It's about connections little or big.

For my Birthday this year, we went to Disneyland. Kind of strange choice for me because it's one of my least favorite places. I know, I know. I must be dead inside for not loving Disneyland. But I have been rehabilitated by this trip.

This past Halloween our family went with Ben and Sharon and their respective spouses and children with the plan to go two days, and stay at a hotel near the park. When we went to get our tickets I was sticker shocked at the price. We went back figuring that there must be some mistake and asked if there were CA - resident discounts. There weren't for two-day tickets, but the low end annual passes had a CA resident discount that were cheaper than the two-day park hopper passes. So we got those. That set a bad mood for that trip, but setup my best day yesterday.

This year Disneyland is giving free passes for people that come for their birthday. In addition to getting the free admission, you get a button that you wear that says your name and that it's your birthday. Terry went on his birthday this year (we missed it GRRRR, but that's a rant for another time), and they also have annual passes. So he got a voucher for the price of admission that could be used to upgrade his annual pass, or just buy a bunch of stuff in the park. Which brings me to why I decided to spend my special day in on of my least favorite places. Free money.

Spending money in the park is something that I was brought up to not do. We always took our lunches, and would NEVER buy souvenirs. With ten children, my parents were prudent with money out of necessity. Ten kids means, ten tickets. Add to that ten lunches, ten souvenirs, ten ice creams ... you get the idea. The idea of having free money to spend in the park was a very exciting prospect to me. It turns out it was the right choice.

On to the day. Meg drove up the night before to Hesperia with the two younger boys so that her mom wouldn't have to drive. I stayed at home to take our exchange students to school, and brought the older boys to the park. This was great. For 4 hours (the drive up to the park and a little while in the park) I got to have my boys to myself and just be 'the world's greatest dad'. I pretty much let them run the show during this time. We went to Toon Town and did everything there first. Then we took the train to TomorrowLand where I bought my first EVER D-Land souvenir. A light saber and some carmel corn! Also, while on the train, I checked all the emails that were piling up on my phone. The majority of them were from Facebook friends wishing me a Happy Birthday. It was a little thing for each of them to do, but all together it added up to a lot of attention and love from people that I care for. But back to the events.

We saw the "Jedi Accademy" which was so much fun too see. Little kids are the best entertainment. My boys love "Star Wars" and when we go back for Sean's birthday, we are definitely going to get them into the show. Then it was Buzz Lightyear.

By this time, the Fowler women caught up with us. Mom was so great about letting it be my day and insisted that we only go onto rides that I wanted to go on. She also bought me lunch in the park, another luxury that was appreciated.

From here I'll just say, many rides were gone on and much fun was had for the rest of the time in the park. Every ride that we went on, the attendent would wish me a happy birthday. I would just say thanks slightly shyly, but it made me smile every time. A few times there were othere people in the park with the Birthday badge who would wish me a happy birthday by name. Even though we were complete strangers and still are, we have this silly little connection of sharing a birthday and choosing to celebrate it at Disneyland. Those tiny interactions were nice too.

To end of the day: I got to see some of my oldest friends at the park that I haven't really gotten to see in years. Throughout the day they were dotting our trip. At one ride, Meg and Terry were at separate parts in the line. The way the lines double back on each other they passed each other from time to time, and Meg decided that Grandad Terry needed to take Andrew, but there was a row between them. A nice older woman in a wheelchair passed him over. In line at another ride, I saw her and pointed her out to Meg saying that she looked like a nun because she had a black hood, and a white hat, that combined to make her look like well, a nun. But I didn't recognize her then either. But after we got off the ride, and were trying to get in touch with Elise, this woman in the wheelchair rolled by with her group, and I heard my name. It was the Wilcken family. A family that was in my ward and stake from the time I was 5 until I went on my mission, but Meg had never met Sister Wilcken and wouldn't have recognized her. We had a fun little chat catching up, and it was the perfect end to a really nice day.