Day One: Magic Kingdom

About an hour after we planned to leave for Magic Kingdom, we finally headed out.  We heard about lines, but nothing could have prepared us for what we were about to face.  We live less than 10 minutes from Disney parking, but it took over an hour to get into "The Kingdom" due to lines at the trolley and lines at the monorail, not to mention lines at admission.  Our kids again were very patient, all things considered.

Michael and Jason prepare to lead us to Disney World!  God help us all...

We're excited to go!

Here we are riding the trolley from the parking lot.  That's Jason behind the stroller!

We hit Main Street, USA just in time for a parade that unbeknownst to us, we would hear or see three more times that day.  It was magical the first time, and annoying by the third.

Annalise got to meet Snow White!

The kids got to ride the big carousel, which had a pleasantly short line.

The lines for everything were a hundred miles long with endless waiting.  We clearly didn't plan well enough for this, because we spent too much time standing around talking about what everybody wanted to do.  We decided that going all the way back to our vans to eat our picnic lunches was way too much trouble, so we just found expensive food in the park.

James was in his glory eating a Nutella and fruit waffle sandwich.

We were getting hot and tired, but still kept smiling!

The littlest among us really enjoyed, "It's a Small World".

Some of the big kids had a blast on Splash Mountain!  (That's Christian behind Michael's arm.)

About mid afternoon, it was time to re-group.  The kids and some of the adults headed back to the house while Michael, Christian, Dad, Courtney and I stayed behind to ride Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise and to take in a couple other attractions.

We were very alarmed to get a couple calls from the other car, which got lost for two hours!  They were crowded, with Abby and Mark taking turns in the back...

...with the double stroller!

When those of us in the second van arrived home, Jason was grilling brats and the kids were enjoying the pool.

We spent the evening relaxing and having fun on the patio and in the water.

Needless to say, we all slept well.