Disneyland - Dreams Really Do Come True!

Darn...I thought I published this last week...anyway, here it is.

It would be an understatement to say I was excited to go to Disneyland. It's not that I love rides or Disney, but I was excited to be able to give the girls this magical experience. Right from the start, Disney was magical. We arrived Saturday late afternoon and after we ate, we wanted to go to Disney to scope out the ticket booths, entrance and Downtown Disney. We stopped at one of the ticket booths to ask some questions. Now, at this point, I am totally excited (and probably acting a little cheesy) I told "Jonathan" the ticket guy that it was my first time and my girls' first time and we are super excited to be here. I told him we moved to CA from Wisconsin and we had some questions about Disney, tickets & lines. I told him we (Mitch, Lily & I) did the "Give a Day, Get a Day" so we were definitely going to do one day at Disney, but we were unsure about the second day. He told us to go get our Give a Day, Get a Day vouchers and return to him.

Wow! We were thrilled because he was going to exchange our vouchers for tickets and we didn't have to wait in line the next morning. So, we took the shuttle back to the RV and got the vouchers, birth certificates and driver's licenses. When we went back to Jonathan, he took our vouchers and IDs. As he was checking the vouchers and IDs, I asked him if we qualified for the Southern California 2fer discount (buy one day, get one free) and he said he'd give us one better. He handed me 3 2-day Hopper tickets and charged my credit card $75.00 (technically he should have charged me $227.00 for these 3 tickets). I started to cry. I was in such disbelief that Mitch, Lily & I were going to Disney/California Adventure for 2 days for only $75.00. I was so happy and thankful. Jonathan said that I wasn't allowed to cry at Disney. I just couldn't help it! I felt so grateful! Then I remembered that I still needed tickets for Camy & Abby. He said "Don't worry about the little one. Let me get a ticket for the other one." I gave him my credit card again to buy Camy's ticket (I'm crying even harder now because he's letting Abby in for free - saving us $131.00!) After he finished with Camy's ticket, he handed me her ticket & my credit card and said "She's on me. Have a great time!" Now the tears are really flowing. The girls are looking at me trying to figure out why I'm crying. Mitch is shaking his head because he can't believe I'm crying so hard. And the girls are saying "Thank you Jonathan -- we're going to Disney!" (Goodness...I'm crying now just remembering it! I'm such a Hogan/Jeneski!) I walked away with a huge smile, not really believing what just happened - All 5 of us were going to Disney for 2 days for a total of $75.00! The total cost should have been $489.00 for 5 2-day Hopper Tickets!

As we walked around Downtown Disney, I thought, "Wow, good things really do happen to good people!" See Mom, despite your regular declarations that "life isn't fair", sometimes life is fair! (I'll have to remember this when I say "sorry, life isn't fair" to my girls.)

I'll write more about Disney tomorrow..Until later, my hope for you (especially you, Kirsten-if you're reading this) is that good things will happen to you too!