Disney!

The Alesch/Finken Crew at Hoop Dee Doo Revue!

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on the kind of parent I want to strive to be- what values, traditions, etc. do I want to try and make a part of my child’s life? What kind of example(s) will Larry and I intentionally and unintentionally set for him or her? While I can think of many things that I have learned from my own parents, sisters, in-laws, cousins, aunts/uncles, friends, coworkers, etc. that I would hope to teach to my child, there is a particular value that I observed in my sister Jill that I would like to discuss for the blog. Side note: It also happens that I observed this during our recent trip to Disney, which I also wanted to document on the blog so it works out great!

A couple of weeks ago, the Finken family, accompanied by my father, sister Anne, and me, were fortunate to spend almost a week at Walt Disney World. One of the main reasons we went there was because Jill was running the Disney Marathon for the second time (she also ran in 2014).  However, most of our time was spent not focusing on running but on enjoying the parks and our vacation time together.

If you have ever hung out with one or more Alesch family members at a time, you may know that when we get together, we tend to bumble around, not really have an agenda, and slowly make decisions. However, this trip, we managed to avoid any excessive bumbling and maximized our time together in the parks. Sister Jill was the main reason everything went so smoothly. For one, she LOVES Disney. Ever since she went there for the first time in her late twenties/early thirties (NO Alesch sister had been there before their mid-twenties by the way, ha!) she has loved the place. When she decided to take her family with her for the first time, she had a little anxiety because she wasn’t sure she would love it as much if she couldn’t ramrod to all the rides by herself. So, she bought some Disney Guide Book and has been obsessed with it ever since. You won’t catch her in park without the current year’s Guide Book in her hand and you won’t catch her in the hotel at night without a paper and pen planning out the next day’s “must see” attractions. I could go on and on about Jill’s love for Disney and her precious Guide Book but suffice it to say, it was what kept us from bumbling around and hesitating to make decisions.

Now, the aforementioned is not the value I observed and admired in my sister Jill that I would hope to also instill in my child. What I observed about Jill over the trip besides her love for her Guide Book, was that she always wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable and having a good time. This wasn’t being done in an unhealthy way because we know that you can’t please everyone at the same time and we also know that you can’t try to please others to the extent that you forget about taking care of yourself. Although I do have to admit, walking around the park for an entire day and closing it down after running 26.2 miles might have been a little foolish on her part. :) However, she really was the glue that held everyone together over the trip and she made sure that throughout the duration, everyone was able to do some of the things that they wanted to do or experience or something she thought would be special for them. For example, I had never been to SeaWorld but was leaving a day earlier than everyone else so Jill made sure to rearrange the entire schedule to make sure we visited that park before I left. For my niece Brooklyn, she made sure to schedule plenty of character visits with the princesses. For my nephew Trevor, she went on all the rides with him that nobody else could stomach at the very end. For Sister Anne, she made sure she had time to get her picture taken with Anne’s favorite character and idol, Ariel. And for all of us, she planned something she thought we might like to do and something we would never plan for ourselves- a dinner show at one of the longest running dinner shows at Disney World (see the awesome picture above!).

The examples above may seem trivial but the bottom line is that Jill planned that vacation for her entire extended family- her running of the marathon was merely a blip on the radar. Right from the beginning when she started planning the trip, she booked a suite with way more room than her family of four needed because she WANTED others to join her family adventure. Some might not think this is such an incredible act. After all, you may know plenty of families who still take extended family vacations together. You may know plenty of families with someone who acts like the glue and selflessly makes sure everyone is comfortable. True. Fortunately, I still know families like that as well. However, I also know plenty of families who have been ripped apart by silly feuds and would never imagine vacationing with their immediate family, never mind their extended family! I also know plenty of people who forget about their other relationships once they are parents. They focus solely on what their kids want and need and forget that they are also a sister, daughter, wife, etc. So I guess the value(s) I observed in Jill that I hope that I can emulate and exemplify for my child is selfless love and a constant, deliberate emphasis not just on family but on extended family relationships as well.

One of our many character meetings!