mystycalchyk
09-15-2004, 10:39 AM
OK we are heading off to Disneyland in *gasp* 9 days.
IcantwaitIcantwaiticantwait!
On my other board I had decided to explain my trip a bit more and then thought "what the heck" and am posting it here too. This is going to be long so I will apologise...sorry to bore you. Some of this may be a repeat, Im sorry.
My hubby and I are uber disneygeeks. We go every year for New Years. We usually get there either on Christmas day or the day after and stay till at least the 2nd (hubby's birthday). We bit the big bullet last summer and went to WDW in Florida. It was his first ever trip there, and the last time I had been there was in 1984, then in 1982 then 1972. So it was a wonderful trip for us. 10 days that went way too fast.
Hubby and I have been married for 6 years and for 4 of those years we tried, unsuccessfully, to have a child. For awhile that was a tough pill to swallow, but now I look at the freedom we have to just take off and go and do what we want that I kind of like it.
I know this all sounds comboobulated but it will all blend together eventually
We have watched people, with their kids for years and always thought "man, kids would so ruin this place". Because we watch them dragging their kids to and fro...yelling at them..the kids are crying.....some kids are too scared or small to go on certain attractions...it just seems like it would be a pain and no fun at all. yeah selfish I know, but I dont go to disneyland for any other reason that for selfish reasons (till now).
Dont get me wrong, we love children, why else would we have tried so hard to have them, but we always had assumed that once we had them we wouldnt go to Disneyland again till they were at least 5 or so, and old enough to maybe enjoy it a bit. I know that many of you wouldnt agree with us on that, but that was just our thought.
We have had little pieces of joy with little kids while there. I remember once, man this had to have been our first Christmas there, ..so 6 or so years ago.....we were standing at the Train Depot at the Fantasyland station. While in the queue theres a little building there...like a train station. There was a little family standing behind us in the line....a mom and dad and a sweet little boy, maybe about 4...perhaps closer to 3. He was on his little toes peering into the window of the building and he saw some 'props' in there and turned to him mom and dad and said "I think Mickey is in there!" Well, Will, my sweet husband, decided to help the fantasy along a bit. He squeaked his voice up really high and pretended to be Mickey Mouse for this amazed little boy. Will stands 6'3" so there was no way for this tiny child to feel that that voice was coming from anywhere but inside that building. While we waited for the next train to come around he had a little conversation with this boy. It was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen, and seriously made me love my new husband more than anything in the world all the more for doing it. That little boy was so excited....he talked back and forth with 'Mickey' for a good 5 minutes or so. Once the train started coming "mickey" told him to be good and have fun and how much he enjoyed talking with him.....I dont think you could have wiped the grin off that kids face for anything. His mother had tears in her eyes and mouthed 'thank you" to Will, as she ushered her child along through the queue. She knew that that would be one of the highlights of his trip. Honestly, now even thinking about it, it swells my heart. If you could have seen this little boy.....too too sweet.
So dont think we think all parts of taking kids to disneyland were horrible....I think we've seen more horrible 'parenting' than kids, for sure.
So anyway, last year, while we were in WDW we stayed in one of the Disney resorts on property and took the disney bus system everywhere we went. (We flew to Florida and didnt have a vehicle) . Every morning we could load onto the bus to whatever particular destination we were heading to, and we would see all the families with thier kids. The kids would be all excited to see 'this princess' or 'that character'. Some were dressed in little costumes and it was so sweet to see how excited they were. Kind of tugged on some heartstrings we thought we had buried. And every evening we would board another bus to take us back to the hotel. Different kids...different families...the parents always looked bushed, and sometimes the kids would be too, but here and there you'd see and hear the little ones with still so much energy left, and telling stories of the things they had done or seen that day. Day in and day out....for 10 days we experiened a mini piece of Disneyworld through childrens eyes for those 20 or so minutes a few times a day. We started thinking that maybe kids wouldnt ruin Disney after all......maybe.
So fast forward....last Christmas...at one point, we were waiting for, what for me is one of my favoritest things...the main Street Electrical Parade. I literally get weepy every time I see it. Thre's something magical about it for me. I remember seeing it as a small child. We even used that song from the parade as the 'recessional' song in our wedding. It just is the epitome of joy and love and happiness to me. So we are waiting along the path, and there's a family sitting next to us...mom, dad, two kids...a boy maybe around 5 and a girl maybe 6. They were not understanding why they were waiting (the parade was still a good ten minutes from starting). The parents, obviously noobs to Disney, said they were waiting for 'some parade or something' and asked us what it was all about. Well we started telling them how it was the best parade ever and they would love it and just basically gushed all over the place. I especially love the little 'bugs' in the parade, that, if you yell and scream loud enough,will come right in front of you and spin in circles, or shake around and bob their heads and make little noises...all just for you. Well I always get them to come to me...so we made sure to stand just behind these kids and yelled and hollered like crazy to get them to come over to us. Every single of them came to us...those kids were thrilled. it was great. Another night, as we were watching the fireworks we kept pointing out to each other the little kids and the looks on their faces as they saw them flaring up into the night sky...not to mention the almost rapture they seemed to feel when it 'snows' at the end. We started seriously thinking how much fun it might be to have kids at Disneyland
So to make a long story even longer....Will has a niece and nephew. His sisters kids. They are 5 (our nephew) and 8 (our niece) respectively. They live in Phoenix, and they really dont have a whole lot in the way a material things (not that we do, we arent rich by any means but still they are really poor)....nor do they have a good parental situation. Wills sister, who is divorced, is just not really a good mother. She treats them more like siblings than children..she argues with them af they want to come and play with a toy she's playing with yeah...you heard me. She's more like a child than her 8 year old daughter is. It drives us bonkers but there's not a lot we can do. Thats why we try to spend at least one weekend (or day) a month with them. If nothing else we will go down to pick them up (which is 2 hours from here) and take them to a movie or to the park....just kind of hang out with them and give them the love and more parental-type guidance they so desperately want and need. For the last 3 or so months we have brought them up here to spend the weekend with us for a few days. They love it, and so do we. They are sweet kids and we feel blessed to be able to spend the time with them. Our little nephew especially just thrives on the attention from his uncle. he doesnt have a good 'male' relationship in his life and he just loves having that father type figure around. We started haivng them spend weekends with us because we wanted to make sure they were really comfortable with us because for this months 'weekend with us' we get to take them to Disneyland, our favorite place in the world.
Just to paint a picture for you so you can maybe understand a snippet of thier life, last Christmastime, their local TV news stations (Fox10 in Phoenix) did a thing where they picked , I dont know how many, 'underprivledged families' and gave the children a Christmas to remember...well, they were picked. It almost broke my heart when I heard what my nephew told the reporter.
When asked what he wanted more than anything in the whole world.....one would expect a 4 year old to pick a toy or something...he said:
"A bed. a real bed"
He had been in a crib bed his whole life.
They bought him a 'race car' bed. It's his pride and joy.
Probably more info than you all needed...but maybe now some of you will understand why we do things with them. Several months ago they were here with us and I practically choked when we were eating dinner when our nephew looked at me and said "If my mommy dies, will you be our mommy and daddy?" Will and I just looked at each other and stammered a bit before explaining, that that was something his mommy needed to decide, and he shouldnt have to worry about such things. The next breath our neice said "Oh no....mommy has already told us that if something happens to her she wants you to take us" goodness...I cant even imagine telling my, at that time 4 and 8 year old things like that. We of course explained that we loved them and of course we would love to have them in our home forever but that they dont need to think of things like that happening to their mommy.
Last month when they came for our weekend We went to a local nursery and let them each pick out 'their own' tree and they came home and helped us plant them. So now they will be able to come and visit their trees, and hopefully, one day, be able to pick apples from them (our nieces tree is a Fuji apple tree and our nephews is a granny smith apple tree).
We just try to do something in thier lives to let them know they are loved and maybe get them out of the, at many times, unhappy existance they have at home.
So anyway...after the WDW trip and on top of it our annual New Years trip we started thinking and planning about taking them to Disneyland.
We got really serious about it last spring and decided that we needed to have at least a few months to save up enough money...plus we didnt want to take them in the middle of the summer, since its so crowded...so we decided that September sounded like a good time. Kids are back in school so its less crowded but still warm enough for water type attractions.
I truly think that Will and I are more giddy than they will be once they find out since they STILL have no clue. they know that we are coming to get them for our monthly weekend next Friday, but they wont know till we get there that we are leaving immediately for the airport and flying off to Disneyland.
A couple of days ago Will and I went shopping to pick up a few goodies for them. We are planning on giving them each a gift wrapped box with some 'clues' as to what we're doing. We are, of course going to video the whole thing. I cannot wait to see the looks on their faces as they are going through their stuff and realise what we are doing
We try really hard to be as even and as fair as possible so one doesnt feel that the other gets more (attention or stuff). so we bought each of them a pair a pants, for her a little pair of pink leggings to help keep her legs warm in the cool evening, for him a pair of windbreakery type material pants for wearing on water attractions (Will has some and I know that he will wear anything that his uncle has), we got each one a long sleeved T, just because where they live is so hot they dont have 'warm' things and I want them to have something in case there is a chillier day. and we got each one a hoodie, and I went yesterday and found an Ariel patch for hers and a Mickey mouse patch for his that I will put on their hoodies this week sometime. They each are getting a small fanny pack with a little sport bottle and inside will be two disposable cameras each, two personalised photo albums for their developed pictures when they get them. I bought the albums and the front covers just slip out so last night I made little covers for them with their names and lots of disney clipart. they each are getting a disney themed watch, hers is princess and his is buzz lightyear, and also inside will be a chunky pen (for character autographs) and a bunch of stickers so they can decorate their autograph books when we get them. When we go to pick them up Friday afternoon we will stop by the disney store there (we dont have one here) and are planning on getting 4 matching mickey mouse shirts for us to wear (yeah I know, you are all thinking 'GEEK!', but get over it . They will love it.)
So there you are. the reasons behind the trip and one of the reasons we are so excited about this one. For once its a trip not about us and our wants but about these two kids and for a few days how the world will revolve around them. And we know that because we know the place like the back of our hands that they will not miss a single thing that we know will be wonderful for them (well except for the things closed for refurb)...but they...theres always next year
*hears crickets chirping*
I told you it would be long
I wonder if anyone read it all
*shrugs*
oh well.
IcantwaitIcantwaiticantwait!
On my other board I had decided to explain my trip a bit more and then thought "what the heck" and am posting it here too. This is going to be long so I will apologise...sorry to bore you. Some of this may be a repeat, Im sorry.
My hubby and I are uber disneygeeks. We go every year for New Years. We usually get there either on Christmas day or the day after and stay till at least the 2nd (hubby's birthday). We bit the big bullet last summer and went to WDW in Florida. It was his first ever trip there, and the last time I had been there was in 1984, then in 1982 then 1972. So it was a wonderful trip for us. 10 days that went way too fast.
Hubby and I have been married for 6 years and for 4 of those years we tried, unsuccessfully, to have a child. For awhile that was a tough pill to swallow, but now I look at the freedom we have to just take off and go and do what we want that I kind of like it.
I know this all sounds comboobulated but it will all blend together eventually
We have watched people, with their kids for years and always thought "man, kids would so ruin this place". Because we watch them dragging their kids to and fro...yelling at them..the kids are crying.....some kids are too scared or small to go on certain attractions...it just seems like it would be a pain and no fun at all. yeah selfish I know, but I dont go to disneyland for any other reason that for selfish reasons (till now).
Dont get me wrong, we love children, why else would we have tried so hard to have them, but we always had assumed that once we had them we wouldnt go to Disneyland again till they were at least 5 or so, and old enough to maybe enjoy it a bit. I know that many of you wouldnt agree with us on that, but that was just our thought.
We have had little pieces of joy with little kids while there. I remember once, man this had to have been our first Christmas there, ..so 6 or so years ago.....we were standing at the Train Depot at the Fantasyland station. While in the queue theres a little building there...like a train station. There was a little family standing behind us in the line....a mom and dad and a sweet little boy, maybe about 4...perhaps closer to 3. He was on his little toes peering into the window of the building and he saw some 'props' in there and turned to him mom and dad and said "I think Mickey is in there!" Well, Will, my sweet husband, decided to help the fantasy along a bit. He squeaked his voice up really high and pretended to be Mickey Mouse for this amazed little boy. Will stands 6'3" so there was no way for this tiny child to feel that that voice was coming from anywhere but inside that building. While we waited for the next train to come around he had a little conversation with this boy. It was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen, and seriously made me love my new husband more than anything in the world all the more for doing it. That little boy was so excited....he talked back and forth with 'Mickey' for a good 5 minutes or so. Once the train started coming "mickey" told him to be good and have fun and how much he enjoyed talking with him.....I dont think you could have wiped the grin off that kids face for anything. His mother had tears in her eyes and mouthed 'thank you" to Will, as she ushered her child along through the queue. She knew that that would be one of the highlights of his trip. Honestly, now even thinking about it, it swells my heart. If you could have seen this little boy.....too too sweet.
So dont think we think all parts of taking kids to disneyland were horrible....I think we've seen more horrible 'parenting' than kids, for sure.
So anyway, last year, while we were in WDW we stayed in one of the Disney resorts on property and took the disney bus system everywhere we went. (We flew to Florida and didnt have a vehicle) . Every morning we could load onto the bus to whatever particular destination we were heading to, and we would see all the families with thier kids. The kids would be all excited to see 'this princess' or 'that character'. Some were dressed in little costumes and it was so sweet to see how excited they were. Kind of tugged on some heartstrings we thought we had buried. And every evening we would board another bus to take us back to the hotel. Different kids...different families...the parents always looked bushed, and sometimes the kids would be too, but here and there you'd see and hear the little ones with still so much energy left, and telling stories of the things they had done or seen that day. Day in and day out....for 10 days we experiened a mini piece of Disneyworld through childrens eyes for those 20 or so minutes a few times a day. We started thinking that maybe kids wouldnt ruin Disney after all......maybe.
So fast forward....last Christmas...at one point, we were waiting for, what for me is one of my favoritest things...the main Street Electrical Parade. I literally get weepy every time I see it. Thre's something magical about it for me. I remember seeing it as a small child. We even used that song from the parade as the 'recessional' song in our wedding. It just is the epitome of joy and love and happiness to me. So we are waiting along the path, and there's a family sitting next to us...mom, dad, two kids...a boy maybe around 5 and a girl maybe 6. They were not understanding why they were waiting (the parade was still a good ten minutes from starting). The parents, obviously noobs to Disney, said they were waiting for 'some parade or something' and asked us what it was all about. Well we started telling them how it was the best parade ever and they would love it and just basically gushed all over the place. I especially love the little 'bugs' in the parade, that, if you yell and scream loud enough,will come right in front of you and spin in circles, or shake around and bob their heads and make little noises...all just for you. Well I always get them to come to me...so we made sure to stand just behind these kids and yelled and hollered like crazy to get them to come over to us. Every single of them came to us...those kids were thrilled. it was great. Another night, as we were watching the fireworks we kept pointing out to each other the little kids and the looks on their faces as they saw them flaring up into the night sky...not to mention the almost rapture they seemed to feel when it 'snows' at the end. We started seriously thinking how much fun it might be to have kids at Disneyland
So to make a long story even longer....Will has a niece and nephew. His sisters kids. They are 5 (our nephew) and 8 (our niece) respectively. They live in Phoenix, and they really dont have a whole lot in the way a material things (not that we do, we arent rich by any means but still they are really poor)....nor do they have a good parental situation. Wills sister, who is divorced, is just not really a good mother. She treats them more like siblings than children..she argues with them af they want to come and play with a toy she's playing with yeah...you heard me. She's more like a child than her 8 year old daughter is. It drives us bonkers but there's not a lot we can do. Thats why we try to spend at least one weekend (or day) a month with them. If nothing else we will go down to pick them up (which is 2 hours from here) and take them to a movie or to the park....just kind of hang out with them and give them the love and more parental-type guidance they so desperately want and need. For the last 3 or so months we have brought them up here to spend the weekend with us for a few days. They love it, and so do we. They are sweet kids and we feel blessed to be able to spend the time with them. Our little nephew especially just thrives on the attention from his uncle. he doesnt have a good 'male' relationship in his life and he just loves having that father type figure around. We started haivng them spend weekends with us because we wanted to make sure they were really comfortable with us because for this months 'weekend with us' we get to take them to Disneyland, our favorite place in the world.
Just to paint a picture for you so you can maybe understand a snippet of thier life, last Christmastime, their local TV news stations (Fox10 in Phoenix) did a thing where they picked , I dont know how many, 'underprivledged families' and gave the children a Christmas to remember...well, they were picked. It almost broke my heart when I heard what my nephew told the reporter.
When asked what he wanted more than anything in the whole world.....one would expect a 4 year old to pick a toy or something...he said:
"A bed. a real bed"
He had been in a crib bed his whole life.
They bought him a 'race car' bed. It's his pride and joy.
Probably more info than you all needed...but maybe now some of you will understand why we do things with them. Several months ago they were here with us and I practically choked when we were eating dinner when our nephew looked at me and said "If my mommy dies, will you be our mommy and daddy?" Will and I just looked at each other and stammered a bit before explaining, that that was something his mommy needed to decide, and he shouldnt have to worry about such things. The next breath our neice said "Oh no....mommy has already told us that if something happens to her she wants you to take us" goodness...I cant even imagine telling my, at that time 4 and 8 year old things like that. We of course explained that we loved them and of course we would love to have them in our home forever but that they dont need to think of things like that happening to their mommy.
Last month when they came for our weekend We went to a local nursery and let them each pick out 'their own' tree and they came home and helped us plant them. So now they will be able to come and visit their trees, and hopefully, one day, be able to pick apples from them (our nieces tree is a Fuji apple tree and our nephews is a granny smith apple tree).
We just try to do something in thier lives to let them know they are loved and maybe get them out of the, at many times, unhappy existance they have at home.
So anyway...after the WDW trip and on top of it our annual New Years trip we started thinking and planning about taking them to Disneyland.
We got really serious about it last spring and decided that we needed to have at least a few months to save up enough money...plus we didnt want to take them in the middle of the summer, since its so crowded...so we decided that September sounded like a good time. Kids are back in school so its less crowded but still warm enough for water type attractions.
I truly think that Will and I are more giddy than they will be once they find out since they STILL have no clue. they know that we are coming to get them for our monthly weekend next Friday, but they wont know till we get there that we are leaving immediately for the airport and flying off to Disneyland.
A couple of days ago Will and I went shopping to pick up a few goodies for them. We are planning on giving them each a gift wrapped box with some 'clues' as to what we're doing. We are, of course going to video the whole thing. I cannot wait to see the looks on their faces as they are going through their stuff and realise what we are doing
We try really hard to be as even and as fair as possible so one doesnt feel that the other gets more (attention or stuff). so we bought each of them a pair a pants, for her a little pair of pink leggings to help keep her legs warm in the cool evening, for him a pair of windbreakery type material pants for wearing on water attractions (Will has some and I know that he will wear anything that his uncle has), we got each one a long sleeved T, just because where they live is so hot they dont have 'warm' things and I want them to have something in case there is a chillier day. and we got each one a hoodie, and I went yesterday and found an Ariel patch for hers and a Mickey mouse patch for his that I will put on their hoodies this week sometime. They each are getting a small fanny pack with a little sport bottle and inside will be two disposable cameras each, two personalised photo albums for their developed pictures when they get them. I bought the albums and the front covers just slip out so last night I made little covers for them with their names and lots of disney clipart. they each are getting a disney themed watch, hers is princess and his is buzz lightyear, and also inside will be a chunky pen (for character autographs) and a bunch of stickers so they can decorate their autograph books when we get them. When we go to pick them up Friday afternoon we will stop by the disney store there (we dont have one here) and are planning on getting 4 matching mickey mouse shirts for us to wear (yeah I know, you are all thinking 'GEEK!', but get over it . They will love it.)
So there you are. the reasons behind the trip and one of the reasons we are so excited about this one. For once its a trip not about us and our wants but about these two kids and for a few days how the world will revolve around them. And we know that because we know the place like the back of our hands that they will not miss a single thing that we know will be wonderful for them (well except for the things closed for refurb)...but they...theres always next year
*hears crickets chirping*
I told you it would be long
I wonder if anyone read it all
*shrugs*
oh well.