We just came back from a week of honestly the most MAGICAL time I’ve had in ages. I’ve spent a year planning our daughter’s first trip to Disney World and I can’t articulate how much all that hard work paid off to make one of the best memories I will ever have.

All the time spent researching, waking up early to get dining reservations and agonizing over FastPass+ selections was so worth it when we saw Miss O’s reaction to our surprise trip reveal.

We planned on waking her up that morning to tell her, but of course she was already awake and busted us bringing her bag and Minnie Mouse shirt into the room with us. We still got to tell her that she needed to get up and get going so we could go to Disney World. Her face was priceless.

Miss O: Disney World?! (incredulous look on her face)

Me: Yeah, baby. We’re going to Disney World. (as calmly as I could muster)

Miss O: We have enough money?!

She’s been saving her own money to take us. As if I didn’t think that was adorbs before, that moment got me right in the feels. Then she tells me she was “happy crying tears.”

From that moment on, our trip was amazing.

We opted to take a Lyft to the airport and save about $100 by not parking at the airport for a week. Hubs found this awesome inflatable booster seat that worked perfectly for Miss O.

Our Lyft driver was on-time, pleasant and professional. He also recently returned from taking his own family of five to Disney World. He was so excited for us and Miss O. It really helped the trip finally feel so real to talk about it in the open with her.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time and dropped our bags off with JetBlue. I always fly with them if I have a choice. They are amazing. The agent saw our yellow Magical Express tags and totally knew what they were. She looked right at Miss O and asked if it was her first time. Miss O got shy, so I answered yes. The attendant got a huge smile and told Miss O to have fun. At that point I could barely keep myself together.

We glided through TSA Pre-Check and got through security in 5 minutes on a Sunday morning in summer. Seriously, if you can afford it, do it. It’s so worth it.

We hadn’t yet told Miss O that her Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, G-Ma and GrandDad were also coming, so waiting at the gate was intense. We had our backs to the hallway so we could watch the planes while waiting, but that made Hubs constantly turn his head to look for them. It made me so nervous!

When they just casually appeared at the gate, Miss O didn’t quite know what to do, but she and Mr. A were pretty happy when they figured it out. Fortunately, there was no screaming, only a loud “What?!” from Miss O as she slowly realized we were all going together.

The flight was uneventful, which is just the way I like them. Miss O watched Mulan on the free in-flight TV and munched on her favorite mustache cookies, compliments of JetBlue.

I read a book that had nothing to do with graduate school or work, something I haven’t done in ages, and watched along on her screen. I was so grateful that this day had finally come and so ready to be at Disney World for our first family trip to Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Disney Springs!