Fail Trip

So. My sister, her two kids, my three daughters, and myself made a trip to Disneyland this week. The trip was iffy for about a week or so because I had been sick. I decided I was well enough to go and we went on with our plans. But it was off to a rough start from the very beginning. I never really got myself fully back in order after being sick before it was time to go. I am a big list maker. I just like to sit down and write out my plan and think it through and so on. Then once I have my list made I can get things done really quickly. But my house was a disaster...the kind of disaster that takes place when a stay at home mom is sick in bed for over a week and the (not stay at home) hubs has to take over. Bad things happen to a house in such a situation. Anyhow, though I was feeling better, I didn't get my list made and I didn't get my house back in order. For me, this was two big strikes on my trip because these are two things that feel like a necessity for me to go out of town. The day finally came. It's the kids last day of school (exciting), I have a doctors appointment, and another appointment, I have packed nothing, my house is a disaster, I need to go shopping for the food/snacks I will take with me, I have no list...seems like potentially more than two strikes. I get all these other things taken care of (except for the cleaning) and I'm down to the packing. As I'm packing I say to the hubs, "Hubs, could you get the annual passes out." The annual passes are important, they are our tickets into the park, our tickets into the park that are already paid for. I have a phobia of forgetting them, of getting to Disneyland without our passes that we already paid much money for. So my hubs proceeds to look as I continue to pack. The packing is going well. We are only going to be gone two nights, we really don't need much. Problem...Hubs can't find the annual passes. Boo. I keep packing, sure they will show up. Hubs lets me know that he really can't find them and doesn't know where else to look. I say, "Hubs, how could this be." He thinks he threw the away. As I'm sure anyone can tell, time has just momentarily stood still. Here's the situation. I am, in a very disorganized fashion, about to leave for a funfilled trip to Disneyland with my sister (who has herself just spent much money on tickets). My hubs can not locate the tickets that we have already spent much money on. This does not make me happy. This, in fact, upsets me. So I'm going to make what is becoming a long story short, I call Disneyland, they inform me I can just one time get a temporary pass for no additional charge. This is good, because I don't know if I've mentioned this or not but I've already spent much money on our annual passes and I'm not super interested in spending more. So. We get on our way. Late. Like I want to say about 8:00pm for what promises to be a solid 4-5 hour drive. These are the things that happen when I don't make a list. Nothing eventful happens on the way. Being so late the traffic is good, my sister and I only yell at each other once I think. We get there, very late, very tired, but fairly safe, and it had been like 2 hours since we yelled at each other so we were over it. We go right to sleep. And we sleep pretty good. But something funny happens the next morning. My sister gets her first introduction to how I don't travel one day and then move quickly in the morning the next. She was very gracious to me about it because she thought I was still getting over being sick...little does she know that even with perfect, optimal health I wouldn't be moving any faster. That's just me. It's part of my charm. So we finally make it on over to the magic kingdom. I want to say its almost noon. We get in line to get my temporary passes. I mention to her that we are coming back the next day, so I actually need 2 day passes. Simple enough. She then brings up an excellent, yet previously unnoticed point-my season passes are blacked out for the 2nd day. I stand there, and say, "Oh really?" It just then occures to me that I never checked the blackout dates, I just decided I wanted to go to Disneyland and then I went in a disorganized manner. So here's the situation. I'm at Disneyland with my kids, my sister, and her kids. I can only get in to the park one of the two days we had planned to go, I will not pay the $280 it would cost for them to let me in on a blackout day. My sister has already paid for two days which costs much more than one day and I'm fairly certain she might kill me. Fortunately she had already been planning to upgrade her tickets to season passes. They give you dollar for dollar credit for the tickets you already bought when you do this. So she does not really lose any money, and she does not kill me. We finally make our way into the park. At which time we learn that Disneyland is actually closing at 7:00pm on this blessed day....we had kind of expected 10:00pm or maybe midnight, but once again we didn't check ahead of time so really how were we to know. So, ok, there's nothing we can do but get in there and make the best of it. So we did. We had fun. We had the blessing of my precious handicapped child who got us through a lot of lines faster. Can I just say that if you've never gone to Disneyland with a handicapped person, you should. It is amazing. Of course, there are some rides my daughter can not go on because she is in fact handicapped, this isn't some sort scam we are pulling. She doesn't go on any of the really fast, jerky rides. So no Matterhorn, California Screamin, Space Mountain,or oddly enough Tea Cups...those really fling you around people. But these are in the minority at Disneyland, that is why we like it. But all the normal, nice rides? We are all over that handicap line. Now I'm about to reveal something a little embarrassing. We didn't get to Disneyland until noon...we did not stay till it closed either. I'm sure my sister could have made it, but she later told me that she thought maybe I really wasn't feeling well enough to be there, and she felt kinda bad, and she had mercy on my poor, out of shape soul. And we left before it closed. We went out to a wonderful dinner and then we went to bed and I'm pretty sure I didn't roll over or otherwise move all night, I was beat. So the next day was full of plenty of adventure of its own. We ended up labeling our trip "Fail Trip". But we did have fun, I'm glad I got to go with just my sister. I'm glad she didn't kill me over the tickets, and I'm also glad to be home.