The Happiest Place on Earth

Once again I'm sorry it has been awhile since I've written, but last week we were out of town. I was going to post that we were going out of town, but my dad warned me about giving the people on the internet too much information and was worried that we might get robbed or something. So, to humor him I kept it quiet. If he really knew the truth, that Melanie is the only person locally who reads my blog and she is too busy tearing up her own home to do anything to mine, and all my long-distance friends would pay more in airfare than they would get from selling off our stuff, he really wouldn't have to worry. However, you can never be too safe.

So, back to my story. Charlie had a conference in Orlando, and it was my birthday, so he asked if I would like to come along and bring the kids. Bring the kids to Orlando, meaning Disney World, one of my absolute favorite places? Um, yeah! We left on Wednesday and almost as soon as we got to the hotel Charlie had to go off to meetings and a dinner and anything else he could find to get away from us. Aww, I'm joking here, but it was pretty much all me with the kids for the first 48 hours.

The kids and I went to the grocery store, their favorite place in the world (yes, I am being sarcastic here), to get snacks and baby food for Amanda, and then had a delicious and healthy dinner at Denny's. Afterwards we went swimming in the fabulous pool at the JW Marriott which has a lazy river and a zero grade entry area. Perfect for little kids. I was hoping to get the kids to bed early so they wouldn't be tired for our first day at Disney, but of course they didn't go to bed until around 10p.

Thursday was my birthday. I thought, what better place to be on your birthday than the happiest place on Earth? Right. Well, I still stand by that thought, but maybe not when you are dragging three kids along with you. I confirmed that day what I have always believed, I never, ever, EVER want to be a single parent. It's not that it's not doable, because it is, it just sucks. It's really hard to do it all yourself and not have anybody to help you. Multiply that by 365 and throw in school and activities and everything else, no way. I applaud anybody who can do it.

Anyway, by the time we left the hotel, had a wonderful and healthy (that really is the theme here, isn't it?) breakfast at McDonald's, got to the Magic Kingdom, parked and took the tram to the Transportation Center, it was 11a. Unfortunately there were issues with the monorail so we didn't get into the Magic Kingdom until around noon. Not the best way to start the day, but we had been there before and we weren't going to rush and I wasn't going to let anything spoil my day. I got a Happy Birthday button for my shirt and every single cast member I passed or talked to told me happy birthday. It was pretty cool and in a crazy way actually made me feel special on my birthday in a way I hadn't felt since I was a little kid. All the messages from facebook coming in my email all day helped too.

We've been to Disney many times with Andy. For people who don't live in Florida it's almost an embarrassing number of times. Sarah has been a few times as well, but she doesn't really remember going. So this trip I talked to Andy and told him I wanted to do more things for Sarah since it was kind of like her first time. He was actually pretty cool about it, and didn't complain very much about what we did. Instead of going straight for the rides, we went to story time with Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, watched a dance party/parade in front of the castle, watched a princess/Mickey dream show at the castle, and waited in line to see Mickey and Minnie, Cinderella, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Belle, and Tinker Bell and Iradessa (one of the fairies from Pixie Hollow). Finally around 5p we went on some rides.

The kids were pretty good and we had a great time. I did have to threaten to go back to the hotel a couple of times, but overall we survived. The hardest part was going to the bathroom. Each time we went I had to have Andy hold Amanda while I went to the bathroom. He did it, but not without complaining how heavy she was and groaning that he was going to drop her (and then almost doing it). I tried hard not to mention that I was carrying her most of the day and he could do it for a minute or two. The kid just loves to complain.

The kids were bummed that we didn't stay for the fireworks, but I knew if we did we would never get home before midnight and the next morning we were scheduled for a princess breakfast at Epcot, which was cool but not really worth the price. Charlie and some of our friends joined us Friday afternoon and for the weekend and we all had a great time, despite the heat and the lines and the heat (did I mention the heat?).

Charlie doesn't love Disney as much as I do. I would hate to say that he's not a fan, because that's sacrilege, but I know the reason he goes is because he loves me and wants to make me happy. Some times it's very frustrating because the kids just don't really appreciate it. Of course they don't really appreciate anything at this age, except when you take them to Sonic or something that costs like $8. For example, once we flew out to California and took Andy to Disneyland. The next morning, on our way to Knotts Berry Farm for more theme park enjoyment, we went to McDonald's for breakfast. He thanked us profusely for the $10 breakfast. We decided we could have skipped Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm and just taken him to the McDonald's down the street from our house and saved several hundred dollars. I digress. It can be frustrating, but it's also fun to be able to do this for our kids. Someday, when they are parents, hopefully they will look back on these trips with fond memories and realize what we did for them and with them. It's unfortunate that we will have to wait that long before they truly gain that appreciation and understanding, but that's okay. For now I'll just try to enjoy the ride.