Escaping from Reality

We went to California last week.  Where there was sunshine, flowers, and warm enough weather to go swimming outside!  A much needed escape for all of us.

We went to Disneyland and had a wonderful time.  And I have no pictures to show of it.  Well, I have pictures, but the ones of me are dreadful.  Really.  Trust me on that. 

While we were there, we did some things we've never done before.  Like the Aladdin musical.  I insisted.  My husband thought I was crazy.  We waited outside mashed in the center of a mob.  It was hot.  Everyone was grumpy.  I nearly decided we should just give up.  Finally they opened the doors and let us into a huge theater.  Okay, it's not the biggest I've been in, but it was substantially larger than I thought it would be.  We found our seats and the whining continued. 

Then the lights dimmed and the show began. 

It took about three seconds for our most vocal complainer to be glued to the stage.  The show was fabulous!  They did have to cut it down to under an hour, so the plot is a bit sketchy in places.  But still!  If you get the chance (and you enjoy theater) go see it!  The costumes and sets were fantastic---including Aladdin riding through the audience on an elephant (not a living one, of course) as well as the magic carpet flying over the audience. 

My favorite part, though, was the genie.  Not only was he hilarious for me and my husband, but he also had the kids laughing.  Which is hard to do!  Needless to say, I was impressed. 

So go see it next time you go to California Adventure. 

One of the hardest things for me to learn about family vacations is adjusting my mentality to the fact that it's a family vacation.  I have a hard time letting go of the whole, "We need to get our money's worth and do as much as possible."  We tried that on the last trip.  It ended up with a bunch of cranky, tired people on the verge of giving up and going home early.  This time it was so much better because we just tried to have fun and enjoy what we were doing instead of trying to cram as much as possible into every moment. 

And that's not an easy thing for me to learn.  I'm not patient.  I'm impulsive, temperamental, and incurably bossy.  It's hard for me to relax.  It's hard for me to relax about writing too.  I want to be a writer and find an agent and publish a book and I want it now.  But sometimes trying to fit everything in just leaves everyone cranky.  And me ready to give up. 

Relaxing and pacing things, accepting that I can't have everything all at once, works so much better (even if it's so much harder to do).