PERHAPS adventuring gives us a deeper appreciation for the ordinary days.

NO ONE in their right mind would complain about taking their precious children to DISNEYWORLD and I am not about to do so, HOWEVER, I am currently sitting on my own worn out couch, legs under a flannel quilt that I made myself, with a nice cat at my feet, quiet house all around me, a sleeping daughter in her bed upstairs, and the anticipation of children getting home from school soon and I say, isn’t TODAY, the now, the messy beautiful JUST AS precious as a day in the magical kingdom?

Today is NOT an ordinary day, truly, no day is ordinary, it’s a gift.  Last night I had a little one sleep with me because my husband was away.  At 10 pm I was silently taking pictures of her restful, sleeping face.  All night long I was getting kicked and moving sleepily flung arms back to her side of the bed.

Then, just when I was about to sit and blog hours and hours ago, after the children got on the bus at 7:45, I suddenly remembered that GRACIE had a doctor’s appointment and I had to leave in fifteen minutes to go to school, pick her up, and drive to the Doctor’s.  It was a yearly check up and I thank God with all my heart for a healthy, beautiful teenage daughter.  She gets migraines and sometimes her eyes blank out/she gets dizzy/when she stands up too quick, but she’s talked to the Doctor and has all kinds of encouraging and helpful remedies to cope with those things.

When we got back home, Sarah and I went to the coop to visit the hens.  I sat in the grass and read a book while she became motherly with them, filling all the little cups and bowls (just a handful, really) with food, and walking slowly back from the pond with a saucer of water.  A hen laid an egg.  Sarah sang out, “thank yooooou, chickennnnnnn!”  We carried the egg home, she fried it herself with me by her side, she ate it for lunch.

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I LOVE blogging about the little things in each day, it’s harder for me to go back in time to blog about something from last month, but it would be a shame not to document our day at Magic Kingdom.

Caleb and Seth are four years apart.  Rich and I took them with us on the trip to Disney because we have already taken the older four.  We needed some time with just these boys, it was so fun!  Rich had to go to Orlando on a business trip, but he took us along and extended his trip for a personal vacation weekend.  We were at Magic Kingdom on a Saturday.

I love them.  This picture of the three of them makes me stop and gaze.  ^^^  those eyes.

Seth was tall enough to ride every ride we wanted to go on, including Thunder Mountain.  The lines were long but we managed and the boys were good natured and happy the whole day.

The Country Bear Jamboree is a must-see.

Rich and I are actually sort of sad that we only have Sarah left to take out of all seven children.  It’s the most wonderful thing in the world to take your children to Disney on that very first time for them, to see it all fresh through their eyes, knowing and remembering what it was like on your own first visit.  “Maybe we can take the grandchildren.” as remarked by myself, was met with a strange look from my husband.

There were amusements to entertain us in the looooong lines…..like this “honey wall” at the Winnie the Pooh ride.  The moms thoughtfully took hand sanitizer out of their purses.

Seth had a lollipop.  The walkways were wet from an afternoon shower.

“It’s a Small World” ride…..lines (picture taken as we waited).

The boys were dazzled by all the coins in the water.  We threw some in, too.

We hugged in the lines.

“Shalom” meant a lot to the boys after a week of Vacation Bible School and the “Shalom Song” they sang every day.

The Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.

really love these words~

Little shoots of water were coming out randomly from a ride and Seth danced around trying to get wet for a few minutes.

So typical.

They are such good boys.

I saw the tower from Tangled.

We were busy all day long walking, riding, waiting, sitting in shows, looking…….fifteen hours, to be exact.

 

 

It meant so much to Rich to be able to have this special vacation with the boys and me.

Okay.  So.  Rich was riding a baby roller coaster with Caleb and Seth and I had to have a break.  I went and bought a caramel apple, sat down to eat it and waited for them to return……well…..I had to sneak out my camera and take this picture…..of a mom with her darling daughters…they sat next to me and all three wore pink shoes!   The icing on the cake was the baby’s feet!  She lost her shoe but her tiny sock was pink, too!

If I remember correctly the fireworks were at about 10pm.  We watched them from in back of the park/castle to avoid the masses of people in front.

Just so beautiful.

After the fireworks were over we continued to stay at the park for several more hours.  It was nice to walk in the cool of the day and we all got our “second winds”.

We rode the Buzz Lightyear ride twice and the boys got behind bars with Zurg.

We went on more and more rides, the last one being *Space Mountain* which was quite intense, and very odd to be having such thrills at MIDNIGHT.   I spent the entire ride worried that Seth (who was behind me) would fly out of his seat.  But all was well.

The castle is so pretty, I turned around to take one last picture of it as we left.

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