Sarah says: This wine makes me happy, and I'm sad that the bottle is empty. Similarly, our Disney vacation a few weeks ago made me happy, and I'm sad that it's over.
As many of you may know by now (or maybe not if you are new here!), that Jon, Liam, Mary and I packed up a few weeks ago and went to Disney World. It was awesome! The kids had so much fun, Mary was all about meeting her favorite princess and fairy friends, while Liam wanted the rides, the faster the better. I think we did a pretty good job of pleasing the both of them. Mary is already planning her next trip, and wants to go back next weekend. That just makes me giggle, if she is anything like me, she’ll go back in about 15 years.
Here’s my Disney background: this was my 4th trip.
Trip #1: I went once as a child, I’m guessing I was around 8? My parents are probably going to die a little inside if they read this, but I don’t remember much from that trip. I mostly remember going to the beach one day, and that is mostly because I’ve heard the story told and retold a bazillion times about how we almost died when it starting storming while we were in the ocean. But going to Disney World…. I’m totally blank. I will cry if my children tell me they can’t remember the trip when they are adults – one of the main reasons for going on a trip like this is to create memories. They are going to remember those memories – we paid a lot of money for them! I’m hopeful that looking at all the pictures will help them remember, I don’t remember seeing many pictures from my childhood trip.
Trip #2: Hold onto your laptops folks, my nerd status is about to get a whole lot more nerdy. I don’t talk about this a lot, because it’s on a whole other level of dork. When I was in high school, I was in an after school group called “RoboHawks”. The Hawks part was because our school mascot was the Hawks. The Robo part was because… well… we built a robot. Yup, I was in the club that built a robot… so nerdy. And so freaking awesome!! First of all, math and science, my favorite subjects, rolled into one… win! Second of all, we built a freaking robot… win! Third of all, we went to Disney World for a robot competition… win!! Nerds… surrounded by other nerds… and a bunch of competing robots… it really doesn’t get much better than that. Here’s my serious moment for a minute. It’s tough being the girl that is smart, quiet, into band, and in the robot club… but when you find that place where everyone is just like you, and you totally “get” each other, and you finally fit in for the first time ever, it rocks your world. RoboHawks was that place for me. I honestly don’t remember a lot about the Disney part of that trip either. I think we went to Epcot… I mostly remember the robots. There are some seriously smart and creative people out there, I hope they all overcame their nerd reputations and have turned into powerful adults in the working world.
Trip #3: 2006, Jon and I went for our 1 year anniversary. I was pregnant with Liam, and we were on a major budget. So we did one of those timeshare presentation things for a free pass or two. We stayed in a dumpy motel, probably 30 min or so from the parks, near a flea market that for some reason we went to more than once. We pretty much did everything as cheap as possible on that trip – but we were still in the phase where it didn’t matter because we were just happy to be there together. Apparently, I’m over that phase, because I wouldn’t do that trip again if my life depended on it. I do remember more of the parks though! I remember the Back to the Future ride, and I remember some ride on a boat. I also remember taking a daily nap on that trip, it was wonderful. There were no naps on trip #4.
Trip #4: 2013, in the seven years since our last trip, our family size has doubled, our budget has increased, and our interests have been drastically shifted. I’m determined that we will remember this trip. This time, we stayed at a Disney Resort, we visited 4 (4!!!) of the theme parks, we went to the fireworks, we met characters, we took lots of pictures, we left exhausted and full of memories. This is the first trip I recall actually meeting characters, and it was quite fun. I was just as thrilled to meet the princesses as Mary was.
I have several tips for the "first time as a family Disney travelers" out there, but I will have to save those for another night! For now, I'm going to finish my wine and start working on saving for our next trip!
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