Lost in the magic

I can't tell the complete Disney story without mentioning that we lost J twice during the trip. The first time happened on our first full day there. The night before we had put our cell phone numbers in all the kids' pockets, but we realized as we were making our way to the park the next day that none of the girls had pockets. So, my sister-in-law came up with the idea of writing phone numbers on the kids' hands. Later in the day, as I stood in line for Splash Mountain, I got a phone call from a kind gentleman who said he had found J. I didn't even realize my son was missing! It turns out that J got distracted sometime between the headcount on the way to Splash Mountain and the time we got in line. When he realized he was lost, J pulled out his map and started making his way to our designated meeting point, looking for a Disney employee along the way along the way. He was following our "if you get lost" instructions very precisely, but he still felt frightened. A family noticed a young boy looking at a map, appearing very scared, and asked if he needed help. J decided that since the family had kids of their own with them, he could probably trust them. He showed them the cell phone number on his hand, and they gave us a call. J said the mom of the group thought our idea was such a good one that she wrote her own cell phone number on her kids' hands while they waited for me to find them. It was so good to see my little lost boy again! Of course, he got separated from our group two days later, but I soon realized he was missing. I got a call from a Disney employee five minutes later and was quickly reunited with J.

I've included photos of the kids' hands, though I did block out the actual numbers since the photos are out here on the Web.