Our Disney Vacation- day 1- travel day

We left for our Disney vacation on Saturday, December 3rd. Our flight left Midway around noon, so it was nice to not have to rush around in the morning to get ready to go. Tim & I had almost everything packed the night before, so all we had to do in the morning was pack our last minute things. The kids woke up really excited that the trip was finally here! We had been tearing links from our countdown paper chain, as well as keeping track of the "Disney bucks" that Aaron was earning to spend on the trip. He earned Disney bucks for taking naps, clean plate club, not having any potty accidents, helping to set the table, not whining, etc. (Maggie got to earn some loot too, but isn't old enough to keep track of it on the chart that Aaron was using.)

We were a little nervous about the amount of luggage that we were taking, but it takes a lot of stuff to travel with 2 kids! We had 2 big suitcases for clothes (one for Tim and I and one for the kids) and one smaller suitcase for toiletries, shoes, diapers, etc. We decided to take our good (but big and pretty heavy) stroller, so we had a huge bag that held that, as well as a high back booster seat for Aaron. (We rented a car seat with the car for Maggie.) Then we had the pack and play for Maggie to sleep in and a couple of backpacks holding the laptop for watching movies, snacks, blankets, stuffed animals, and softies for the kids- all of the stuff that we'd need to keep them occupied!

We took a taxi to Midway, curb checked our luggage, and off we went. Super easy! The only issue on this leg of the trip was that we forgot to put diapers and wipes into one of the backpacks (had them packed in a checked bag). We figured this out as we were eating lunch and wanted to wipe the kids hands with a wipe. Glad that we figured it out before we really needed them! We ended up having to buy a small package of diapers (like 10 diapers for $15) and a little purse size thing of Handi wipes (none of the stores sold baby wipes- the Handi wipes were $5) at the airport. Thank heavens we did because Maggie had a dirty diaper on the flight! The kids did well on the plane. It was Maggie's first time flying and we took her as a lap baby. Thankfully we had our own row of 3 seats, so it worked out fine. Maggie is a little big to be a "lap baby", but it was nice to have all of us together and not have to try to sit beside anyone else. We felt badly for the people in front of us though, as it was really hard to keep Maggie's feet off the seat! The kids watched a movie, had snacks, and stayed pretty well occupied. It was during nap time and neither of them fell asleep, so that was a little disappointing, but not shocking!

After we arrived in Orlando, we got our rental car, and the kids fell asleep in the car on the way to our resort. We stayed at the Parc Soleil, which is a Hilton Grand Vacation Club resort. We got to the room and got all settled in and looked around. Chris, Amy, & Asher arrived a couple of hours later, so we made dinner for the kids and then ordered pizza for ourselves later in the evening. After finally getting the kids to bed (it was quite a chore to get Maggie down), Amy and I went to the grocery store to pick up food for breakfast and lunches for the week.