The Disney Trip: day six and going home

All too quickly but with too many hours cruising Kissimmee, we reached our last day in Disney. Madeline had a great, restful night and woke up feeling perfectly normal and finally wanting to eat. 

We had stumbled our way out of the "sick kid" woods and we wanted to make the most of our last morning there. I got the kids ready while Joe made only 14 trips to the car to load up all of our stuff. (We traveled with an amazing amount of stuff. Amazing in a bad way.)

Of course, we headed in to Magic Kingdom, Madeline's one true love. 

Ah, nothing like a beautiful family photo of squinting. We're really good at doing that together.

This time, Peter went with us and, let's not kid ourselves, Madeline was more thrilled to walk through the park with him than us.

(What you can't see in this photo is Peter's awesome shirt. It says, "Bob Loblaw's Law Blog: lobbing law bombs." If you know this reference, you are my friend.)

My parents bought her light-up mouse ears at Epcot the night before and she adored them. Would not take them off. Which is totally appropriate at Disney. In the real world? A little strange.

Anyways, Madeline loved looking through her autograph book while stuck in the hotel room so we wanted to get her as many signatures and pictures as possible. 

She met Jasmine and Aladdin and while I couldn't hear everything they talked about, I'm 80 percent certain she didn't call Jasmine out on her lack of appropriate wardrobe. Phew.

This particular Jasmine and Aladdin were extremely flirty with each other. The other moms in line and I discussed this. It was possibly beyond the call of duty.

Then Madeline and Peter rode the Winnie the Pooh ride again and Joe and I walked around with Caleb, ducking in a few stores and staring at all the beautiful, shiny objects. (I'm a sucker for the Disney store so stores in Disney? Yeah. That's all.)

Alas, rain came again which meant the characters disappeared to their quiet rooms of meadows and rainbows and cuddly forest critters and soft music playing, or so I like to imagine.

We rode the train back to the front of Magic Kingdom, kissed it good-bye and headed towards home.

This is how Madeline rolled her way back to Indiana. In style, of course.

It was abundantly clear every time we stopped at a gas station that we just came from Disney. The ears. The lanyard. The pins. The girl who caught every attendant's eye and half-shouted, "I had my birthday in Disney!"

After all (39,000 words) has been said and done, this little girl believes she had the most marvelous trip to Disney and that is all that matters. She's more than happy to whip out her autograph book to anyone who slightly slows their gait next to her and she's still telling strangers how she celebrated her birthday with the princesses in the castle.

All worth it.

The Disney Trip: day five

We woke up early on Tuesday morning, determined to make sure Madeline was the first patient at the urgent care center. When she was finally seen, this doctor said the antibiotic wasn't really taking care of the ear infection and prescribed her some new medicine but didn't think anything more serious was going on. So thankful.

We headed over to Wal-Mart which, of course, didn't have the medicine. So we drove further on to another Wal-Mart who did have it in stock. After waiting a blissful 45 minutes in the parking lot with two kids, Joe went in to pick it up, only to have the pharmacist tell him Madeline would probably react to it since she's allergic to penicillin.

What what??

We were so fed up with everything at point and wanted our pediatrician's opinion. We left a message and could only wait to hear back from him. Then the decision was: do we drive around Kissimmee until we hear from our pediatrician or drive 30 minutes back to the resort and wait in the hotel? We decided to drive around, hoping he would call back quickly.

This was the wrong decision.

After an hour of cruising up and down the strip in front of Wal-Mart (which, let me tell you, was THRILLING), we couldn't take it anymore and headed back to the resort. At this point, it was 11:30 a.m. and someone was hungry, tired, cranky and wanting to see some princesses. Joe, Madeline and Caleb weren't too happy either.

I kid you not, our pediatrician called TWO MINUTES before we pulled into our hotel. Of course. OF COURSE. So Joe dropped the kids and me off and headed back to Wal-Mart.

After a little while, I got this text from Joe:

Joe: "I think Wal-Mart is on fire. Not even joking. Many firetrucks here."

Me: "Don't worry. I'm sure everyone and all the items are ok but bottle of $80 medicine melted."

Murphy's Law followed us to Florida and then stalked us in Kissimmee.

At least it ended well. Joe came back, we gave Madeline a dose of new medicine and she and Caleb both took good naps.

I may or may not have cried during the entire nap time. We were leaving the next day and I just wanted to stop worrying about Madeline's health and be carefree in Disney.

Thankfully, Madeline woke up feeling really good and Joe and I were determined to salvage the day.

Around 3 p.m., we headed off to Animal Kingdom. Now, you might remember that I'm not even a fan of zoos. (A lot of people ask me about this. This answer is: because it has animals.) But Madeline was excited about this park and I wanted her to see it.

This wound up being a GREAT choice because Pocahontas was there, thus making Madeline's childhood complete.

Please note how Madeline's feet mimic Pocahontas' stance. This is not accidental, folks. This girl notices everything.

And then I saw a sign for Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore.

This picture makes me so happy because this child of mine has loved Winnie the Pooh since she was 18 months old and that love still runs deep and true. (Did you look at that old post?? That girl was a baby then!)

My parents and Peter were able to meet up with us for a bit at Animal Kingdom which also made me very happy. This was their gift to us and I just wanted them to see Madeline in Disney and how happy it made her.

We saw the "Finding Nemo" musical and went on the safari, both of which were really cool.

And then the heavens opened up and POURED down. It was some seriously thick, heavy rain. Our hotel buses came only once an hour so we decided to run for it in the rain rather than wait another hour.

Which made Madeline hysterical and all of us very, very wet.

If we had missed the bus, well, I guess it just would have been our luck that day and we wouldn't have been surprised but thankfully we caught the bus and all of it was worth it, including the drenched jean skirt that was IMPOSSIBLE to run in and permanently damaging my foot by running in flip-flops.

We went back to the hotel to change our clothes, grab a bite to eat and headed back out to Epcot. We knew we wouldn't have much time but since Madeline was still feeling so great, we wanted to make the most of it.

We walked into Epcot three minutes before closing and had an hour to walk around before they kicked us out. It was quick but I'm so glad we did it. We watched the fireworks over the water and walked the loop of the countries, my favorite thing in Disney. I'm a little sad we didn't get to visit them but they're still awfully pretty at night.

This is the magic of Disney. I was so sad and frustrated for most of the day but after stepping into Animal Kingdom for just the few few minutes redeemed the day. Madeline was SO happy to be there and we were thankful for even just a few hours of sweet Disney fun.

The Disney Trip: day four

Before I say anything else, this post made me cry and think deeper than I normally do. And it involves "American Idol" which I don't even watch. That Emily, she's a skilled writer to accomplish all of that.

OK, so back to the Disney trip. It's Monday, the day after we arrived at Walt Disney World and it's Madeline's birthday. My expectations for this day were no longer a part of planet Earth. They were a little high.

Our birthday gift to Madeline was breakfast in Cinderella's Castle with the princesses. The night before, Joe and I talked seriously about not going. Madeline still have her fever and congestion and needed all the sleep and rest she could get.

But. We were in Disney World. And it's breakfast with the princesses. Would she ever forgive us (or we forgive ourselves) if we didn't show up? 

So we decided to do it, wake her up at 7 a.m. to catch the monorail to Magic Kingdom. I am so incredibly glad we did. It was an amazing morning.

Since our breakfast reservation was before the park opened, we walked in feeling like the only people in the place. My one unsolicited piece of advice is to do this breakfast before 9 a.m. I loved being in the park with no one else.

And watching Madeline climb the twirly stairs and anticipate each princess's arrival was something I'll never forget.

The breakfast cost WAY more than we would ever spend on a regular birthday gift but after this hug from Princess Aurora? I knew it was totally, completely worth it. And HR at Disney? This Sleeping Beauty was the BEST.

When we finished eating, we headed out of the castle and in two minutes, the park opened and people, there were no lines. NONE. We rode Peter Pan twice, It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, the carousel, the teacups and Dumbo, all before 10 a.m.

It was ridonkulous in the best way.

Madeline was pretty tired so we slowly left the park early, stopping for autographs from so many characters on the way out.

We got back to our hotel room for lunch but Madeline didn't want to eat. She took a long nap (which was good) and then woke up with a raging fever (which was utter sadness). I called her pediatrician, trying to find out why the antibiotic wasn't taking care of the fever. He called back and said he was comfortable with us waiting one more night before taking her to another urgent care clinic.

And then her skin became mottled. And I called her doctor back. And he wanted her checked out right away.

There are way too many details which would probably bore you to read and sadden me to remember but the recommended clinic had an enormous wait and couldn't see her until 3 a.m. Craziness. So we decided a good night's sleep was more important than being miserable in a waiting room and we would see the doctor first thing in the morning.

Well, Madeline slept pretty well but I was up every hour, checking her temperature, worried that something awful would happen or the fever would reach crazy heights.

It didn't, thankfully.

But I may or may not have shed a few tears over her sickness and the fact that we didn't go back to the park that day. Or that we didn't have the planned cupcakes and candles with my family. It was Madeline's birthday and she spent more hours sick than happy. Ugh, I hate thinking about that even now.

However, I must say, Madeline wasn't entirely miserable. We don't have cable at home so she was over the moon about watching Disney Jr. at the hotel. Since she was sick, we let her watch Disney Jr. to her heart's content. Who knew her heart's content meant about six hours straight? (Kinda, sorta, maybe not exaggerating.)

Lesson learned: deprive your child of cable and even a ruined Disney vacation can be saved by its mere presence.

Saying yes: a follow-up

I'm taking a quick break from the trip posts because I don't have the emotional strength to take on day four. It's gonna be a doozie.

So in the meantime...

For the last several years, I've worked hard on being a mom who says "yes." This doesn't mean Madeline always gets her way but rather I say "yes" to making memories even if it means making a mess, an incomplete to-do list or dirty house at the end of the day.

This goal has only been harder to meet since having Caleb. Many, many times my postpartum self did not want to get up off the couch to play tag in the yard. My tired body wanted to turn on a Disney movie and sleep instead of walking to the park.

But over and over, I forced myself to get on the floor and play princess with her, read that mind-numbing "Dora the Explorer" book for the 20th times and to be very much present with her. I want her childhood to be filled games, books, painting and fun.

So you can imagine how happy I was when I arrived at her school's Mother's Day Tea and saw her portrait of me.

I'm not concerned about the size of my lips. (Even if I think these lips would make Taylor Armstrong's appear small in comparison.)

No, it was this part:

If you're wondering what some of the other answers were, Madeline's best friend Blake chose to answer the question with "My mom always says I love you." What you are hearing is the collective "awwwwww" that just filled the blogosphere.

My kid answered, "My mom always says no."

So...yeah. No words. I have no words. I'm capable of writing 2000 word posts but I don't know what else to say for this one.

But Madeline? For the record, I'm 29. Love you too, baby. 

Love. You. Too.

The Disney Trip: day three

So after the Great Alabama-to-Florida Debacle, we arrived at the hotel in the wee hours of Sunday morning and fell face-forward into the bed with our traveling clothes still on.

Not really but that's totally what I wanted to do. Instead we completed the very responsible actions of putting our kids to bed and I woke throughout the night to feed Caleb.

He was so thankful for my maternal attentiveness that he rewarded me by waking up super early. He's a charmer, that one. I wanted Joe and Madeline to sleep more so I took him down to the breakfast area for the next two hours. 

I met a super nice 80-something couple who were traveling back home from Florida. She wished me "Happy Mother's Day" on her way back to the room. He stayed and entertained me with his life story. Then he noticed his wife left her purse on the chair and COULD NOT talk about anything else from that point on. He confided in me that he was afraid she was "starting to lose her mind." He was dead serious.

This cracked me up because, at that point, I had heard three times that he was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. And just in case I wasn't listening earlier, he told me that one more time before parting ways. I sincerely hope they made it safely back to Michigan and aren't lost out on a highway somewhere.

After a nutrient-dense breakfast of Fruit Loops for Madeline (the only thing she would eat), we packed up the car and headed two hours south towards Disney. She still wasn't feeling good but that was OK. Pocahontas joined us on the journey and brightened things up a bit.

We gave Madeline the camera which meant we were blessed with about 78 self-portraits. This one is lovely.

This one...well...it's something.

I do love seeing the world from her perspective.

We made it to Orlando and stocked up on groceries at the most Disney-fied Wal-Mart ever. I think Madeline was close to weeping at the sight. Or maybe it was me. I had to refrain from shouting, "WE ACTUALLY MADE IT!" We grabbed just about everything that sounded tasty and drove to Walt Disney World.

When we passed under the big sign, I couldn't control my excitement any longer and texted Peter, "OMG WE'RE IN DISNEY!"

He sent back, "OMG WE'RE IN WALMART."

Obviously we were no longer caravanning.

We stayed at the Shades of Green resort, a Disney hotel just for those in the military. It was awesome with some patriotic flair. Madeline was thrilled to see a big Mickey. Joe and I were thrilled to not drive for three whole days.

This picture is now one of my favorites. I think the reason is obvious.

We took our time gearing up for Magic Kingdom. Madeline and Joe swam for a bit in a Mickey Mouse head-shaped pool. Madeline took a nap. Our whole family ate dinner together.


And then we took the monorail to Magic Kingdom and the Disney magic began having its way with us. Because watching Madeline eagerly look for the castle in the distance, holding her hand as we walked through the entrance and watching her experience the Main Street Electrical Parade, all of that made everything leading up to this night worth it.

Caleb thought he was starring in his own commercial and pulled out surreal cuteness accordingly.

Madeline finally got to see Cinderella's Castle but this was as close as we got for the night.

After just 40 minutes, our girl was tired and I didn't want to push her at all so we headed back to the hotel, kissed our 4-year-old goodnight for the last time and steadied ourselves for year five.

P.S. I'm not sure where Madeline's shoes are in the last photo. I promise she wore shoes in Disney and didn't go all "Nell" on us.

The Disney Trip: day two

As Bridget would say, buckle up. This day was eternal and so is the recap.

By Saturday morning, I had already taken two hotel showers. Listen, y’all. Hotel showers make me a better woman. One of the best things in life is to take a good 40 minutes and completely scald my skin without paying the bill later. It places above eating frozen Snicker bars but is short of watching "Hands on a Hard Body." Also, I’m pretty sure my heavenly mansion includes a water heater the size of "that there K-Mart."

(Bridget, that was my subtle "get thee to La Jolla" hint.)

Back to Saturday morning. Madeline still had a low fever and no appetite. This no appetite was really bothering me. She knows that hotels equal gigantic Belgium waffles but after we poured the syrup all over the plate, she didn’t want to take one bite.

As a parent, what do you do? The symptoms aren’t severe to anyone else but you know something is up and it’s bad but you're in Alabama. Pretend I'm John Quinones. What would you do??

Madeline was so ready to see “her Peter,” as she calls him so we headed deep into country-road Alabama. Peter spent the last two years at Marion Military Institute and graduated in the top of his class with honors. We're all so stinkin’ proud of him.

I'm pretty sure Madeline would still be clinging to Peter today if we didn't make her let go. There's a lot of love here, folks.

So. Much. Love.

This is why he is "her Peter." This is why.

After his graduation ceremony, we hung out with Peter for a bit and then went to his commissioning. By then, Madeline was doing much worse and I knew she needed to see a doctor. The girl was miserable and burning up but refused to go to the car because she didn’t want to miss a second of “her Peter.” So I did one of the rudest things ever; I actually walked out to get Tylenol and then allowed Madeline to stretch out across two chairs onto my lap. Sorry Emily Post and Marion.

After the ceremonies, our plan was to travel about an hour to Montgomery, eat a big family celebration dinner together and have my parents tell Madeline and Brennan about Disney. (Remember how my expectations were through the roof, much like the Greensburg courthouse tree? This particular moment was sky-high in my mind.) (Oh, my Linden Ladies. I just can't stop.)

Well, instead Joe and I knew we needed to get to the closest urgent care clinic so we cancelled the dinner, my mom told the kids about Disney in the parking lot and gave Madeline an early birthday present: a complete Pocahontas outfit, complete with earrings, feather necklace and moccasins.

Madeline’s reaction was, um, how a miserably sick child would react. Happy but unable to express it. It was so sad.

So the rest of my family plowed ahead to the hotel in Florida while Joe and I sped towards Selma. We found a clinic and experienced:

• a huge insurance hang-up
• a “Selma-itis” allergy diagnosis (seriously, that’s what the doctor called it)
• an ear infection diagnosis
• three dirty diapers
• two failed nursing sessions
• a colossal prescription mix-up
• three Burger King meals

And hours later, we were finally on our way to Florida. This was a bad leg of the trip. The heavens opened up and let loose the Pacific Ocean on US-231. But we did listen to the Brian Regan station on Pandora, which was slightly redeeming.

Then late that night, with several hours still to go before reaching the hotel, Madeline had a hard time. To give you some background, when Joe and Madeline get high fevers, they get delirious. It might sound funny but it’s not. It’s like watching a child in the middle of a night terror that goes on and on until the fever is lowered.

Well, Madeline’s fever came raging back and she got delirious. It was hard to watch because among other awful things, she was completely terrified about something chasing her and was screaming for Mommy. She kept screaming after I crawled into the backseat, stroked her hair and tried not to shake her and yell back, “I’m here! I’m right here!”

Joe started handing me stacks of napkins and I dumped water on them and plastered them all over Madeline, trying to bring the fever down.

After an eternity and coming thisclose to telling Joe we should just stop at the next exit with a bathtub, her fever came down and she came out of it. It’s like she woke up from a nightmare.

Her first words were, “Mom, I had a scary dream. “

I know, baby. Daddy and I just lived it with you for the last 20 minutes. Do you have any vodka in your Rapunzel bag?

When it was over, she was completely calm and wanted to watch You Tube Disney videos on my phone. She hung up her Pocahontas dress in front of her and caressed the fringe, beading and “suede” and acted completely normal. I sat next to her, holding her hand and silently cried, thankful the car was dark and she couldn’t see my tears.

There is nothing worse than watching your child suffer in any way and there’s nothing else that needs to be said about that.

After a bit, Madeline was still covered with wet napkins, my skirt was soaked through from dumping the water all over my lap, her head was leaning on my shoulder and I was spent. From the driver’s seat, Joe looked at me through the rearview mirror and said, “Hey. It’s after midnight. Happy Mother’s Day.”

Happy Mother’s Day, indeed.

The Disney Trip: the night before and day one

The week before we left, we told Madeline that we were going to travel to Alabama to see Peter. There is a reason we didn’t tell Madeline about Disney before we left. Because she was crazy excited just to travel to Alabama. 

Seriously, this kid was over-the-moon thrilled to travel to a tiny southern town and see “her Peter.”

The night before we left, we headed up to Joe’s sister’s high school choir concert. Before we left, I made chicken nuggets (Threw in the oven? What’s the appropriate verbiage for this level of non-cooking?) for Madeline, a rare buy because I wanted something easy to cook from the freezer when we got back. She ate just one and didn’t want any more. Red flag number one.

Madeline loved the concert. It was show choir so she enjoyed the singing, dancing and costumes but she really fell in love with her $5 light-up pink cowgirl hat.

She had fun during the concert but as soon as it was over, Madeline wanted me to hold her and take her outside. Red flag number two. Madeline always loves being around people and for her to want to step away from the crowd? That was threat level orange.

Her skin was hot to the touch so we hurried home and put her to bed. Her fever was around 100 degrees so I didn’t give her Tylenol to let her body deal with it. She slept well and we hit the road on Friday morning around 6:30 a.m.

I know there’s this newfangled mode of transportation called “airplanes” but I love me a good road trip. I’m one of those fun moms who believe kids don’t need DVD players, think kids should look out the windows and want my kids who entertain themselves. (Aren’t you glad I’m not your mom?)

Before you think I’m mean, I didn’t just leave Madeline with two sticks and mint-flavored floss in the backseat. I bought Highlights (Remember those? They’re still awesome.), a new princess coloring book, “The House at Pooh Corner” to read aloud, a new journal, several books on CD and other toys.

Our trip down went pretty smoothly. Caleb turned out to be a champion traveler and Madeline was happily entertained with her bag of goodies and talking. Oh how that little girl loves to talk. She still cracks Joe and I up all the time.

One time I fed Caleb in the car while Joe and Madeline checked out a local variety store just off the highway in southern Tennessee. After they came back, I asked Joe if they had anything interesting.

Joe: “No. It was like everything bad at a Dollar General.”

Madeline: “And it stank too.”

This girl calls it like she smells it.

The only times she got upset were when she woke up from naps.

Wouldn't you cry too with a neck crick similar to the Cruciatus curse?

We checked into the hotel just outside of Birmingham by 1:30 p.m. Madeline walked in wearing her cowgirl hat, pajamas and flip flops and carrying Peter Bear and Jasmine in Pocahontas’ clothes. (The only way to travel is modestly.)

Yes, my daughter is adorable and no, you cannot have her.

 

Madeline still had a low fever but was in a good mood, wanting to swim and see Peter. All four of us took a long, blissful nap.

We woke up, took showers and drove around Birmingham. Joe pointed out an awesome pimped-out pink and purple Cadillac with spinners. Madeline yelled out, “It’s got great wheels!”

Yes. Yes it does, baby.

I tweeted Boomama for dinner suggestions for some good Southern food. She sent back five tweets, listing her favorite places specific to our location. She is my hero and if you don’t read her, you need to. She has blessed my life with this dip alone. But even more, I read Boomama and Big Mama’s posts every night during Caleb’s 3 a.m. feeding and I’m eternally grateful they get me through that hard, sleepy feeding.

Sadly, Madeline started to feel worse so we settled for some Sonic (wah wah) and headed back to the hotel. I was bummed to not have a true Southern dinner experience and instead watch Lindsay Lohan’s “Freaky Friday” in the hotel room. Oh, if only I had known then that uneaten fried chicken was not going to be the worst part of the trip.

Where we've been (literally)

It’s been a little quiet around here because we went on a vacation. I didn't tell you guys because I still get all freaky weird about telling the Internets I’m leaving my house. It's truly an act of kindness though. I’d just hate for someone to go through the trouble of breaking in here only to discover our nicest item is our DVD player, purchased seven years ago as a wedding gift. 

We’re not exactly on the cutting edge of technology ‘round here. Especially considering we watch said DVDs on an old-fashioned tube TV. Truth be told, Steve Jobs impacted every other person in the world but me. I don't own anything with a small "i." Even an iTunes account.

Shameful, I know but I'm derailing here. 

Last weekend, my little brother graduated from a military academy in Alabama and as his graduation gift and our Christmas gift, my parents took all of us to Disney World after his ceremony.

Now I’ve been looking forward to this trip more than I’ve been looking forward to eating butter again. WHICH SHOULD SAY IT ALL, Y’ALL. We had been keeping it a secret from Madeline and I just could not wait to tell her. 

Her best friends have gone to Disney several times and she has asked me over and over if we could go. I was so very excited to tell her she was going to see the princesses, Mickey and Minnie. I was so excited to watch her glimpse Cinderella’s Castle for the very first time.

And you don't even know the very best part yet. We would be in Disney on her fifth birthday. Can it get any better than being in Disney on your fifth birthday?? I would like to submit that it cannot.

Before we left, I registered an 11 on the expectations scale, with 10 being “strong possibility of peeing my pants excited.”

But then my little girl got sick the night before we left. And then she was sick for five more days. Which meant she got better the day before we left.

SAD TROMBONE TIMES ONE THOUSAND.

At times the trip was so painfully disappointing, I thought I might not even blog it. One afternoon, I cried during Madeline’s entire nap. I knew I was being melodramatic about my first world problems but dang. It sure felt good to finally throw a pity party.

But you know what? There truly is magic at Disney.

Whenever Madeline stepped foot in a park, I forgot how poorly the trip had gone. I forgot about the hours spent on the phone with the pediatrician, at the urgent care centers and at the pharmacies. I forgot how my expectations were dashed. I would even forget how I had been fraught with worry earlier while watching her writhe in her sleep, delirious from a high fever.

Madeline loved every minute she was in a Disney park and watching her twirl with Sleeping Beauty or dance through Epcot in her Minnie Mouse ears healed my disappointed heart.

So I’m going to blogged each day. The good. The bad. The ugly.

I learned there's truly magic at Disney and I learned something else. Being a parent means expectations and plans are constantly dashed. Since coming back, I've heard story after story from friends and family about vacations that were interrupted by illnesses. How the parents paid gobs of money unexpectedly. How expectations were left unmet. And I realized this trip is just another inauguration into parenthood.

I want my family to be a family that laughs so we don’t cry. I want us to have memories aren’t just made from the gooey happy moments because those other experiences -- the disappointments, the pain, the changed plans -- those knit our hearts together even more.

I could only love this picture more if Joe were in it. Our hearts were knit tighter when we laughed hard after looking like crazy people, tearing through Animal Kingdom in a monsoon downpour to catch the evening bus. How Madeline laughed hysterically when our sopping clothes left puddles on the seats. How I giggled watching Joe ran like a triathlete with our double stroller, realizing - a mile behind him - that I wouldn't last one leg on "The Amazing Race."

So I'll write this trip down because even if nothing went as planned, I still have this magical picture with two beautiful children and one hot husband. 

I have the amazing privilege and gift of being a wife and mom. Life is sweet.