Leavin' On a Jet Plane

After a year of waiting and planning (well, really a little over 6 years, since I have planning this in my head since Alyssa was born), it finally came...time to leave for Disney World!!

Our flight was at 8:30am so we had to be up pretty early to finish packing the last minute necessities, eat a quick breakfast and get to the airport in enough time to wait through the security check point.  It wasn't hard to wake them up at all.  They were so excited...and so were we!!  Not only were we going to Disney World, it was also the first time they have ever flown.  Kevin dropped us off at the airport where we met up with Grandma and Grandpa!

I bought these Princess Mickey ears online and had their names embroidered on the back.  My plan was for them to wear the in the airport and at the parks since Mickey ears are an iconic souvenir and they were a fraction of the park cost at home.  However, they wore them for about 3 minutes while we were loading up the car and then never put them on again.  Glad I didn't pay full price! But, the are still cute and maybe they will wear them on on next visit...

 Grandma and Grandpa Miller bought the girls Princess suitcases for the trip!

 At the airport, waiting for our plane at the gate!  A friend of mine made the girls the Minnie headbands they are wearing...they wore those a lot!!

 Alyssa and grandpa waiting to board.

 Daddy and Hannah...they look so much alike!

Passing time with mommy and daddy's iPhones.  I don't know how parents traveled before the digital age, but I am thankful I don't have too :)

We flew from here to Atlanta and then connected to Orlando from there.  The layover was a little frustrating trying to find gf food for Alyssa in the airport, but both flights went smoothly.  I wasn't really too worried, but I was little surprised at how much the girls loved flying!  Way more than Dan and I do ;) 

Once we landed in Orlando, we hopped on the Magical Express and before we knew it we were pulling up at the hotel.  We stayed at the Pop Century resort, one of Disney's 'value accommodations'.  Besides the price, there wasn't much that would make you think it was 'value' priced.  It was really nice and the service was excellent (more on that later).  Our travel agent had told her hotel that it was the girls first visit, so they had a red carpet and lots of bubbles there to greet them when we got off the bus.  Very nice touch!

The hotel was based on a celebration of Pop Culture so they had a time line of past decades that ran the entire wall in the lobby displaying popular items from each year.  This is from the year Dan and I were born...any guess which year it was by the stuff displayed??

 Apparently there were curlers in 80's called 'Benders'.  Who knew ;)

 Giant Mickey right in front of our building!  You took the elevator to Mickey's butt and our room was on the left ;)

Facing Mickey was a larger-than-life Foosball court and a giant Big Wheel that stood 4 stories high!  To give you an idea of size, if I were standing next to the 'players' my head would be just under the bottom of their shorts... 

After we checked in and got our 'keys to the world', we took our stuff to the room, grabbed some essentials and headed to the shuttle for the Magic Kingdom.  It had been a long day of travel, but the girls couldn't wait any longer.  Let me memories begin...