1/100th of a cent

Yesterday we went to the Magical Kingdom for what was perhaps my last visit as a Southern California Resident (plus our pass expires February 10th).  As I inadvertently left my phone in the car, and then when I realized it decided to savor the day free of my leash to my workaholism, I decided to spend the day low-tech.

This had tremendous emotional, physical, and spiritual benefits.

The one downside, however, is that without my phone I had no way to capture the moments that I will treasure for many years.  In the spirit of family history I must record them here at the value of 1/100 of a cent compared to the pictures that would have captured them so nicely.

Moment #1

All four of our children have finally gotten to the point where they treat Disneyland like a park.  They wanted to just stop and watch the ducks play together in the lagoon between the Mark Twain boat ride and Tom Sawyer's/Pirate's Island.  Since they were so engaged together, we decided to run off and ride Thunder Mountain.  Since it was one of those wonderfully low attended days, we got on and off the ride within 15 minutes.  When we returned, the children had decided to pillage my homemade lemon bread and feed it to the birds.  They claimed to like the bread but I believe they found the ducks liked it better than the chocolate chip cookies.

Moment #2

I went on a couple of rides with my two eldest who have decided the sole purpose of the ride lines is to poke at each other, and yell loudly "stop it!" (Casey doing the former, Bridget doing the latter)  After one full line of arguing I threatened them with a variety of measures including refusal to sit with them on the rides.  This held teeth for my second line with them where I wised up and, for Space Mountain they were excellent for the 10 minute line.  However, when we got to the end of the ride, they began to argue about who was better behaved and wanted me to pick who I was going to ride with.  I told them to work it out and as there was not time, Bridget somehow finagled herself to get in the row with me and as we were getting onto the ride, Casey was super mad at her to the point that he tried to climb over the back of the cart.  He was not successful and as he realized the futility, he sat down angrily.  He hit her a few times as he was seated right behind her and as we were heading into the darkness, she started to whine that he was hitting her.  Fortunately the ride whips around so fast (so fun!) that I think Casey was too afraid.  When we were heading up a steep incline, however, at the very top I heard Bridget cry out in pain.  I tried to block out my children and enjoy the rest of the ride but when we got off the ride to see the pictures taken, I was infuriated:

In the picture, Casey was leaning forward pulling his sister's hair.

While fuming internally, the only thought that came to mind was if only I had my camera.


There were several other moments of wrestling children, fighting in line, etc. but when I was on California Screaming, towards the end of the night, I had only one thought as I careened down the ride losing my stomach:

If I died right now, it would be loving my family more than I ever thought possible.

Thanks Walt, it was a tremendous day. 

Disneyland Squared

Dessert Contest Final Four tonight at 7.  Be there or be sad for yourself...

So my kids went to Disneyland for the first time in their lives last Wednesday.  They went for the second time on Thursday.

Why would someone so conscientious about education take her children out of school to go to an amusement park midweek, two times within a week?

Two visitors from out of state, two weeks in a row.  How could I turn down the opportunity to use our pass again so quickly, especially when Steve's brother was coming with their family "the cousins" who are my kids age-aligned, bfff cousins? 

So we surprised the kids and pretended like they were going to school and then just... kept on driving.  I thought it was going to be an awesome surprise but when we passed the school exit no one noticed.  Finally, 20 minutes later Casey says... "wait, where are we going?" I told him we were already late for school so why not just keep on going?

Then they said "oh are we going to LA to see the cousins?"

Yep.

No excitement.

Two hours later I pull of the freeway at Disneyland and Bridget sees the Disneyland Dr. sign and says "weird, who is Disneyland Doctor?"

Finally, we pull into the parking lot that says "Disneyland Resort" and Bridget says "WAIT!!! WHY are we at Disneyland?" 

To meet our cousins.

"Then all three kids look at me in shock and say... wait are we going IN to Disneyland?

Don't you think we should?

So then the partying ensued, it was a lovely and wonderful surprise and we were so excited that the parking lot attendant gave us a "Magical Moment" and handed us a free parking pass.

We got into the park and the magic faded for a few hours when my children discovered that traveling in a large pack of people is not nearly as fun.  Steve and I finally called it quits and demanded division and after that it was pretty fun.  My kids went to California Adventure, something that we had not done the week before, and overall we had a tremendous, tremendous time.

I have a few other things to say about Disneyland but I want to end with a note of appreciation:

Angela, nothing will ever be the same for my kids--a trip with your family was the optimum peak of fun.  I think our alignment on two key issues made it extra special:
--no buying anything in the park
--dividing and conquering in age level groups

We didn't have those things this week and while it was fun, it wasn't quite the same.  We will go back several times this year and enjoy the capitalism, but I want you to know that your trip was the most magical momentous experience that our family has enjoyed up until now.  Thanks for being such great friends.