The memory today is actually 3 photos in a series. During our first family trip to Disney World in January 2008 for the Disney World Marathon we ended up at Hollywood Studios one night while the kid dance party was going on (can’t remember the official name for it).
Our son was only 17 months at the time and really didn’t know many of the Disney characters yet but the music was hopping and he couldn’t get out of the stroller fast enough to get dancing. He charged up to dance on the edge of the group of kids dancing and just did his thing. I believe he danced a bit with Goliath the Lion.
Being on the edge of the group though he was the only one who saw Mickey and Minnie coming in from off-stage. I’m not sure he really knew who they were at the time but he sensed they were something special and charged over to them – luckily I had my camera because even as it was I only managed to get one quick shot of him running toward them. Not the best photograph but just awesome that it is just T running to them and them reacting to him with really no one else around – brings back some great memories. A special moment.
After that Mickey and Minnie joined the dancing kids and T got into the mix. So there is a shot of him dancing with Mickey with Mickey clapping for him and you can tell at least one other parent in the background is watching T and smiling and pointing. Spreading the joy with dance!
Even with Mickey then turning around to interact with others just got deeper into dancing and you can see the joy and happiness he had just other dancing and grooving to the music.
The only downside is we had to shut things down a bit early as T decided to sit down for a rest in front of the big speakers and since we figured him being able to continue hearing was important we decided to call it a night. He cried most of the way out of the park at that point – sometimes you just need to dance and he wanted to keep going.
Still a great memory from that first trip – just the joy he had dancing and interacting with the characters was fantastic and it is always nice to remember those moments when there is unconditional happy!
