Eavesdropping at Disneyland

We got back into town from 4 days at Disneyland last Friday with some people Jason works with. It was a totally glorious trip and our children were superbly behaved. I'm not lying. The over stimulation of the happiest place on earth and the exhaustion that comes along with it is prime for major melt downs, including my own. But we really didn't have any. It had to do with the fact that everyone in the family went back to the hotel every day we were there and napped from noon until 3. All of us. Well, Jason had to be an overachiever and go to the gym during la ciesta the last couple of days of our trip. But mostly everyone, every day. 

And I rediscovered an important truth. Human beings need sleep.

Isla is waking up STILL at least 3 or 4 times a night ever since she got sick last month. It feels like a sick joke. Seriously that ear infection has rocked our world and left unbelievably ugly residue. The worst part is, I think she's coming down with something again. She's been feeling a bit feverish today and won't let me put her down. Seriously heart wrenching. And around and around we go in this family, spreading disease and infection between one another, passing it back and forth like it's homemade bread. UGH. Anyway, I don't nap during the day. I just have too much to do all the time. I have three little girls and a wee little husband to take care of. I have a house that messies itself and holidays to plan for. And it seems like even on the days I'm really committed to napping, when Lucy goes to preschool, Scarlett and Isla go down for their naps, I'm suddenly completely energized because I have a few spare moments of me time. So for the past 2 months, sleep has been put on the serious back burner in my life.  

But while we were at Disneyland... I slept. I napped every. single. day. For at least an hour to two. I had no to-do list. I had nothing to clean. I had no lists to check off. And lemme tell you something. My rose colored glasses came back. My husband was attractive again. Food tasted good again. My sparkling charisma came back to me that I thought was gone for good. My jokes were funny again. People liked me again. I was singing along with all the Disney and holiday music everywhere I went, hi-fiving princesses and Mickeys all the while. I was tickling under Santa's beard and side-hip bumpin' Mrs. Clause and picking up bell hops and twirl-hugging them.

Mothers of babies and small children need to nap. I'm bringing napping back. And I'm dismissing any guilt associated with it.

Item two on the agenda. Before we get down to the nitty gritty (pictures of our trip) of this post, I gotta clear the air here. I have a few things I gotta get off my chest. Some skeletons I gotta clean outta my closet, if you will. Okay truthfully that last idiom doesn't really apply. But I've been waiting for a reason to say that on my blog for a long time. 

Ahem.

Okay, so we got into Anaheim on December 9, a very special day for Jason and me. 6 years of wedded bliss. Our anniversary! We'd been road tripping it from Utah, singing that Tony! Toni! Tone! song to each other the whole day (not so much, If I had no loot. But mostly, Anniversary), saying our "remember whens" about that great day of jubilation among the heavens and the earth.

That night we got checked into our hotel around 6ish and some friends of ours offered to watch our babes so hubby and I could catch some dinner together and further reminisce and sing songs and recite poetry to one another. So we got our kiddies fed dinner, got them put to bed and snuck out of our hotel room while Ashlyn snuck in. Isn't that nice? It was wonderful.

We went to a place called the Napa Rose and had some seriously decadent dinner. In fact, I paid for that decadence over the few days that would follow, but it was worth it. And if you ever go there, order the "World's best hot chocolate" for dessert. Because it's been clinically proven, it actually IS the world's best hot chocolate. It's like symphony bars were just melted down and mixed with cream and cinnamon and love. Jason and I had huge chocolate milk mustaches and glazed over eyes walking back to our hotel room afterward.

I'd like to touch briefly on a conversation we overheard during dinner. Hence, the title of this post. There was a youngish couple sitting next to us who we had talked with occasionally, (mostly me making jokes that my head was going to explode from deliciousness because we ordered something they recommended to us and then them in turn laughing so hard that they had no choice but to splash their wine up into their faces. Actually, no. But I wish. Wouldn't that just be the culmination of your mortal experience?... if someone were to laugh so hard at something you said that they just had to pick up their glass and splash their beverage all over their face? Man oh man. I'm gonna try to find a way to make that happen).

Anyway, they were really friendly and we had exchanged some good chatter when we first sat down and then both couples had become engrossed in our own conversations. (They continuously swirled their glasses of wine in hand, sniffing into their glasses repeatedly and discussing the aroma while Jason and I discussed who was a bigger heart throb out of AC Slater and Zack. AC all the way btw. I love me some dark hair and muscles. The term, "heart throb" is a direct quote from my husband. I would never refer to another man in that way.)

Then our waitress comes up and fills our neighbors' drinks and the following conversation ensues: How long have you two been married? Couple: Eleven years! Waitress: Wow! Have any kids? Couple: Nope! We are just fine, just the two of us. Waitress: You're smart. Woman: Ya know, it's funny because we come to Disneyland and just watch all of the kids throwing tantrums and the husbands and wives yelling at each other over it all and we just look at each other and feel grateful that's not us. Waitress: It's so true. I bet you enjoy Disneyland more than they do!

And they all laughed together and had a jolly old time. yada yada yada, etc.

Excuse me? You talkin' ta me? Really? You're smart? she said. For not having kids? Yeah. Smart. I will be the first to attest that having kids has only made us more intelligent. Like this late night (9:30 pm) text conversation Jason and I had while laying silently across the dark hotel room from each other, each at our respective "post," waiting for our kids to fall asleep. I'd like to clarify, my texting is found in blue, while Jason's is found in white:

See my point? Regular people probably wouldn't have even noticed that he said are for our. But I did. NOTHING, including grammatical and orthographic errors of any kind, gets past me since having kids. 

Okay back to the dinner scene. I don't remember the rest of the conversation because by that time my blood was beginning to boil and I started to breathe heavy... and Jason started to talk me down the way everyone does with the Hulk in the verge of an outbreak. (Speaking of heart throbs... Mark Ruffalo!!! Again- direct quote from my husband. I'd never say that about Mark myself.) I wasn't in reality getting all Hulkish but in my mind's eye I did spy the three wee angels we had just tucked into bed and I immediately felt defensive for them. I felt like we were overhearing this couple talking smack about our little daughters, and that crap doesn't fly. 

Then I tuned back into their conversation and overheard the woman say to the waitress, "A big house on the hill? Or oops! forgot my pill..." and before I knew it the entire restaurant was in stretched stir-up pants, leg warmers and ratted crimped hair dancing around our table in choreographed moves singing to us 

 Ev’ry day the world is getting smaller by far... Bursting at the seams, what can we do? Zero population is the answer, my friend.. Without it the rest of us are doomed! 

Who can survive? Who can survive? Not one of us will be alive! Who can be strong? Who can be strong? When all the food is gone? 

Actually, nothing eventful happened after that. I don't know anything about this couple or waitress. I don't want to judge them because I would hate to be judged by a conversation someone overheard me having. I say stupid things sometimes. Very rarely. But it's been known to happen in my life once or twice. (My husband is haunted by telling some girls his freshman year at BYU that birthing a baby probably doesn't even hurt that bad and that women are just overdramatizing it. Whew!! That's a doozy right there! He loses sleep over it 20 years later.) So what I'm saying- I don't know them. Maybe they're not able to have kids and this is their go-to story. It didn't sound like that. They just sounded like kid-haters. I really wanted someone to ask if we had kids so we could say 3 in just 6 years! We don't mess around! and pull out the photo albums from my purse and occupy the rest of the fancy dinner with stories about their worse blow-outs. But nobody did. No one asked us. Maybe I just have maternal written all over me, so they already knew. Or maybe they were scared by the eyes bugging out of my head and my plastered-on maniacal smile.

Mostly, it made me sad. I wanted to tell them they have no idea what they're missing out on in life. The good the bad and the ugly of it, but mostly the joy in the truest sense of the word. The joy and the love. I don't remember easy ever being the indicator of what's worth-while in this life. Don't get me wrong, I choose easy and convenient when I can, Winder Dairy home delivers my milk after all. But parenting in nature is not easy or convenient. Not for my neighbors, nor my friends, and not for me.  Truth is, it's actually not. about. me. At all. And that's the soul transforming beauty of it all.

Bottom line, I'm doing exactly what the Lord wants me to be doing with my life. I'm not saying everyone should be doing what I'm doing, I know that people face lots of unique circumstances. But this is exactly what He wants me, Meradith, to be doing. The last thing I need to feel is that someone is standing there watching me while my kid's having a melt-down and hi-fiving because they're not me. Every day of my life is filled with an overabundance of serving. I don't always do it happily. But I show up, every single day. And there's nothing about that that I would change if I could. I'm doing what the Lord wants me to be doing and there's no feeling on the planet that can compare to that peace in my heart. I know this is His will for me not because the people I go to church with tell me that. It's because He tells me that, often, in the most private chambers of my heart. I love those kids with a love that consumes my heart right up; more love than I ever thought it could possibly bear. And no one in this world could make me wish any of it away for a more convenient trip to a theme park.

And by the way, I've been to Disneyland as an adult without kids, with a guy I used to date, and there is absolutely no way on earth that was more fun than it is taking our kids. Just like Christmas. Not as fun, I don't care who you are. Maybe you'll debate me on this one, but I'm feeling extra gushy towards my girls because they were true angels on the trip. Don't knock vacationing with them 'til you try it. I know people used to say that in high school about smoking weed, but this one is legit.

Okay, I feel better. Maybe that couple will stumble onto my blog sometime. And they'll remember that there was a reason they were thinking we should be best friends while sitting in that restaurant. And maybe they'll remember one of the reasons was because I had spit up on my shoulder and wore it like it was nobody's business. And another reason might be the black booties I bought on sale that day that I had on.

Onto the photos. Here we are when we stayed in our Vegas hotel overnight on our trek down. I love this picture. So much!

This is at the California Grand Disneyland Hotel right when Santa came in the room. That little Lucy's excitement was just palpable. 

Scarlett had an unbelievable amount of concern to express to Merida. Mostly about the mean bear but some about how she on earth she manages that mane.

Remember Jason, how you kept telling me to scoot over a little bit more? And just a little bit more? Trying to get me out of the picture? That was funny huh.

The one and only Isla June. She didn't show up in quite as many pics because I had her hidden away most of the time, to protect her from the paparazzi.

Jason on the small world ride. He loves that song so much. 

I actually did want to go on it over and over and over again. So darling this time of year.

Again, palpable joy and excitement. Ohhhh I love this face.

Jason and I on a lover's get-away to the Indiana Jones ride. Might be my all-time fave. 

And bidding farewell to Disneyland as we pulled out of the hotel parking lot. Real tears, real sense of despair and loneliness. Poor little lamb.

Happy 6 years to the man who owns my heart. I'm so happy we're in this life together. And I'm so happy you take me and our runts to Disneyland once in a while and let me nap while you go to the gym without judging me. And thank you for being able to order for me if I'm in the bathroom when the waiter comes, even when I haven't told you what I want. Thank you for thinking I'm funnier and cooler than every one else's wives... not to mention everyone elses' husbands. Seasons greetings to all.