Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Make a Wish trip: Saturday, Day 1!

 Our limo arrived at 5 minutes to 7am and as you can see, we were really excited. Also, check out that ice coating our parking lot! Goodbye ice coating our parking lot!
 We started to load up! Our flight was a little after 9am and we had the perfect amount of time to get our things together.
 Sorry for the shaky photo. We used our cell phones in the limo and well, movement has a way with things. Natalie was in heaven. The kids thought it was really funny that there were 2 areas in the limo with cold drinks and ALL for them!
 Watching our plane getting ready for passengers..
 They knew that this meant there was no turning back! Off to Orlando we go!!

 In the air! (we love watching the mechanisms on the wings move in and out.. planes are pretty neat)
 We had about a 40 minute layover in Nashville and we were able to stretch our legs. The cockpit door was open and we were headed to the restroom. The kids let out lots of "oohhh"s and "aahhhh"s and the captain invited us in! How awesome is that?! He spent at least 5 minutes or so talking to us about our trip and about Make a Wish and let James and Natalie each take a turn "flying" the plane! I still can't get over all of those buttons and controls!

 We made it! We landed in Orlando a little before 5pm and our Give Kids The World volunteer greeter met us at our gate. He was so sweet and SO funny. He was an older man who was also waiting for 2 more families. One other Make a Wish family arrived right after us, but one didn't (which is kind of weird). He helped us get our luggage and find our rental car. The other family there was much larger and we would see them around GKTW often!


 We got to mee the famous Mayor Clayton! He was very happy to meet Natalie as was she. : )
 They even did a little dancing.
 At 7:45pm I had my orientation and this evening happened to be Mayor Clayton's birthday party and the kids, no matter how exhausted they were, really GOT DOWN. I distinctly remember the "Ice Cream and Cake" song like it was yesterday. I caught this as soon as I left our orientation to get educated about how our park passes worked and with everything else we needed to know to navigate Disney World, Universal Studios, and Sea World. 
At 9pm, after just getting back from walking around the resort and from the birthday party, Mayor Clayton knocked on our door to tuck the kids in! We weren't ready yet and the kids were so excited they hightailed their bodies into the bathtub, got washed up, and Mayor Clayton returned. It was so adorable. As creepy as it may seem (to you adults) for a big bunny to tuck you in, it was the cutest thing I have ever witnessed. Even James the leery one of dressed up characters, LOVED it. 


SUCCESS!
And that was our first day in Orlando, at Give Kids the World. 

Sunday Day 2: we meet a fellow "heart buddy"!

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