So I've been gone a while (wow, how often do I say that lately?) but this time I am not even remotely sorry. Because I have been with my family at our first trip to ...............................Disney World!!!!!!! Ba ba ba booya!! Finally! I have pined for Disney World for a large portion of my life, and because Aaron loves me and eventually gives in to my incessant requests (mostly just to shut me up but a little tiny bit because he thinks I'm nice and likes to give me stuff I ask for when he can), we spent all of last week at the house that Walt and Mickey built. It was amazing. It was magical. It changed my life forever. I can die happy now.
You see, as a child Aaron grew up the second of five preacher's kids that lived far away from their grandparents. So when they did get vacations, it was usually to go see family. I on the other hand, lived right next to all of my family pretty much, but because I have a mentally retarded sister and at the time my paraplegic grandmother lived with us and my dad is a farmer who worked all summer and was only off in the winter when we were in school, my family never really took family vacations. Don't get me wrong - my parents sent us kids lots of amazing places. I have been snow skiing, to Chicago, to Washington D.C., to England, to France, and to Italy just to name some of the places. But never did we have the opportunity for "family vacations" all together. I don't believe I suffered one iota from that, but part of me just feels really determined that Aaron and I are going to make family vacation memories with our kids while we have the opportunity. Luckily for me, my husband usually eventually goes along with all my schemes, so Christmas morning my kids opened a box from us filled with disney clothes, movies, pins and an itinerary.
Now I know that many of you have been before so feel free to pass on the following 736 photos I am about to post, but I just couldn't control myself when trying to decide what pics to put on here. Some are cute, some are terrible, and one is just plain embarrassing. (it won't be hard to figure out which one) And even though ya'll don't care about these so much - my mama reads this thing and she does.
You see, as a child Aaron grew up the second of five preacher's kids that lived far away from their grandparents. So when they did get vacations, it was usually to go see family. I on the other hand, lived right next to all of my family pretty much, but because I have a mentally retarded sister and at the time my paraplegic grandmother lived with us and my dad is a farmer who worked all summer and was only off in the winter when we were in school, my family never really took family vacations. Don't get me wrong - my parents sent us kids lots of amazing places. I have been snow skiing, to Chicago, to Washington D.C., to England, to France, and to Italy just to name some of the places. But never did we have the opportunity for "family vacations" all together. I don't believe I suffered one iota from that, but part of me just feels really determined that Aaron and I are going to make family vacation memories with our kids while we have the opportunity. Luckily for me, my husband usually eventually goes along with all my schemes, so Christmas morning my kids opened a box from us filled with disney clothes, movies, pins and an itinerary.
Now I know that many of you have been before so feel free to pass on the following 736 photos I am about to post, but I just couldn't control myself when trying to decide what pics to put on here. Some are cute, some are terrible, and one is just plain embarrassing. (it won't be hard to figure out which one) And even though ya'll don't care about these so much - my mama reads this thing and she does.
It's big, it's round, it's got a ride in it...................It the giant golf ball looking thing at Epcot! Yayyyyyy! Cheer! Squealllll!
It's iconic, it's adorable, it's made of bronze.............It's a statue of Walt Disney holding Mickey Mouse's hand in front of the huge-and-amazing-when-lit-up-with-lasers-and-fireworks castle! Scream! Sigh! Happy Tear!
It's tall, it's spotted, it's alive.................It's the giraffe that was right beside our bus on the safari at Animal Kingdom! Awwww!
Ok, so there was lots of amazing stuff to see, but honestly I forgot to take pictures of most of it because I was so busy looking at it with amazement and wonder. And I was also too busy looking at my children because what was even better was seeing their amazement and wonder. Like a friend of ours says, the reason Disney is magical is because our kids make it magical. Seeing my girl squeal with delight when Tinkerbell flew out of the castle and across the sky was worth every minute and penny of that trip. Just like it was when Turnanator sat holding his breath while Lightening McQueen performed stunts at the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show. And to watch Super-G go back and hug every character just as we were walking away from getting an autograph - melted my heart. He knows that there is really just a person inside of that costume. But for just a few minutes, he forgets, and becomes just a little boy who loves a cowboy, and a space man, and a honey-loving bear, and a mouse.......
We were all really excited to see Mickey on the first day. Until we got close to him. Then one of us really wasn't that excited any more.
We were lucky enough to get to take Aaron's grandmother, aka Granny, with us on our trip, and it was wonderful to have her along. She helped take care of Destruct-o-girl while she napped and we rode all the big, scary rides. Here Turnanator and Granny just finished helping rid the galaxy of Zerg and his evil empire. Don't they look seriously focused?
Sadly, my children misbehaved and were thrown into galactic prison right along with Zerg. Luckily their daddy brought some cash along so he could bail them out. I realize that no one is actually looking at the camera in the picture, but to be fair, they weren't looking in almost any of the pictures. There is too much to do and see at Disney to be still for a whole five seconds.
So here's the thing about Turnanator - he doesn't like doing anything where people might look at him. And he doesn't like things that feel weird - like face paint and crooked socks. So it turns out that he didn't like being a part of the pirate league so much. However, I got this awesomely disgusting picture of him looking pirately rough, and he later got to sword fight with pirate goofy, so we're calling it a win in the end.
Unlike his brother, Super-G has so much of his mother in him that he can't help but love attention and facepaint and fake blood and dancing in public. It's a problem we have.
And like her mother and brother before her, Destruct-o-girl also loves the spotlight. As seen here, she is modeling her new Snow White outfit, red glitter shoes included. I loved this outfit so much! A sweet lady at our church made the top for me and I made the pants, all because I had seen this idea on the internet. We got several compliments on it, so the next time we go I am going to hopefully do more than one. (but don't hold your breath. we all know how awful I am at following through on stuff)
Case in point, two of my children are on stage at a luau learning how to hula dance. (the kid in the ball cap and the little one in purple) One of my children is sitting in his chair beside me. I'll let you guess which one.
Example number two. Here two of my children are dancing the hand jive in front of the whole audience at the incredibly amazing Lion King show. My other child is sitting beside me in the bleachers. Bless him. (btw, I also made that little number with the "D" on it. Not bad for a girl who can't sew, ay?)
As much as my boys both like Star Wars, you can also see who battled Darth Vader fiercely. Son #2 was standing politely beside me, not on stage, whilst the battle raged.
And last and certainly most embarrassing photo yet, here is evidence that these two little jokers are like their mama - doing the hustle in the street with the chimp from Tarzan in the middle of a parade. Turnanator, his father through and through, stood there on the curb - with his father and his father's grandmother - watching us and thinking about how embarrassing it would be to get out there and dance. Tragic isn't it? I'll tell you what else it tragic - the muffin top on whoever that is in the black shirt. She should have worn her as-seen-on-tv Kymora body slimmer that day to help with some of that spare tire she has going on. I'm just saying.
Turnanator wasn't without his share of the fun too, though. Both boys got in on the "aglet" music video while in line to meet Phineas and Ferb.
and my brave guys literally rode every single roller coaster at the park - big or small. We had to take a picture in front of this one so we could show our Kindergarten teacher (who we have a slight crush on) that we rode the ride she recommended. Mrs. Eubank just has to see that we did what she told us to do!!
Our trip was not without it's meltdowns....... But overall it was wonderful.
We ate so much food it was sinful!
And saw some really cool stuff like this guy twirling sticks of fire at the luau!
Super-G even lost not one, not two, but three teeth in the week of our trip!
We got to eat with characters a couple of different times, and eventually my girl quit screaming when they came near her. She just kept a watchful eye.
And by the very last character on the very last day, she even let Rapunzel give her a hug! It was so sweet! (p.s. is it just me or does Rapunzel look an awful lot like Taylor Swift?)
I know this is going to sound cheesy, but as I laid in bed the night we got home, completely exhausted from our trip, I actually teared up just reflecting on it. When I think about how blessed we are - to be able to go, to have made memories with our family, and to have healthy children that we can take to Disney............ It's humbling. Yep. It's true. That place really is magic.
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