Our disney trip started off with us getting up at 3:00 in the morning to catch a plane at 6:00. We had driven every other time and wanted to fly. Dada picked us up at 4:00 and we got on the plane and were off. Everything went well and we landed right on time. We took the magical express package and it was fantastic. When you check your luggage in at Houston, we had yellow Disney tags on them. When we got to Orlando we didn’t even go to baggage claim. We just found the Magical Express ground transportation for our hotel and got on the bus. They told us they would deliver our luggage to our room later, in a couple of hours. It was awesome! So when we got to the hotel and through the airport I was carrying nothing but my wallet!!!! We checked in and went to our room just for a few minutes and then headed to Animal Kingdom. The hotel we stayed in was “The Polynesian” it had a Hawaiian look to it and you even got “lays” when you walked in and there was aloha music and the whole place made you feel like you were in Hawaii. I had been wanting to stay there for the longest time. It is right across the lake from Magic Kingdom. I am looking so forward to watching the fireworks and hearing Jiminy Cricket from the pool. We went to Animal Kingdom and it was a great time but we all got very worn out. I assume it was because we had been up since 3AM. The first thing we did was go straight to the yeti ride and get fast passes. That is still Mady’s favorite ride. Brad was sooooo excited and acting soooooo squirrely he was getting on our nerves by jumping around and acting goofy. (pardon the pun). He was running into us and trying to hurry about everything. We got passes and went to ride the dinosaur ride. It was cool and just like it has always been. Brad loves it and it was great to see the kids enjoying each other. Being here with my family, just us four, brings joy and happy tears to my eyes just thinking back on what disney meant to me as a kid and the memories of my grandmas house.  So being with my three family members is great. I even got teary eyed on the bus ride from the airport when they were showing a disney video about disney. The nostalga just overwhelms me sometime. We went to eat and got a fast pass for the river ride. It was only about 1000 degrees outside and crowded but I didn’t care. I was at disney!! After we ate we went and saw “It’s a bugs Life”. It’s always a cute 4D show. Then we went on to the Yeti ride. We decided to ride it twice. We waited in line once then would use our fast passes. We even met a couple from Minnesota in line and they had driven down in a motorhome. He was a big yankees fan and we talked about how we knew Andy Pettite and how he was the guys favorite yankee and how Josh Pettite had gotten drafted this weekend by the yankees. I showed him pics on instagram. It was cool sharing stuff and visiting with people in the lines while we waited. We were dead tired at the end of that day. We came back to the hotel and took naps before we went to the “Ohana” restaurant in the lobby . That place had great food. It was cooked on an open flame and served family style. They served chicken wings, pork, steak, shrimp, and noodles with a salad. They brought the skewers to the table and pulled the meat off on your plate. We could see the castle at magic kingdom from our table so that was cool. We then went and got our trunks on and went to the pool area. It was awesome , Brad swam and Mady layed in a hammock and me and Tres sat and relaxed at a table while a movie was played on the beach. It was Peter Pan. Now you might not think that was that great but I loved the thought of our son in the pool, our daughter in a hammock, and me and Tres sitting relaxing at Disney world while an old Disney movie played from our childhood. (I am Clark W Griswold). Then the fireworks started at Magic Kingdom and you heard Jiminie cricket over the speaker. It was a perfect ending to a perfect start to our vacation. This was

6/11/13 The next  morning we headed to Magic Kingdom. Walking into that place just feels me with joy. We went straight to space mountain. We rode it and then the kids used the fast passes and rode again. I had to get used to the kids being able to go and ride things on their own. I was used to them being little and not 15 and 12. Kinda makes me sad. A side story is when Brad was about 6 we were walking from thunder river to eat and somehow he slipped off into a crowd. He was lost for about 5 minutes but it felt like 5 hours. Now he just goes wherever and meets us later. Anyway back to 2013, We all then went and rode buzz light year. We went on and rode most everything. Brad was wanting to ride the rollercoasters, he had just gotten over his fear of them and now was wanting to ride them constantly. We decided to leave and get ready for “the hoop dee doo review” . We needed to shower and get ready. We had one problem, once we got ready and got to the monorail we noticed it was broke down. So we went to the boat and I think everyone at Disney was needing that boat. It was getting late and we still had to catch a totally different boat to get to the show. It was 8:00 before we even got to the second boat. The reservations were for 8:30. While we waited for the second boat we were all stressed thinking we would miss the show. It is a great show by the way. Anyway a lady walks up about 8:10 and says they have a bus for us, we get on, make it to the show and have a great night. That lady walking up showed how great Disney is, they take care of everyone. It is just fabulous. So the show starts and we have pails of fried chicken and ribs. The waitress just throws it down on the table as the singers sing. It was such a great feeling to listen to your wife and kids belly laugh throughout the night. That was tuesday

6/12/13 The next day we went to Hollywood for half the day. Ofcourse Brad immediately wanted to ride the “Rockin Roller coaster”. we went as single riders, the lone was shorter that way. When we rode “tower of terror” Brad was sooooooo scared, he had never ridden it before. He even made comments about not riding while waiting in line. He was sooooo nervous but he ended up liking it. We planned on going to Magic Kingdom that night so the kids rode the Star Wars ride a couple times and we ate at Pizza planet  from Toy Story. Pretty Cool!!! We headed back to the hotel and now we are relaxing as I write this waiting to go to Chef Mickey and Magic Kingdom tonight.  We went to Chef Mickey and it was awesome and hilarious. they sat us at a table next to a hispanic couple with a little boy. They entire family spoke zero english. The little boy would just running around the restaurant from table to table. It got so bad that a person who works there had to make him go back to his table. Mady and Brad started calling him “little Pablo” and they couldn’t stop laughing. So ever since then Mady continues to say “I wonder where little Pablo is?’ We actually saw them at our pool and Mady busted out laughing saying “There’s little Pablo!!”. After we ate we went back to Magic Kingdom for some rides and to watch “wishes” the greatest, most tear jerking spectical around. It reminds me of my grandmas house on sunday night when the disney show would come on. This year I stood on Main Street with Tressa and the kids as we watched and ofcourse I teared up and cried. After the show the kids rode space mountain. It was 11 at night and it reminded me of when I went to Astroworld and would ride Greezed lightning all night in the dark.Our kids are getting older and it kinda makes me sad that they can run off and do their own thing. But on the other hand it is kinda nice that me and Tres can go do our own thing for awhile while they are waiting in line. We got home late and had to hit the bed because we were headed to Hollywood again the next day. Wednesday

6/13/13 We got to Hollywood and immediately got fast passes and the kids and tres road Rockin rollercoaster. I had my feel of rough rides so I walked around and window shopped. After they were done we got fast passes for “tower of terror”. We  rode “The Great Movie Ride” which is one of my favorites. I love movies and they show clips of movies throughout the ride so I enjoy it. Then we ate and the kids went and rode “tower of terror”. Me and Tres walked around and did the back lot tour and just looked around. Once they were done we had our reservations late to eat so we waited on “toy Story” and rode a couple more things. Next time we wont to make our dinner reservations so late there , but dinner ended up soooooo awesome. we laughed until we almost peed our pants. We ate at the Sci-fi dine in theater. It is a restaurant built like an old drive in set in the 50’s. the screen constantly plays old ‘B’ rated horror movie clips and old intermission scenes. they are really corny but was very noslagic and cool. The food was kinda plain, hamburgers, chicken, hot dogs but the atmosphere was so cool. We all four laughed so hard at what was on the screen. Mady was a hoot and Tres made a funny comment about a hot dog flipping over and over wanting to get in a bun. It was an old timey intermission scene that was to make people want to go eat food. We  all got sundaes for dessert and the cars that you sat in were really cool built into tables. We left there and I have continued to laugh about that night all week. Thursday 6/14/13 We slept in and decided to go to Epcot late in the morning. There isn’t as many rides there so the kids wanted to sleep in a bit. So when we got there they went to test track and I got fast passes for soarin. I like the ride about gardening where you see all the veggies grown in Epcot. So after they showed up we rode that.  I think it is cool to see how well plants grow and try and get ideas to get mine to grow bigger. We walked around the nations and had a glass of wine in France and a beer in germany. we stopped to get a snow cone and for some reason he then put sweet cream on it as well as his cherry flavor. So ofcourse it tasted terrible and he ate a few bites, tried to scrape off the cream and it didn’t work. He had to throw the thing away.  The knuckle head. We had dinner at the “Coral Reef”. It was like the aquarium at Kemah but it was cool to hangout just us four and talk and eat and try and pick out the fish we saw swimming. We tend to take for granted having dinner at home or eating out and never sitting and talking. I enjoyed all of our dinners just being with my three favorite people in the world my family members.  We got back to the hotel and swam and played concentration, it is a dorky game where you have to pick a category like “NFL teams”. then all four of us would say a team one after the other. If someone paused or said a team that had already been named you are out. It was corny but we all sat in the water and had a great time as a family.

Friday 6/14/13 We slept in and went to downtown disney. Brad had a belly ache but ended up having a great day in the end. We met his choir teacher Ms. Flenikin and her husband Scott. She works with Tres and they were here so we met them for lunch. We walked around and shopped and ofcourse I bought a grumpy and disney shirt as well as having a sundae from Ghiradellis. We had a small mishap on the bus   back to the hotel. As I said Brad’s stomach hurt and began hurting worse as we waited for the bus. Well Mady and I had told him to throw up in the bushes if he needed cause he didn’t need to throw up on the bus. He assured me that he didn’t need to , WELL just as we get on the bus and start driving off he throws up everywhere all over the floor. Boy did it stink, so we and all the folks on the bus had to ride to Typhoon Lagoon for 10 minutes until we could stop and kinda clean it up. The bus driver had some sort of pine bedding and came back and sprinkled it all over. The smell kinda went away but it was still there. So there I was standing right in the middle of the puke. I had Tres and the kids move up.  The bus was pretty packed so everyone around us couldn’t really do anything about it. I felt so bad for bubba. He was so upset and sorry. he kept asking me if i would tell the people how sorry he was. And when we would stop at a bus stop he would tell them he was sorry as they got off the bus. He is such a sweet boy and hates people upset with him.

We made it back to the “Polynesian” and he took a big nap for about 2 hours. We woke him up about 6:00 and we headed back to Magic kingdom for one last night. We met the Flenikins over there again. Mady is so enamored with their kids Will and carlie. She just loves them. I miss my kids being that age. I want to get home and watch disney trips from the past.

We rode splash mountain with them and I think splash mountain is one of my favorites. It takes me back to Ole Brier Rabbit and the great zippity do da movies from my youth. It just makes me happy. And Mady got a kick out of saying “we are in the brier patch” about 100 times. After that it was getting close to 10:00 and I wanted to get a good view of “wishes” one last time. The Flenikins went to wherever and we headed to Main Street. Tres and the kids got some dinner and I stood on the corner and watched the show. It doesn’t matter how many times I see it I get very emotional and a flood of memories come back from past years. I really can’t explain it or put it into words so I won’t even try. Just know that there is not another place I wanna be or anyone other than Tres, Mady and Brad that I want to be with when I watch the show. A little side note is Brad was worried while he ate that I was watching by myself and was worried about me. I really appreciate everything all three of them do for me. Mady has been hugging on me more which makes me feel good. Brad is always wanting approval from me in everything he does. and Tressa does things that make my life so much easier. This trip is an example. I did nothing to set it up. She did everything even down to the packing my clothes and even getting all of us gum to chew on the plane so our ears don’t pop. I don’t tell her enough how much I appreciate and love her. Thanks Tres for taking such good care of me!!!!!!!!

After the show we headed to space mountain so the kids could get as many rides in as possible. We hooked up with the Flenikins again again (haha inside joke). Me and Scott took Will on the people mover while everyone else road space mountain. He is a good guy who I really enjoyed talking to and visiting with about football. As we headed back to the hotel at 12:00 I just wanted to stand on main street and take it all in and remember every minute, every song, every light and every memory. As I stood there on the street looking down toward the castle I thought of my family, my kids and my wife and the memories we have together. I thought of my mom and my childhood, of my sister and all of my family members who have past as well as my friends. It was a peaceful feeling and I attribute that to Walt Disney himself. I don’t know how he did it but that place just makes me feel so good and it truly is magical and unexplainable.

We made it back to our hotel and Tres packed as I went and got everyone a drink. We would be leaving the next morning. We got up and gathered all our suitcases and headed out to checkout. I think part of the reason you feel so magical here is how they treat you. For example on the magical express plan we did we checked our luggage in at Houston getting on the plane and never saw or touched it again until it was delivered to our hotel room. So that was a huge relaxation deal. Then leaving we checked our bags in at the hotel lobby and didn’t have to lug them around the airport on the way home either. We didn’t see them until we got to Houston. We also were given our boarding passes in the morning they were put under our door when we woke up in the morning. So all we had to do is go straight to our gate when we got to the airport. I already mentioned the Hoop-dee-do help out. I just love this place and how they take care of you and make you feel so young and magical!!

It has been a tremendous vacation, laughing with Tres and Mady and Brad. Enjoying watching them smile and all three enjoying themselves. Hearing Mady belly laugh, hearing Brad asking Mady questions and jumping around so excited, seeing Tres relax and smile and laugh at the kids makes me very happy. And myself just thinking of them and the past and just being taken out of myself and thinking of everyone and what I wanna do next time. Thinking when can we come back who can come with us, thinking of the brightness on peoples faces, my kids, my wife. I want to turn around and come back tomorrow. That’s what Disney does to me!!

As we begin our dissent to Hobby airport and our lives going back to work and hustle and bustle of everyday life I hope I can bring a little magic home with me and be more patient, more caring, more at peace with the stress of life. Hoping I can remind myself daily to enjoy the blessings and people God has placed in my life. My three family members, I want to go to the movies with, have dinner with and laugh and talk like we did this past week. After the past year I had with my heart episode and stuff I “wish” I can take a little of that magic with me in my heart and continue to keep it when we are home.

I want to thank Tressa for making this vacation special to me by taking care of me. I want to thank Mady for her belly laughing and her hugs. I want to thank Bard for his little boy giddiness. And I want to thank Walt Disney for making me feel magical everytime I come to Disney and remembering my childhood. I love all three of you and I love the Disney experience.

And to think it was all started with a MOUSE!!