And thus begin our Disney recaps.  Travel with me all the way back to November, y’all…

We began our Disney trip with a “D’oh!” moment.

You see, during the wonderful season that was Pastor Appreciation Month, a very sweet couple in our church gave us a gift card to our local movie theater.  They told us at the time that they’d made sure it could be used for an entire family of four.  As you would well expect, because we’re stellar parents… well, we used the gift card for TWO date nights.  (Don’t judge, y’all.)  One of those date nights we wanted to save for the release of Catching Fire, but when we saw that the release date was the same day that we were supposed to leave for Walt Disney World, we were seriously bummed out.

Until Wes saw that we could go the day before the release, right before the midnight showing, and see a DOUBLE FEATURE of both the Hunger Games and Catching Fire.  Before we could think through the idiocy of staying out late the night before an early, early flight, we reserved our tickets.  With my parents in town to watch the girls for us as an early birthday gift to me (thank you, Mom and Dad!), we found ourselves standing in line with every other nerd and geek in Pasadena, wearing lanyard tickets right with them so that we couldn’t pretend we weren’t there for the double feature.  Oh, well.  Embrace the nerdiness!

The movies were awesome, of course.  We left the theater at ten thirty or so, and I realized something.  I’m old.  And ten thirty?  Is a lot later now than it was ten years ago.  We went back home, and just as we were finally falling asleep, our alarm clock went off.

Time to go to Walt Disney World, Rev. and Mrs. Faulk, you giant putzes.  (Or is it putzi?  I don’t know.)

Quick flight from Houston to Orlando, where Coach and Nana were waiting at the gate for us.  Quick trip on the Magical Express to the Caribbean Beach resort.  Quick nap during any of this?  No way, since Ana and Emma were in fine form with their constant chattering…

… and Ana’s constant coughing.  We had packed her Zyrtec in our luggage, not thinking that she’d need it before the luggage would arrive at the resort via Disney transportation.  We ate lunch at the resort’s food court and concluded, after watching her struggle to eat because she was in such a state, that we needed to get her something sooner.  And so we made our first drug purchase at WDW.  (It wouldn’t be our last.)  Ten dollars for a miniature bottle of Claritin.  Oh, well.  It’s just Disney money, right?  (Even still, I did freak out when Wes accidentally threw the bottle in the trash with our lunch dishes.  Ten dollars, y’all!  In the trash!  He fished it back out, thankfully.)

With our overpriced medicine in hand, we declared Ana well enough for the parks and went on to the Magic Kingdom.

I have to tell you, there’s nothing quite as magical as the Magic Kingdom… and nothing threatens to ruin the magic like a sick child.  Ana was a trooper, though, pushing on into the park and riding her favorite rides — Small World, Peter Pan, Philharmagic, and the Haunted Mansion.  When it came time to ride Big Thunder Mountain, she opted to sit with Nana (who had a broken arm and couldn’t ride) while the rest of us rode.  Once we exited the ride, we found Ana passed out asleep.

Not a good sign, y’all.  Especially since she didn’t stay out late at the movies the night before!

We rode a few more rides with a half-conscious Ana (because we’re serious about Disney, y’all!) then finally took that sad sack of girl back to the hotel where I checked her temperature.  101.  101!

I didn’t get much sleep that night as I stayed up to give Ana medicine every few hours.  When Wes woke up, I sent him to the gift shop to buy MORE meds (oh, yes) so that I could alternate between the ibuprofen I brought and the Tylenol he would buy.  I didn’t think the fever would go away for good (because that would be too easy), so I planned on keeping it down as much as possible.  We hit Hollywood Studios fever-free… for a few hours.  In between rides and attractions, I kept giving Ana medicine.  Playhouse Disney, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, lunch at Mama Melrose’s, Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, snacks at Starring Rolls Café, Muppet Vision 3D, Star Tours, the Great Movie Ride, Midway Mania, Fantasmic, and the Osbourne Family Lights — I kept her going with meds and persuasion.

I know what you’re thinking.  I’m a horrible mother.  But the alternative was keeping the child in the hotel room where she would have spent the day crying because she was stuck in the hotel room while WDW was RIGHT THERE!

We did what we could.  Which meant that we lavished all of our attention on Ana and kinda forgot about the Emminator….

… until she got on the bus and proclaimed, “I gotta go potty!  It’s an EMERGENCY!”

If you know Disney buses, you know that they can get you to your resort in five minutes.  Or five hundred minutes.  You never know what you’ll get!  On this particular trip, we were probably stuck on the bus with Emma for about fifteen painful minutes.  Our resort had several bus stops, with ours being one of the last.  We made sure Ana was secure with Coach and Nana, and when we got to the first stop, we picked Emma up and RAN for the main building.  We probably ran a mile at a full sprint (wearing jeans — be impressed) and made it.  Whew!

Would Ana be sick the whole trip?  Would Emma get the attention she needed?  Would all that running in jeans be detrimental to our own health?  Check in for Part Two (of Three) tomorrow!