Disney World

Here is my synopsis of our Disney World trip. Breif, but gives an idea of how the trip went. Although I had doubts and reservations about our trip to Disney World, it was an incredible trip. I thought Porter might be too young to enjoy it, but he loved almost every minute of it. I worried that we had been suckered into scams because we wanted to save money, but everything worked out so smoothly, I am still a little shocked.
We left Friday night. Porter was not his best on the plane, but we lucked out with the one empty seat on the plane being between Tom and I, so Porter got his own seat. We stayed in a house about ten minutes outside of Disney World with my parents, my brothers, and my Aunt Jenny and Uncle John's family which consists of Madison (10), Zachary (8), Sadie (5), and Joshua and McKay (2). Porter LOVED playing with kids closer to his own age. He still keeps asking me where Josh is (which happens to be the only name he can say out of their family)
On Saturday, we headed to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. An error occurred in our favor which gave us an additional free ticket. I honestly can't believe how everything kept coming out right for us. Porter's first ride was Cat in the Hat which is a little like you are on drugs anyways, but right after a nap, I think made him question what we were doing to him. It is a great theme park and we had amazing weather until the end of the day when it poured (but we were on the water ride, so it didn't much matter).
On Sunday we went to Animal Kingdom and started the day off with the Safari, which Porter thoroughly enjoyed, as demonstrated below:

After some great rides, we headed over to the petting zoo with Porter. He loved it a little to much for my liking as he tried to kiss the goats and touch their behinds. Sick! We were headed in the direction of the car when it started to pour! We made a mad dash to the car, but didn't escape without our clothes getting drenched.

Monday was the Magic Kingdom. Here is where we started the day:

Porter LOVED this ride! We had this thing called Ride Max which helps you plan your day at the Park to "optimize" your visit. We avoided long lines all day! Totally recommend doing this.

They have a darling Winnie the Pooh playset outside the ride complete with Pooh's house, honey pots, and more. He was in heaven!!


Here is the fam at Magic Kingdom. Note Carl's stylin' hat. I love my dad, but the man is seriously lacking in style. On Tuesday, we headed down to Cocoa Beach. Porter, my OCD child, had a hard time adapting to the sand, mud and water, but soon joined Josh and McKay and could have been happy playing for hours.

Wednesday was Hollywood Studios. This was one of the best rides the entire trip, it's Toy Story Mania and I could have gone on it over an over. However without a fast pass, the wait is 80 minutes!


They have something at Hollywood Studios called the American Idol experience. You can try out at the beginning of the day. They choose three people for each of their seven shows from like over 100 people or so. Trent tried out and made the first show. He won his round one by a landslide. Gag me, my brother is such a performer. Then, at the end of the night, they have a finale with the finalist from each competition. If you win, you got a front of the line pass to the American Idol tryouts in any country. Trent came in second to a large black lady with a booming voice singing Midnight Train to Georgia. Not the best singer, her pitch was off and she may have missed a couple of notes, but man that lady had soul and won the crown with her deep booming voice and back story of getting hurt on a ride at Magic Kingdom and spending the day with her son in Celebration Hospital. Like I said, Trent came in second, but you wouldn't have known it afterwards. After the show, he had like 8 different groups of girls come and want to take pictures with him. We saw people the next day at Epcot who recognized him from the first show and were bummed that he didn't win, and to top it off, two girls stalked him on Facebook. Gag me. I'm still unsure what they are going to do with the picture. "Hey look, its me with the kid who didn't win the American Idol experience!"

We took a break on Thursday and just hung around the house and swam in the pool. Porter needed a good long nap that day, so it worked out great. On Friday, we went to Epcot. Not my favorite park, but Porter loved it. They had a Nemo ride with fish that he couldn't get enough of. And of course, Tom got his German buffet.

On saturday, we headed over to Blizzard Beach. One of the Disney water parks. I love that park, but was a little exhausted to enjoy it to its full extent. Porter hates water, but started warming up by the end.
On Sunday, we attended church in Orlando, went to lunch and then headed home. Porter slept the entire 4 hours and then went right to bed when we got home and didn't wake up until morning. The child was exhausted and totally spoiled. It was a great trip and I"m so glad we decided to do it.