Worldly Revelations

Whew! We're finally home, after a long two-day drive (it seemed longer on the way home) featuring two kids, two adults, an enormous inflatable Princess balloon, and the worst snowstorm I've ever traveled through. Apparently, the police were asking people to stay off the roads except in an extreme emergency. We didn't know that, but we were so close to home...

Dan took six million photos, but they aren't all uploaded to the computer and organized yet, so instead I'll just give a few observations of our trip, for what they're worth, and then give the travelogue later.

First, we realized just before we left that we need to put our priorities on spending special time with our kids now, before they get older and lose that wonder that young children have. I saw a teenaged girl at our hotel, sitting outside of her room, texting a friend on her cell phone, and knew I only had about 10 more years before Helena's at that age. Although we might have to sacrifice other things - a perfect home (well, we're pretty far from that already), new furniture, late-model vehicles, convenient eating out, etc. - it's much more worth our time and money to vacation, or at least dedicate special family time, with our kids NOW, not later. (Not that we won't vacation later, but it won't be the same).

Also, I feel better. The kids are behaving better. The stress knots in my stomach and shoulders are gone. I have more energy and focus and I'm excited to get started on a new BYU class, work on my calling, etc.

We also saw over and over the way Helena, particularly, would get into the "magic" of the whole experience. Let me reiterate that Walt Disney World is NOT an amusement park and bears no resemblance to one, except perhaps when there are lines. (Even those brought good memories for Helena. Today she pretended for about 15 minutes that she was waiting in line to see her "friends from the Hundred Acre Wood.") Hunter, of course, had to spent a lot of time strapped into a stroller, but sometimes he'd get a great view from Dan's shoulders and he just about leapt off in excitement. Even the smallest things mean so much to kids.

As we were driving home, there were some things I wasn't looking forward to returning to at home that I've reviewed and will do whatever I can to improve, change, or if necessary, eliminate. We also talked about the things about WDW that make us so happy, and we'll try to add those into the family atmosphere whenever we can. Coincidentally, they are all things that the gospel has already taught us to do, so it will be more of the same "path to perfection" stuff for us.

I'm glad, too, that Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race while I was in sunny, warm, delicious Florida. I didn't spend more than a few minutes on it there, whereas I would have analyzed it endlessly if I were here, packed into my igloo.

More on the way...and I promise it will be less contemplative!