The happiest place on Earth,

Confession: My first visit to Disneyland was on my honeymoon.  Crazy right? Growing up my friends just "couldn't believe" I had never been. But it was true, no Disneyland, and yet I still grew up into a normal human being (well, I guess the jury is still out on that one). We did plenty of other family activities, like how to ski, golf, sports, roller skate, bowl, throw a rubber chicken, skeeball, play pool, cross-country ski, swim, dive etc. etc. etc.  I honestly don't feel like my childhood was marred by a lack of Mickey Mouse. Or maybe they should do a study of cynics and pessimists and their frequentation (or lack of) to the happiest place on earth. I may be on to something here.

Our honeymoon was magical (cheesy, but true). I'm sure everyone  can say that about theirs, but it made Disneyland a special place for Ty and me. Taking the kids is, I will confess, a lot of work, but still worth it and fun. The sad part is, when we are there I am always longing for a little alone time with him. And alone time on a family vacation is not in the works (besides, family trips are family trips, dur).  Long story short, in some weird way Disneyland is romantic for us.


My kids, now they have been a lot. Not as much as all you native Californians. But four missionaries in Ty's family have left for our church since Ty and I had Lucy. That's a lot of trips in my book. My kids know Disneyland, they have favorite rides, they started collecting pins and squishing pennies. They know the lingo and the songs, and they love all of it. It's part of their childhood . Ty can relate to that with them, he went growing up and has those memories. I, on the other hand, do not. It's hard to relate to it all.  Most of the time we were there this weekend I was worried that my kids were getting way too spoiled and indulged and I was raising their level of entitlement.  Hello anxiety! But Ty assured me they were fine and it was all ok. Hmm.

The people watching at Disneyland is top notch. You get all walks of life there. The most fascinating to me are the parents that are dog tired, dragging their feet, pushing a stroller with a sleeping kid on it that has glow in the dark, rotating buzz lightyear toy that makes a horrible amount of noise and is also a fan, and holding a flashing balloon, and wearing all their disney apparel and surrounded with toys and candy galore.  I watch them and imagine what their next morning will be like, or what it was like for them getting ready for Disneyland. Did they pull the card? The "you won't go if you don't behave" card?. Even though we know it's not true because the tickets are already purchased and the days off scheduled.  Do they fight over the french braids in the morning and the shoes to wear? Luckily this year I was able to keep my cool. No yelling, and maybe just one little threat to Phoebe that she had to nap or we wouldn't go back to ride Ariel for the thousandth time. hehe.  But overall? It was very peaceful for us, which is a huge milestone.

But I know what it's like to have those other times. The frantic and hectic and stressful and tired and slaving away to get things done, and waiting in line for an hour and a half for just a PICTURE with a character.  All that work for one picture just isn't worth it for me anymore. We were lucky and waited at most 10 minutes for everything.

All in all I know that these memories are going to be good for them. The family time and cousin time was just what we needed. It was a great trip and we are grateful for the opportunity to go.

this is us after 12 straight hours. the kids deserve an award, they were awesome. Rodney didn't sleep all  day until right before the Jungle Cruise. 

rodney wasn't so hot about riding rides. no big deal, he loved the stroller. a tender mercy.

any spinning ride should be banned in my opinion

ty's turning the girls into collectors. smashed pennies are all the craze around here.

we happened to run into some characters at just the right time. score.

it was so very hot. so very, very hot.

we really had a lot of fun with everyone. can you tell?

favorite picture. ever.

We really go all out at Disneyland. I mean, I have ears on. Granted they were the ones I bought for abby but were adult sized and not the right style. But that's what you get when you make mom pick them out right?