12.21.2006

disneyland on the fly

I have a story that you probably haven’t heard if you aren’t a Hatch, long, but good.

I was lounging around Sunday when I decided to check my email. There was a cryptic message from Katie that only had a flight itinerary in the body. I deduced that since it included a layover in Phoenix that she wanted me to meet her at the airport, so I checked when… the flight came in THAT DAY and landed IN 20 MINUTES! So I threw on some pants, grabbed my keys, and flew out of the house… I made it with plenty of time and we had a nice visit. They told me they were on the way to Disneyland, that Jared would be flying direct the next day. I wished out loud that I could go… and when Mary said Jared would like that… I went.

After they caught their connecting flight, I called Evan. He was good to go, too, if I could wait until he got off work in a few hours. I drove home to wake up Mark to see if he was in. He woke up and groggily said he couldn’t call off work. I packed, took care of some things, and met some prior obligations (holiday baking with Jennifer) and we were driving to Los Angeles by 7:30 pm. Mark called when he woke up. He apparently had not completely woke up when I asked him and would have gone if he had… so he sent his regrets and went to work.

When we arrived extremely late, we took the Best Western Hotel Tour of Southern California (there are MANY on the same block surrounding Disneyland, and we went to three of them…) I feel sorry for whoever was in room 232 at the wrong one that we knocked on at 2:30 am.

We visited a bit with Katie and Mary and caught a few hours of sleep. I rode to the airport to pick up Jared. He didn’t know we came, so in the airport I snuck up behind him and hugged him. The expression I got was priceless. He expressed his disappointment that Evan couldn’t come. Ha. Ha. When we got back to the hotel and he walked in and saw Evan laying on one of the beds, he was so happy that he dog piled him.

We made it to the park about noon, had lunch and did the Disney thing. My favorite was the Tomorrow Land because Jared could go in with us and share the experience. I took the two girls (Kylee and Danielle) for a “girl” ride and we got princess ears. When Justice saw them, I imagine he was a little jealous. Evan then sneakily told me which ones he had his eyes on: a cap with led lights in the metallic ears. So I snuck off and got them, and had his name put on the back. Then I threw it on my head and pretended they were mine. When he saw them, he said, “I like those.” I told him they put my name on the back and asked him if they spelled it right. He read off all the letters one at a time, and then said, “You’re name is spelled like Justice?” all confused… I said, “No, this one must be yours” and popped it on his head. He lit up so bright.

The girls were with me for the parade, too. They had one of those classically magical reactions to the princesses. Their faces went hypnotically mesmerized and they started doing the parade wave and saying “hello princesses, hello princesses” with a whisper.

It was a marathon of adventure and at dark, we were tuckered out and cold. Some got hand stamps to go back for the fireworks and others (including myself) were done. We went back to the hotel, got warmed up, ate, visited, and crashed.

Evan and I took Jared for breakfast the following day and then had to take off to get home for work. The rest flew out at 4 pm.

It was ROCKIN!

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