Have you ever had a time in your life where a period of indecision on your part led you to the best decision because you waited to see how things played out? That happened to us on this Disney trip. Kent and I tend to be indecisive by nature and when it came to this trip, it was no exception :) We couldn't decide what to do for our first day in Orlando. We knew that the rest of Kent's family was going to Epcot and we kept going back and forth trying to decide if that was best for our family since we knew we would be getting in late the first night and that we already had two days back to back coming up at the other parks, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. We didn't want to exhaust our kids too early and try to do everything we can to avoid meltdowns if at all possible although of course, they still happen.
A couple of weeks before our trip, I heard from my high school friend, Julie, that she and her family were going to be at Disney the same time as us and that they had nothing planned on that day, our first day in Orlando, our "down day." I immediately knew that I had our answer and that seeing them was what we were supposed to do! Julie and I have been friends since 9th grade. She was one of my first friends when I switched from the private school to the public school so that I could compete on the swim team. She was a constant friend through my four years of high school and the friendship continued to grow as she would visit me at Wheaton over the four years I was there. Julie and I have tried to stay in touch by seeing each other while I am in Marion visiting my family. We haven't seen each other every time, but we have made it a priority to make it work as often as possible. The reason why seeing Julie and her family in Florida was so important to me is that Julie continues to fight breast cancer and has done so with the utmost of strength, optimism, courage and faith in our God. She has truly touched me with her valiant fight and her outlook on life. Seeing her, her husband, Nic (also my friend from high school) and their two boys while in Orlando was the perfect solution to what we were supposed to do on our "down day." I am beyond thankful that this worked out for us! There is nothing I would have rather done for our first day at Disney.
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| Julie, Evan and myself enjoying the Art in Animation pool. |
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| Relaxing by the pool |
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| Whitley and Ethan |
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| My sweet friend, Julie |
We swam at the pool with the Cain family for several hours then headed back to our room to shower, change and rest for a little bit. We were all tired from the late night, lack of sleep because of Whitley and hours in the sun and water.
Later, we explored the resort grounds a little bit and then headed to the Disney bus where we rode it to Epcot and got on the monorail to ride around and get a feel for the layout of the Disney resorts.
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Checking out the Lion King wing of the Art in Animation Resort
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| Our snack while riding the Monorail....it was a huge, $4, beyond yummy, donut! So good! |
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| Exploring the Grand Floridian.....loved it! So pretty! |
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| Whitley had no idea we were on the monorail. She slept through 90% of it. |
Later that night, we went to Disney Springs (used to be Downtown Disney I guess) and ate dinner, walked around and looked through some of the shops. It was really neat! There were white Christmas lights in a lot of the trees which really added to the experience. We wish we could have had more time there but knew we needed to get to bed early to get all the rest we could to be ready for the Magic Kingdom bright and early the next morning!
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| Pretty Cool! |
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| Outside the Disney Christmas store |
