A Charmed Life...

There have been many times in my life when I have felt like I cannot pull out of a run of bad luck. There have even been a couple of moments when I have felt like things couldn't get much worse (although I am sure that it could have). While I wouldn't consider myself to be a hopeless optimist, and I resist playing Pollyanna's "Glad Game", I have been trying to make the decision to notice the wonderful things that happen to me. I so easily get wrapped up in what has gone wrong, how much money I don't have, or all of the things that I want to do but will probably never be able to. I often forget to live my life and instead obsess about what may or may not happen in the future. But our first ever Butterworth family trip to Disneyland made me feel so blessed and I dare say it - even a little charmed...

Here are the details of our little spur of the moment trip.

1. I had a free flight that I could finally use.
2. We received our $50 companion pass so that Liam could fly cheap.
   
3. We used priceline.com (thanks to the Johnson's nudge) and actually got a great deal on our hotel and a rental car.
4. We were able to visit our loved and very missed family for a day and have a beautiful meal that evening prepared by my mom in law, Kathi.
5. We were able to hang out with our favorite professor from college.
6. While visiting APU for the first time since we graduated eight years ago we realized that we aren't cool and that we don't really care.
   
7. Liam got really sick on Tuesday night - he didn't eat at all that day, had a fever, was violently shaking from horrible fever chills, he woke up in a cold sweat saying that he had to throw up and have diarrhea, ended up falling to sleep on the bathroom floor and my leg for about 30 minutes, then he didn't throw up, went back to bed, woke up in the middle of the night whispering, "Mama. Jesus healed me.", his fever broke and he woke up the next morning feeling great and ready to go to Disneyland. This is seriously a miracle.
8. Everyone at our hotel was really nice (our waiter encouraged us to stock up on snacks for the day at the breakfast buffet, they let us borrow a couple of umbrellas, our shuttle driver pretended she was talking to Mickey the whole way over to the park).
   
9. We spent two days at Disneyland FOR FREE!
10. Buzz Lightyear came right up to Liam, pointed at him and shook his hand making my son feel SO cool.
11. I found out about a nursing area at Disneyland that I could quietly feed Finn in.
    
12. We had SO much fun with our boys!
13. Liam obviously loves Disneyland but old straight faced Finn seemed to really enjoy himself too.
    
14. Disneyland wasn't crowded.
15. It didn't rain and it was supposed to.
16. Finn went the whole trip without a real nap and did great.
17. Liam went the whole trip without a real nap and only had a few little meltdowns.
    
18. There wasn't traffic on the way to the airport.
19. Our flight back home was 40 minutes early and went so smoothly...

Here are a few random negatives so that I don't sound too ridiculously happy:

1. Finn screamed for about 2 hours straight our first night in and I couldn't go out with the family for a special Valentines Dinner.
2. When we layed down in our hotel room the first night, all we could smell was vomit. (They cleaned the carpets the next morning).
3. Eating at Disneyland is freaking expensive!
4. It was really cold while we were at Disneyland.
5. We all had to sleep in the same room which leads me to #6...
6. We all had to go to bed at the same time (7:30pm-ish) which leads me to #7...
7. Jesse and I totally fell asleep in minutes! We really are getting old!
   

So that about sums things up. We had a great time and our Valentines Day was redeemed. It wasn't romantic at all but I was with the ones that I am crazy about. I love my family and I know that they love me. There isn't much better than that!