Happy Magic

Joy. This is a word I am concentrating on this week. Joy. Being joyful. Being careful of others and things that are joy stealers. I'm trying to find joy in the little things, the big things. Being thankful and finding joy. It sounds easy. I suppose that should be easy when you are surrounded by people and things and moments that you love, but these days it really is a job. Slowing down. Watching and enjoying the life that is in front of you. I stopped the laundry and the dishes and the bills yesterday and I sat down and watched cartoons with my kids snuggled on my lap - AND I LAUGHED. I mean laughed. Like belly laughed. My kids thought I was crazy, but that Peppa Pig is a funny cartoon! :-)

So here is my joyful memory that has kept me happy and laughing and smiling for the past few months:

Disney World. July 2016

Talk about happy. Talk about Magic.

We were supposed to be in Disney World the week of my mom's funeral. With ease and the wonderful, kind people of Disney, we rescheduled  it and went two weeks later.

Y'all if God cares about Disney or vacations or fun, then He for sure made this trip for us. I do know that God cares about us and our broken hearts and I know that if this hadn't gone well that I may had to have been picked up off the sidewalk in the middle of Magic Kingdom. However, let's talk about joy. Lets talk about happiness and let's talk about Magic. Disney World. Wow. Talk about joy and happiness. We were picked as the first family. My husband researched how we were going to make this happen. I didn't even know it existed and called him crazy more than once.  We were the people in cute Mickey shirts, unsure of the line we needed to be in, walking aimlessly when a girl asked us to follow her. There we were at the gates... First family chosen to open Disney. Except we were actually chosen second and the first family had already went in. Want to know what's better than be chosen first family? Being chosen second. They open the gates, let us in and off we went with a stack of fast passes in our hands to ride any ride with no wait. We had the entire park to ourselves for a brief moment. Jason and I just smiled at each other as to say... What just happened? It didn't matter. It was us and we were happy.

This entire trip revolved around meeting all the princesses. We were in the gates, first in line and within the first 10 minutes we met 4 princesses and the day continued like this. Madison colored each princess a picture of themselves and signed her name. Each princess trained so well, called her by name, told her they'd keep it forever, that she was their favorite and that she was sweet, kind, and special. She believed it. She beamed. They made her feel so special.

(Tiana and Belle were over the top good at their job!)

Also, let's mention that the park on this Sunday in July wasn't hot and wasn't crowded. I mean...
We rode seashell ride from the The Little Mermaid three times in a row. No waiting. No lines.

Look at that happy. Look at that Joy. We were parents so overwhelmed by the joy of our children and that we could provide this day for them that we too, beamed with happiness. It was a great day. Every moment felt and looked like this.

Magic, I say.

We covered all the princess spots for the oldest and the Buzz Light year for the youngest. We too did this ride three times. It was the busiest of anything else at Disney on this day, but we waited very little and fought Zurg over and over. Serious business right here.

I know you can only look at other's vacation pictures for so long so I'll stop because I do indeed have 200 more. We met every character that was there to meet. We rode every ride as many times as we wanted. We had workers walk up to us and give us free desert because they wanted to. I kept feeling like maybe we were on hidden camera and someone was watching to make sure we had the best day ever. We did. We laughed all day. We ran all day. We were the first there to open the park and the last to leave when the park closed. We were there for one day, a total of 15 hours. We did it all and then we did it all again with ease. Our five year old and our three year old never complained. Not once. True story. That's amazing in itself. Then after 15 hours the oldest, our sweet, kind hearted girl, started bawling. Bawling. Why?! Because it was the best day of her life and she didn't want to leave. I agree. The single most joyful, fun day we have experienced this far as a family of four. We did it. I wasn't sure I even wanted to go by the time it came for us to go. I am so thankful we did and have so much gratitude that my husband did all of this and planned all of this without me as I was with my mom this summer. We still sit around and talk about the amazingness of this day. Our kids are joyful in the memory. Real joy.

Then the next day we went to Animal kingdom. Samuel slept a lot at that park and then we headed home the next day. It was great too. Really, it was.

This family picture is my new favorite. If you know me,  then you know I love a silly picture. Kids making silly faces makes me laugh. Come on, this picture is the new one framed in my house.

Happy.Joy. Magic. Memories.

Thankful. Always give thanks.