Six

The happiest of birthdays to our little dude!  To our puzzle loving, avid reader, goofy, smiling, moody, Z-O-M-B-I-E singing kindergartner.  It's hard to believe how fast you are growing and how smart you keep showing us you are.  I pray you always know how much we love you and how excited we are to see you grow.

You amaze us!

Happy birthday buddy!  

I love you!

Happy Birthday Brooke!

A happiest of birthdays to my little sis, my Irish twin, my earliest best friend, and travel partner. Welcome to the club this year. 

We hope you’ve had the best of days and that you’ve had a great time with all your boys. We love you and can’t wait to get to see you - and to continue this celebration. 

I hope you are able to enjoy this day and this weekend and year ahead. Here’s to you and many happy happy returns. 

Love you sis!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I share this picture a lot, largely because it’s one of my favorites. My mom and I many years ago now.  I love it because it shows a bond we’ve shared throughout the years, there from the beginning.

We’re connected in so many ways. Mom and first born. Mom and son. And in having back to back birthdays.  This last one was a situation where having similar tastes in cakes really worked out. 

It’s been different not getting to celebrate together, but we make the best of it.  And we know that our hearts are connected no matter the physical distance.

To Mom, I hope you have a wonderful day. I hope it has been bright and wonderful. And I can’t wait until we can celebrate together again. 

We miss you, we love you, and we wish you all the best!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Disneyland!

To all who come to this happy place:

Welcome.

Disneyland is your land.

Here age relives fond memories of the past - and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.  Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America - with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.

Walt Disney, July 17, 1955

Sixty-five years ago today, Disneyland opened its doors for its first visitors.  A special “International Press Preview” event was held, only open to invited guests.  Six thousand invitations were mailed, but by mid-afternoon, over 28,000 ticket holders were headed for Disneyland.  

Even as the gates opened, workmen were still planting trees.  Paint applied earlier that morning was still wet to the touch and asphalt poured that morning on Main Street was so soft that women’s heels were sinking in.  

Southern California was suffering from a record heat wave with temperatures over 100 degrees.  Drinking fountains were dry, rides broke down shortly after opening, and many places ran out of food and drink.   The park would even suffer a gas leak in Fantasyland, causing Adventureland, Frontierland, and Fantasyland to close for the afternoon. This would leave only a very anemic Tomorrowland and Main Street USA open.

It wasn't the best opening ever.

This year, Disney's celebration is a little muted as well.  Of the twelve parks Disney has internationally, only seven of them are open.  Disneyland itself remains closed indefinitely, as plans for California keep getting pushed back.  Though Walt Disney World is open now, there is talk with rising infections in Florida, it may have to close again, or scale back to just the Magic Kingdom and a few resorts.

No matter the current situation, Walt's dream remains.  The idea of a place where families can gather and all participate.  Where you leave reality beyond.  Where you are truly transported to some place often magical.  

That is why so many people are waiting for it to open back up.  In watching the Imagineering documentary on Disney+, they talked about how in Japan after the tsunami, the government does not give an official declaration that everything is back to normal.  How the populace looked to Tokyo Disneyland to be the arbiter of when things were truly ok again.  When Tokyo Disneyland opened again, there was a sense that normalcy had finally returned.

We're all waiting for that magical moment, and it seems so far away.

Until then, Happy Birthday Disneyland!  May you weather this one, to brighter ones to come.