What I Did Over Winter Vacation

Topiary Mickey

Over the break my family and I went to Disney World for our vacation. Even though I live within sight of the airport (really), getting to Lambert has been a problem for us in the past. Taking a cab both ways is pricey for such a short trip, and there is no good way to walk to the airport. But at the last minute we arranged with a friend (who also was dog/ferret/fish/house sitting for us) to ferry us to the terminal. you might think that flying with a baby (my son Rex is 8 months old) would be a challenge, but not with this baby. He is so laid back, he just slept and/or  smiled the whole trip.
In Orlando Disney has all the machinery in place to get you (and your luggage) from the airport to your hotel. They even collected our bags for us, so all we had to do was get in-line for a bus. Finally my kids started to get excited. We we're in Florida on a Mickey Mouse bus watching a disney cartoon and Rhys (my 5 year old son) actually put it together and exclaimed, "We are going to the REAL Disney World!?!" Indeed we were.

Main Street USA was a bit crowded 

We started  in the Animal Kingdom (for future reference a half-day is not enough time here). We rode the animal safari, had dinner, and saw a live-action lion king show. All of it cool, but one of my favorite moments of child-like wonder happened during the Lion King show. Several large floats with animotronic animals crossed the stage and parked in the corners of the theater. These giant animals proceeded to sing-a-long with the show. After about fifteen minutes Rhys leans over to me and earnestly asks, "Daddy, are those animals real?" The same thing happened at the Tiki Room. And the Jungle Cruise. How awesome must it be to live in a world where the lines between imagination and reality are still so fuzzy!

The only good picture
of the whole family

Next up was the Magic Kingdom, and it was jam packed with people. The crowds were so rude too, I mean it is the happiest place on Earth, there is no need to shove. We had the baby in a stroller and people were quite cavalier about bumping it and cutting us off. Next time I'm going to install a cow-catcher on the front. Here we had breakfast with Winnie the Pooh, and the other characters from the 100-acre wood. When we went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh floor Alice (my 9 year old daughter) wanted me to submit a joke for Mike to tell during the show. Here is here joke:

Two scientists walk into a science bar.
The first says, "I'll have H two O."
The second says, "I'll have H two O too."
The second guy died.

I am not a good photographer.

My wife is a good photographer

Alice thinks that is so funny. Pretty sharp for a 4th grader. We also did everything in adventure land and explored the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. But that was about it, so we went back to the hotel and swam. Hollywood studios was a blast! Rhys rode Star Tours twice and was amazed! We took a backlot tour and I spotted some props from Narnia in the warehouse. We also saw a driving stunt show that really impressed Rhys. That night was New Years Eve and we went to a fireworks show. The crazy thing is that Rex slept through the ENTIRE thing! What a chill baby. In Epcot we had breakfast in Norway with the princesses, then rode a boat through troll country. Rhys got freaked out by a troll with one big red eye. Next we drove cars on a test track, toured the spaceship earth and saw illuminations that night. We went back to Hollywood and spent over two hours in line for the Toy Story ride, but Rhys claims it was his favorite thing ever. Then he and Alice wanted to ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. I was surprised, but they both had the courage to give it a try. Rhys was scared of the Twilight Zone floating eyeball, Alice was scared of the falling. The kids also loved Space Mountain when we went back to Magic Kingdom on the last day. I can't wait to take them on more thrill rides in the coming years, they are going to love it.
All in all it was a great trip for the kids. I got progressively more exhausted as the week went on, and by the time we got home I was glad to have another week off to recover from my vacation before heading back to work. If you want to see more photos from my vacation I put them all up on Facebook.