Disney World Day 1

I always said I would never spend the money to go to Disney World when my kids were too young to remember the trip.  But the Salute to Military program they are doing this year is too good to pass up.  Tim got in for free and our tickets were $99 for 5 days.  We decided to split the trip up and do 2 days now and 3 days later this year.  So, we headed to Orlando on Thursday morning and decided to spend the afternoon at Downtown Disney.  It's not actually part of the park, but has themed restaurants, lots of shopping and some fun things for kids.  Plus, there's no charge for parking or entry to the area. 

One of the highlights of Downtown Disney is the LEGO store.  There are all kinds of specialty Legos and Duplos you can purchase.  Plus there are great areas to build with them and even a small playground to climb on.  They boys loved spending time there.

Mark loved racing his Lego car

There is a train that Tim took both boys on.  They had a blast riding it together.

I will write more of our Disney tips and lessons learned later in the week, but we were very glad we decided to pack our lunch.  It allowed us to splurge and get treats at the Ghiradelli Ice Cream Shop.  Poor Luke!  At least he doesn't know what he's missing.  He did get some jelly beans while we ate our ice cream.  (Thanks Mamaw!)

There are lots of character statues to see at Downtown Disney.  Mark loved getting his picture made in front of them all.

The last thing we did was riding the Merry-go-round.  Mark has decided that he loves it as much as riding any train, which is rather surprising if you know him!

After that we headed back up to Winter Park.  We decided to save a little money and spend time with Tori and James by staying with them for this visit.  They live about 40 minutes from the park, but it was worth the drive to get to visit with them and stay in their cute place.  Thanks guys!