Every year I find myself in a blog slump after the holidays.
SO much excitement and busyness during the month of December and as soon as the year changes life seems almost boring. The rooms are bare, the toys that were brand new have already lost their sparkle, diets have started so even eating has lost its thrill as the last of the Christmas cookies found themselves in the trash can. But I must get over the slump and to do that I am heading back to 2014 for two blog posts. Today I am going all the way back to November. I didn't realize I never documented our trip to Disney that we took with only the biggest kids. It is mainly pictures and I am sure it is not the most exciting but I love seeing the joy my kids had from ear to ear for three days (of course there were tears too because that's just life with kids) and my blog doubles as our photo album so Disney must be in there.
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| You can almost hear us while taking the first picture; "Drew look at mom. Natalie smile please. Aubrey act like your having fun." And the next picture is as good as we could get it. Boy oh boy it takes work to get that perfect picture and as you can see we still are working on it. |
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| Aubrey lives for the parades at Disney. I never see my daughter smile bigger than when she can get the characters to look and wave at her. I have video taped her during an entire parade just so that I can always go back to my innocent child. |
For the last couple of years we have done Disney for the twins birthday instead of doing a birthday party. Last April we could not find a good time for us to go between other things we had going on and mine & Paul's work schedules so we decided to go in the fall and try and time it for when Disneyland would be decorated for Christmas. The next thing we needed to figure out is if Paul and I were going to go by ourselves with the kids or if we wanted to bring someone with us. In the past Paul's parents have met us in Southern California but because of the high prices of airfare it was not going to work this time. It came down to 2 adults with 7 kids and though we knew it could be done it wasn't a trip we were thrilled about mainly because an 8 hour car ride with 4 two year olds and lots of stroller time with the same toddlers just seemed more like a form of punishment than memories being made. Then one evening Paul had the grand idea, and really it was probably the best idea he has ever had, he asked if it would be possible to leave the quads home with my mom and we could just take the older three. I loved this idea because we could spend some quality time with Natalie, Aubrey and Drew, my mom could spend time with just 4 of her grandkids and Disney would be enjoyable without worrying about naps, tables big enough for all of us, and the never-ending stares & questions from everyone we passed. We did shorten our usual 5 day trip to 3 days but it was well worth it.
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| I am only adding this one because it makes me laugh. Someday she will be mortified that she flashed everyone at Disney when I told her to pose for a picture! |
The kids had a blast, the adults felt like kids, we realized our 4 year still gets scared even though he acts so much older, one 6 year old has no fear, the other 6 year old is happy to watch from the side, a table for 5 is much easier to get than a table for 9, it is amazing how fast you can move around at the park when one does not have a stroller and Disney is made for families of 4 or at least for a family that does not have very many kids under the age of 7 when riding the bigger rides. I have no idea what we are going to do next year when we bring the quads due to the age restriction for kids riding alone. They must be 7 to ride alone which made it difficult when you have 3 kids under the age of 7 but only 2 adults. Next year we will have two 7 year olds who can ride together but can't ride with anyone under the age of 7 which will leave us with 5 kids who need adult supervision on rides but only 2 adults. Did I lose you? If so let's just say Paul and I are majorly outnumbered and will need to find some more adults to come with us.
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| All of my kids love to be tickled except for Natalie who is just like me and it is pure torture to us. |
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| It is awesome when your kids get to the age that they can use the camera because we occasionally get a picture of just mom and dad. |
We loved our time as a family of 5 but by the last day I was missing my babies. I would catch myself thinking how incomplete I felt. I wonder if this is how I will feel years form now when we get together to celebrate the holidays. Will I feel incomplete when some of my kids can't make it? Thankfully for now 363 days out of the year our family is together and those short times when I am away and miss my kids are good for us; it makes us realize this little family we have going on is where I am meant to be.
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| We ended up seeing the very last regular parade on our first night at the park and then the next day it was magically Christmas. The kids loved seeing the snow fall and even though I know it is all pretend I love it and it is something that is so worth experiencing. |
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| And these are the kinds of pictures you get when a 4 year old gets handed the camera. |
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| Aubrey wanted to ride Screamin' all day and she knew she was tall enough. Finally it was time and I told her ahead of time that it went really fast and was going to be scary but that didn't turn her away. After we were done I looked at her and asked her if she wanted to cry and she said 'yes'. I don't think the poor girl has ever been so scared but the amazing thing is she is already talking about riding it the next time we are there. |
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| No trip is complete without ice cream but there was no way we were going to spend $50 in the park for ice cream so we found an amazing ice cream place that will now be part of our Disney tradition. Til next time Mickey... |
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