Our Recent Trip to Disneyworld

We went on our semi-annual (isn't that every two years?) trip to Disney World January 2-9. This marked the 6th time we have done this Disney vacation with the Mims family (Kelly and Lynn and kids). The Johnsey family (Joe and Leanna) have joined us three times, and this year we added Julie's husband, Big Sam, and Parker's wife, Alyssa. (Parker is Lynn's oldest son). Our family was missing Olivia and her husband, Brian, but we did have a new family join us, the Green family (Mike and Amy). Our total headcount was 26. 

Just looking at the hundreds of pictures we have between my phone, Jimmy's phone, Jimmy's camera, and the Disney Photo Pass makes me want to go back! The weather was so nice, and we had so much fun!

I selected several pictures from the week to give an overview of our time at the four parks. We visited each park two days except for Animal Kingdom--we only went there one day. But the day we visited Animal Kingdom, we were all on the 7:00 AM bus in order to be there when the park opened. Our plan, along with hundreds of other people, was to run straight to get in line for Avatar. Which we did. And after a 2.5 hour wait, we rode it! It really was amazing and entertaining, and worth the wait. However, I am not sure I would have waited much longer for it. As we exited the attraction, we saw that the current wait time was 4.5 hours! 

All four Disney parks were exceptionally busy and crowded the whole time we were there, and we spent a good bit of time waiting in various lines. But, since our people are all older, it was fine. We just enjoyed each other's company (and lots of snacks!) while we waited. We did have fast passes each day, but other than that, we had to stand in line. For example, we stood in line for The Little Mermaid for over and hour! Crazy! But it was still fun.  One thing we did to minimize the wait (and again, this worked for us because our children are older) was to take advantage of single riders lines when they were available. We don't mind riding with strangers if it speeds up the wait!

One of the things the children enjoy doing on the rides that take your picture at the "most thrilling part of the ride" is to pose in crazy ways for the picture. I am sharing several of these pictures to give you an idea. 

Here are some pictures from the fun week:

What a fun filled week! I can't wait to go again!

Disney 2017

Our family went to Disney World January 10-17. In fact, we left exactly at 12:00 AM on January 10 (Monday night/Tuesday morning). We followed Lynn and Kelly and their family on the 12 hour drive to Orlando. The four adults took turns driving and trying to sleep. We stopped around 6:00 AM at a Cracker Barrel for coffee (lots of coffee) and breakfast.

 The Mims and Johnson Children at breakfast.

(They slept all night in the car!)

We kept on driving and driving, and finally we arrived at the Florida Welcome Center. Yay!

 Reluctantly posing at the Welcome Center. I always stop here when traveling to visit my college girls, and I always make my kids make a picture here.

We got to our hotel, checked in, unpacked the cars, and were at Disney's Hollywood Studios by 3:00 PM. After 2-3 hours of broken sleep, the adults were ready!  

Do we look sleep deprived?

By Tuesday night we were joined in our hotel by Lynn's sister, Lesley, and her family and our friends Greg and Esther and their family. We were a party of 22! We had matching shirts to wear each day, and we had the best time!  This is the 5th Disney trip that Lynn and her family and my family have made together. This is the second time Lesley has joined us, and the third time for Esther and her crew. There is definitely never a dull moment with all of us!

Leanna and her family and Stacee (both are Jimmy's cousins) and her family were also at Disney World for four of the days we were. We met up with them some at the different parks. That made us the occasional party of 32!

I do not have all the wonderful pictures of the week on my laptop yet. Uncle Kelly obtained a Disney Photo Pass for us. It has many, many pictures on it, but I don't know yet how to download them to my laptop. Jimmy took pictures with his camera and phone, and everyone else took pictures with their phone as well. I think we all uploaded them to our Disney dropbox....I just need to figure out how to access them!  Anyway, I have a few pictures to share from my phone.

 The men and their backpacks!

Kelly always brings his army backpack, and we always  bring our navy blue Lands End backpack with "Johnson" monogrammed on the back. Sadly, I forgot to pack our backpack! So I bought this cute Mickey Mouse backpack in the hotel gift shop. Everyone loved Jimmy's backpack!   :)

This is on the Primeval Whirl ride at Animal Kingdom. We were bumped, jolted, and slung around!

 Sam, Jimmy, and Clay

These are our new Disney shirts for this year.

 Lynn and I rode Splash Mountain three times in a row on this morning.

We should have stopped at two! After this picture we got drenched!

The very last day of our vacation Olivia, Brian, and Julie joined us!  Their college is just 70 miles from Disney, and they had no classes because of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We went to Magic Kingdom that day. It was the first time Julie had ridden Splash Mountain in 8 years! (Normally when we go to Disney World in January, Splash Mountain is closed for refurbishment.)

Jimmy, Julie, and Me

I'll share more highlights as soon as I figure out the picture deal.

Lynn and I have gotten this Disney vacation thing down to a science.  Esther has joined right in with us wholeheartedly, and I think we wore Lesley out!  :) But it was all so much fun!

Disney Group 2015: The Running

The last Disney vacation blog post! (from this year, anyway!)

Of our group of 32 Disney vacationers, 10 of us participated in the Run Disney Weekend……Lynn, Leanna, Stacee, Kendra, Olivia, Julie, Clay, and I ran only the Half Marathon.  Jimmy and Esther ran the DOPEY CHALLENGE.  Which is a 5K, 10K, Half-Marathon, and Marathon, one race each day, 4 days in a row.  Truly a DOPEY CHALLENGE.  :)

One of the hardest parts of racing at Disney is getting up at 2:30 in the morning!  You have to get up that early to get on the bus that drives you to the race starting area.  Well, then you have to walk a mile or so to the starting line….anyway, you can imagine how tired Jimmy and Esther were after getting up that early 4 days in a row.  Plus going to the parks all day!  

Jimmy and Esther did great in all four of their races.  They ran the Half Marathon with us, and we had lots of fun!  

Here are some pictures…..in no particular order.

 Massive firework display at the beginning of every corral (all 22 of them)

 Clay, Me, and Lynn in the Magic Kingdom

(Lynn and I wore matching outfits, and Leanna and Stacee matched as well.  We all four had the same shirt).

 Leanna and Stacee in front of Cinderella's castle

 Lynn, Kendra (tinkerbell), Olivia (Belle), Julie (Rapunzel), Me, Clay, and Jimmy

 Me and Jimmy

 Don't let that train run over you!

 Julie, Clay, and Olivia at Epcot

 All finished!

Olivia said she has never been so exhausted after running so slow!  Ha!

She stayed with Lynn and me, and we all stopped many, many times to take pictures and just enjoy the experience.

 Lynn--all finished!  Yay!

 Olivia, Me, Julie, and Clay

The finishers medal are so nice!

Jimmy and Esther got 6 medals in all--one each for the 5K, 10K, Half-Marathon, and Marathon, the Goofy Challenge (completing the half and full marathon), and the Dopey Challenge (completing all 4 races).  They also got 6 shirts!

 The whole crew posing mid-race outside our hotel. We ran right by our hotel.

Esther is dressed as Dopey.

 Kendra and Olivia

The whole crew, minus Jimmy (taking the picture), about 3:00 AM!  This is just before we got on the bus. 

Yes.

We are all crazy.

But it was really a lot of fun!