Disney - Day 1

Oh Disney...

What in the world would it be like to be able to dream without limitations? I'm not very good at it, you know. I'm a bit too practical and logical, so I like it when I can live vicariously through others who are good at it.

And when it comes to dreaming without limitations, there may not be anyone more excellent than Disney. Is anything impossible in that magical land?! I'm always so delighted at how they can take something completely made up and make it feel so real.

I've been to Disney several times with my kids, and a few times we've been accompanied by others... my parents, Brian's parents, my sister, etc, but this time we got to go with my whole family. Well, my whole family minus Amber who, unfortunately, couldn't get work off that week. My parents rented a great little home a couple miles away from the parks and we filled that thing with so much love. My family gets together a lot - whenever we travel up to Utah, my siblings make it a point to come to my parents house too, and when one person decides to come to my house for Thanksgiving, the rest of the family works to come too, so we often find ourselves all sleeping under the same roof. But this time it was different because it was the first extended family vacation we've had on that side of the family where no one was hosting... no one was in their own home. We were in someone else's home, and it created a fun dynamic.

When we got there, we were a little surprised that the home's website had used the term 'walking distance to Disney' because we found Disney to be a mile and a half away, which certainly could be walking distance, but it also could certainly not be walking distance for everyone. But it wasn't a problem we couldn't solve, and the men offered to drop us all off, and then park the cars while we window shopped in Downtown Disney and waited for them.

They were champions, those husbands. They did a lot of extra walking through the entire trip and we were grateful for them.

Something else we did a lot of was rider swapping. Babies aren't allowed on all of the rides (of course), nor would they want to be allowed on all of the rides (just ask this cute baby after the ferris wheel episode). Thankfully Riley and Eliza had a fantastic time and had no idea they were missing out and being left behind.

I love that cute little Riley face up there. But even more than that I love that beautiful Mama face on my sister, looking at her baby with stars in her eyes.

Speaking of stars in eyes, my brother and his new wife were pretty starry-eyed the whole trip, too.

They've been married for just over a year now and every time they look at each other their faces beam with a thousand little sparkles and they look ready to fly away like love birds. I loved that golden time when Brian and I were first married and all we had to care for was each other. But, those times have been gone for a while now, and it was funny to me to watch my siblings and their spouses having a delightful time together - riding rides together, holding hands through the park together, having conversations together - while Brian and I had an entirely different experience with our small fleet of children. Thankfully we've gotten really good at throwing I love you looks at each other from long distances, and at squeezing each others hands whenever there is a moment to stand next to each other.

Also thankfully, we got to ride all the rides next to our children. Which, in my opinion, is pretty unbeatable, and what Disney is all about for me.

This was Eliza's first ride and, as you can see, she wasn't too sure about how to feel when it started moving.

But she caught on quickly to the fun of it.

And by the end was squealing with delight.

We rode this Cars ride seeeeeveral times, and Eliza and Timothy were having such a great time that their laughter ended up convincing Miles to go ahead and give it a try. It's hard to be in that in-between phase when you feel a little too old, but not old enough... so I was delighted when he decided to jump right in and be just as excited as the other two. He even braved the ride all by himself when we couldn't all fit together.

Miles's sweet little heart was far more excited to watch Eliza ride than it was to ride on his own, and one of my favorite things was watching his eyes fixed on his little sister, and listening to his giggles of excitement every time we passed by each other. Some of the giggle was for himself, I'm sure, but much of it was excitement at her joy.

Taking pictures wasn't really on my radar while we were there. Honestly, it seems like that's the story of my life more often than it's not these days. My brain (and my hands) are always so full that the thought of taking a picture either never enters my mind, or when it does it feels much too hard to get it done. But when I saw these pieces of my heart all sitting there under this great windmill with the sun shining through it, I knew I wanted at least one picture.

Unfortunately, no one else cared about my one picture, and they were all grumpy about the request, but whateves. I'm happy with a grumpy picture, too.

It's much easier these days to take pictures of them when their backs are to me.

Let's move along to talk about swings. Swings are my favorite. I have always, always, always loved them. And to sit tandem with my favorite 5 year old made them even more wonderful.

He felt pretty brave.

After I snapped the selfie with Timothy, I wanted a picture with everyone else I loved around us... and as I snapped this picture, Timothy said on my right, "HEY! What about ME?!"

Which made us all laugh, so I tried to push my hands back farther to include him in the shot but just as I was about to take it, the swings raised just enough that everyone lost their footing and Jake slowly drifted from the frame. We laughed for a solid minute!

You probably had to be there. *shrug*

At the end of the first night we all crowded around a light and attempted a family selfie - with low expectations.

And didn't it turn out lovely?