The Atkinsons

Disneyland.

This past weekend we went to disneyland with my in-laws. I know people wonder how and why we are always going on all these trips. I wonder that myself, how did we get so lucky? The reason is because I have the best in-laws in the world. Honestly. Both my mother and father in law are so kind and self sacrificing. My mother in law is constantly offering to help watch my kids so I can attempt to get back at least an hour of the sleep I lose every day, and she always just wants our family to be together. My father in law is constantly doing little things for us, secretly paying for our car when it gets repaired or getting a new lawn mower when ours breaks. The thing is that my in-laws could be spending this money on a new big house, a boat, expensive clothes or trips for just them two- but they don't. They choose to spend their money on their children and taking them places so that we an all spend time together as a family. I can't express how kind they have been to me, and I honestly don't think I deserve all the things they have done- but I definitely appreciate it. I think about it daily. I think about our beautiful life that is imperfect in so many ways, and yet I feel we are blessed beyond measure.  

I meant for this to just be a post about disneyland but since my mind is going somewhere else I will go there with it. Last night in yoga my teacher shared a quote about how our happiness in life is not based on the things that happen to us, but our attitude towards them. This is my life motto. I was telling a friend that I have often been told that I make motherhood seem effortless, is it because my kids are so easy? Yes and no. I do have really good kids, but also I have to deal with things that just come with having children, like kids who have accidents at the airport when we are about to board a plane, little babies who are constantly eating dog food or getting in toilet water when I am looking the other way, or other things like always breaking or needing improvements at home, and even just the constant sleep deprivation from work. However as I write this I really have to push myself to think of negative things because I have put so much effort throughout my life to adjust my mental status to be focused on my blessings because that's what makes me feel happier. And who doesn't want to feel happy? I read articles about all these refugee families crossing the mediterranean sea with their families fleeing persecution and I wonder how I can be ok with waking up in the morning everyday with the option to take a hot shower and have my kids soundly asleep in their own rooms. It's something I think about a lot, and I have lots of things that I could say about my thoughts on the matter, but instead I will just say that it has caused me to have a constant attitude of gratefulness. I am extremely aware of the wonderful opportunities I have been afforded, and I wanted to openly acknowledged that. And those are a few of my thoughts at the moment, and with that.... our trip to Disneyland! 

Like I said, our in-laws took us to Disneyland, and were it not for that I am not sure that I would have gone with Olive and Elijah while they are at these ages, but I was so glad we did go because Olive loved it and was just barely tall enough to go on most the rides and it was so so fun to go with her. I almost left Elijah with my sister because I wanted to be able to do everything with Olive and I knew Elijah would be too young and it would mess with his naps and be hard on him to travel, but the guilt got the best of me, especially since he was turning one while we were gone. Plus my mother in law held him a ton for me so we could do rides with Olive, so in the end even though it made it a little bit harder to do some things I was really happy I brought him.

Olive was eager to do every ride and if she overheard Kc and I discussing whether or not she would be scared on a ride she would protest "I'm not scared mom." She was so afraid she would miss something. We only went on one ride without her because she was too short and she kept saying "mom, I'm not too short!" It made me so sad I couldn't do any more with out her. While we did that ride she waited in line with her cousins to meet Tinkerbell. When I came back to get her she was a little upset and said "mom, I want to go on a roller coaster!" haha I love this little girl so much. At 3 years old she is mighty brave! I think the only ride that scared her was Space Mountain. After each ride she would say "I want to do that one again mom!" Even though she didn't freak out on the ride we asked her afterwards if she wanted to go on Space Mountain again and she calmly said "no mom, I don't." I am envious of how well she can handle herself when she is afraid. Who is this child? We wanted to get her some souvenir while we were in disneyland but she didn't really seem interested in anything, so we bought her an overpriced Mickey mouse ice cream bar and had absolutely no regrets about it. I also let her pick out any treat at the candy store right before we left and she almost combusted trying to decide on what she wanted. She ended up with a jack cake pop because I wouldn't let her change her mind again. She excitedly ate half and then shared the rest with her cousins and mom and dad. Olive's favorite ride was a train that took you to the grand canyon millions of years ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth. It had a bunch of huge animatronic dinosaurs. Olive lost her mind. Before we left we told Olive she could do any ride she wanted to one last time, without hesitation, dinosaur train (I would have chosen star tours or space mountain.) It felt good to leave on a high note. We loved being able to go with Kc's parents and his sister Erin and her family. They are always so easy to travel with and just really fun to be with, and Kc's parents helped us so much. For us, Disneyland was every bit as magical as we'd hoped it would be.