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Typically, I imagine a lot of people look forward to taking a week off and going down to Disney World with their families.\u00a0 But a lot of people also aren\u2019t stodgy curmudgeons who is always financially paranoid and also knows just how much work two toddlers are regardless of how many adults are going to be involved in the trip, so personally it\u2019s not so much that I was gleefully looking forward to taking a week off at the Happiest Place on Earth™ as much as I was just mentally trying to psych myself up for the sheer amount of, lift, that would entail on a trip as such.<\/span><\/p>\n I mean, two of the things that are basically atop of my general pet peeve list these days are crowds and being up against a clock, and Disney trips are typically nothing but dealing with gargantuan crowds and always being up against a clock since there are fast passes, lightning lanes, genie passes or whatever else that puts clocks on top of everyone\u2019s heads.\u00a0 Not to mention despite the fact that the weather is just now finally starting to cool off in Georgia, we head down to Florida, where it\u2019s still going to be 90F+ every day, along with the daily Florida rains to contend with, and it\u2019s like asking myself, why do we keep coming back to Florida over and over again<\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n Regardless, I don\u2019t want<\/em> to be a total curmudgeon that brings down those all around me, so I did my best to be optimistic that things were going to be okay, and I deliberately planned absolutely nothing at all for myself, since trips like these really are for my kids above all else.\u00a0 Because if I had any real allusions that I would have any actual time for anything that I wanted to do, I would be cranky in the very likely chance that they did not occur.<\/span><\/p>\n Overall, it was probably for the best that I went into the trip with such gameplan, because by simply rolling with the general agenda that mythical wife had set up and just reacting to what was in front of me, I can say that I think the trip went well, I didn\u2019t burn out too much, and most importantly, I think my kids had a really great time, and I can take some really positive and core memories out of the trip as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n Sure there were a few moments where I get fried where I feel like I\u2019m the only one watching the kids while everyone around me is constantly shopping or indulging themselves while the girls grow restless and cranky and I\u2019m the only one seemingly caring, but frankly this is often the case regardless of if we\u2019re in Disney or Florida or anywhere really.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s the moments where I\u2019m with my kids and I see them getting enjoyment or having fun in ways that aren\u2019t available to them back at home, that make trips like these worth it, no matter how much angst or frustration I deal with at any other point during them.\u00a0 Seeing my kids\u2019 faces light up when they meet their favorite (current) Disney princess, or they get to eat something that we normally don\u2019t let them eat at home, these are the true core memories that emerge from a trip while any of the fleeting frustration or grumpiness about daily changing sleeping arrangements get dumped into forgotten memories by the end of the trip.<\/span><\/p>\n But my god, I think the pinnacle of this trip for me, was seeing just how mind-blown and enthralled both of my girls were, when they experienced the big slide at our resort.\u00a0 I had no real intention of letting either of them go down it, thinking they were too young or too small to handle it.\u00a0 I figured the baby slide that was like 6 feet and a gentle, straight slope would be the highlight of their trip, and they seemed to like it fine, going down it like 30 times each, with me catching them at the bottom of it every time.<\/span><\/p>\n Then I noticed that some kids not much bigger or older than #1 coming down the big slide, and I\u2019m asking the lifeguard if there was any age or size restrictions on it, to which they responded that there weren\u2019t, other than kids like mine needing life jackets for safety reasons.\u00a0 I stood at the bottom of the slide watching kids come down, and sure enough it wasn\u2019t long before not just #1, but #2 wanted to try the slide, so it was the moment of truth to see if they could handle it or not, since we had the au pair who could catch them at the bottom while I took them up top.<\/span><\/p>\n Surely, one or both of my kids would be traumatized, or be that kid at the water park who puts on the hand brakes and gets themselves stuck and makes a scene, right??\u00a0 I let #1 down the slide first, and she did a little bit of braking for herself, but otherwise went down the slide without any other incident.\u00a0 #2, I had more concern for, being smaller and fragile, but when I set her on her way, watching her go down the slide, the smile on her face, man, was totally one of those things where if I could bottle that kind of joy and enjoyment and sell it to others, I would be rich three times over.<\/span><\/p>\n After sliding down myself to get my kids\u2019 opinions on the slide, they were absolutely beside themselves and practically begging to get back up the stairs and go down the slide again, and again, and again, to which the au pair and I obliged and took turns at taking them up while the other caught them at the bottom.<\/span><\/p>\n After the 6th<\/sup> or 7th<\/sup> trip down the slide, I\u2019m asking myself, why bother with exorbitant admission into the parks, when they\u2019ve clearly found the highlight of their trip from one of our resort\u2019s amenities?<\/span><\/p>\n Either way, that was probably my favorite memory of this year\u2019s Disney trip.\u00a0 I know that in future years, things will continue to get easier as my kids grow, and their sleeping arrangements change and settle, and we\u2019ll need less and less assistance, but I can still say that this year\u2019s trip wasn\u2019t nearly as exhaustingly clunky as the one prior.<\/span><\/p>\n But of course, nothing can go too smooth, and despite the fact that the travel was going fairly smooth, it naturally came crashing to a literal stop, as it wasn\u2019t until we started getting closer to Atlanta did we start to hit catastrophic traffic not just once, but two times, once in fucking McDonough, which is basically like the Gwinnett County that\u2019s south of the city instead of north of it, and then naturally there\u2019s a great big old nothing-caused turd of standstill traffic traversing through the actual City of Atlanta.<\/span><\/p>\n And I still don\u2019t know what it was, although I suspect it might\u2019ve been an excess of sun exposure, but I got waylaid pretty hard at the very end of the trip, dealing with a fever and body aches on the drive back, as well as throughout the weekend concluding our trip.<\/span><\/p>\n Overall, I\u2019d say the trip was still pretty good though.\u00a0 Several good memories were made with my family, and fewer things snap me out of grumpy moods than seeing my girls being filled with joy.\u00a0 One of these years I\u2019ll actually get to enjoy Food & Wine again, but I wouldn\u2019t trade fun time with my kids for anything, so no regrets with forfeiting something I\u2019ve done countless times already for the comfort and safety of my kids.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Typically, I imagine a lot of people look forward to taking a week off and going down to Disney World with their families.\u00a0 But a lot of people also aren\u2019t stodgy curmudgeons who is always financially paranoid and also knows just how much work two toddlers are regardless of how many adults are going to … Continue reading Dad Brog (#120): the 2023 Famiry Disney Trip<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,193,71,192,177,83,133,65,146,166],"class_list":["post-49606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-angst","tag-dad","tag-famiry","tag-kids","tag-mythical","tag-observations","tag-old-man","tag-travel","tag-triggered","tag-vacation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49608,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49606\/revisions\/49608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}