a surprise anniversary gift from a fab husband

I'm actually not sure when it all started.

But one day, just a few days after our anniversary decision, I get a text message from my husband. This should have been my first clue - he never sends me text messages, and on the rare occasion that he does, it usually includes two words...like, you home? or (my personal favorite) when I have stayed out long past when I thought I'd be home, he sends me a text message that says, " ? " and that's all.

So, anyway I get this text from him. Something about how he thought June 21 would be a good day to change our anniversary to - it's the longest day of the year, you know.

Things are just as normal until two days later. I'm washing dishes, and he pops into the kitchen and says, "I have news."

Turns out, the news was he was planning a surprise trip for our family to Hong Kong! Woo hoo! I was excited. My fab husband, going behind my back, telling me sneaky little white lies was planning a fab trip! That is totally up my alley. We were to leave in two days. It was a busy two days - cleaning, packing, planning - and we didn't even have time to say adios on our blog...so I'm really embarrassed to all of you who sent us emails that never even got a smidge of a reply. :)

Anyway, this trip to hong kong was going to be full of things we never have time to do because we're seldom "vacationing" in hong kong, usually just passing through in transit, or are there for medical, visa, or other related matters. On the list: disneyland, the science museum, a movie at a movie theater, swimming, and maybe a trip to a library. The food list was equally as long - chocolate milkshakes from triple o's, krispy kreme, mongolian bbq from nomads, bloomin onion at outback, and a good burger from any number of places.

Since I may not have time to post all of our hong kong pics tonight, I'll just start with the big kahuna - disneyland! Perhaps I won the title of "most excited family member", but I would only hold it for a while. The truth is, I have so many fun memories (and pictures to remind me of the memories I forgot!) from my own childhood at Disneyworld. My brother and I tore that place apart getting autographs from the disney characters and working the line at Space Mountain long before Fast Passes existed.

I was so excited for the girls to have a chance to go to disneyland...at a time when they might possibly remember some of it. Because transportation in Hong Kong is so amazingly efficient, the subway lines connect to a special station that takes you to disney...and the disney line even has its own special subway car, with mickey mouse shaped windows, painted in pixie dust, and with blue velvet seats. Let the magic begin!I usually am pretty happy that my children are relatively pop-culture deficient, but on the eve of our big trip, I realized with a teeny bit of sadness that my girls hadn't seen a disney princess movie yet! the apartment wherer we were staying just happened to have Cinderella, so we had a little popcorn party and familiarized the girls with at least one of the princesses. When we saw the castle for the first time, it all clicked for emma. She was jazzed - samantha was just following the crowd but was having fun too, I guess. First item of business after entering the park - buying those little autograph book. this was like my dream for them, this connective bond between my own childhood and their childhood. Lucky for me, they caught on to the idea of the autographs and were soon scouring the park for characters to sign their books. I was surprised at the level of enthusiasm the characters had with interacting with the children...specificially my children. I don't know, maybe they were that friendly with all the other asianese kids there, but they really spent long amounts of time with the girls and pooh....he was a little weird, actually...after we were all done and walking away, he left his little station, chased us down the path to catch us for one more round of pictures and hugs. Weird, but still appreciated.


It was so special for me to watch emma annd mantha having so much fun meeting all the characters. There were several times when - dont' ever ever repeat this - that I felt a little teary-eyed as I watched them complete this childhood rite of passage. Thinking of my own happy memories and watching them as they made their own special memories was one of those parent moments I think I will treasure forever.

The HK Disney park was pretty small - much more so than Orlando or california - but that was great for us. It meant lots less walking, and with two small walkers I'll take that! We rode our share of rides, as you can see...

Dumbo and the flying elephants...

Winnie the Pooh, with a three-second wait! :)Emma's conversation that day was a constant string of "Momma! Look at that! wow, do you see that?!" It was fun times.The carousel...A cool 4-D movie - all was fine until the water splashed in our faces and freaked out Princess emma!You've always got to do the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, right? But by far, the biggest event of the whole day was trying to find the Princesses. They apparantly kept a pretty tight schedule and were only out at certain times, as I guess all good princesses do, so it was hard finding them. But we camped out a spot where they were rumored to come out of, and we hit princess jackpot - three in a row! All three of the princesses we met were from America (judging by their accents) and were SO incredibly kind to the girls. They spent time with them and hugged and shared names and sweet stories and little things - just like it was MY kids who were the princesses. They even waved at the girls as we waited in line before it was our turn, and kept sneaking waves to them after emma and mantha's turn was over but continued watching them from the side. I will forever ever love these princesses for how sweet they were to my kids.

Mothers note: Samantha was happy in these pictures, but for some reason, none of the 6,509 pictures I took managed to get her with a smile. I'm not really sure why. But just pretend... Belle and Princess Aurora (sleeping beauty - who seems to always be mistakenly called Princess Beauty at our house!)

By the end of the day, we were hot - truly, sweaty, nasty hot - and tired (like, no nap tired) but we all had so much fun. I understood why my parents always liked taking us on special vacations, especially disneyworld, and felt like I had passed on an important childhood milestone to my offspring. As my friend amy and I were discussing this evening, there are so many childhood experiences I had that my children will never experience because of the life we live here...but in that hot theme park, covered in the pinks and purples of Fantasyland, I watched my girls armed with their pens and autograph books, and I felt like we shared a piece of childhood together.