DISNEY!!

Things have been a little...less than normal...around our house in the last month. We were supposed to be moving out of our house on November 6th, and we'd spent every single spare moment we had over the last few weeks of October packing up our current house to make that deadline, only to have everything fall apart less than 24 hours before the closing of the sale was supposed to take place, when the buyers on our house were denied the loan they'd applied for. 

I did not handle the situation well. At all.

BUT! What better way to forget your troubles than loading up the car for a week at the happiest place on earth? 

(On a previously planned vacation, of course, because if we hadn't already had all of this reserved? There was no WAY I would have been in any appropriate state of mind to take this trip. As it was...things were pretty touch and go as far as my sanity is concerned when we left.)

All of this to say...we took the girls to Disney last week. And for the most part, it was a wonderful trip. Brigid was pretty exhausted by the end of the week, though, voicing her displeasure in our schedule by upsetting herself to the point of vomit when we thought that she'd maybe like to meet Rapunzel, her favorite princess and chosen Halloween costume two years running. Because, obviously, we were terrible for even SUGGESTING such a thing, and also a week at Disney World is A LOT to expect of a four-year old, and we really shouldn't have been surprised that she was in full meltdown mode by day seven. She didn't want to meet Mickey, and she absolutely refused to talk to Jasmine when Aladdin was included as part of the meet and greet, but other than that?

She met Minnie twice, and just about every princess that's ever existed. She rode the spinning teacups something like six times, along with the carousel and the Ariel ride. She went on Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad and Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion, none of which we thought we'd be able to get her on when we first started the trip. And she enjoyed them all much more than I expected her to.

She also went on the Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios, but she DID NOT enjoy that one. At all. AT ALL at all. She came back with a giant lollipop, in fact, because I think Steve felt a little bad for taking her on it in the first place.

And Caitlin! Oh, poor Caitlin. That kid wanted nothing more than to be left alone to roll around by herself, but since that wasn't an option at the park, she spent a lot of time bundled up in the stroller. I...don't think she enjoyed herself very much, honestly. She did, however, sleep through three or four rides of her choosing, since loud noises apparently don't bother her and her nap schedule. So...that was nice.

We ate lunch at Belle's castle, saw fireworks at both Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, and watched in snow on Main Street at the Very Merry Christmas Party. We had breakfast at Cinderella's castle. We met Minnie and Daisy and all of the Hundred Acre Woods gang. We have autographs from Aladdin and Jasmine, Merida, Sofia, Jake the Neverland Pirate, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and Ariel. We met Belle twice. It was a big deal.

We kept joking all week that we weren't going to bring the girls back for another 10 years or so, because it was all just so much, but I'm starting to wonder if Disney isn't a lot like childbirth...we'll forget the pain in the next few months and be ready to go back before we even realize it.

Maybe...

(Pictures! I took SO MANY PICTURES! They'll be up tomorrow...)