Day 1-Magic Kingdom

I have very few memories of going to Disneyworld as a child, but one I do have is all eight members of the family wearing matching red and blue striped shirts. I think my older siblings thought it was lame, but my parents assured them it was not to embarrass them, but to not lose one of us. Our goal for the week was the same, so each day I had meticulously picked out matching clothes for us each to wear, and Day 1 was Orange Day.

As we were all suiting up in our attire for the day, Brianna started feeling sick and getting a bad headache. Determined to actually make it to the park that day, we gave her some good headache medicine and off we went. Our GPS became our new friend during this trip, but as we were on our way to Disneyworld and would experience throughout the week we began to wonder if it was in "spy mode". My case in point. We put in Disneyworld, an easy enough location I would think, and start to follow the directions. The first few seem to be right, we start seeing Mickey ears telling us we are at least on the right path, but then it gave us some strange directions and we ended up at the Disney repair buildings. It was obviously a secret back way no one knew about. We finally get to the Disney entrance and as we pass through the gate Aaron says, "Can you feel that? It's that special Disney magic!" The kids were very excited, and Brianna was still sick. As we parked and unloaded our stuff it started to sprinkle. Sprinkle schminkle. No rain ever kept this crew away from the happiest place on earth. By the time we get to the front gate it is pouring rain and we are all soaked!

Lucky for us the kids are so excited that it didn't faze them too much. As we were arriving we caught the last part of the parade that goes down main street. The look on the girls' faces as they watched pretty much sums up our first few hours there. They were pretty overwhelmed with all the excitement going on around them. Seeing princess and talk of castles left them not knowing which thing to do first. It all sounded so exciting! And so overwhelming!

There were also a ton of people there which didn't help matters-note to self don't go to Disneyworld during Spring break. As we were leaving the park that night, one of the workers said that there were 62,000 people there at Magic Kingdom that day. I can't visualize exactly how many people that is, but it sounds like a lot, and I am pretty sure we managed to stand in line with at least half of them.
We ended up getting to ride the carousel, the Dumbo ride, Splash Mountain, and the tea cups twice. Poor Brianna still didn't feel well and wanted to sit down every chance she could get. It made having to stand in lines even worse for her. By days end, it was good to see her perking up a bit. Hopefully some of that Disney magic will lift her spirits tomorrow.

It was fun to see all the workers there and how happy they were. We are convinced that they go through some special "Mouse-training" to work there. Every time the kids would climb on something they weren't suppose to or splash in a big puddle and get the worker wet, they would say, "Now, hop on down from there, we don't want you to get hurt before all the fun has started, do we? Have a magical day!" All with a smile on their face. It was quite funny.

Inside one of the shops getting some treats to eat during the long wait in line for one of the rides.

We had planned on staying for the night time parade, but by that time we were all exhausted. The lack of sleep from the night before was taking a toll on all of us, and we were ready for a good nights sleep in our soft beds awaiting us back at the hotel. Abby, Brooke, and Erika all fell asleep on the way back to the hotel completely exhausted. Have magical dreams until tomorrow girls!