The Urbans do Disney

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Days upon days upon days of theme parks for the ultimate and LONG family vacation in Florida visiting every Disney park AND Legoland to celebrate our son’s 6th birthday. We had to practically wish ourselves home – surviving on fumes.

Having two children almost 4 years apart, with an older daughter and younger son, makes the age gap more like 10 years apart and it’s as if you are raising two single children. Their interests are so different. Their intellect is SO different. My daughter is a very mature, very compassionate, very – complicated – 10 year old young lady. She is smart. SO smart which makes me super proud and totally perplexed all at the same time. I have no doubt that she will leave a huge mark on this world. My son is simple. He’s a boy. Give him a brick and he’ll find a way to play with it for hours using his incredible imagination. But touch that brick before HE was ready for you to touch it and watch OUT! He is the sweetest boy  – and he loves his mama – which basically means I’m putty.

The last few days before any vacation are tough and chaotic. Packing and organizing alongside cancelled school snow days and then having to cancel work days were difficult. But we made it out the door and onto our plane where we hit the ground running and basically didn’t stop for 11 straight days. We did have a “rest” day. We said we would stay at the resort and relax – by the pool and just hang out. But that turned into a day of paddle boating, biking, swimming and MORE exhaustion because apparently we are incapable of passing up a good time and no one could resist.

The kids took a couple of days to find their groove with each other but then the somehow synced up bonding over legos and the age gap felt a lot smaller. Harmony humored her brother with all of the ooos and ahhs that she could muster. Greyson pretended to know who all of the princesses were when asking for the autographs from the “pretty ladies”. He wore his ears proudly. Even though he didn’t really know who Mickey was until we got there and he found out that Mickey is kind of a big deal in Disney. But none of that really mattered. There was enough parades and shows and fireworks to make the entire experience magical for all of us. 

Their favorite time during the entire trip? The pool. Go figure. And Greyson getting an entire car to himself on the monorail (with his family). ha! Or the time that we gave them the room key and a 2 minute head start. OR the kids getting to share a bedroom AND having a TV in their room.

My favorite moments? When Greyson was crying after being totally spooked by a ride and Harmony grabbed his hand and whispered in his ear and held him. Or when we woke up and Harmony had proudly made lunches for the whole family. Or when Steve schlepped around the heavy “family backpack” the entire time so that I didn’t have to carry a thing. Or watching my daughter attempting to eat a giant turkey leg all by herself. Or seeing Greyson “conduct” the fireworks. Or hearing Steve recite every word to that creepy Country Bear Jamboree song that he remembered from when he was like 6 years old.

It was a fabulous family vacation. And I hope the memories made last a long, long time.

But I’m glad they know that it’s not about the mouse or the pool. It’s about the conversation that I had with my daughter during our girls only bike ride. It’s about the random declarations that Greyson made about his relationship with God while riding the monorail. It’s about the hand holding while waiting in lines. It’s about Daddy’s stories being told while paddling around the lake. It’s about celebrating Valentine’s Day with my sweetheart in Paris – even if it’s fake Paris.

It’s always the moments in between the everything in the everyday.

And hanging on to that when we get back into our everyday routines.

Although now we  joke with the kids and threaten – “Behave yourself – or we’ll take you to a theme park.” (And suddenly they are instantly silent and standing at attention lol).

If you follow my Instagram account (#theurbansdodisney) you probably saw loads of cell phone snaps already, but here are a few from my “fancy camera that takes nice pictures.” 😉

 

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Earliest reservation available March 2014.