Faith 'n Family: Disneyland

Ahhh Disneyland - the Magical Place!

Silver's first and Favorite ride of the whole day!

The Carousel!

River

Summer and Daddy

My girls are very receptive to the spirit and can feel if something is dark or light. Most of the villains and rides really scared them. They don't like to be scared and would rather Walk in the Light!

I am proud of them when they are watching a movie and see/hear things they know wouldn't be acceptable in our home (arguing, making fun of someone else, fighting, scary, etc.) they tell me that they don't feel the spirit and would like to change the show or turn it off. They have even done this at friends houses. Way to go girls!

River got to drive her own car!

Silver and River with Drivers Licenses

The girls very much liked the pirate ship.

This reminded River of Kirsten - we were reading the American Girls Books about Kirsten - a girl who came to America from Sweden. She came over on a big ship, and River would say, I wonder if this is what it was like for Kirsten :) They take you for a ride around a big loop!

Silver Ringing the bell on the ship!

HAD to find NEMO for Summer!

We got to ride in a Submarine!

River tells me "In everything that we do we can learn a lesson" SO TRUE!

So here are some of my lessons from Disneyland -

Disneyland is designed that you can't do everything in one day - which is all we had! Silver REALLY wanted to see Tangled - and mentioned it throughout the day. So we went to her house and waited in line to see her. This line moved extremely slow as one family at a time could go in to take pictures with her. I later learned that ALL the characters appear in the parade and that certain parts of the park close early, like Mickey's ToonTown. I think the girls would have gotten such a kick out of this as it is designed for little kids - Not knowing it closes early, we did Tangled first - and when we headed to do ToonTown it was closed, even though the rest of the park was still open for several more hours.

So my analogy to life: We only get one life. (one day at Disneyland). We can't go back re-do it. Although we do have a tomorrow and can make changes necessary while still in this life so that at the end we can fit in the things that are important.

There are more things to do than we can ever get to. It is such a blessing that we each get to decide how to spend our time. Personally, when I put the girls down to bed and sit down at the computer or tv- and catch myself hours later still browsing, I feel just like seeing Rapunzel - disappointment - what a waste of time!

For me, there is so much more exciting life out there (Like Toon Town!) We have very limited tv time in our home - I feel that it would be better to go outside or play a game together, hike a mountain, do a craft, cook together, practice the piano, eat ice cream, play catch, do a puzzle, read a book, look at pretty rocks, make a mud puddle, play cards - go fish anyone? the list goes on and on!

Certain things close in life: Sometimes we think "one day" when this or that happens then I will....

When we are ready to go to Toon Town and do the thing we have put off for so long, we may find that that ride is now closed. Sorry.

The girls LOVED "it's a small world!" Absolutely LOVED it!

They enjoyed it so much that we went to get in line again - only to find that it had closed for the night as well. One time around is better than none!

I could get stuck on what I didn't do (ToonTown) or on what didn't happen (Expectations vs. Reality) or instead focus on what did happen that was great and what we did enjoy and what we did get to. You know at the end of the day, the girls favorite things were not the big grand rides, they were the carousel, it's a small world, and the animal train where they locked us in a cage like monkeys.

It doesn't have to be big and grand and sometimes kids surprise us at the simplicity that they enjoy! There was a lot of value in taking Silver to do the one thing she really wanted to do - meet Tangled - and have a personal picture with her arm around Silver in her very own house :) So even though I would have rather done something else, it is important to look out for others and meet their needs and dreams.

Disneyland was horrendously expensive! I think my kids get just as much enjoyment out of a carwash and a carousel ride. Don't get me wrong, we very much enjoyed our day, and it was a magical fun-filled place, I am glad we went and we will be back one day...but we can also enjoy simple things and spend our money on things that last!

Okay, enough lessons, now back to the Magic!

Mickey Mouse Ice Cream while waiting for the Parade to start! We had EXCELLENT seats!

Ah, here is Rapunzel so close to us and even waved to us too!

The parade was amazing!!

We also very much enjoyed the firework show. They light up the castle, and...

Tinkerbelle flies around!

VIDEO: Silver with the fireworks. I could never quite catch her enthusiasm on video. Silver kept saying 'TicTacToe! The fireworks would cross in the sky!

Summer and Mommy

The neat thing about the fireworks is that our hotel was just across the street from the Disneyland entrance so we could see the fireworks from our hotel balcony! At first we didn't know what was going on as we were trying to all fall asleep - so we got to watch the fireworks show twice! It was magical to have it go off right over the top of you. We had an amazing spot that wasn't crowded and was right in the middle of two firework displays - with the castle in the background!