home sweet home. it’s always good to be back, but when a vacation is over, i like to spend some time just drinking it in, letting everything glow and sit before the memories feel too far in the past. add to that what feels like the worst road-trip hangover (and is actually, i suspect, a lingering cold or wicked allergies) and the fact that i sang a difficult concert less than 12 hours after getting home, and you’ll understand why i’ve been hiding out in silence. i haven’t even really looked through all the pictures (meanwhile, mom has posted an awesome photo album and some videos), but i’m loving every memory.

it was a wonderful trip; emma was really the perfect age for Disney World. to her, everything was real and wonder-full and amazing. those were real princesses, that was the real mickey and minnie, and she’s even more in love with Buzz Lightyear now that she ‘knows’ him in person. every character we met (and we met them all, trust me: mickey and his whole gang, tigger and pooh, buzz and woody and a green army man, alice, mary poppins and more, not to mention the others we saw in parades and the dance party where we jammed with Sully and the Monsters Inc gang) was met with a giant heartfelt hug. i subsequently have a million pictures of emma engulfed in the arms of giant characters, but it was so perfect and sincere, my photo-op sensibilities weren’t bothered at all. when we had lunch with the princesses (a fabulous feast where each of four princesses came to the table to meet us individually), her reaction to sleeping beauty was such an outpouring of pure wonder, i got choked up. seeing the parks through emma’s eyes, and getting to spend the week with my parents (who she absolutely adores. emma started every morning by calling out “good morning, JoJo!” to my mom with such excitement)…it was true magic for me, too.

on the way home, we stopped for a (much-too-quick) meetup with good friends on Tybee Island; a house right on the beach, kids running around happy and loved, seashell collecting, camera-talking with a photo-buddy, and some girl-time with the awesome Mighty J… this was the perfect end to a perfect trip.

there’s so much more i can say, so much i need to write down (if not here, then at least somewhere emma can read in years to come), and so much i’m still just keeping in my head to smile and relax on. i’m not quite ready to put it all down yet – expect to see disney and beach pictures for the rest of eternity – but i didn’t want to wait any longer to say this:

life is good, and opening yourself to wonder, magic and love can really change your life. treasure your family and friends, and give yourself the gift of get-aways and memory-making-days; these are some of the very very good things in life.

xoxo