{Britt Winter Magic}

This past week we were blessed to take our third trip to Disney.  For those of you who are not Disney fanatics, let me fill you in:
Disney=Magic
It has to be exhausting to be a Disney cast member, because those people are on the top of their game 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME.  In my everyday life, I have my stuff together, on average, 25 percent of the time.  I can rarely keep my house clean, can't ever find my stuff, and I lose my cool more often than I would like to admit.  But in the time we have spent at Disney, those employees have modeled extreme grace, joy, and compassion.  They look for opportunities to serve and go above and beyond to make sure all people feel special.  What a fantastic example of what would make our communities better place to be.  If only the magic of Disney would flow out into the greater community.
We have found the joy at Disney to be contagious.  We have done the same thing every night we have spent at Disney- every time we have gone.  We get back to the hotel, get Ryan tucked into bed and lay quietly in the dark until we hear his breathing steady and the snoring begin.  Then we turn on the dimmest of lights and reflect over our day.  Then we get real nerdy and go through the park maps to cross off all of the attractions we hit that day.  Doing this helps us feel accomplished but also helps us plan the next day.
During our daily reflections, we found ourselves chatting about how much Ryan has grown and matured and how that had impacted this trip...
In the past, Ryan had loved waiting in line to meet every character- to take pictures and to get their autographs.  This time, he bypassed almost all of the characters in an effort to ride every ride- the big ones, the small ones, the fast ones, the slow ones.  I had to practically force him to meet just a few characters- because in my mind..it isn't a trip to Disney if we don't meet anyone!

This year, he was so independent...making decisions about what to ride when, looking at the map to figure out where he wanted to go and riding rides that he has been so nervous of previously.  But he stayed true to his favorite rides, too- Big Thunder Mountain!

Of course we did our best to share all of or highlights through social media along the way- but it has to capture the moments when you realize that your kid is growing up.  I feel incredibly blessed that I look back over all three trips we have taken and know how far we've come over the past few years!  
2014












2016

2017



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