Dragging ourselves out the door we made it downstairs in time to (a) buy coffee, (b) get one last picture with the Mickey statue, and (c) get bored waiting for the bus. The girls were hopping up and down and didn't quite grasp that our adventure was coming to an end.
The bus ride was not quite the kind of ride we were hoping for. It was slow and lacked the artificiality that made rides like the Matterhorn so much fun. I tried yelling, "RAWR!" at various folks on the street, but they looked up at the window with a knowing smile. Diagnosis: Disney Overdose.
Usually when we part ways with the Kentucky folks there's a bunch of standing at the door as someone drives away with tears barely unshed. This time, though, the bus driver was clearly anxious to get to the next stop so goodbyes were brief and mostly waves through the window.
Our flight home was nothing to write home about (though here I am doing it anyway). The big news was that Henry continued nursing a fever. He was not quite right, but not wailing or really doing more than fussing. His low-grade illness was something we had to leave alone because we really couldn't do anything about it. We'd pay for that later.
I spent much of the middle of the flight glued to the window looking out on beautiful, snow-covered mountains and lakes. Of everything I saw the only thing I could actually identify with certainty was Crater Lake.
All week while we were gone we heard stories of massive snow storms. The Pass had closed repeatedly and the snow was so unstable the high country was inaccessible. It was cold and clammy when we got to the truck and said goodbye and thank you to Nana and Papa.
By the time we got home Amy wasn't feeling right, but it wasn't anything serious. I ran up to Whidbey to pick up Tokul from Grandma Joan and got home late.
Sunday morning Amy and Clara had joined Henry in the illin' department. According to the Moosefish Illness Scale the next few days (during which I missed about a day and a half of work, visited the doc several times, and generally prayed I didn't get sick, too) ranked third in terms of health disasters. (#1: Lilly's bout with the flu in 2006 (bonus points for being admitted to the hospital) and #2: Labor Day Weekend 2007)
It's taken just about forever to get all this online, but even now (a month and a half later) the girls are STILL talking about Disneyland. They try to wear their princess nighties every night even though it's too cold to wear anything but flannel and hardly a day goes by when there isn't some reference to going back or "remember when..." One of Clara's favorite woe-is-me phrases is now, "I wish we could be in Disneyland every day."
But if we were there everyday it wouldn't be as special as it was.
Thanks Nana and Papa. Thanks Walt. Thanks Mickey and Goofy and Cinderella and Princess Aurora. And thanks most of all to Chip and Dale for dropping the charges against Nana. It would have been hard to explain to the kids why she didn't get to fly home with us. Of course, we would have had a good excuse to go back to visit...