2009 Family Vacation: Days 1 & 2

On Sunday, we flew out of Pittsburgh at the buttcrack of dawn. Literally, we watched the first light appear in the sky from the terminal and the sun rise above the horizon from the airplane just before takeoff. The boys both enjoyed their first airplane rides and were very good. Aaron slept for a lot of it, Ian colored and played games on Roger's phone. Both boys entertained the people within 4 row radius of our seats. Traveling through the airports (Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Orlando) was not as daunting as we feared it may be, despite having 3 backpacks, 2 strollers, 2 toddlers, 2 carseats, and 2 suitcases. It was EXTREMELY helpful that our children were very well behaved and in *mostly* good moods.



After arriving in Orlando and getting our rental car... (From Alamo, and we will NEVER rent from them again. HORRIBLE service. Horrible. If you'd like to hear more about that, I'll write a whole separate post on the subject someday.) We drove to the Magic Kingdom and got the boys their haircuts.







Aaron got his First EVER hair cut there, and when you get your hairs cut at the Barber Shop on Mainstreet USA, you get a set of Mickey Mouse ears embroidered with "first haircut." Adorable. We also rode It's a Small World and bought Ian his mouse ears. The kids absolutely LOVED Magic Kingdom. So much so that we spent the better part of 3 days there!

We met my parents at our Condo- The Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort. It was as big (maybe bigger? no, definitely bigger than our first apartment here in Monroeville.) It was beautiful. Luxurious. My dad made us a steak dinner and we hit the hay pretty early.

Monday Morning we set off to meet friends at Ohana (at the Polynesian Resort) for the Mickey & Friends Character breakfast. We dined, met Lilo, Stitch, Pluto & Mickey, and Ian participated in a parade around the restaurant. We then headed out for the rest of the day at Magic Kingdom.







We started in Tomorrowland and rode the "train" that shows you around the area. Ian loved that part, so we knew he was in for loving the REST of the park. We played Buzz Lightyear's Astro blaster (or whatever it is called), drove cars around a track, Met Buzz, and splashed in the water fountains in Toon Town. Ian also rode his first Rollercoaster, the Barnstormer, and then we waited for the Parade down Main Street.










Of course, both the boys LOVED the parade too. Afterward, we hopped on the Monorail and went to Epcot to eat dinner at the Biergarten. It wasn't as good as it was 4 years ago... and they didn't have Sauerbraten anymore. Or Schwarzwalder Kirchtorte. Ian enjoyed dancing around to the live oompa band, though. We ran back over to MK for the fireworks.

It was a REALLY busy day, but we had so much fun! It was also really hot, but apparently I didn't know what hot was, and Mother Nature had plans to give me a little taste. The week only got hotter as it went by... yikes!

Stay tuned for the details on the rest of our days down in Florida!