The Happiest Place on Earth

I know you all know where this place is. I know you've either been there and experienced the magic for yourselves or you've heard the stories. You've heard how college-educated people will HAPPILY pay $8 for a coke. You've heard how normally very hip people will buy a huge Minnie Mouse sweatshirt and insist they WILL wear it once they get home. You've also heard how people spend their entire savings just to take their families there...just once. You've heard the tales...or maybe you've been there yourselves.

Well, my friends, the stories you've heard are true. All of it. I should know: my family and I are officially Disneyland Junkies. I could guide you around that place in my sleep. Honestly, that IS something to be proud of! :-)

When we were growing up, my family wasn't very well-off. There were 4 kids and my dad never had much of a job to speak of. My mom worked really hard at multi-level-marketing type jobs and eventually she had worked hard enough to take us to Disneyland.

Oh, how excited we were! I remember I was in 6th grade and I saved and saved and saved my baby-sitting money. I remember I had finally saved up about $40. I made my mom take me to the bank to change it into travelers checks so I could buy the wonderful things at Disneyland and feel like a grown-up (or rich...can't remember now).

We all piled into our '69 VW Van for the coooooooooold drive out to CA. Oh, it was fricken' freezing that trip! We went in December because my mom didn't want us to miss too much school and our heater broke. (of course it did). I remember huddling on the floor of the van somewhere in AZ thinking I had never been so cold.

But eventually...we made it. I will never forget my first glimpse of the Disneyland sign...announcing you had made it to the Happiest Place on Earth. We had a fantastic time then. I think we stayed for about a week: oh yes, when the Kimling's go to Disneyland, we don't waste any time. We get there about an hour before the park opens and we stay till they kick you out. Then fall into bed so sore and exhausted but still excited for the next day. Then we'd do it all over again...for 6 more days or so. Sound like overkill?? Not to us. There might be a shop we missed or a t-shirt that we hadn't seen yet or if we sat in the front of the car in Space Mountain you might get a better ride.

Things continued on like this for years. My mom would save and save and take us out to CA almost every year from the time I was in middle school. Most of the time, it was just her and us 4 kids. Once my brother decided he was too cool to go, so he stayed home. Another time my older sister was playing in the band that marched down Main Street so we all trooped down because there was NO way she was going by without us! Most of the time we drove out there: I think our record once was Denver to LA in 11 hours. (I drove that time :-)

We took our husbands and girlfriends out there with us. I even went when I was pregnant with MaeMae. My two cousins had never been (horror!) and we just had to take them and they had the best time. We have pictures of us with our various ex's and we went once to cheer up my sister after her divorce. Just recently, I was able to meet my mom out there for ONE day: oh yes, that's how die-hard we are. My mom decided she needed her "Disneyland Fix" and I wanted to go, but I had a 10 month old at home so mom flew me out on a Friday night. I got in to LA around 12 and got up at the crack of dawn and spent 15 hours at the park with her on Saturday and then went home Sunday morning. I remember that trip because it was the first time my mom and I were there just the two of us. I remember sitting at our favorite breakfast spot at the Lilly Belle Cafe (right next to New Orleans Square) and talking about all the trips to Disneyland and what they meant to all of us.

She said that looking back, those are the memories that make her the happiest. She felt so proud she was able to do that for us while we were growing up and she's so excited to start coming with us as adults and as our children get older, to be able to share that with us as well.

I'm excited she's going to get her chance. As some of you know, my mom hasn't had the best health history...in fact we almost lost her right before my wedding in 2004. Thankfully, she's doing much better now and we are leaving tomorrow to celebrate her 60th birthday. Where???

Where else would the Kimling's go to celebrate something? Where else would we be happy to spend $6 on a magnet? Or $12 on Maelin's first pair of Mickey Mouse ears? Or content just to sit at the castle gates with a Mickey ice cream cone watching the world go by?

Yup...we're taking Maelin for her first (but certainly not the last) visit to the Happiest Place on Earth. I hope her childhood memories of it will be as awesome as ours are. Even though she's a bit too young to remember much about this visit, I know the magic will get her too. Just how it's going to, we'll have to wait and see.

Maybe she'll want a $45 stuffed Pooh Bear. Think we'll get it for her???