A couple years ago Jason found out that the annual American Medical Society for Sports Medicine conference would be at the Dolphin Resort in Disney World this year. Ever since he found out he's been wanting it to be a big family vacation. I was reluctant for a couple reasons. I'm not a huge Disney fan. (Please don't stop reading until I explain.) Disney does everything fantastic. In fact no one does it better. My complaint is how expensive and overcrowded it has gotten the last 20 years. Gone are the days where we would go to Disneyland with minimal crowds for a reasonable price. Instead I feel like I spend a boat load of money to stand in line all day while my kids get bored of waiting and start to fight. The other problem is that the conference always falls one of the last weeks in April. It's always after spring break but right before AP tests, end of year testing, track season and the rest of the spring sports. It's an awful time to drop everything and go on vacation. For this reason Jason usually travels to these conferences alone. But he was persistent in trying to convince me to take the family. I finally relented on the condition he fly out a few days before us and we make a quick trip so the kids only missed a couple days of school.
For the most part Disney turned out much better than I had anticipated. Yes, we spent a ridiculous amount of money but the crowds weren't as horrible as they could have been. I think we hit a nice window after spring break, before school was out and before the heat of summer hit Florida. The weather was nice. The few rides with extremely long lines we skipped but there was still plenty of things for everyone to enjoy. And most of the time the kids got along really well. It was some really great family time to spend together knowing things would soon be changing with Andrew preparing to leave for a mission. However, it didn't take long before everyone was so exhausted tears were starting to flow, the money was all gone and it was time to go home. Enjoy a few highlights of the trip.
