The Brooks: Our Quest to Find Mickey Mouse and "Bisney World!"

After three weeks of Sydney asking every. single. day. "Are we go see Mickey Mouse today? Can we go to Bisney World today?" the answer was finally "Yes, we are leaving today." We left on a Wednesday afternoon, and knew that we would not make it to Orlando that day. We stopped for the night after driving 5ish hours in Gainesville, FL. The kids did okay on the trip. They watched Toy Story 3 that we had rented from Redbox (How cool is that-- for a dollar you can rent a movie in one state, and return it in another? I checked to make sure we would be able to return it in Orlando!) several times, and had lots of toys to play with and snacks to eat. They did not sleep nearly as much as we'd expected, because they were so excited to get to Mickey Mouse. Totally unlike us, we pulled into a hotel parking lot, and decided we were staying there-- no matter what it cost! I did work a deal with the guy at the counter and got 10% off-- a "What kind of discounts can you give me? I'm a nurse, can I get a discount for that?" sort of discount! :) Then I proceeded to let my adorable two year old tell him "Go Dawgs"-- after we had already paid, of course! :)

We swam in the pool, watched a little tv, and then prayed the kids would sleep ok with us all being in the same room. (We'd had a disasterous experience with this earlier in the year! Fortunately, they fell straight to sleep and stayed that way.) We got our money's worth with continental breakfast, decked our kids out in their best red and black, and toured University of Florida's campus. We also got a few pictures of the kids in front of the stadium before getting back on the road!

When we first moved to Newnan, there was a sub place called Gandolfo's, and it was my favorite. Within months of moving here, they closed down. I had looked it up online to find that the only one left in the southeast was located in Southeast was Lake City, FL (~ 28 miles out of our way!) There are two ways to tell this story. The first is that my amazing husband took me there! (We'll still with this version.) OR my crazy husband drove us 28 miles out of the way with two very anxious and irritable children fo a stinkin' sub! It ended up not being that far out of the way and the kids were good, so it was worth it. Sorry Ben... it was as tasty as I remember!

Since we weren't going to The Magic Kingdom until Friday, we had to find a way to get the kids some Mickey, so we headed to downtown Disney! The kids got to see Mickey and Minnie statues... not sure if they thought it was the real thing or not! They were happy, none the less! Sydney was hugging the princess statues.. quite cute and sad at the same time! So glad she's going to get to see the real thing the next day!

That night, we had Planet Hollywood for dinner, in Downtown Disney. Apparently, it is the biggest Planet Hollywood in the world. It was disasterous with our sleepy kiddos, but it was so loud that no one heard any of the fits! Eli was so tired, he was actually falling asleep in his high chair! It was October and close to Halloween, so they had a video, on a huge screen, playing clips from the scariest movies ever. Not a good idea for background entertainment where families dine. Thanks Planet Hollywood!

My plans are to do my Disney posts in a series, so they aren't longer than they have to be, but can include all of the memories we were making!