Jaina
Actually, my name is Sara. It's a long, VMK story.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
A continuation of a year of trips (with my new Flex pass) that started in Nov 2019! 330066
This time I was actually able to orchestrate my husband and I BOTH going to Disney, since my MIL said she could stay with our kids while we're gone. It's hard for us to leave our kids with anyone, so we don't get away together very often. We do a lot of dividing and conquering, and since we have older kids, we try to take opportunities for shorter (2-4 hour) dates during normal life. It's hard both because our kids are at a very busy, slightly-over-scheduled point, and also because we're kind of picky about how things go with them (we try to keep sugar at a minimum, and sticklers about bedtime, etc.) and it's hard to release control. Five kids are a handful, even when they're yours! If we had more family locally, we could farm them out 1-2 at a time to make it easier, but everyone is several hours way. And it's the whole conundrum where the people you know well enough that you'd trust them with your kids won't let you pay them, but it's still a lot of work, and we don't like to ask it very often. So yeah. All of that is why we divide and conquer a lot. (ie All my trips to Disney without DH this year, and how he just went to NYC on his own for four days last weekend, which was a huge bucket list item for him!)
I was a little nervous going into this trip, because our last "together" trip was Dec 2017, and it seemed a little stressful for him. It was so expensive, and I felt like he got frustrated when things were too busy and we were having to wait around. He used to love Disney almost as much as me, but his anxiety makes it a little harder these days. It's busier more often, and all the people everywhere make it a little more stressful than enjoyable for him sometimes. And family trips (at the Parks) aren't fun for him at all at this point, but he's a trooper and tries to make it all happen! So I wasn't sure how it was all going to go. My goal was to relax a lot more and to try to keep our steps closer to 20k than to 30k. Ha. Not likely.
A little history of our trips together, just the two of us:
Our first trip, in March 2005, when we were engaged. My family was going, and invited him a long, and his family got jealous (haha) and planned a trip at the same time. So we were there with both our families, and we were in that golden age where (we are both the oldest) both dads kept giving him money for food (my dad since we invited him, and his dad since he was his dad... we were just 21 and 22). So he -made- money on that trip, haha! We actually took our engagement pics for our announcements behind GRR.
March 2006: We planned this trip to commemorate the first one, (and because I desperately wanted to see the 50th fireworks) but I ended up being in the early stages of pregnancy when it actually happened. It was a very mixed trip. I had had a miscarriage scare, so was super careful about what I went on, and also, I was super sick, (a trend that continued with all 5 pregnancies) which made it hard to enjoy myself. I was so sick and tired by Friday evening (the only time the fireworks were happening) that I couldn't make it that late, and we had to call it a night by like 6 PM. I was so disappointed! The positives: It was still Disneyland, we got to wander and explore a lot of things that we wouldn't normally make time for. Also, Disneyland has some of the cleanest bathrooms I've every thrown up in. Sorry, way TMI, but it's one of the things that stood out to me.
June 2009: It was too long (for me) between those two trips, but we'd been very busy, and didn't have much money! We had two babies in that three years, and DH was 2 years into chiropractic school, in Iowa. When we came home one summer, we left the two little ones (2.5 and 18 months) with our parents, and drove even further, onto California! It was a much-needed trip together, but that was the first time I totally wore him out at Disney. The third day, he begged to sleep in while I went to rope drop by myself!
December 2017:
Big long stretch in here between trips together, but by this point, we had added 3 more kids, graduated school, moved all over the country, and started a practice! Like I said before, it got harder to get away without the kids. I think there was only one other trip in there (more than 1 night) that we managed it, and that was for 4 days to San Francisco for our 10th anniversary. This trip was really fun, but fast (1 day traveling, 1 day park hopping, and 1 day traveling back!) We had a good time, but there was very little relaxation, because we had one day to do everything, and it was go, go, go!
This time I was actually able to orchestrate my husband and I BOTH going to Disney, since my MIL said she could stay with our kids while we're gone. It's hard for us to leave our kids with anyone, so we don't get away together very often. We do a lot of dividing and conquering, and since we have older kids, we try to take opportunities for shorter (2-4 hour) dates during normal life. It's hard both because our kids are at a very busy, slightly-over-scheduled point, and also because we're kind of picky about how things go with them (we try to keep sugar at a minimum, and sticklers about bedtime, etc.) and it's hard to release control. Five kids are a handful, even when they're yours! If we had more family locally, we could farm them out 1-2 at a time to make it easier, but everyone is several hours way. And it's the whole conundrum where the people you know well enough that you'd trust them with your kids won't let you pay them, but it's still a lot of work, and we don't like to ask it very often. So yeah. All of that is why we divide and conquer a lot. (ie All my trips to Disney without DH this year, and how he just went to NYC on his own for four days last weekend, which was a huge bucket list item for him!)
I was a little nervous going into this trip, because our last "together" trip was Dec 2017, and it seemed a little stressful for him. It was so expensive, and I felt like he got frustrated when things were too busy and we were having to wait around. He used to love Disney almost as much as me, but his anxiety makes it a little harder these days. It's busier more often, and all the people everywhere make it a little more stressful than enjoyable for him sometimes. And family trips (at the Parks) aren't fun for him at all at this point, but he's a trooper and tries to make it all happen! So I wasn't sure how it was all going to go. My goal was to relax a lot more and to try to keep our steps closer to 20k than to 30k. Ha. Not likely.
A little history of our trips together, just the two of us:
Our first trip, in March 2005, when we were engaged. My family was going, and invited him a long, and his family got jealous (haha) and planned a trip at the same time. So we were there with both our families, and we were in that golden age where (we are both the oldest) both dads kept giving him money for food (my dad since we invited him, and his dad since he was his dad... we were just 21 and 22). So he -made- money on that trip, haha! We actually took our engagement pics for our announcements behind GRR.
March 2006: We planned this trip to commemorate the first one, (and because I desperately wanted to see the 50th fireworks) but I ended up being in the early stages of pregnancy when it actually happened. It was a very mixed trip. I had had a miscarriage scare, so was super careful about what I went on, and also, I was super sick, (a trend that continued with all 5 pregnancies) which made it hard to enjoy myself. I was so sick and tired by Friday evening (the only time the fireworks were happening) that I couldn't make it that late, and we had to call it a night by like 6 PM. I was so disappointed! The positives: It was still Disneyland, we got to wander and explore a lot of things that we wouldn't normally make time for. Also, Disneyland has some of the cleanest bathrooms I've every thrown up in. Sorry, way TMI, but it's one of the things that stood out to me.
June 2009: It was too long (for me) between those two trips, but we'd been very busy, and didn't have much money! We had two babies in that three years, and DH was 2 years into chiropractic school, in Iowa. When we came home one summer, we left the two little ones (2.5 and 18 months) with our parents, and drove even further, onto California! It was a much-needed trip together, but that was the first time I totally wore him out at Disney. The third day, he begged to sleep in while I went to rope drop by myself!
December 2017:
Big long stretch in here between trips together, but by this point, we had added 3 more kids, graduated school, moved all over the country, and started a practice! Like I said before, it got harder to get away without the kids. I think there was only one other trip in there (more than 1 night) that we managed it, and that was for 4 days to San Francisco for our 10th anniversary. This trip was really fun, but fast (1 day traveling, 1 day park hopping, and 1 day traveling back!) We had a good time, but there was very little relaxation, because we had one day to do everything, and it was go, go, go!