Day #1 of Sydney’s Disney Trip

Well after months of planning on Michelle’s part, the day for Sydney’s first Disney vacation has come. We are sitting at the terminal right now waiting for our plane. Sydney made it through the check point just fine. She wondered why we had to take off our shoes. We explained that was to help keep us safe. One of the security people gave Sydney two quarters that someone evidently left in the bowl.

Michelle gave Sydney her new Tinker Bell backpack. Sydney is looking through all the treasures from the bag. Included in the treasure trove were the following: An autograph book that is in the shape of a purse, some activity books, some stickers and of course her snacks.

Lots of people have asked me if Sydney is excited. Well, she is, but not about things you would think. She talks about wearing short sleeve shirts and “short sleeve” pants. She was also terribly excited about packing her snacks last night.

I write this in the Memphis Airport in the middle of a 4 hour layover. Our flight from Louisville this morning was about 1 1/2 hours late. Once we got on the plane, the captain said we were off balance and that one person in front of Row 8 had to move to behind Row 8. After that we started taxiing. The taxi was quite a long distance and Sydney asked if the plane was going to stay on the ground the whole time. She got very excited as the plane started moving - then we stopped again. Seems as though the plane was just a little over weight, so we had to sit for 5-10 minutes while we burned off some fuel. The person next to me said, “well, there goes any hope we had of getting our connecting flight”. The actual flight was pretty normal. Sydney said the plane was bigger than Granddaddy’s truck. She really liked the takeoff, but slept through the landing.

As we approached the Memphis Airport, the captain came back on and said he would have us on the ground in about 17 minutes - that would give us about 7 minutes to get to the connecting flight. Thirty-five minutes later we landed (I guess the captains calculations were a bit off). Then we pulled up to the gate and sat there for about 7-8 minutes. The captain FINALLY came back on and said they were having problems getting the ramp to move - everyone on the plane just let out a moan.

Michelle set out to find an agent. We got
booked on the 8:30 flight, putting us into
Orlando at about 10:30. I guess we’ll get
to the hotel around 11:15 or so.

Sydney got terribly upset when she found
out that we wouldn’t be getting there in
time to do any actual Disney visiting tonight.
While waiting she’s been listening to her “story book reader” and eating some ice cream that she and mommy picked up from the Eddy’s store.

Well the flight that was supposed to take off at 8:24, pushed away from the gate at 9:18 and actually took off at 9:32. We finally got to the hotel after midnight and everyone was in bed at 12:45 am.