Adam's Reflections of Disneyland 2009

We arrived in Vegas on the 26th of July. Jenn had never stayed in Vegas before (driven through, yes, but never stayed). I love Vegas, so I wanted to show her why. Sadly, that isn’t possible to do in just one night. We drove around a bit at night to see the lights, and saw the Bellagio fountains. I was hoping to show her more of the strip and maybe go up to the top of the Stratosphere, but it got too late. Next time we go, we’ll have to stay for a few nights.

The next day, Monday, we drove to Garden Grove/Anaheim, California. That night the whole family ate at Red Robin, as is tradition every time we go to Disneyland. While there, we also celebrated Boston’s 1st birthday, which was actually the day before. It was a lot of fun. Bret even sucked helium out of a balloon and sang for us (which is becoming a tradition as well).

Tuesday was the first of our five days at the park. For the first day all 26 of us stayed together for the most part. But the babies couldn’t ride much, neither could my mom because of her surgery. Meanwhile, the older kids wanted to hit the thrill rides. So we split into a couple of groups as we usually end up doing.

Wednesday was the second anniversary of the day Jenn and I met. I had a print-out of my blog post for Jenn to read that morning. We spend some time with the family, but then went off on our own and enjoyed Disneyland by ourselves. It was like we were on our honeymoon again.

Wednesday was also the day we told people to wear their old, red Burningham shirts if they wanted to. About half of us did. Some were lost, and being thick, dark shirts, some people thought it was too hot. But I wore mine, and Jenn was able to wear Alex’s.

Thursday was the official t-shirt day, and all 26 of us wore our new Burningham shirts. We spent almost the entire day together, and rarely split up. It was also Melanie’s birthday that day, and we all made sure she didn’t forget it as we sang “Happy Birthday” to her... a lot. In line for rides, on rides, and just walking through the park. Someone would start singing, and the rest would join. And when we were finished, we all clapped.

The last two days were slower, and more people just did their own thing. Jenn and I did a lot of shopping. Well... mostly window shopping.

On Saturday we had our dinner together at Shakey’s, where we presented my parents a “Thank You” card, and a framed picture of us all in our Burningham shirts. Everyone wrote a message in the card, and we each signed our name around the mat of the picture. Then on Sunday, everyone drove all the way home.

All in all, Disneyland was awesome! We had a great time laughing and having fun. We have quite a few more inside jokes, stories, and “you had to be there” moments. Off the top of my head: “I got no food!”; “He was alive... before his funeral”; “Excuse 'ums”; duck-spitting; Jeremy’s celebrity truck; the Pin Wars; and one of my new favorites, “Why is your leg blue?”... “I have no idea.”

I was also reminded of quite a few stories that I can’t believe I forgot to mention in my previous post. But apparently my entire family had read that post, and we had fun remembering past Disneyland trips, and re-telling the stories to those who hadn’t heard them.

One of my favorite moments of the whole trip, though, was on the drive home. Curled up in the back seat, Jenn fell asleep with her head in my lap. I was listening to some end-of-summer songs that I selected specifically for the drive home, and Dashboard Confessional’s “So Long, So Long” came on. We were about a half hour from home, and I watched the sunset. It was such a beautiful, peaceful, happy moment. Aurora has nothing on my wife.