It All Started With A Mouse....

No really. It did. After two days in Saint George during which Ellie expressed her doubts that we were really going to Disneyland (she wondered if this was just another "Saint George house trip") and a long drive through the foreboding deserts of southeastern California we finally pulled onto Magic Way and found ourselves staring at a statue of Mickey himself. From that point forward, it was all Disney all the time for the entire week! And it began with a bang. After taking a desperate (but cute!) four-year-old on a potty break immediately upon arrival, we walked out of the restroom to the sounds of a shrieking bear. Goofy was in the lobby. I never knew my girls were such accomplished sprinters. But the speed with which they traversed the span of the lobby to reach their favorite member of the original fab five inspired the theme to Chariots of Fire to echo through my head. (Or was that the headache after many hours with excited girls in the car?) The girls got some serious Goofy love, and we were off and running on our ridiculously idyllic week. And it only got better! (How could the week be anything but idyllic with a picture-perfect view of Space Mountain and the Matterhorn outside our hotel room window?!?!)

As you all know, our girls endured ten months of devotedly counting down to this vacation. During that time, they gave most careful and deliberate consideration to our game plan. What would we do once we finally walked through the front gates and into the park of parks? We had our marching orders. And after the aforementioned excruciating wait, they were set. Dumbo. Peter Pan. The Teacups. Snow White. After that, anything was fair game. And so we proceeded accordingly. And we had a blast. Ginny's face was priceless as she waited for her turn to ride Dumbo for the first time. And Ellie flew the titular elephant with pure joy - as evidenced by her desire to make that darn creature move up and down as quickly and dramatically as possible. (Who knew gentle Dumbo was not for the faint of heart, or stomach!) Peter Pan was a hit! And between the girls, Gramma, and me, we made some impressive spinning on the Teacups worthy of a Mad Hatter's tea party! And then there was Snow White. Ginny was psyched. After a minute in line, Ellie was not. Dark rides are not her thing, and the visage of the evil queen did not help. So my bug and I meandered around a shop instead. She felt terrible...until we were told to go out of the shop and around the corner. You see, Disneyland is celebrating "A Year of a Million Dreams." Part of this celebration is a "Dream Fast Pass" which allows the bearer to skip most or all of a line for the most popular rides in the park. These passes are distributed completely at random. And we all got one - even the stalwart souls who braved the scary journey of Ginny's favorite princess. For someone who never won ANYTHING this was way cool! (okay, I was voted to be an officer in National Honor Society in high school, but can you really call it a "win" when your status as supreme geek was confirmed by vote at the age of seventeen?) And Ellie felt a little better for skipping a ride and becoming the benefactor of our good fortune!

By the time evening fell, the girls had their new princess dresses in their possession (the necessary uniform for our lunch at Ariel's Grotto the following afternoon) and we eagerly awaited the Parade of Dreams (their title, not mine). The girls had watched this parade ad nausium on YouTube during the months leading up to our trip, but they were not prepared for just how big this parade would be. (Or how big the float of the Little Mermaid's nemesis Ursula would be. If Ginny could have crawled INSIDE of my jacket, she would have!) This parade boasted every big name in the Disney pantheon. The girls were crazy excited. They waved. They cheered. They danced. And while the parade was beyond lovely, my girls were what really made the night for me.

First, Ginny finally saw HER Snow White. Now, for those of you who do not get the hang out with the bear on a daily basis, you might not know just how big this was. Ginny has worn her sister's old Snow White dress EVERY day. For months. If you were to ask her who she would see in Disneyland, she would always start - and often end - with the fairest one of all. Snow White is the living end for little Ginny. So when Snow White made her appearance on the last float of the parade, I expected Ginny to put her shrieks over Goofy to shame. But the most remarkable thing happened. Ginny stood still. She was silent. She was in absolute and complete awe that HER Snow White was there. For real. (It reminded me of when I finally saw David McCullough last year!) And Ginny was stunned.

As for our Ellie, her highlight had little to do with the parade. Due to the popularity of parades at Disneyland, one much secure a spot nearly two hours ahead of zero hour. This left a LOT of time for two little girls to sit. So Ellie made a new friend. She does this often and at random. For our bug, any stranger under five feet tall is just a friend she hasn't met yet. And this night, she met Lottie from Australia. Lottie sat with Ellie while her mom stood behind us. Ellie shared her treats and new light spinner with Lottie. When the parade was over, Ellie gave Lottie a big hug and told her she would miss her for a really long time. And this was a trend that would continue throughout the week. Ellie met a little Cinderella while waiting for out table at the princess lunch the next day and proceeded to walk back and forth to her table over the course of the lunch to visit her princess pal. Ellie ran into her Cinderella friend later that evening at Haagen Daas in Downtown Disney. She squealed and ran to embrace her long lost buddy. A Snow White in glasses became her friend two days later while waiting in line at the Princess Fantasy Faire. Ellie is a buddy to the core; just waiting to bestow her friendship on anyone!

So at the end of a perfect first day, it hit me. Disneyland is incredible. I've loved it since I was little. (And I am talking crazy love here!) But sharing Disneyland with my girls? Forget about it! That's where the magic is! Pure, unmitigated magic.

The Best Week Ever!!!

This kind of thing doesn't happen often. For some people it happens not at all. Yet somehow, it happened to us. At the perfect time. We had the perfect week. Our long-long-long-awaited trip to Disneyland has come and gone. And while I didn't think it was possible, our trip exceded our expectations. Perhaps it helped that the weeks leading up to the trip (expecially the week immediately preceding the trip) were chaotic at best. Dave had an exam and a LOT of projects to finish up at work. I had to submit yet another appeal for an extension with CU and get a revised chapter off to my new advisor. And of course, the girls got sick. I almost gave up on the entire process. Everything seemed to go wrong. Complications sprung up like the weeds in my front garden. Even the trip down to St. George where we were to unwind for a couple of days before heading off to the happiest place on earth was fraught with unbelievably heavy traffic. Dave and I feared nature, kharma, providence, or some other unseen power was trying to tell us something. We weren't sure the trip was such a good idea after all. And then the most remarkable thing happened. Everything went right. From the moment we arrived at the Disneyland Hotel life was good. Life was happy. Life was so darn fun. We had the best week ever!

Maybe our trip was perfect because we were so afraid to build it up too much in fear it could never live up to expectations. Maybe the long wait made us appreciate just how precious each second was and how quickly they would fly away. Regardless, we soaked in and embraced every moment - even the cranky outbursts (the girls are still two and four no matter where we are.....so what was my excuse?), the ill-timed potty breaks (how do kids know when you are at the furthest possible point from a restroom?), and the general exhaustion of a week of Disney fun. And the fact we were able to share the experience with Gramma and Poppy - the ridiculously generous benefactors of our dream vacation - made it all the better. The girls and their long-distance grandparents really got to know each other. And the grandparents got to be around for a few significant life moments for the girls.

I realize that it's much easier to have a truly joyful experience when one is able to escape the stresses of everyday life, the pressures of school, the never-ending tasks around the house, and the too often discouraging news coverage of financial crises and political strife (although I must confess to missing my daily David Gergen fix on CNN). In point of fact, it probably was that realization that helped us completely absorb and enjoy every minute we had in our character-saturated Shangri-La. Regardless, our trip couldn't have been better. And we can't wait to go back. In the meantime, I fully intend to bore any and all willing (and not-so-willing) victims, eh, readers of my humble blog to a trip log of sorts. Over the next few days I will post some of the daily highlights from what can only be described as the best week ever! While you all wait for these posts - with baited breath I'm certain! - head over to Grandma and Poppy's blog. You'll find the link on the right. There you will discover a fabulous slide show of trip courtesy of the Poppy himself!