Page 164 of Gracefully Yours

“Why don’t you guys take the boys over to ride something while we wait?” With any luck, we’d make everyone happy and end the day without too many tears. The trick was frequent snack breaks and trips into the air-conditioning.

Daniel kissed my cheek. “Good call, darling. We’ll meet you after?”

I bent down and kissed Beau’s cheek. “Be good for daddy, okay?”

He wrapped his arms around my neck, hugging me tight. “Love you, mommy,” he said, before running off, my husband wrapping a hand around Beau’s chubby little fingers.

I might have been biased, but I thought he was the cutest little two and a half year old on the planet. And if he turned out just like his daddy, well—I knew he’d be okay.

My heart swelled with love and pride for my kids as I turned back to my girls.

“Who wants to go meet the Princesses?”

Daniel

The stroller wasfull of two sleeping kids, and Abbi was nestled in my arms. Her head rested against my neck as we made our way back to the hotel bus.

This wasn’t our first trip to Disney, but itwasthe first time with all three kids. Like I’d promised her before we’d had Beau, we’d enjoyed the prospect of making Ellie a littletoomuch. It didn’t take long after her six-week checkup for her to become pregnant again.

After two back-to-back pregnancies, she was happy with our little brood. Three was perfect. Our family was complete.

“Do you think we let them have too much sugar today?” I asked her, thinking about that last churro we’d purchased.

“There’s no such thing,” she said with a gasp. “Besides, calories don’t count at Disney.”

I let out a chuckle while playfully poking her side. “If only that logic worked in the real world.”

“I know a few ways you can work them off, if you want.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively.

“That’s what got us into this position in the first place,” I said with a smirk, looking down at our sleeping toddler and her beautiful head of blonde hair.

“Worth it.”

“They all were.” I kissed her forehead, making sure not to squish our eldest daughter between us.

“When you first met me, did you ever think this was what our life would look like?” She echoed a question I’d asked her a few years back.

I looked down at the little platinum blonde and dark brunette heads that we’d created, and answered honestly. “Yes.” I smoothed our oldest daughter’s hair away from her face. “I wanted them to all look like you, but something like this, definitely.”

“Oh.” A contented smile spread over her face. “You knew, even then? That you wanted to marry me? Have kids with me?”

She smoothed down Abbi’s dark hair, tugging on the pink princess dress she wore. The biggest lover of the color pink, just like her momma. She was in Ballet II now, and I loved going and seeing her dance. My little dancer had found her first love, and I hoped she would never lose it.

“Since the very first day. I told you. It’s always been you. It’ll always be you.”

Charlotte sighed in contentment. “I want to come back every year.”

“Done.”Anything for you.

Our very first trip to Disney World had been for her babymoon—since I very much regretted that we’d never gone on arealhoneymoon. She’d been a few months along, but a break in the Florida sunshine had been just what we’d both needed.

Our bus arrived, and we quickly gathered our two sleeping children and collapsed the stroller before boarding. Settling into the seats, Abbi nestled herself at my side, while Charlotte cradled little Ellie and I held Beau in my arms.

“I’m glad everyone came, but I like it when it’s just like this. Our little family.”

“Me too,” I agreed. “Ourwholefamily can be a little… much.”

With eight kids between all of us, traveling anywhere in a group was almost impossible. It felt like almost everywhere we went, we were losing someone. At least it was usually an adult who did it, not one of our kids. They normally stayed where you told them to be. A lesson we’d learned quickly navigating the crowds here.

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