The Happiest Place on Earth

At this moment, the happiest place on earth just may be the couch of my apartment, where I am contentedly sitting, blogging, while my husband takes my daughter to school and my son sleeps in. Sleeps in despite the fact that his sister was up over an hour ago, turned on a lamp in the room they share, and "read" out loud to herself. She also dumped books on top of him because she thought he was awake. None of which was enough to really rouse him. All of which makes me sort of happy.

The Happiest Place on Earth (capitalized), however, can only mean one thing, right? A week after we got back from New Year's in Ohio, Evelyn, Hyrum and I joined up with Will and Julia for a trip to Orlando. The flight down was sort of terrible. Will fell asleep around the time the flight took off. Evelyn followed soon after.

Hyrum was a different story. He didn't sleep a wink the entire flight (8 to 11 pm). But then, we arrived in Orlando, and we got upgraded to a minivan even though we'd only requested an intermediate size car. We met up with my parents down there, which was awesome because that led to our staying in a really nice three bedroom, three bathroom condo instead of cramming ourselves into a hotel room.

A couple of years ago when the Disney princess fascination hit full force, I made a semi-conscious decision to just let it run it's course instead of trying to nip it in the bud. I had heard that it would sort of naturally die sometime around 5 or 6. I decided last year that I wanted to take Evelyn to Magic Kingdom for the first time while she is still young enough to think it is magical. Unfortunately, I had a lot of aversions. Aversions to going anywhere near Orlando in the summer, aversions to going anywhere near Orlando while nursing or pregnant or really while even contemplating possible future pregnancy, etc, etc. Since Julia is having a baby in late May, fall travel seemed like it might be a little complicated. That basically left us with a trip in January or February of 2012 or with waiting until 2013. When my parents mentioned they had a condo week they had to use or lose, the stars aligned; we booked our tickets the next day.

My main goal was to let Evelyn meet the princesses. It lived up to my highest expectations. She was speechless with wonder, and for those of you who know Evelyn, speechless isn't a level of emotion we encounter very often. I know people have their gripes with the Disney princesses, and I understand why. But after meeting Rapunzel, Tiana, Belle, Aurora, and Cinderella, all I can say is anyone who is able spend an entire day being that cheerful and excited to see an unending line of preschoolers deserves my respect. They were all so sweet with her, especially Rapunzel, who is Evelyn's absolute favorite. If for no other reason, Evelyn had a wonderful day simply because I let her wear her Tangled dress up all day. People calling her "princess" everywhere we went didn't hurt either. So, one day in, I declared our trip a success.

Waiting in line for her first ride: It's a Small World

The Main Event:

Waiting in line. Brought to you by Apple.

Chocolate milk, drink of champions

Enthralled by the parade

As an aside, I will note that Orlando in early to mid-January was plenty busy for my tastes.

Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, just one of the many attractions that would have been a nightmare with Hyrum. Did I mention that my dad watched him all day and even claimed to have enjoyed it?

Evelyn has is semi-fascinated with posing in front of statutes, as long as they're clothed.

Our planned excursion to Legoland the next day ended up getting cancelled. Apparently, that major Orlando-area theme park is not open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. (In a related note, if anyone wants an adult and a child ticket for the price of just an adult ticket, let me know. It's transferable and good until January 2013.) Luckily, our back up plan involved sunning at the pool, floating down the lazy river, and just generally enjoying what I heard was one of the warmest January days in Orlando history.

Matching preppy swimwear

Later, we took the kids to the Lego store at Downtown Disney, and I'm not sure they even realized they had missed out on the main attraction.

Fairy dust

Another statue, although more understandable this time

Moments before discovering that Lego dogs bite (or scratch, more likely). Poor Hyrum.

The next morning, our trip was over. We drove to the airport kicking ourselves for not having planned to stay the whole week. Until next time, Orlando in January!