The One Where We All Go Back

My feet are aching.
My back is sore.
My eyes are closing.
My gas tank is empty.

All of this means....we hit Disneyland again!

Today was not a solo mission. This time we took a whole gaggle of people including David, Nicholas, Alyssa and her beau Mark.

Because I am afraid this blog might be turning into "Zab Tales of Disneyland" AND because in between each sentance I type, I look up at the episode of "Friends" that I am watching and then fall asleep which then turns each sentance into a 2 minute task, I am skipping to the highlights only.

* Getting off the Jungle Cruise and the "cast member" helping Lucy off the boat said, "There you go, Princess!" She stopped walking, turned around and said, "Mommy! He called me PRINCESS!"

* Taking all 3 kids on "Pirates" and both boys telling me they weren't scared at all when we were done. (Know that I did make an inappropriate joke about bringing the Ziploc with grandmas ashes nice and loud for the amusement of the Disney people. I wondered if they'd stop the ride and question me. They didn't.)

* Cherry sours

* While waiting for Lucy and David to go on Dumbo, Alyssa went to grab some lunch so Mark and I took the boys on "Mister Toad's Wild Ride." As we were standing in line, I told Mark that I couldn't remember the last time I'd been on. In fact, my parents never took me on it when I was little. He told me that his parents didn't either! How weird was that? In fact, he wondered if he'd ever been on it! We marveled at our parents' oddities and laughed, ha! We got on the ride and I continued laughing inside. Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha-uh oh. Mister Toad had been a bad boy. Nathan noticed the darkness of the scenes around him and was no longer steering. A scary judge (was he a badger or something?) loomed above us and shouted the words "GUILTY!" And it was then that I realized exactly WHY my parents hadn't taken me to Mister Toad's Wild Ride. Because the ride that's for kids SENT ME TO HELL!

Please excuse the words for which this acronym stands, but: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?!?
What is up with the story of Mister Toad?!
OK, moving on.

* Having a 4-3 Adult to kid ratio. It completely rocked.

* The final moment of the day: The boys were on the "toilet ride" (we tried calling it that all day to make going to the bathroom sound exciting but they didn't buy it once) and Lucy and I were waiting outside. We saw Pluto walking across the street and as we chased him down, we stumbled upon Mickey and Minnie and Goofy all posing for pictures. I called David and told him to bring the boys over and we walked over to get in line. The "cast member" standing at the back of the line said he'd sneak us in as the last person to see Mickey for now. (Calling Lucy "princess" again, much to her delight.) We thanked him and waited our turn. As we stood there, Minnie Mouse was going away. Lucy called out to her and waved. She was sad Minnie was going.

It was our turn to see Mickey, the boys were with us and everyone fell on Mickey showing him their new badges (lanyards) and telling him EVERYTHING they'd done that day. I reminded them that Mickey had to go so lets take our picture. As we lined everyone up, who comes over? Minnie Mouse! Lucy was extatic! She walked right over to us and I now have the most wonderful, magical picture of my 3 babies and Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

It's so silly, I started crying. I was standing there, taking pictures, crying at such a simple sight. But for me, it was the perfect end to a wonderful day. A moment that brought me such abundant joy, I honestly thanked God for it.

Pictues coming tomorrow.
Good night.