Days 1 and 2 . . .

DAY 1
Okay, so this day was NOT a good one - first day of vacation, if you can call it that because it was a travel day . . . Anyway, to begin with, the night before we left, I discovered Jack's hamster had died. Yikes. Not only did I feel awful about it (yes, even though it's a rodent), but we quickly decided we needed to hide this event from Jack until the end of our trip. I don't know how you feel a sense of loss over a hamster, but I certainly did when I went to bed that night. Well, we were up at 4 a.m., the boys were up at 4:30, and we were out the door at 4:50. Our flight was on time, no problems at all . . . . UNTIL we stepped off the plane in Denver and entered the gate area, at which point Noah threw up 4 times. Out of nowhere. Ever had one of those moments where everything feels surreal? We were stunned, shocked, horrified, you name it. Unreal. Needless to say, we spent the next few hours, and basically the rest of the day on pins and needles, trying to figure out what we were dealing with. (Note goal #2 in my last post!) It never happened again, and he was totally fine the rest of the day, so who knows. We're just thankful it wasn't the full-blown stomach flu we thought it might be. We have a feeling it was the combination of a nasty cold he's had, with lots of drainage down his throat, along with getting up at 4:30 a.m., on top of being so excited he could hardly contain himself. Anyway, then once we arrived in Orlando, the baggage claim area suffered a malfunction and we waited an hour for our bags - - so by the time we reached our condo we were so exhausted we couldn't see straight.

THE CONDO
Now onto some better news - our accomodations! Folks, let me tell you, THIS IS THE WAY TO DO DISNEY!!! We couldn't swallow the cost of a basic hotel room on Disney property, so we went "outside the box" and rented a condo, for LESS, (from http://www.vrbo.com/) at a golf resort close to the parks. Oh my word, our jaws were dropped from the time we were let into the gated property by a security guard until we finished touring our rental. We are definitely in another realm here - totally, unbelievably GORGEOUS. Ours is a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom (the smallest we could find) with absolute top of the line everything. It's just amazing, and it's cheaper than any Disney resort, or any other off-property resort we looked at. If you are coming here anytime soon, get in touch with me and I'll hook ya up!! I'll post some pics of it later.

DAY 2
Much better day!! We hit Epcot fully rested and refreshed, and had the most incredible day. We arrived before opening (definitely the way to go), and had finished the 2 biggest, most popular rides in the first 30 minutes. Wow, that's unheard of. We completed 3 more before lunch, and even went back a 2nd time to one of the big ones. It was great - no lines, no waits - amazing! At lunch, Jack and Noah got to spend a fair amount of time with Mickey, Pluto and Chip and Dale, so they were just over the moon. We literally could not get them to sit in their seats. Chip and Dale (the boys' favorite Disney characters) did a regular comedy routine right at our table, the kids were THRILLED. I don't remember the last time I saw them so excited. It was just so much fun. Jack and Noah were just amazed, awed and enthralled by everything - I can see why Disney World is considered "magical" - however cliche it sounds, I could really see it in their faces. We left the park around 5, much later than we thought we would, but the kids were just having a blast. To top it all off, it was simply gorgeous outside - 65 and sunny.

Tomorrow
. . . is Kennedy Space Center day. According to my trusty "crowd calendar," tomorrow is going to be a busier day at Disney, so we're heading east to the coast to see everything we can about NASA. More on that tomorrow!