she had us doing a timed 500 that day. i had just done a timed 1000 the day before heading out on vacation so i thought, heck, i'll do it but just swim it for the yardage. that was until she split us into heats, had everyone else get out of the pool, had people counting laps, timing and everyone else was cheering, etc. good lord, i didn't expect any of that. so i had to try, ya know. so i did and i won my heat of slow people! i was so excited and i was happy because it was the first time i had ever really pushed myself swimming and i didn't drown!! i was thinking about how i wouldn't drown because if i needed to i could stand up at any minute but at no time did i think about quitting, slowing down or stopping, unless i was drowning of course. it was a big breakthrough for me.
onto disney world, which will be a multi post post because it was a long trip. jan 15 started with swimming, the timed 1000 which was excited because i was totally freaked out about doing it and then i told the swim coach i was going to do it, so she gave me my own lane then had everyone else do a straight 800, so that was kind of cool. then i went to work and got through the day. i came home and finished packing. luckily our flight on friday wasn't until almost noon so we were able to get up and weren't rushed. eric's friend logan came, we gave him the run down of hwo to take care of the cats and the house while we were out then off to the airport we went. checking our luggage was fun because the ladies were so excited for us to go to disney world, i was kind of suprised. we went to our gate only to be moved to another gate. then we got on the plane and sat there. and sat there and sat there some more. they needed to replace a part on the plane, they didn't have one on the shelf so they were going to take if off an plane that was already in the shop getting fixed. our layover in dallas was 2 hrs, but i saw that 2 hrs just creep away. finally i got off the plane and talked to the lady at the desk. she confirmed that we would definitly miss out connection unless our connection decided to be late (my itinerary said that the flight out of dallas had a 50% chance of being on time...). she said we had two choices. go home and come back on saturday for a direct flight that would get us to orlando at 5:30 pm or take the flight to dallas, spend the night then get on a morning flight that would get to orlando at 1:30. we opted to try the dallas route, since there was the very small chance that we would make our connection despite the delay and can you imagine trying to tell the kids that we had to go home when we had been going on and on about how we were on our way to disney world? FINALLY the plane took off. luckily we let the kids watch so much TV and they have been on such a trance over bendaroos. i actually found some at a toy store and those peices of yarn covered in wax entertained those kids for a good 2.5 hrs straight. i couldn't beleive it! so we got into dallas a little earlier than expected and then eric ran ahead. gthe monitors said that our flight was still there, so i grabbed the kids and we ran and ran. we caught the tram and then ran some more. you should have seen little seamus! she had her hello kitty rolling suitcase dragging behind her as she ran faster then i could run while pushing sirus in the stroller. she was amazing! then we got to the gate and the flight was gone. the lady there said she had seen we had been booked on a flight the next day so they didnt even think to check to see if we might be in. grr. in the mean time i was freaking out because we had already paid for our hotel at disney world, plus that extra day of meal plan that is required of each nights stay plus the entire day of park tickets. for a family of 4, that adds up. LUCKILY, mom had gotten us travel insurance so it all worked out in the end but only after i bit eric's head off while looking for the disney phone number and crying to sirus in the bathroom since i didn't have a change of underpants for him with me... ugh. but then we got to our dallas hotel and went for dinner and had a cocktail. seamus, always good with her comedic timing managed a "daddy farted" right when the waitress showed up, followed by a "i keep daddy a secret at preschool". nice. we all had a good nights sleep, went to denny's in the morning for breakfast, saw steve's doppleganger and then headed to the airport and on our way to orlando!!!
that flight was good, the kids played with bendaroos the entire time again and seamus boasted about how she didnt sleep at all from seattle to dallas and then on this flight either, although sirus managed to fall asleep 10 minutes before landing.
we got to orlando, we got on our magical express and finally got to the hotel where we saw grandma!! we were still wearing our clothes from the day before since our luggage had been inaccessable and it wasn't to the airport yet but we said who cares and we gathered ourselves all together and headed over to the magic kingdom. grandma had gotten the kids adorable baseball hats with mouse ears and the kids loved them! that first night in the park we did a ton! we went to pirates of the carribean, peter pan's flight, aladins magic carpets, and big thunder railroad. i think there were a few others but that's what i can remember off the top of my head. then we watched the electrical parade but its not called that any more but i can't remember what its called. it was better then i remember it and the kids loved it! they both had huge smiles on their faces and when i asked sirus if he had ever seen anything like it ever before he said "nothing like it ever before". i was so excited to finally be there and to show the kids this great adventure. 
