Disney!

Disney was magical.

Disney was beautiful.

Disney was emotional.  Very emotional.  I found myself crying every day at unexpected times.  I mean, sure I always cry in the shower when I am thinking about the girls.  That's a given.  But who cries during the parade on Main Street, USA?  This moi.

Patrick wrote a post on facebook that we were taking the trip to honor our girls and I wrote this comment to explain:

It may seem funny to say that we're taking a trip in their honor, but we got a small sum of life insurance upon Brigid's death and decided to do something special for our family with it instead of just paying bills or buying a headstone for them. We're so grateful to be here, but constantly reminded of the great cost to our family. I see princesses and wish my girls could be here with me...and then remember that if they were here, we wouldn't be in Disney right now. It's this brutal fluctuation between great joy and great sorrow that happens all day long. Very difficult to process.

So while it was incredibly warm and fun and fantastic, we both found ourselves so overcome with emotions that it was also rather draining.

And you may be thinking right now, Come on, Eileen, you're complaining about a trip to Disney World?

I'm not.  It was fantastic.  I think the next time we go (!) it won't be like that.  It was just the juxtaposition of the extreme joy that comes from watching three of your children see the castle and the mouse and the awesomeness of it for the first time and the extreme sorrow that comes from knowing that you're only able to afford letting them do that right now because two of your children are dead.

I know, right? Whoa.

But the weather was so warm and the pools were heated in our beautiful hotel and we got to meet just about every single character there was to meet and fill up our autograph book and that. Was. Awesome!

This little photo album has some of the best pictures from the trip and even a few videos.  You can hover over each one to enlarge it and just click on the play button for the videos.  It may take a second or two for all the photos from each page to load at first, but if you give it a little time, they'll all be there.  My favorites are the photo of PJ and his shadow, which is very old-school Mickey Mouse Club-esque, Jack with his Mickey ears on, and the video of Tommy and Stitch. 

Enjoy!

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