The flurry and scurrying around to pack and sneak my kids’ summer clothes, flip flops, swimming goggles and bathing suits took place last week while they were home from school.  Thankfully I was able to seclude myself in my room to do this while they were playing with their new Christmas toys. But the last two days to prepare for the actual departure was in full swing.

We are going to Disney for my WDW marathon weekend where I am running the Dopey Challenge and my mother is running her first Disney 5K and close friends of ours are running their first runDisney 10K!

On Sunday, as we were leaving the movie theater from seeing Star Wars the Force Awakens (AWESOME MOVIE), I saw a Facebook post that the Osborne Lights were being extended from January 3 to January 6th. Once I heard that I knew I HAD to do something to get the kids and my parents to Hollywood Studios that night to see the lights.  So we had to distract the kids so I could call Southwest and find out what options we had to move my husband and kids from their Thursday flight to my Wednesday flight.  Good news and bad news.  They could move to Wednesday for only $38 each; but I had to give up my 12:30 direct flight and we are all now flying down at 8:00 a.m. with a stop and change plans in BWI.  BLECH!  I HATE early flights!  Also since I will be getting up early 4 days in a row for the races, that was the last thing I wanted to do.  BUT it is for the sake of the JOY that I hope to see on my childrens’ and parents’ faces when they go through the Osborne Lights to see something like no other.

When I ran the Wine and Dine Half Half marathon one of the highlights of the race is that we can run through the Osborne Lights.  Diana and I spent and extra long time there because we knew it was going to be the last time we could see it.  But, she was on her trip with her family so she decided that the next night they were going to see the lights for sure.  When I flew home I was sad.  I wanted to find a way to fly our whole family down either for Thanksgiving or for a few days after Thanksgiving JUST so they could experience those lights.  Well, my wish is now going to come true!

The kids don’t know yet that we are going to Disney.  As usual, we like to pull it off as a surprise to them.  The notes have been sent to school and given to the bus driver.  Homework has been sent home and now we just have to get their butts into bed real soon because we will have to wake them up at 4:00 a.m. to begin the surprise vacation.  I know my daughter is on to me.  She reads my texts on my phone at times and saw some communication going on between my dad and I.  So I had to squash those questions and I think we may be able to pull this off.  It’s going to be different, waking them from their sleep to announce the news.  So stay tuned!