My little family of 5 traveled down to Florida for Thanksgiving week. The plan was to spend half the week with my in-laws (see blog post: Family), and the other half with my grandma (see blog post: Grandma Carol).

Spoiler Alert! My grandma died a few weeks ago, so the second half of our trip was up in the air.

Since we have family where grandma lived, we decided to still head there for a day, but took the opportunity to switch things up and surprise the kids with a day at Disney World.

I have a new friend whom I met through our shared struggles with breast cancer who lives in Florida. This wonderful, kind, connected woman was able to hook us up with 3 free entries to the Magic Kingdom which saved us close to $550 (THANK YOU CANCER!)!

As one would expect in 2016, things did not go as planned. I’ll set the scene…

While on the first leg of the trip, an old stress fracture in my foot, from my high heel-stomping-the-pavement-in Manhattan days reared its ugly head. Long story short, after a visit to urgent care and a half day with a podiatrist, I ended up with my right foot in a walking cast. The perfect accessory for a day at Disney World (said no one ever).

Since the Disney hook-up was a one-time deal, we decided to go for it, anyway. A plan was hatched to rent a wheelchair and have my husband push me around all day, since there was no chance I would be able to walk. This also meant ditching the stroller and having at least one child on my lap at all times.

Since most of the lines for the rides are not wheelchair accessible, in most cases we got to bypass and head straight to the front. Talk about a silver lining!

I made the joke to my huz that between the cast, wheelchair and my baldness, I probably looked like a Make-A-Wish kid. This was funny until we actually saw a Make-A-Wish kid and then I felt like a giant asshole. Lesson learned Grancer, sometimes sarcasm goes too far. I will be paying it forward with a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

So, shout-out to my faulty bones and to the cancer that probably compromised my body in order to make this old injury act up out of nowhere. Whoop Whoop!

The children were shocked when we pulled up to the Magic Kingdom instead of the hotel in Sarasota, as they had expected. We got there around 10:30am and left the park at 11pm. Exhausted, but blissful.

Between the incredible fireworks (I cried, obvs), the 2 Dole Whips which made me nauseous for an hour, and the glow of the magic in my children’s eyes, it was a day for the record books.

Thank you to my sweet friend who helped us get the tickets and to her sweet friend who actually got us the tickets. Thank you to Walt Disney for being a visionary. And thank you to the cash cow that is Disney World. You made this this crazy bald lady’s dream come true, to see her children genuinely in awe of magic around them and forget the sadness that was ‘Cancer Summer 2016.’