Well, we had an amazing time with Reese in Walt Disney World. It couldn't have been better. Instead of making this a normal blog and then having all the pictures from the trip posted in the Photos section of his website, we decided to make a special section dedicated to the trip. That way, the pictures will go along with the stories. We've broken it up by days to hopefully help us organize the stories. The links above will take you to each day of the trip. Enjoy!

Day 1 - Saturday, May 24, 2008 - Magic Kingdom

Saturday morning, at 4:00 am to be exact, our alarms went off in order to get up and ready to catch our flight at 7:00 am. We had packed the car the night before so we wouldn't have to worry about that in the morning. We hoped that Reese would sleep on the car ride up to the airport and possibly even on the flight a little bit. But at about 4:30 or so, lightning flashed and a large crack of thunder woke up Reese with a startle. He was now up for the long haul.

Reese was so excited about the trip. He had been talking about it for weeks. As did Mom and Dad of course. He was excited about the airplane ride and kept telling us that planes weren't big, they were very small. The only ones he had ever seen were flying over our house at 30,000 feet. But once we got to the airport, and Reese saw the big plane that we were going to get on, he was very excited and couldn't understand why we had to wait to board. Once we got on the plane, Reese couldn't sit still. He was telling us how we were going to go up in the sky, like he was a pro at flying or something. As we started speeding down the runway, Reese sat back in his seat with his eyes as big as saucers, and a grin from ear to ear. We took off during a storm, so it was bumpy ride. It didn't bother Reese one bit, even though Mom was a little queezy. Luckily, we had a direct flight to Orlando, so we didn't have to make any stops or change planes. We zoomed through the airport to find our Magical Disney Bus to take us to our new home for a week. Reese was in his wheelchair and he did an amazing job. Disney cast members were great at the airport. One came up to him and asked Reese if he was going to see Mickey Mouse. Reese enthusiastically said, "Yes, I am!" The cast member then told Reese that they had already spoken to Mickey and he wanted the cast member to give Reese something. The cast member reached in their pocket and pulled out a Donald Duck for Reese to have. Reese yelled out, "It's Donald Duck!" and grabbed hold of Donald and held him tight in his hand. Once we boarded the bus, which had a big Mickey on the side, Reese sat in our laps and watched all the other busses driving around. He called them all "Mickey School Buses." He would point out which ones had Mickey on them and which ones did not.

We arrived shortly at our hotel at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. There was a huge entrance which featured pictures of all the Disney horses from the animated films. Reese loved looking around the room at everything. We checked in and decided to get something to eat for lunch. After all, we had all been up since about 4:00 am, and it was now about 1:00 pm. Reese would need his nap soon before we headed into the parks. We ate a quick lunch and then headed to our room for a quick rest for Reese. Reese crashed almost immediately. It had been a long day already and it was only 1:00.

Our first park to hit later that day, was the Magic Kingdom. Reese was in his wheelchair and as we walked down mainstreet, he saw the castle and said, "Mommy! It's your castle!!!" He wanted to go through the castle first. So off to the castle we headed. Reese had been talking for quite a while about how he wanted to ride Dumbo and go up and down, so we figured that the first ride we would need to ride would be Dumbo. Once he saw the Dumbo ride, Reese exclaimed, "It's Dumbo! Mommy, let's go there!" Reese was so happy to ride Dumbo. He picked out which color he wanted and we made sure to let him ride that one. After Dumbo we spent the afternoon in Fantasyland riding Peter Pan's Flight, Small World, and others. Later we headed over to Tomorrowland and tried out Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Buzz is another of Reese's favorite characters. He enjoyed shooting the gun while on Daddy's lap. Reese actually ended up getting a higher score than Mommy on that ride. Mommy's not too sure how that happened though.

Since we started the day in the parks a little late, we skipped the first showing of the nighttime parade, Spectromagic!, and were going to sit and watch the fireworks and the late showing of Spectromagic! We were so glad we did that. During the first show, we headed back to Fantasyland because Reese wanted to ride Dumbo again. On the way, we passed by the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. Reese wanted to drive a car. No problem. Reese would steer the car, and Dad would handle the gas and brake. For those of you who have never ridden this ride, they are basically slow moving go-carts where you drive around a long track. There is a metal beam down the center of the track. This basically allows you to steer by yourself, but doesn't allow you to change lanes. Reese was a little short, so while he was perfectly able to grab the steering wheel and drive back and forth, we was not however, able to see over the steering wheel. So he just kept going back and forth, left and right. I think we hit that beam in the middle of our lane about every 12 inches. Anytime Dad would try and help him steer, he would say, "No Daddy! I do it!" Although he would try and say that in between laughter. That's right, he thought this ride was the funniest ride ever. He just kept hitting that beam under our car. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! And just laugh the entire ride. Dad was doing his best to just hang on. Mom was in the car ahead of us trying to take pictures of us, but I don't know how successful she actually was.