Family Vacation ~ Part 1 (Disney)

April and May were an absolute blur.

April was full of end-of-school-year activities. Easter, Teen Pact (Levi), CC Practicum Speaker Training (me), Memory Master proofs (Leif), Mock Trial (Luke), Robin Hood Ball/English Country Dance (Levi), hiking (lots), movies, work (Levi), swim meets, end-of-year celebrations, and more.

Luke and Leif had a piano recital on the 29th. My mother-in-law (on cello) and I (on flute) joined them for one song.

Russ left the next day for a week-long business trip out of state. During that week of single-parenting, we had a plethora of appointments and things on the to-do list. I also had to get the boys to swim team practice every day since Levi was helping the assistant coach while Russ was gone.

We spent all day Friday at the Wings and Waves Waterpark at Evergreen with a HUGE group of friends. Russ coached and the boys competed at an all-day swim meet on Saturday. Levi and Luke attended an English Country Dance that evening. Russ and Luke and Leif returned to the swim meet on Sunday while Levi headed to work at the YMCA.

Then Sunday evening, at 7:00 pm, Russ arrived home and we almost immediately left and drove 15 hours to Anaheim, California. After driving all night, we pulled into the Disneyland Park and spent the entire day there. Because we’re crazy.

We stayed at our favorite hotel (because it has reasonably priced family suites that sleep 6). It’s within “walking distance” of the park. And walk, we did. And walk. And walk. For seven days straight. Five in Disneyland (and California Adventure), one in Universal Studios, and one in Yosemite. No days in between. Two over-night drives. Because we’re crazy.

I took almost no photos with my big camera at Disney. My phone and Instagram have made me lazy. Unfortunately, my phone doesn’t have a very good camera. But it is what it is.

Three years ago, after our last family trip to Disneyland, I wrote a short blog post about why we visit Disney (when many other people loathe the idea). This year, I knew that this might be our last opportunity to visit as a family. Levi is working as a lifeguard, and his schedule is getting more complicated. Both Levi and Luke will be at the high school next year (yes, I’ll be sharing about this huge adjustment as soon as I can get the blog post written), so we won’t have flexibility during the school year. Luke will be old enough to lifeguard next summer, so our family schedule will be even more chaotic. Everyone was at the perfect age this year, and we desperately needed some fun together time. It was everything I’d hoped it would be. More in the next couple blog posts.