We've made it to Salt Lake City

So I am now sitting in the Salt Lake City Airport. We made it no problem, our stroller wasn't damaged (which was Shalisa's MAJOR concern for this trip, that the stroller would be damaged by baggage handlers), and Maddie had her own seat for the flight. We have been really blessed by the Delta flight attendants as the lady here in Salt Lake City who we talked to about gate checking our stroller checked to see if the seat between us was filled, and then said she would do everything that she could to keep it empty (which is great!).

We are trying to see if Maddie will take another nap in the stroller (I doubt it... but we can hope) as we sit and wait at the gate here. We have another 40 minutes or so before we take off so hopefully Maddie can grab a quick 30 minute catnap to hold her over.

The flight from Portland to Salt Lake went well for Maddie, towards the end she started to get restless (which could be problematic, as our next flight is almost exact twice as long) but overall she had her coloring crayons, her stickers, and the life saver: her portable DVD player.

Sitting in PDX

So Shalisa, Maddie, and myself are all sitting at gate D5 in PDX waiting to board out plane. The first leg of our flight is from PDX to Salt Lake City, we have a 1 hour plane change there, and then we continue on from there to Orlando. So far our little plan of having Shalisa book a window, and Ryan book an isle is working out. There is no one sitting between us, which means Maddie will get her own seat, nothing is guaranteed until we take off, but that would be a great blessing from God if she wasn't in our laps the whole time.

Going through security with my cast was... interesting. First of all we are the Smith's, so we have 47 different electronic devices to check through security, and then because of my cast they want to do a whole bomb/explosive sniffer thing. So I got pulled off to the side to get treated like a terrorist while Shalisa is left with Maddie, 2 pieces of carry on luggage, a stroller, and 47 different electronic devices she has to hurry and stuff back into their bags. Luckily we arrived early so we weren't in any rush, but I think it flustered her a little bit anyway.

I made it through the security check (FOOLED THEM! :p) and now we are sitting at our gate waiting to board. We took Maddie for a stroll and she fell asleep in about 5 minutes, which is another great blessing, as even if it is only a short catnap, any sort of sleep for Maddie will pay off later.

Test Post

So this is a post made from my Macbook via bluetooth through my Razr talking on T-Mobile's internet connect.

Not the fastest connection in the world, but it seems to work. I am going to include a smaller image on this post as well and see how it does.



The image upload, once I ran it through iPhoto to make it into a small photo (sorry, print quality photo's from Disneyworld will have to wait until we get home) wasn't too bad. I might even try a medium sized photo upload speed if I am feeling frisky in WDW.

48 hours and counting

So it's that time once again the annual (or at least it sure seems that way :p) Smith family trip to Disney World. I am pretty excited for this upcomming trip for 2 main reasons.

1) We have the Disney dining plan. Shalisa and I did this the last time we went to Disney World (in '05) and we pretty much decided that any subsequent trips to Disney World would include the free dining. I obsess WAY too much about the cost of food when we are on vacation (I see the dollar signs racking up as we order our bread and water) and Disney only exagerates the problem with their over-inflated park prices. The dining plan allows you to order really... anything you want for your meals, and it just uses a dining "credit" which you pre-purchased before you even arrived at the park. I think if '05 the cost per adult was like... $45 per day (we got it free with our hotel reservation) and Disney has now upped the price to something like $60 or something. In my opinion even at $60 it is still a great deal only because it reduces the stress of watching money fly out your wallet every time you sit down to eat. BUT what makes this so great, we got it FOR FREE. Basically Disney runs a promotion every so often that for every night you have booked in a hotel room, they throw in the dining plan for free for everyone in your party. So Shalisa, Maddie and myself all got a free dining plan at zero cost. Free makes me happy. Free food makes me extra happy!

2) The REAL reason I am excited about this trip is that it will be the first time that Maddie has ever been to a theme park. I know she is way too young to even remember things, and Shalisa and I often mocked and scoffed at parents who drug their 2 year olds around the park, wondering what sort of idiots would do that, but I also know that her face will absolutely light up when she sees things, and Shalisa and I don't have unrealistic expectations for this trip. Since we are both seasoned WDW veterans we don't "have to see everything" on our trip, and we have planned excessive amounts of time at our hotel for both regular sleeping and nap time. I think in our daily schedule for each day we have blocked out 3-4 hours mid day for Maddie to come back to the hotel room and take a nap. Since we won't be wheeling her around the park non-stop all day every day I hope she will be a happier child than the ones I have seen in the park before.

My excitement is only tempered (every so mildly) by my broken wrist. I am not real thrilled with hanging out in 90 degree weather with a cast... but I will deal, and honestly at least I have had the cast for 5 weeks, I am pretty comfortable getting around with it. At the very least, I can use it to club those unruly children in front of me in line, so that will be fun :D

During our down times I am going to try and make a real effort to make a blog post a day from Disney (need something to do to kill the time). Disney has pretty steep prices for internet access (I think it's like $10/day for wifi) but my co-worker Joel had a good idea. I am going to see how much it costs to use my phone as an internet access point, sure it's only like 128 Kbps, but I can blog and browse with that, plus I don't need any cables or anything as I can use the bluetooth to do it, and to top it all off, it's only like $15 for a month compared to the $110 it would be for my Disney stay. I need to get Shalisa to buy off on it, but if she does I will even try and post blog posts from the plane (uploaded when we land at our layover) and some other fun stuff.

Again, no promises, we will see how it works out, but I suggest tuning in as it could be an epic posting week by yours truly.

Hey Miss South Carolina

Stop ripping off Adam Sandler, he did it first! (please view previous article first to understand context, and then wait for the last 30 seconds of this clip... priceless).