Pictures with me in them at Disneyland are few and far between. This one we can thank one of the cast members at Matterhorn for, which even M was tall enough to ride. When last we went to Disney, we didn't even try Matterhorn because Bam was too little and Z and CW were afraid of the monster. Everyone except M loved it this time and she was certain that if she just sang the right song that the monster would get happy and not scare us. She has been singing her versions of Yeti whispering songs since Thursday.
We shot at aliens.
We met princesses and space rangers.
We rode dolphins
and super fast coasters. We caught up with Captain Jack Sparrow and the folks at It's a Small World. We ran the Grizzly River Run until Z was drenched and then again until DH was chilled to the bone. We drove cars, dove in submarines and watched padowans learn the ways of the Force. DH rode Space Mountain for the first time in his life (bad timing every other time) and found he preferred Big Thunder Mountain Railroad or even California Screaming.
Disneyland remains a magical place where every detail is attended, every bit of pixie dust ordered to make it a time of enchantment for young and old (although the grown women wearing froofy tutus and tiaras were a bit much for me). But, sometimes it is hot and humid. Sometimes it is Cesar Chavez day and everyone in the great state of California decides that the best way to honor migrant worker activism is with a few princesses and some roller coasters. Some times there are lines. But the best ride was the vacation itself. We had time as a family where Dad was ours, just ours, not bishop or attorney, for a few short days. That is truly magic.
It is hard, sometimes, to balance the type A need to get done all that must be done--even if it will never all be done--with the very real need to infuse magic and timelessness into the life of a family. All vacations don't need to cost money or involve time away, but some times there must be time away, even if it costs money to run away from the press of life and run toward the idyll of time together, just us among the crowds, if only for a minute.
It's not an easy thing to leave Disneyland (okay, so we left at ten that last night) but it renewed in us a desire to do better at finding family magic on a regular basis, with or without trademarked characters.
