The Happiest Place On Earth

Saturday started bight and early for some, and dark and "oh my God why is that alarm clock going off" early for others. I guess I should say "other" as it pertains to our household. No way in the world I would wake the boys up at 3:00am. Let me tell you, that would be a whole other dimension of grumpiness. No it was Lori who had lost her mind, as she had to get up that early in order to catch a bus and be at the half marathon starting line by 4:30am. Like I said the other day.......complete nuts!

Lori was dressed and out the door by 3:15am, and on her way to running nirvana. I went back to sleep, and dreamed that I was running too. You want to know the sad thing about that? I believe I was more tired from dreaming about running 13.1 miles than Lori was from actually running it.

I got the boys up around 8:00am, and we waited patiently for Lori to get home from her race. By 9:00am, Lori was already home from her 13.1 mile journey, and ready to continue the day's adventure.

Our first order of business was to get some food in us. I certainly did not want Lori to say hi to RALPH again today. We decided to eat breakfast at the resort's restaurant call Olivia's. The food and service were really good, and most importantly, our hypoglycemic protection was at defcon 1.

Today's family adventure would start with another trip to the ESPN Sports Complex. The boys, along with 4000 other kids, were running the Mickey Mile. We stopped by the pavilion again, and I was able to catch Lori being congratulated for her half marathon completion. I asked her to raise her arms in victory, and low an behold she grew another set that came out of her ears. Who knew.   Wow, Disney really is a magical place.

I told the kids that we they would have to run fast during their race, and before you knew it, Snow White's gang was in hot pursuit. Don't worry, Christopher was keeping an eye on them.

We got to the starting area, and the boys had their games faces on. South Side Johnny Cool was ready.....

and after some last minute stretching......Christopher was too.

One last hug from their coach.....

and the boys were ready. On your mark.......get set......GO!

While Lori ran with Christopher, I made my way to the finish line to get some pictures. 10 minutes later, Aidan came running down the track. You can see him in the back, wearing green.

Here he is racing for the strong finish.

Two minutes later....here comes Christopher and Momma.

Christopher too had a strong finish.

Our Champions!!!!!

After the race, it was time, to visit the happiest place on earth. Yep, that's right, Disney's Magical Kingdom. What a special place. It's hard to describe the wonderful feeling you get as a parent the first time your kids lay their eyes on the castle.

I get a little choked up just thinking about the ooohs and ahhhs coming from their mouths. That life long memory is worth the hefty price of admission by itself.

There are so many things to see and do at the park, and so little time. Shops, rides, shows, and restaurants everywhere you look.

We started our journey at Stitch's Great Escape. It was great fun, and Christopher was now hooked. From then on, he wanted Stitch everything.

We wanted to ride another roller coaster, so off to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This ride was busy, so we got in line and waited......and waited.......and waited.......and " hey Christopher are you having fun in line"?

"How about you Aidan"?

If we would have gotten pictures of Lori and me, our faces would have looked just about the same. The coaster was really fun, but it was the longest wait we had for any ride, and we quickly figured out how to use the FAST PASS service after that.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the park, riding rides, shopping, and eating various and numerous unhealthy delicious things. As darkness fell, just after leaving the Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride, we stopped to witness the truly spectacular Parade of Lights. I'm sorry that my camera phone does not do these floats justice. It's just not made to take pictures at night. Hopefully, even with the blurriness, you will be able to sense how visually wonderful this spectacle was.

After the parade was over, we were tired, hungry and happy. We took a bus back to the resort, stopped by the To Go restaurant that was on the property, and we were back in our room eating dinner by 9:00pm. We all went to bed about an hour later with smiles on our faces, and magic in our hearts.

To be continued............

William