[disney_duke]

Time to pause for reflection….

So it’s at this point in our vacation, and in this trip report, that I stop and think about everything. (I had been thinking every night at 2am when Wyatt woke up for his midnight snack .) But it was after our day at Sea World that I began to realize that Pete was right. (Don’t you hate that? ) Before we left for this trip, he warned me that his parents were not going to be moved by Disneyworld. He specifically said, “I hope you don’t think that they are going to magically fall in love with Disney, like you are.” Did he nail it on the head or what? I guess I thought that once they got there and felt the magic and especially saw their grandkids having fun; they would really get into it.

But it didn’t happen. And I noticed this while were at Sea World, because it’s not a Disney park. To me, Sea World is just a theme park. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful theme park with a good heart and lots of excellent attractions. I’d like to go back some day. But I think you guys can agree with me that Disney’s parks are so much more than just another theme park. While spending our day at Sea World, I noticed the same lack of enthusiasm, the same wishy washy attitude, and the same “I’m tired and don’t care anymore” faces. When we returned to the condo that night, Carol did join us in the pool. (Jaden)(Which I was so grateful for since it’s hard to handle 3 kids in the pool with only 2 adults, especially with Wyatt being only 7 mos!) (baby Wyatt with Daddy!) This is one of the few moments I saw her truly enjoying herself -- playing in the water with the kids. (troublemaker, Camille) That’s when I realized it didn’t really matter where we went for vacation. We could have stayed at a hotel in northern Wisconsin and she wouldn’t have cared. She just wanted to enjoy some vacation time with the kids – wherever. And John is happy with just a baseball game on TV and a bowl of ice cream. I guess I thought that a little pixie dust would have made her and John fall in love with Disney too, but that just wasn’t going to happen. I had these grand plans in my head for touring the parks to get the most out of them with the least amount of time. Not totally commando, but really seeing most of the trademark attractions with the knowledge that they will not be coming back. So here I was, sitting in the dark at 2 am, realizing that I’ve been pushing the family and stressing myself over nothing. It wasn’t going to be a miraculous, hit them like a ton of bricks, wow – Disneyworld is the happiest place on earth, kind of vacation for them. Plus, I had to remind myself that this was, after all, a vacation. And by that definition, I should be enjoying myself too, everybody should!!

My in-laws just like to keep their same sense of security and comfort level wherever they are, no matter what. That’s why Sportscenter is on TV every morning, and every afternoon and evening baseball is on TV. That’s why Carol stayed up late (in the beginning) to watch TV before bedtime. Apparently, they’re big TV watchers. That’s also why they bought frozen pizza, ice cream, Fiber one cereal, and frozen blueberries at the grocery store. That’s also why Carol lugged around her big “grandma” purse absolutely everywhere she went. (It didn’t touch the floor anywhere, not even the airplane!) Because this is what they do at home and this is what they’re comfortable doing wherever they are. No sense in changing it. Hasn’t changed in “however many” years, it isn’t going to change in 4 days. So I put Wyatt back to sleep in his crib (which was a full sized, regular wooden crib. You have to pay $10/day for it, but it sure is nice!) and went to bed much more relaxed and ready for the next day at Animal Kingdom – whatever it may bring. Ahhhh......