Why Disneyland Now? Because Life Happens While You’re Waiting.

Up until about 13 months ago, I was anxious and afraid of the idea of traveling with my three kids. Sure, I went on several solo trips as a mommy-blogger and each time I’d sit in the airport watching families ready to go on some amazing adventure together. and feel a pang of guilt at the fact that our family hadn’t done anything like that.

Surely traveling with kids is a big undertaking. It would involve a lot of planning (not to mention the expense) and wouldn’t it just make sense if we waited to travel until they were older?

Stop right there, Mama. Not only has our family survived three vacations in the past year – sanity in tact – we’ve also created some amazing life-long memories that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. In fact, I can’t wait for our next vacation and the adventure it will bring us.

It’s time to put an end to the “We’ll travel when they’re older” type of thinking. Because life happens while you’re waiting. School. Sports. Jobs.

It’s difficult to describe the moment I witnessed, just over a year ago, when my four-year-old little girl saw Sleeping Beauty for the first time at Disneyland in California. Her eyes were wide, full of wonderment and her voice was soft with reverence because a princess was there right before her eyes. I can’t imagine all the things going through her head but what came out was a breathless, “You’re Sleeping Beauty!” In that moment, it simply did not matter what the vacation cost us, how much time off we had to take and how tired our flights made us.

In that moment, it was all about creating a memory, fulfilling a life-long (for a four-year-old!) fantasy, and watching my little girl meet someone she considered unreachable.

Of course, there were many other moments that stand out in my mind from that first trip to Disneyland – my son dancing on the pier at California Adventure to the live soundtrack of High School Musical (my cell phone captured the video – oh how I will love this when he is 18!), my youngest, then just eight-months-old, grabbing Pluto’s nose at a Character Breakfast, and my husband and I watching the fireworks over Cinderella’s Castle while holding hands like when we dated.

This isn’t to say that you can’t make memories in your own backyard and we most certainly do. I love the beach in the summer. I love visiting the beautiful natural wonders in my own province and I have countless photos of my children’s silhouettes against the backdrop of a prairie sunset.

A visit to a Disney Park is something beyond the beauty in our own backyard. It’s the stuff of magic, wonderment and a photo album full of memories. Our visit captured our family as we were in December 2011: a seven –year-old boy dancing on the pier, a four-year-old girl gasping at a princess, an eight-month-old baby pinching Pluto’s nose, and mom and dad having a tender moment in the chaos that is a family vacation. Life happens when you’re not looking, and I’m so glad we took a moment to pause and create those memories.

Visit Disneyparks.ca for more information and start planning your magical vacation today.

Disclosure: This post was brought to you by Disney Parks via Glam Media Canada. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Disney Parks.