Like most kids I spent a large majority of my childhood wanting to go to Disneyland, but, alas 😮💨 I never got to go and the dream faded as I got older. After my son was born occasionally the thought of being able to take my son to Disneyland would pop into my mind, but I would always push the thought away. I was struggling to just make the every day ends meet since being forced to become a single mother, so I never thought that I would ever be able to afford to take him. That thought made me sad, but I always figured that it wasn’t a big deal and that he wouldn’t care. Afterall we had never talked about Disneyland, so he would never miss an experience that he had never really wanted to or planned on having. Imagine my surprise when a few years ago we actually had the opportunity to go with my parents. It was a short trip, only a couple of days, but it was a ton of fun and worth the whirlwind trip that was necessary to make it happen.
I was happy, I had gotten to go to Disneyland, I had gotten to share it with the three most important people in my life, and, best of all, my son was completely understanding and supportive of my being as excited about being at Disneyland as most kids were! He wholeheartedly embraced, and even encouraged, my embracing my inner child and proudly being a ‘Disney adult’. (Honestly, he wasn’t impatient or embarassed that I was getting excited about the characters, getting their autographs, getting pictures with them, wanting to go and see the different areas of the parks, posing for pictures for me and with me. It was amazing and meant the world to me.)
I would have been fine if the story had ended there, but imagine my even bigger surprise when, just a few months ago I learned that I had earned an all expenses paid trip for two to Anaheim, California through work!! (Yet another thing I never would have imagined happening to me!) Not only had I earned the trip, but two days of that trip included the ability to go to Califonia Adventure Park and Disneyland on the list of the activity options that the trip included!! 🤯 I couldn’t believe it!! It seemed almost too good to be true and it definitely took me a few days of processing to actually believe that it was actually happening.
As my luck, which I am still kinda struggling to believe, would have it the trip happened over the time that my son was scheduled to be at home with me, which meant that I wouldn’t have to trade time with my ex to be able to take my son on the trip with me! (And let’s be honest, I had no intention of not taking my son to Disneyland again if I had the chance.) While I was hesitant to talk to my ex about this trip I bit the bullet and called to tell him. Aside from a single question that was very inappropriate and somewhat offensive the call went more smoothly than I thought that it might. I brushed off the question and focused on everything else that was going on in my life. I worked, spent time with my son and got ready for the trip.
Traveling is always stressful and exhausting, but I feel like traveling as a single parent is even more so. It has gotten easier now that my son is older since I don’t have to worry about how I am going to carry him AND all the luggage, but there are other things that have to be dealt with now. For example, my son is a gamer. He plays various games on various types of devices and since he was aware that there were going to be layovers and things during our travel days he wanted to bring as many different things to play games on as he could. It was quite the process to whittle down which devices he would end up taking. There was also a lengthy debate about snacks as well. In the end we were able to get ready, or as ready as we could be without knowing exactly what to expect, and go on the trip. We met various characters (getting autographs and pictures), we ate giant turkey legs, went on just a few rides, bought souviners, and even built light sabers! It was wonderful, SO exhausting, extremely fun and a trip that I am sure to remember for years to come.
Of course there is much more to this story and if you are interested to find out more about the trip (including more about actually building a light saber) I hope that you will check out my new blog, called Geeky Mom Life, and especially the blog entry titled May the Force be with you. To find out more about this new blog for the other side of who I am and my life as a single mom you can also check out my introductory blog entry, titled Welcome to my new blog: Geeky Mom Life!!!