{"our trip of miracles"}

Crazy how fast this year has flown by. I can't believe it's almost been a year since our trip to Disneyland and I still haven't blogged about it. I simply cannot go another minute without blogging about our amazing journey to The Happiest Place On Earth…and am strategically placing this entry back when we ACTUALLY were there...October 2010. I've hesitated writing about Disneyland, simply because I knew that it would take quite a while to write...not because of how many crazy fun things we did on our trip, but because THIS PARTICULAR TRIP was SMOTHERED with miracles. It was one of the most memorable trips for me and my babies....and also SUCH an amazing testimony builder for me. God is so very good and aware of us and I want my kids to not only always remember how much fun we had, but that it was GOD who paved the way for us to get there, because of HIS GREAT LOVE for us. I would be so ungrateful if I didn’t finally MAKE time to record His many tender mercies on our behalf. And so I begin…

The planning for our trip to Disneyland began in about February of 2010. As funny as this sounds, I had the strongest desire to take my babies to Disneyland and that it needed to be this year. I can’t describe the sense of urgency that I felt. It wasn’t just a “Oooh, wouldn’t it be nice to go to Disneyland this year?” It was more like “I NEED to get my babies to Disneyland and it needs to be this year, and particularly at the end of October while Kaden is off-track.” It was then, that I truly, truly learned how powerful the prayer of a mother is. I remember getting down on my knees every night and talking to my Heavenly Father, tearfully sharing my desire to get my little ones to Disneyland. That sounds so silly, doesn’t it?! And yet, I soon learned how much our righteous desires mean to God and how willing He is to make those righteous desires become a reality. There wasn’t any way that I could personally afford to take my kids, after factoring in flights, a rental car, hotel stay, Disney Park Passes, food, etc. But I didn’t let that get to me. I had the strongest feeling that we were going to get there and I put my full faith in God to help me create a way.

Just weeks after these strong feelings and prayers, I was sharing my desire with my dear friend Sergio. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sergio (who worked at Southwest) told me that he’d be more than happy to give me 4 Buddy Passes to fly us to California and back. Just like that. I couldn’t believe it and was so overwhelmed by his generosity. I still am so touched by his kind gesture. With the flights now taken care of, I still had to cover the hotel, rental car, food, park passes, etc. As a single mom, that still seemed so ridiculously daunting. I continued to pray for miracles. And it was only a few months later, that we were blessed, yet again.

At the beginning of the summer, I received a call from my mom. She was aware that I wanted to get my little ones to Disneyland, but I hadn’t really discussed many of the details with her as far as WHEN I wanted to go, etc. She informed me that my dad had won a 3-night stay at a beautiful Wyndham Resort in a silent auction a few years prior and hadn’t been able to use it. The resort stay had to be used by the end of October and was 5 minutes from the opening gates to Disneyland. Of course. Of course he had a FREE 3-night day at a resort that had to be used soon after the exact dates I had planned for our trip…and of course it was 5 minutes away from Disneyland. Most people would see that as luck….or you’d hear “What are the odds?!” God doesn’t work in “odds” and there was nothing LUCKY about it. I fell to my knees THAT MOMENT, thanking God right away for yet ANOTHER AMAZING miracle on our journey to Disneyland.

Originally, I had asked my sister Kim to come with us. I thought she would have a blast, the kids would love having her..and I would enjoy her company as well. Soon before our trip, Kim let me know that unfortunately, she wouldn’t be able to go because of school. As much as I knew we would miss her, my heart didn’t panic in the slightest about whether or not we'd either find someone else to go with us...or end up just going with the three of us. I KNEW God would provide and everything would be okay. It’s funny…my cute Mama worries better than anyone I know. She’s fabulous at it. Love her. As soon as I told her that Kim couldn’t go, she immediately worried about us going alone. Like..immediately. LOL! I calmly told her “I’m not worried Mom. We will absolutely be fine. God will take care of us.” The irony? My sweet mother has a beautiful sign in their bedroom that says “Worry ends where faith begins.” And yet, her worries about US show her GREAT an unfailing love for us!!!!!! Love that! Yet, true to my faith and His ever sure Hand in my life, He DID provide. I ended up moving my little family to South Jordan in August of 2010 (good grief…I still need to blog about THAT too! LOL!). I instantly became friends with Linda, who lives upstairs. Just days after Kim had told me she would be unable to go with us, I felt a strong impression to ask Linda. She IMMEDIATELY agreed. And “ironically,” I learned at that point, that Linda’s family lives less than an hour from Disneyland. What a blessing, that she would be able to join us…AND visit her family while we were there. Perfect.

With the flights and the hotel now taken care of, I only had to come up with the money for the park passes, food, spending money and a rental car. After selling my half of our home to Chas and using that money to pay off quite a bit of debt that I had, I felt so blessed to be able to use some of the remainder of that money to cover the rest of our trip. Still, I did not have an outrageous amount to spend…but just enough for us. And after all of this, the many miracles that smothered the pathway TO Disneyland, you’d think He would be done. But it was only the beginning. Oh my heart. This trip. Who would have thought that a trip to Disneyland would be a very direct MIRACLE from our loving Heavenly Father?! Amazing.

Leading up to our first family vacation as a new little family, all my kids knew was that we were going on a “trip” the last week of October. They didn’t know where. And bless their sweet humble hearts….their little minds didn’t even come CLOSE to guessing Disneyland when they WOULD guess. When they thought of “the best vacation ever,” they guessed “Opa’s cabin.” :-) Love that. I love that my little ones are so very grateful for EVERYTHING in their lives. Amazing angel babies. Love them. I decided that I wanted to keep Disneyland a secret as LONG as I could. And so, in order to do that, I didn’t tell ANYONE that didn't already know...or didn't need to know. My Mama knew, Kim and Linda obviously knew…and so did Sergio, but no one else. I didn’t even tell their Daddy, just in case it accidentally slipped out. I didn't even tell the rest of my family. I just mentioned that we were going on a vacation that week. I had no idea just how far I would be able to go with this surprise. You may not see this as a tender mercy….but there is not a doubt in MY mind that it was. Not only did I go almost 9 months without them knowing, but we made it to the AIRPORT (I had to sorta make up a little story about why Linda was with us…but my little ones went right along with it and were thrilled to have her with us), on the PLANE, to ARIZONA and to CALIFORNIA…without a single person at the airport, without a single flight attendant, without a single person ON ANY FLIGHT even MENTIONING the word Disneyland. We made it ALL THE WAY to California with my babies having NO IDEA where we were. (Love these pics below of us with our tickets....my sweet babies smiling and holding their tickets....NO IDEA where the tickets were actually taking them! LOVE IT! BTW..you may notice that I don't have any make up on. I actually decided that this vacation would be a NATURAL, NO WORRIES, NOOOOO MAKE-UP vacation. So believe it or not, ALL OF MY MAKE UP STAYED HOME!!! HIT IT! Not a single shot with make up on...the entire stay. THAT too...was heaven!!)



Since we had made it THAT far (all the way to California, without them knowing where we were going), I knew I wanted to go EVEN FURTHER with the surprise. I knew when we got inside the airport, there would be Disney paraphernalia all over the place. To my surprise, there wasn’t a MICKEY MOUSE IN SIGHT. What the deuce?!?! Amazing. We didn’t even see a SIGN that SAID “Disneyland” until we got out into the rental car garage. As soon as I saw that sign, I immediately told my little ones to close their eyes. I carried Kaden and Linda carried Seneca, eyes closed, to the rental car place and got everything taken care of while they sat outside with Linda (eyes still closed). My little ones closed their eyes until we got into the car, out of the parking garage and were on the freeway…and until their closed eyes turned into “asleep eyes.” Bless them. We had made it all the way to California….and they were none the wiser. When we got to the hotel, I explained to the people at the desk about the surprise. They allowed us to park our car out front while I checked in…and then watched all of our luggage so that we could carry my sleeping babies upstairs to our room. They stayed asleep all the way up the elevator, into our room, and into their HUGE King-size bed that they would be sharing during our stay. Oh my heart. For a Mama who had prayed for this amazing trip for her babies…this “not so small tender mercy” of making the surprise even MORE of a surprise by increasing their anticipation was….nothing short of amazing. My heart literally felt as if it might BURST!! How we managed to make it all the way to our hotel in California without a single person mentioning Disneyland, or Kaden reading a single sign or Seneca seeing a single Mickey…is beyond me. What seems like something so small, I KNOW was the workings of a loving Heavenly Father who knew the desires of this very humble single mother.

My heart was so excited that I could hardly sleep that night. We woke the kids up bright and early with an envelope that would reveal just where we had ended up for our vacation. As soon as they opened it, they both squealed (but not HALF as much as when we drove up in the shuttle to the opening gates of Disneyland. THAT’S really the moment I wish I had captured on film. Pure awesomeness!!)….and my heart almost exploded.




We had also been given a manila envelope from Oma…NOT TO BE OPENED until right before we headed to Disneyland. Bless her sweet and amazingly thoughtful heart. She had sent an envelope for each one of us…INCLUDING Linda….with spending money for our trip. Another miracle. Though I had budgeted for spending money, it was a blessing not to have to use it.




Prior to our trip, I had done some research and talked to some of my close friends about how to save money going to Disneyland. We ended up bringing all of our snacks, drinks, etc. instead of purchasing them in the parks.


I had also made AUTOGRAPH BOOKS for each of the kids ahead of time, since many of my friends had said that they were quite expensive to purchase them at the parks, but were DEFINITELY a "must have" for your first visit to Disneyland. Although they were so ridiculously simple, due to lack of time and all of my scrapbooking supplies still being packed away, the kids LOVED THEM. And even the DISNEY CHARACTERS loved them too. Mickey asked (non-verbally of course) if I had made them. When I answered "yes," he gave me a huge THUMBS UP! LOL...HIT IT!

Oh my. Disneyland is EVERYTHING that it promises. It truly IS “The Happiest Place on Earth.” I can’t even describe to you how we felt. It’s like we wanted to SING and SKIP everywhere because TALKING and WALKING just didn’t seem appropriate. :-) The moment we walked into Disney, I had my little ones pose in front of the famous statue of Walt Disney and Mickey in front of the castle. I had prepared a sign ahead of time for them to hold that said “WE LOVE YOU DADDY.” I took a few pictures with my nice camera and a few with my cell phone…so that the kids could send it in a text message to surprise him as well. They were SO EXCITED to send him that picture and surprise him with where they were spending their vacation. I also had made another sign for them to hold that said “THANK YOU SERGIO,” to thank him for the generous and overwhelming gift of FLYING us Disneyland. So very blessed.


It’s funny…I think as a parent, you think that when you plan this DREAM vacation for your babies, that EVERYTHING will go perfectly and your children will suddenly become PERFECT as well. LOL! That was not the case. Bless their hearts. Seneca was frightened of half of the Disney characters and we even spent a few moments here and there in “Time Out” on a bench on Disneyland Main Street because of some behavior issues. LOL! And when we arrived, I wasn’t even sure my kids would even get on all of the rides. The best thing is, I decided long before we even LEFT for Disneyland that this was ALL ABOUT MY BABIES and time for us together as a new little family. If they were apprehensive and didn’t ride a SINGLE ride and if they were apprehensive about meeting the characters, but IN THEIR MINDS, this was “the best vacation and best memory they have ever had”…..then…SUCCESS!!! I had zero expectations, other than for this to be the best memory of their childhood so far. And we met those expectations and exceeded them to the max! And my sweet babies, I will have you know, shocked the crud out of me by riding EVERY…SINGLE….RIDE they were tall enough to ride on. I am sure that is partly because of how Linda and I worded our “invitation for them to ride.” LOL! Instead of saying, “You can choose whether or not to ride on the ride,” we said “We’re going on this ride now. You can either sit with Linda or with me.” :-) And it worked. In fact, the ride that Kaden was MOST afraid of, The Matterhorn, ended up being “the funnest ride EVER!!” Love that!!! Our bigger problem was explaining to Seneca that she COULDN’T ride some of the rides..when she seriously WANTED TO and couldn't because of her height. Kaden was even more brave than his Mama once…on the Indiana Jones ride. LOL! I didn’t realize until after the ride when Kaden said “Mama, you kept squeezing my leg really tight during the scary parts” that my hand that had been put on his leg to comfort HIM, had actually been to reassure ME. LOL! Oh my…such an amazing time.





Baby was SO excited that our race car was #4....cuz SHE was 4! HIT IT! And I will say this....OH MAMA...Baby is one CRRRRAZY driver. Nervous. LOL! And we were even on a TRACK!!! ;-)





Love the two pics above....the first, how Kaden is helping Seneca to focus and look at the camera. LOL! Love that. And the second one, in front of KADEN'S FAVORITE RIDE....THE MATTERHORN. The ride that started out as the one he was MOST afraid of....and ended up LOVING!!!! AWESOME!



Though little Baby WAS very apprehensive about some of the villain characters (that were all out, since it was close to Halloween), we ended up with a TON of pictures with all of our favorite Disney characters.;-)









Seneca was so excited to tell Alice that SHE was going to be performing in "Alice in Wonderland" with her dance group. Alice was so sweet and so attentive to Seneca. EVERYONE at Disneyland was sweet and attentive and polite and kind and HAPPY and made my babies feel like they were the FIRST and ONLY TWO kids they had EVER talked to...LOVED IT. SO very impressed!


Prince Ali and Jasmine were so cute. They seriously looked like they belonged together. And they were so cute about the autograph books. My goodness...I felt a little foolish (considering my experience in paper crafting) having such RIDICULOUSLY simple books for my babies...but apparently, the Disney Characters thought they were pretty spiffy. More importantly, however, Kaden and Seneca loved how the characters OOHed and AAHed at their special little books. It made my heart happy. *sigh* Awesome.



Baby and I even waited in line for 2 hours to see the Disney Princesses while Linda and Kaden went to ride more rides. 2 hours. Wow. We had so much fun though. Baby and I chatted, snuggled and took pics...love the second pic of her below, where she is "striking a pose." Not sure what that is...some EGYPTIAN-TYPE pose. Hit it. LOL! LOVE HER.

While we were standing in line, we were happily surprised to see two of our missionaries and their cute family (both that served in our mission and also live in South Jordan) suddenly walk up and get IN LINE RIGHT BY US...also waiting to see the princesses. What are the chances?! SO FUN to see them and catch up.

Once we finally reached the front of the line, Seneca realized she had left her autograph book in Linda's backpack. She was really sad...which is why she has slightly teary eyes in all of her princess pics. Darnit. Bless her heart. I talked her through it though..and by the time we got to Snow White, she was good to go. :-)


Unfortunately, they don't really tell you WHAT princesses are going to be there when you get to the front of the line. And even if they DO tell you, there is a possibility that they will have changed by the time you get there. I was a little bummed that Jasmine was one of the 3 there....since we'd already had a chance to visit with her. However, the moment we saw SLEEPING BEAUTY, and Seneca's eyes COMPLETELY LIT UP, I knew that I would have stood in line for 2 MORE hours JUST so my Baby Girl could see Sleeping Beauty.



Not only is Sleeping Beauty Seneca's favorite princess, but she....was....amazing. She was so kind. I knew immediately then, why the line takes so long. Each princess treats EACH little girl like she is the WORLD. It's not your run of the mill..."Nice to meet you, hurry and take a pic and move along" type of thing. Oh my heart. If I hadn't known better, I would have believed without a doubt that Sleeping Beauty truly WAS a "real live princess." She was so gracious and beautiful and kind. Seneca is so funny...she was so excited that she could hardly contain herself. But when she finally was able to talk to Sleeping Beauty, she became so completely shy. :-) Sleeping Beauty talked so kindly to her, stroked her hair, asked her about her trip to Disneyland, asked her about what she liked to do. I was almost in tears. It was a moment worth EVERY SINGLE MINUTE in line.





So glad that Linda is such a fan of the tea cups....so that Mama was able opt out of that ride. My stomach is sick even looking at these pictures. LOL!







Our two days at Disneyland and California Adventure were very literally A DREAM COME TRUE!!!

And now, before I forget, I need to tell you about our little medical emergency. Another amazing miracle. The first night, the night we arrived in California, after all of the excitement of the day and driving in a rental car that smelled heavily like cigarette smoke (even though it was supposed to be non-smoking), Seneca's asthma really started acting up....and I realized that I had accidentally left her inhaler at home...on my bed, waiting to be packed. Oh darnit. The moment she had her asthma attack, it was 9:50 PM UTAH TIME. That is TEN MINUTES BEFORE OUR DOCTOR'S OFFICE CLOSES (which is MUCH later than most Doctor's offices are open anyway...LOVE OUR MEDICAL CENTER for that and many other reasons)!!!!! I managed to get through to the receptionist JUST before they closed (NOT a coincidence....we know that already by now, yes? :-)) and have them call in a prescription to a RITEAID JUST UP THE STREET FROM OUR HOTEL. Within the hour, we had a brand new inhaler and spacer for little Baby and she was breathing steady and sleeping soundly. Total cost of unplanned emergency....$90. Remember that amount.



After two amazing and so ridiculously JAM-PACKED days at Disneyland and California Adventure, we decided to spend out last day in California at the beach. Linda took us to the most BEAUTIFUL beach.... Corona del Mar.



We let the babies loose and they were in absolute HEAVEN! We had the entire little area (completely surrounded by cliffs) to ourselves for most of the time, until a rock climber came and decided to just up and free climb one of the cliffs by us. Craziness. It was awesome to watch. The kiddies were in their clothes and getting completely and utterly SOAKED. It was a DREAM!




Both of my babies had so much fun....but my Seneca....it was almost as if her sweet little FREE SPIRIT had been TRULY SET FREE and she now refused to EVER let her little body remain still, for fear that it would possibly be caged if someone were to eventually catch her. LOL! Bless her cute heart. Almost every picture I have of her on the beach is BLURRY. Blurry....and PERFECT. THIS....IS....MY.....SENECA!!! My sweet, free-spirited, BEAUTIFUL angel Seneca. I didn't WANT her to sit still or even pose at all. THESE PICTURES ARE SO....HER. And her smiles in these pics illustrate PERFECTLY the "PURE JOY" that BOTH of my babies felt on our "private beach" that day. These pictures take my breath away....











Linda showed both Kaden and Seneca how to catch these itty bitty little crab thingeys and we wrote countless messages in the sand and watched them get washed away by the waves. The first one we wrote was for their Daddy. As you can see, our FIRST attempt at their Daddy's message was washed away. Oops. Finally, we ended up getting the perfect shot, before the waves washed it away again.


After our trip, I had one framed for the kiddies to give to Chas as a souvenir from our trip, along with a pin that we found from our ALL-TIME FAVORITE RIDE (Soarin' Over California) that said "I Love Dad."

Here are a few others....


The first two days of our trip were filled to the rim with CRAZY AWESOME FUN at the theme parks...and we ended with a heavenly, relaxing day on the beach. Other than Bear Lake, it was the first time my babies had been to a "real beach." They were completely enthralled by it. It was an absolutely PERFECT way to finish off our trip.



I love this picture (below) of my babies, looking down at the beach where we would spend our last day in California. It is such a PERFECT reflection of their personalities...Kaden, standing calm and reflecting on how beautiful the beach is...and Seneca, swinging from the bar like a little monkey, wondering WHY THE CRUD it's taking us so long to get going and get to the beach so she can RUN IN THE WATER and PLAY in the SAND!!! LOL! LOVE IT! OOOOOh....LOVE MY BABIES SO MUCH!!!

And after all of this....after our already AMAZING trip and COUNTLESS miracles, God was not done blessing our little family. We hopped in the rental car after showering off in a restroom on the beach and changing clothes and headed to the airport. When we returned our car to the rental place, I mentioned kindly to the man that helped us, that our car smelled heavily of smoke and expressed my concerns about how I truly felt the smoke had made Baby Girl's asthma flare up. I'm not sure I was really even expecting anything...but I thought they should know. We had already received an AMAZING discount for our rental car through Linda's parents, so I didn't really feel like we could ask for a discount. However, the fact that it had caused what may have been an even bigger emergency had we not been able to reach our doctor's office in time, I thought they should know about the smoke in their "smoke free" car.  The guy was really great and took our concerns to his supervisor. He hadn't talked to him very long before he returned to us with, "My supervisor has decided to credit you for the entire $90 that you paid to rent your car." A complete credit. $90. Remember the cost of our medical emergency? *sigh* Oh my heart. God is so very good. My heart is so full.

What an amazing week..one that NONE of us will ever forget. I can't stress enough how truly blessed we were (and continue to be). The pathway to Disneyland for my little family was literally PAVED with miracle after miracle after miracle. So grateful for a good and kind and generous God that not only heard the righteous desire of a Mama's heart...but literally CARRIED me and my babies, and our sweet friend Linda..ALL THE WAY THERE AND BACK!!! For those who have a hard time wrapping their head around the concept of God knowing each and every one of us BY NAME....I testify to you do THAT. HE. DOES. He knows THIS MAMA. He KNOWS my KADEN. He KNOWS my SENECA. He KNOWS us and cares for us in so many minute and detailed ways, that I would have to very literally CLOSE MY EYES and PURPOSEFULLY TRY and ignore HIS HAND to not believe He is there. I cannot do that. He is EVERYWHERE in my life...and He was EVERYWHERE on this trip. I know that my babies will never forget our trip to Disneyland. But although I made a point to point out EVERY miracle along the way to them....I'm not sure that those miracles will stay in their sweet little memories forever. And so, I have purposefully tried to write about these miracles in great detail, so that along with the HAPPY MEMORIES of FUN as a family, they will KNOW, without a doubt in their mind, that their Father in Heaven KNOWS THEM BY NAME and LOVES THEM enough to literally SMOTHER them in miracles. I know God lives....I see His hand literally EVERY SINGLE DAY of my life. I could never and WILL never deny Him.

This trip to Disneyland will forever remain in this humble Mama's memory, heart and soul as our wonderful "Trip of Miracles."

Comments

[Lilian Nielsen]

What a wonderful trip you had! How blessed we are as God's children too. I don't think it's silly at all that you would tearfully pray for something like this. A desire of the heart is a desire of the heart. I'm glad your little ones got to go. EVERY CHILD and ADULT should get to go to Disneyland!!!

[JoLynn]

What an awesome trip for you and your family. God does amazing things and your story proves it. And no prayer is a silly prayer.

[LeShel]

I love how you can see so many miracles. I love that His tender mercies are so obvious to you. You ROCK!

[Julianne]

Just want to say that you look BEAUTIFUL without make up!! What an amazing experience. I'm so grateful you shared the countless miracles that became your great trip!! Everyone needs a testimony of God's love that is as strong as yours!! It inspires me so much to read your blog and I am happy that you feel so great sharing your experiences!!

[rumz]

One of the best blog posts I've ever read. Love the miracles, the love, the surprise, the magic of Disneyland, the magic of the beach, all the photos (especially love the beach photos). Thank you for sharing :)

[Lindsey Nyberg]

Thank you for your beautiful story about Disneyland. It brought back many wonderful memories of my family's trip to Disneyworld. To make a long story short, we experienced many of the same "feelings" and the same joy in our hearts. Magic truely does happen there. 1 Month after we returned I found out the my husband and I were pregnant with our first child together. Truely the best souvenir one could ever receive