Post Vacation – Family Trip to Disney

Triathlon Training While Injured

It is my hope this is my last post where I keep getting delayed by my lower hip adductor injury.  It has been quite the disruption.  Whether it is by writing or by audio, I am reminded over and over again about my injury.  It has limited ALL running, a large portion of biking and similar to swimming.  My local friend Gustavo pulled me aside on Saturday and was like ‘When will you be ready to swim Hyrum’?  My response was – first the temp needs to be above 60 degrees for me, and then with my injury I just don’t know.  He went on to relate how he had calf issues 6 miles in on his SLC Marathon but he finished.

I find one of the most difficult things in endurance sports – managing injury and mindset.  For me – I have been able to capitalize on all thing endurance sports.  Especially in the growth mindset and seeking to be better.

Mindset thoughts

Family Trip

So after many many years, my wife and I finally had the means to do a family focused vacation. There are no surgeries, no family oriented obligations (funerals, weddings, birthdays, reunions) or any other pulls.  I know that as we arranged things and alerted folks as timing got closer and as we tried to arrange certain components that a few may not have understood why we just wanted to do this as a nuclear family.  We have 4 kiddos, 3 of which are on the ASD spectrum and all 4 are neuro-divergent.  This is often a recipe that many in our circles of influence don’t understand.  We use terms like – “Circus of Chaos”, “the dragons” and more as they come to us in our often fatigued but with whatever little whit we have at the moment quips.   All this to say, we went solo.

The Planning

We looked at many options and in the end we ended up focusing only on Disneyland and California Adventure.  We wanted to take a full week and I have about 25 vacation days a year – so it was time to take a real vacation.  Where I am currently injured we didn’t have to tie it to any event I was doing.  So, after being gobsmacked by the pricing of Disney specific resorts – I’m not that well compensated, we turned to off property partners and found one we liked – The Clementine Hotel and Suites! We then settled in on 1 park a day tickets, with Genie (+) .  We made our reservations for those days via the Disney process and booked the hotel.  We did use Sam’s club for the hotel and Disney tickets bookings as it was the best offering we could identify.

Day 1

Liz had to work.  Tune as Liz was finished. We got on our way! Once we got out of cache Valley, we tried to determine how far we could go. Although we were making great time, it became evident that we needed to stop in St. George Utah. It wasn’t too difficult to find a place to stay but finding the rate that we were comfortable with is always a challenge. So, we settled on the Wingate by Wyndham in Saint George just off of exit 4 and stayed over for the night.  Other than arriving a little later than we anticipated to stay, there was simple and good.  Some of the antics included, stopping at Fillmore, playing at the playground there

Day 2

The next morning I packed everything on top of the car with Dennis’ help and we got on our way. Once on our way, we made great time until we got to Baker California.  Where Miss Astrid was super excited to take pictures with the alien at the alien jerky stop.

Once we avoided a few of the meltdowns that we’re going to occur at the stop, we continued on. One of the fun challenges with any trip for us is trying to decide where to get fuel. So, as we were working through Vegas, we had a small hiccup, but after we got fuel, we were back on our way.  We decided to stop at a rest stop where Liz was able to grab some pictures of ravens!  It was about at this part where we kind of made our Griswold mistake. It has been nearly 40 years since I left Hemet California. This is the place where I grew up. As we were talking through things apparently we forgot to cancel navigation using Siri or other tools. So when we came down the hill, I was not paying attention to when we made the turn to start. Heading towards Riverside California. As we got to the Ramona highway or expressway, all of a sudden I realize that we were on our way to Hemet and about an hour and a half away from our hotel. Cue the panic. Cue the frustration. This is when I decided to make this a Griswold moment and we tarried on to Hemet California and we were able to find a park and play for a few minutes. Liz and I took some pictures, and we stopped at a Carl’s Jr., and then we moved on.  Of notes when we were driving around Hemet, one of the places I needed to stop and turn around and given current affairs I was very mindful not to pull into somebody’s driveway, rather to make a U-turn using more of the sidewalk a Y-turn.  This was after we visited Little Lake Elementary school where I attended as a 7/8 year old.

So out and through the Perris Valley we went and ultimately we arrived at our hotel at about 11 PM Pacific standard time. This gave us just enough time to look at our phones determine what we were going to do and get to sleep.

Day 3, 4 and 5

Well, I won’t belabor the points here. But day 34 and five were spent at Disneyland and California adventure. This was our first family vacation of the sort, and we had lots of lessons to learn. The biggest Takeaway of all is that if we were to do this again, we would make sure to have one day in the middle as a decompression day, I have four kiddos that are Nuro divergent three of the four are on the autism spectrum disorder spectrum. So we were able to use the disability and accessibility services offered by Disneyland. The only other thing that stuck out is that it was hot. We were well prepared with sunscreen with water, but I mistakenly brought the single stroller and I should’ve brought the double stroller. It wasn’t clear if our double stroller made by Bob would work. But I thought about it doesn’t other Bob jogging strollers and so ours would’ve been just fine.

Overall, I do think the kids each had their own fun and experiences to take away. I know that Liz and I did our best as parents. I know that we went in with the expectation that everything was unrealistic. We knew that each day would be its own day and try to have fun each day. We also knew that we were not on a tight or strict budget, but we still wanted to be mindful and not be over the top. All these things were accomplished for the most part. And looking back on the three days in the parks, I feel that we did a great job most of the time with a few hiccups along the way.

Days 6 and 7

Thursday was our day to check out and after clearing and packing we were on our way. We decided to scurry over to Huntington Beach. We spent about an hour there collecting seashells and other things. Unfortunately, my oldest didn’t want to participate as he was overloaded from his three days at Disney and the two days of travel before. This often happens with children that have ASD. Once we decided we were done at the beach we located the nearest Costco fueled up and kept moving. It was at this time we decided to book our next place, which ended up being Saint George again. However, we stayed in Hurricane.  And again we were proven that we were due to arrive much later than we wanted to, due to our family dynamics with travel. However, overall, it was not that bad of an experience it just took more time than we would’ve liked.

The following day was actually our best day of travel. We were able to leave St. George at a decent time. And we were able to make great time until we made it to Salt Lake. We continue done making good time but we encountered lots of traffic from Provo, all the way to Ogden with the various graduations that we’re happening at the various universities. Oh what a welcome site to drive down Logan Canyon and to see the entrance of cache Valley. We were almost home. Sadly, this meant that our vacation was over however, it was a great vacation.

Some lessons learned

We weren’t able to get the loft option but the 2 queen one bedroom suite was sufficient for our family of 6.  The sofa pull out was one of the best I have encountered in my travels.  Lastly, it was basically equivalent to a Homewood Suites (I am a hilton guy after all) and outside of being placed next to the basketball, tennis, pickleball court, it was great!  Some of the advantages at the parks included using the DAS service. The Disney app is a little frustrating to use. We didn’t always take pictures of the codes for the rides but we were able to sync or link a few of those to our genie plus experience. If we ever do a trip like this again, planning a rest day or two. If planning to stop and breaking up a trip, remember snacks for both days not just the first day.

Some general summary thoughts

Overall, I think this was one of the best decisions. Liz and I have made together. Although it was not an inexpensive endeavor, it was definitely worth the looks on the faces of our children during the experience and their expressions of joy that they shared. It wasn’t without incident. It wasn’t perfect. It was, however the vacation that our family has long needed and was finally able to do. The nicest thing of all of this was that I was not needed to do any work and I was unplugged during the whole trip.

Liz kept asking me from time to time if I was having a good time. It was nice to be able to get the family to go into not having major crises. We did have a few issues trying to get the kids to walk so much. Each of the days we spent about 10 to 12 miles approximately on our feet and then we needed to walk another half mile or so to get back to the hotel. This is where the other stroller would’ve been nice.  But other than those little oversights, I think this was a great trip. And yes, I did have fun. And yes, being able to walk into the ocean was a nice ad. And yes, being able to spend that time as a family without any other distractions, what is the best way that we can do it at this time in our lives. I also think and hope that each of the kids will remember this trip in their own way.