I've been away from the blog for a few weeks because we have had an amazing summer full of visitors! We are so lucky to have a big and loving family, and even though some of them live far away, we get to see them regularly. This summer, my sisters both visited. One came from Islamabad, and the other from London (on her way to Karachi). We also had a visit from a cousin whom I have just reconnected with, who lives in Montreal. Plus, lots of friends. So, it has been a wonderful and active summer. But this post is focused on our very special trip to Disneyworld!
We were most excited this summer to have our nieces visit, who are our two most favorite people in the world. Z and M are now 12 and 11 respectively, and we have been in their lives since birth (I was with my sister for her delivery and actually watched M being born). It requires a whole separate blog post on how much Z and M mean to us, and how rewarding it has been to have been in their lives from birth through toddler-hood, to now tween status and watching them on the brink of teenage-hood. More than anyone else, Z and M have prepared us for parenthood, and they are one of the biggest reasons why we are so looking forward to welcoming our own little one into our family.
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| At Disney with Buzz Lightyear! |
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| Making funny faces in a photobooth in Disney |
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| Learning a new game from M while waiting in line sure made the time go by more quickly! |
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| Disney Castle! |
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| Showing Z how to whittle while camping (yes, we also found time to take the kids camping during their time with us!) |
The highlight of Z and M's visit was our trip to Disneyworld! We all loaded up in the car and took a long but fun road trip to Florida to go to Orlando. Of course, the kids were EXTREMELY excited, but so were the adults! Disneyworld is an amazing place - it's truly massive and quite overwhelming but it's extremely well-organized and the staff were all very helpful and friendly. Even as adults, it was impossible for us to not be drawn into the "magic" of the place and get into the fantasy and make-believe that Disney does so well, and we all enjoyed ourselves completely and thoroughly. But what really struck me and Sapna was just how focused we were on Z and M. In fact, our source of joy throughout the trip wasn't our own experiences, but rather the joy and excitement that Z and M experienced on each ride and adventure. We both instinctively found ourselves completely centering the kids and their interests, and what was most fun about the trip was watching the ways in which Z and M enjoyed themselves on the various rides. It was also really fascinating and really fun to see how both of them have such different and unique preferences. It turns out that Z absolutely LOVES roller-coasters - the faster and more exciting, the better! And M loves rides that combine a story with the journey (the Aladdin ride was a particular hit, as were all the Dr. Seuss rides in Universal Studio, which we also visited while in Orlando). The trip was another reminder of just what joy it is to be around kids, and how much we are looking forward to going to Disneyworld and all sorts of other adventures with our little one someday.
-Sahar
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