In which we find January full of magic.
You would think Siberians wouldn't mind a little snow. Not so for our little proletariat. He was intrigued by Daddy's shoveling activities, but insisted that his feet never touch the white stuff.
Not even your friendly neighborhood snowman could convince him to tolerate the weather (although we did mourn Mr. Snowman's untimely demise when his head fell off!)
Fortunately, Dad had a work obligation to make a jackass of himself in front of 300 people at a benefits conference. We leveraged the trip for a quick family outing to sunny, snow-free Florida and Disney World.
We got up early on Friday to make it in time for Mickey's train arrival and the grand opening of the park. This set the theme for the rest of the visit:
"I want to ride Mickey's train!"
Okay. We get in line, collapse the stroller and, finally, board the train. The train leaves.
"I WANT OFF THE TRAIN! I WANT OFF THE TRAIN!!"
Okay. We get off the train at the first stop.
"I want to ride Mickey's train!"
The carousel met with an equal amount of demand and tears as did the Philharmagic 3-D show. 'Mater Truck and Lightning McQueen were interesting, but much too noisy to be approached closely.
Most terrifying of all: The live action singing and dancing of High School Musical. Even I was a little scared of that.
Fortunately, however, the eerie boat ride through "It's a Small World" and the amazing cast of characters were big hits.
Owen is a born ham and posed it up big for the cameras. In fact, when Buzz Lightyear and Woody took a break from the paparazzi to get a well deserved drink, Owen went off to bring them back!
All-in-all we had a great time exploring the Magic Kingdom and MGM Studios. When Robin and Owen left for home on Sunday, we felt we'd barely scratched the surface.
As January faded into February, Dad came home and the magic, if no less special, became a bit less spectacular.
Yesterday, we quietly celebrated our second Gotcha! Day with Owen. Two years ago, on February 2, we spent the morning in a Kazakh court room and the evening wondering what we'd do if the baby we'd just brought home started to cry.
Today we know all too well what to do when the crying starts and we spend our evenings hoping Owen doesn't drag us back into court any time soon. Tonight, Robin and I will celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary.
It's hard to believe that it has been more than a decade since the two of us sneaked off to Las Vegas to get married in the drive-thru chapel. Robin still has the charge card receipt for the event-- we didn't have enough money to pay for it outright.
Frozen Siberian babies and midnight weddings at the drive-thru.
Does it get any more magical than that?
