The Road to Disneyland

We have been wanting to go to Disneyland for a very long time. We've talked about it many times since we have been married, but we could never justify spending the money when we were in college. Then we started talking about it again when Jared graduated, but then we decided it was best to wait until our kids were a bit bigger. We have been extremely jealous as we have watched so many others go.

Finally last year we decided that we were going this year. Our baby would be 5 years old. We would have over a year to save up for it. So the decision was made we would go in Feb. 2009.

Little did we know that the road to the Magic Kingdom would be so rough. Our saving plan was quickly stopped as we had a rough year with the kids being sick. As many of you know, Jill became extremely ill in January last year and spent 2 days in the hospital. (NOT CHEAP!) It was well worth it to get her feeling better, but still not cheap. Then February brought Jamie to the ER. She had a series of stomach aches that we couldn't explain. This brought CT scans and other tests. (Again totally worth it, but NOT CHEAP!)

We also had a our refrigerator die and it had to be replaced. We had our garage door brake and it had to be fixed. Our sliding door in the family room gave out and could not be fixed any more so we had to replace it. We also had several car repairs. AHHHHHH!!!!!

Jared had to have carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists. (Luckily that was paid for by work. comp.) In August Jamie had a pretty severe brake in her arm. This lead to another ER trip nad months of visits to an orthopedic surgeon to make sure she healed properly. (If she didn't heal properly she would have to have surgery.)

September brought Jill back to the ER with the same problems as January. Another CT scan and a trip to a specialist at Primary Children's Hospital. Luckily they ruled out Crohn's disease, but to this day we are not sure of what was the cause of her problems.

Just when we were beginning to think that Disneyland wasn't going to happen, we got a brake. Jared has had several opportunities to do design work and side jobs and so we were able to save enough money for our trip.

We are now one week away and thought we were on in the clear.

HA!

Yesterday, I was taking Justin to preschool when our van started having problems. I barely made it there. I called Jared (who was sitting at the airport in Denver on his way home from a business trip) and he said to take it to the transmission place to have it checked. Well, I couldn't even get there. I pulled over to a parking lot and had to call for a tow. (Thanks to my sister who was with me and a AAA member!)

Our van is as I type getting a new transmission that will cost just as much as our trip to Disneyland. (Thank goodness for tax refunds.) Jared did explain to the guy our dilemma of our trip and the guy said he would do his best to have the van fixed by Saturday so we could head to Disneyland.

So long story short...we are still going to Disneyland in 6 days!