Obsessed

I'm trying NOT to be, really, I am but I cannot get it out of my head! 

We are hoping for a trip back to WDW this fall.  This time, my parents want to come and my MIL and possibly  her SO (because it feels weird calling him a "boyfriend" when they are in their 60's).  The BEST family trip we have ever taken was our first trip in 2006. 

It was for DS's 5th birthday and DD was 18 mo. old.  I was turning 35 too.  To use the cliche, it was magical!  The last trip we took was last year around this time.  Maybe that's why I'm obsessing over it now - last year I was getting ready to go and busy planning and mapping things out.  We had crappy weather that put a damper on our trip.  I tried to make the best of it because I kept telling myself there's no way to be unhappy in The Happiest Place On Earth.  We did have a good time, it just didn't measure up to the first experience. 

If we go again and the grandparents go with us it will be a very different trip.  First, none of them have ever gone.  Second, my dad is disabled and will have his scooter to get around. There is NO way he could walk even a small portion of the park. Third, we will just have more people to worry about with different needs/wants and schedules.  Fourth, I have to get my dad to understand that it's ok if we don't all stay in the same place.  We'll stay on property because that's how it the least stressful for me.  If I'm going to go and experience it again when my kids are so young, then I'm going to enjoy every last bit of it!

The hotel part is a problem just getting them all to understand how it works.  My dad, being disabled, can stay at the military resort on property.  It's one of his benefits from the government and putting in his time in Vietnam.  That is the reason he's disabled now so he may as well take advantage of all he's given up to get those benefits - like breathing and walking.  However, he cannot seem to understand that FG and I are NOT comfortable staying at a military resort when we didn't earn those benefits.  He says he earned them for us but he doesn't get FG's utter uncomfortableness taking a room in a hotel like that when he gets to come home to his family every night.  He isn't being shot at, fear being blown up or only gets to see his children via email pictures.  He's young enough that we are the same age as many of the soldiers and families staying at those resorts.  We do not deserve it, THEY do.  My dad surely does as well but we'll suffer having to pay a bit more money because we didn't earn that benefit ourselves.  Sooo, over the next 10 months or so, I need to get my dad to finally understand how Disney works and that it's really OK if we aren't all bunking next door to each other. That's the beauty of DW that is hard to explain if you haven't experienced it.

We have other hurdles to get past to even think about this trip as well.  We still aren't fluid in money.  While we are working hard to change that, it isn't quite there yet.  So it's tough to dream and wish when there's bills to pay and DW ain't cheap. 
There's another small problem that I believe we can get past the easiest.  The fact that we produce a weekly, timely product and it's just FG and I doing it now is a problem.  We have to figure out how to do two programs in one week.  So it will end up being a ton of work before going on any vacation and a ton of work after we get home.  This will hold true no matter what time we ever take off.  DW isn't a real relaxing vacation either.  We literally drag ourselves out of bed every morning and fall into bed late at night.  Eh, I can sleep when I'm dead.  Now I'm going to soak up every moment of magic with my family as I can.  My poor kids were pushed to limits on both trips. So much so that the first trip when DD was 18 mo, she was throwing up on the way home I think from pure exhaustion.  She's fine now and we had a great time so it didn't do any damage :) 

This is my favorite picture from our trip last year.  It just screams pure joy to me and I cannot get it out of my head to recapture it. (It doesn't help that both kids ask all the time when we get to go back. Like any parent I want to make them happy and it's like a stab in the heart knowing that it's something we all want so very badly!)