Alright got Flickr sorted, so let's go! I'm with you all, I can't believe it's been 5 years already
Some pre-trip info:
We had planned to leave Monday, Jan 15, which is LP's birthday. Well about a week before the trip, I happened to notice there was snow in the forecast for Monday. Now sometimes that means nothing, but I was a bit worried since Tennessee doesn't handle snow well. They do a pretty good job with the interstate, but the neighborhood and the road we take to the highway takes forever to clear. I didn't want to get stuck!
Months before Southwest had altered the times for our flight, so I was able to move us to a Sunday flight without paying the difference. Yay! I also found a night at a Courtyard Marriott near Disney Springs for $50 + 13000 points. I happened to have just the right amount of Marriott points already! For those who care, I did NOT transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott as I've been told that's a horrible redemption
But I had points from previous cash stays.
We also decided to cancel Mears Connect and rent a car as I didn't want to deal with ride share and moving hotels.
Sunday 1/14
We packed up, turned our well off and drained the pipes (because it was going to be below 20 degrees basically the entire time we were gone!) Despite that precaution, I was worried about our house the whole time we were gone
We hit the road about 9am and made good time to the airport. It was already very cold out, and they had the top level of the parking garage closed. Thankfully I found a spot on one of the middle levels.
My big girl with her suitcase
We decided to bring our car seat and that thing is HEAVY. I carried it like a backpack and once we checked it and I put my regular backpack on, I felt like I was going to fly away it was so light.
Unfortunately our flight was delayed about an hour because it was coming from Chicago which had some rough weather. We also couldn't get Chickfila (basically the only decent food at the airport, even though it's a brand new terminal) because it was Sunday. But there's a little play area that kept LP busy for a bit.
The first of many....unique....expressions you will see from my child.
Took off around 1pm and it was starting to snow as we taxied down the runway!
The pilot was giving out little wings pins (stickers?) and a little coloring activity booklet as we boarded so she enjoyed doing that for a while. It's nice now that she's older, I can actually read on the plane again instead of tending to her the whole time. She still wants to switch activities every 5 minutes, but it's better than it used to be for sure!
Made it!
There was this other family on our plane that I'd chatted with at the play area in the airport. They were also going to Disney and ended up sitting next to us on the plane. We weren't like chatting a ton or anything, just pleasantries. When we were getting our car seat and stroller from the oversized bag area, I asked the wife if I could make sure the one she grabbed was hers because our bag looked the same. And I noticed their last name is my maiden name! So weird! It's not a super common name either. She didn't really react so of course I was like dang this woman probably thinks I'm an insane person just making up commonalities to relate...I don't know, my brain always tells me people think I'm a weirdo
We got a Hyundai Santa Fe. I liked it! Other than the push button gear shift. Gross. It just didn't feel right.
Made it to our hotel with plenty of traffic. Dropped our things off and thankfully my mobile key worked so I didn't have to go to the desk. We packed what we needed for that night in our backpacks so we didn't have to drag our big bag up. We quickly got back in the car and headed to Disney Springs for some food.
It was chilly!
Our child takes after me and gets hangry. She was past the point of no return and I'm not proud of how mean we got with her when she refused to eat because she didn't like where we went. If I remember right, that was the only time we had any issues! She is quite an agreeable kid but can be very whiny. The whiny kid + hangry parents was a bad combo. But we got her to eat her chicken nuggets and fries and everyone cheered up.
We ate at D-Luxe burger and both got a bacon cheeseburger (I think?). I thought it was pretty good. R said it was just ok, so I guess he's pickier than me. I really wanted to walk around some, maybe get a sweet treat, but LP was done after a travel day and late-ish dinner. So we headed right on back.
I had to make a trip down to the car when I realized her pjs were in the big suitcase, and thankfully I thought to stop at the desk and see if I needed a parking pass. I did! So I hung that on the rearview mirror and we didn't get towed.
Last photo as a 4 year old
Up next: My baby is 5!!
Rise was down. I knew this was probably the only shot we had this trip as the line would be way too long once it came back up (I was right), so we sadly had to just give up on riding it this trip. Maybe next time. I think it came back online about an hour after park opening, but I never saw the wait less than an hour, which is about my threshold for waiting.
), and now our 2 granddaughters…don’t blink…!!! 
