances from Lauren, Jake, Mallory, Kristen and Chris! We got to spend a lot of time with them but tons on our own too! It was so awesome!!

We stayed at Old Key West for 7 nights and LOVED it!! We also had park hoppers for the first time and I couldn't wait to use those!!

Chapter One - "Let It Begin, Let It Begin!"
Chapter Two - "Superheroes Don't Drive Buses!"
Chapter Three - Being Awesome, It's What We Do!
Chapter Four - "I'm Looking For a Little More Adventure!"
Chapter Five - Slipping Through Another Dimension
Chapter Six - Princess Recognition
Chapter Seven - I Love Sangria!
Chapter Eight - I Love Parent Swaps...Not Fevers
Chapter Nine - The Loudest Table in the Wilderness!

 

[princess_momma]

All the windows in my house face the East, so as you can imagine, sunrises illuminate my room early in the morning. I wake up pretty early for work, like around 6, and usually by then it is bright enough that I really don’t need to turn a light on or anything. When I woke up on my Disney Departure Day my room was still pitch black. That’s how early it was.

As I’m sure you can all relate to, despite the insane early waking, I wasn’t tired. There’s something about Disney that works better than a venti, double shot, latte from Starbucks ever could. Some call it crazy, I call it the start of the Disney magic. There is nothing else that could make me get up so early and have that much energy and a smile on my face to boot.

My dad picked me up at 4:45 am and we were off to the Denver International Airport. It was so early so there was no traffic. Landon had NOT liked getting woken up so early, but he managed to not fall asleep in the car. I gave him a waffle to keep him satisfied. Luckily, he doesn’t need syrup with them, so he could just carry it around without getting messy. We finally made it to the airport, and since I had printed off our boarding passes the night before, all I needed to do was check our bags. So I went into that line while my dad stayed with Landon. It was SUCH a huge help. I can’t imagine having gone through with just me, plus Landon in a stroller, 2 bags to be checked, and a backpack, purse and laptop for carryon’s. So once the luggage was checked, I loaded up what I could on the stroller and bid my father farewell. Then Landon and I trekked off to security.

There was literally no one else in security…besides TSA of course. Usually, as a single mom, security is the worst. I always feel so bad as I clog up the line to get the kid out of the stroller, try to keep him from getting into trouble as I load up the stroller, put our shoes and belongings into the trays, get my laptop out, etc. But there was no one waiting on me, and not even anyone in my line after we had walked through. So I was able to take my time getting our shoes back on and re-situated. It was awesome. DIA is a HUGE airport and I have never seen the airport so uncrowded, no matter what time of day. It was so awesome.

Then we got on DIA’s fake monorail (uber-fake. It’s below ground, unlike MCO and the real deal.) and then we got to our concourse! I needed some food! We stopped by McDonald’s and I got one of the McGriddle sandwiches, with a frappe for me and some orange juice for Landon. I seriously only have breakfast from there when I go to the airport. There are tons of delicious food places there, but usually most aren’t open for breakfast. Major bummer.

We finally made it over to our gate with TONS of time to spare—the only downside of getting through security so fast. But I’m still not complaining about that. Landon was being super silly! He was a bit giddy! He wanted to sit in ALL the chairs and keep looking at the plane and all that. Then there was a moth and he gave his fake scream and goes “Mommy! A bee!” So cute.

Here’s some pics of us passing time before we were able to board.

Oh and the traditional airport chair pics! Here’s Landon on his first trip:

Then last year:

And finally this year! I don’t think it’s as dramatic of a difference between this year and last. I even put him in another green, striped polo.

Finally it was time to board! We were flying Southwest, and were the last people in group A. I was more concerned with being able to get off the plane than anything, so we sat in the very first row. Landon enjoyed having his own seat and messing around on the plane.

During the flight, he enjoyed being able to stand up if he wanted, but luckily, I was able to coax him to sleep not too long into the flight. I woke up just as we started descending and he slept all the way through the landing.
I always forget that it’s pointless to rush off the plane when you have a stroller because then you have to wait for them to bring them up anyway. So we got off nearly first and then waited forever for our stroller. We finally got that and discovered that we had landed WAY early. We found Lauren’s gate (literally right next to ours) and Landon checked to see if they were here yet.

Nope, not yet! We were a little tired of sitting after the long plane ride, so we walked around a bit. While I was walking around, they made an announcement to the group that had been waiting to board my plane that they would be a little delayed because they had to switch planes because something was wrong with the one we had been on! How scary!

Finally, I saw on the boards that Lauren’s plane was landing so I headed over to her gate. There were some people from my flight also waiting for someone on her flight. What are the odds?! There was also this guy there with a puppy, so Landon stayed entertained.

By now, Lauren was texting me. The anticipation was killing me! I knew she was going through the same stroller waiting thing I did, so I jumped for joy when I saw them loading the strollers up!! Then finally…

After tons of waiting and daydreaming, we were in Orlando!! It was time to start our adventure! We made our way over to the Magical Express. How long would we wait? Stay tuned to find out!!

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in on the fun!

 

[jenny105]

I'm here! Glad you started your TR

I can't believe you went on ToT 11 times in one day. How is that possible? I want proof!

 

[TeresaG]

Joining in! Sounds like a fun report!

 

[DWGal210]

Yea, I love your TRs!! Landon is getting SO big!!!

Can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[Jazzabelle508]

I'm in Read your TR and can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[klacey1]

Yay!! So glad you started! Love the pictures of Landon looking at the planes!

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

I'm in.

 

[Megablocks]

Joining in, can't wait to hear about it!

 

[princess_momma]

joining in on the fun!

Yay!! Thanks!!

I'm here! Glad you started your TR

I can't believe you went on ToT 11 times in one day. How is that possible? I want proof!

That was my last trip silly...on the day I never finished writing about in my tr! I started off riding it with Stephanie, then I rode it with Dustin but there was a problem with the lighting or something so we got a re-ride. So that's 3 times. Then later that night, I rode it once again with each Dustin and Steph which brings us up to 5. Then, they got tired of riding it and stayed with Landon, while I went and rode it 6 more times. It was a slow night so they kept giving me re-rides up the secret elevator and one of the bellhops even let me do the safety speech with him!

Sadly, I didn't make it that many times this trip, but my ToT experience was AMAZING!! But you'll have to wait to hear about that.

Joining in! Sounds like a fun report!

Thanks!! Glad you are here!!

Yea, I love your TRs!! Landon is getting SO big!!!

Can't wait to hear all about it!!

Aw, thanks! Glad you are here!! I promise to finish this one!!

I'm in Read your TR and can't wait to hear about your trip!

Thanks for joining!!

Yay!! So glad you started! Love the pictures of Landon looking at the planes!

Oh man, he LOVES looking at the planes. Good thing airports have those huge windows, otherwise I'd go crazy trying to keep him entertained!

I'm in.

yay! Welcome!!

 

[princess_momma]

Joining in, can't wait to hear about it!

You ninja-posted while I was replying to the other one! Glad you are here too!!

 

[Bridora]

I'm here! And I remembered to subscribe!

I know what you mean about that Disney excitement. I am the same way! I am not a morning person, but I would get up at any time to leave for Disney World!

Glad to hear you guys got there with no troubles. AND I'm glad that nothing went wrong with your plane while you were in the air!!!

And you're now officially ahead of me since I haven't started my TR yet.

 

[mermaid764]

I'm glad you started, I'm definitely joining in

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

tring to catch the first page before i read.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

okay all caught up, and actually read the updates this time....i do miss flying southwest havent flown with them for about 3 trips now...

looking forward to the rest of the report.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Joining in Landon looks as cute as ever!

 

[Cat0727]

Yay, I'm glad you started!

 

[k_reile]

can't wait to hear about a trip with small kids! Caleb was 16 months when we went and he should be just 4 during the time I am attempting to talk DH into taking the next trip!

 

[tinkgurl]

I'm here!