Me today

So, it's not the best photo of me, but it's fairly recent. If you can't tell, this one was taken at Disneyworld, during our breakfast with the princesses. I'm trying to get in touch with old college friends these days and wanted to have a photo of myself on the blog so they can see how much I've changed.

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.

Disneyworld

We decided the kids are all just the right ages to make a Disney trip. The oldest turned eleven while we were there, and the youngest turned six the week before we left. We have wanted to do this for such a long time! So, we took a week off from school and work and went during the off-season, when the lines were shorter and rates were cheaper. It was great! My sister and her family joined us, and my husband's sister and her family also came along. There were thirteen of us in all, including seven kids. The youngest was four and the oldest was twelve.

There are tons of stories I could tell, but I don't want to have a blog with nothing but Disney, so I'll just share a few of the highlights in pictures.


Here are our four little princesses, all ready to go have breakfast with Belle, Snow White, Mulan, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. This was one of the highlights of the trip for the younger group.

The Aerosmith Rocking Rollercoaster was a big hit with the older kids.


J was called to the stage to participate in a bird show at Animal Kingdom. They needed "a boy between the ages of eight and ten who is good in math."




W chose pirate mouse ears as his souvenir.


M got to meet the big guy himself.

We had sooooo much fun! I thought we would get a little tired of all the magic, but we really didn't. There were tears when it was time to leave Florida and fly back home. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to do all the princess stuff with my daughter, ride the Tower of Terror with my boys, and see my kids have the time of their lives. I especially enjoyed having both my sister and sister-in-law together with their families. All the cousins got along splendidly. It occurred to me that I had all my nieces together in one place at the same time for the first time in my life. I have three nephews who didn't join us, either because they were too young or thought they were too old (my oldest nephew is 18). Maybe one day we'll be able to get the whole family together, even if Mickey Mouse doesn't join us.