Ahhhh.....Disney

The memories we each pick out from a trip with the kids are as different as the people that were there together. My memories this Monday morning are mostly of the journey up to Disney.

A little custom my wife and I have is that we keep the whole trip to Disney a secret for as long as possible. There are a number of reasons behind this…it cuts down on the number of times we have to answer the question “is today the day we are going to Disney?” It also allows for some unforeseeable change in plans that would cancel the trip. (My parents always taught me that as a parent, try to never say “yes” and then “no” to something.) It doesn’t always work, but it’s something I strive for as often as possible.

We picked up the kids at school for “lunch” telling them the whole time that we would bring them back to school afterwards. After all, Austin did have a very important Cereal Party that he didn’t want to miss. While we were going to lunch, we had to stop off at the Cardiologist for Angie. She had been having some issues with her defibrillator, and the doctor called her that morning and said she needed to come in and get checked out. There was still a chance that they could say she would not be able to go. We were very glad that we hadn’t said anything about Disney at that point.

Once she got the o.k. (they turned off one of the electric leads to here heart, and said she could go and just needed to come back on Tuesday to figure out what to do with the machine. She may end up needing a new device put in. What about going on the rides? They just said if you go on a ride and it zaps you, you may not want to do it again. Well, Duh! She was less concerned then I was. Every time we waited in line, I must have asked her a dozen times if she felt o.k. and if she really wanted to do it. Each time she just looked at me and smiled. Of course she was going to do the rides. How silly of me to even suggest anything less.

After nearly an hour on the road, the boys started to realize that it doesn’t usually take that long to get back to school from the mall we stopped at near Angie’s doctor.

“Are we going back to school?”

“Do you want to?”

“Yeah. My class is having a Cereal Party.”

At this point I adjust the rearview mirror so that I can watch their faces as they get the news.

“Well, we thought that maybe because you guys had done so well in school this year, and we are so proud of you, that maybe you would rather go to Disney instead. What do you think?”

“Huh?” they said as their mouths hung open.

“Well we can turn around if you want, unless you think you might want to keep going to Disney.”

“DISNEY!!!! WAHOOOOO!” they screamed in unison.