3/30/25 – A Trip to Disneyland

Here I am here in Anaheim with my children, Taylor and Ethan.  The High School band decided to do a Disney trip, and it fell on this weekend.  Annie and I heard about the trip while we were in Costa Rica.

First, we went to University of Southern California because Taylor wants to go into Film.  Here is Ethan standing in front of the two buildings dedicated to George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg.  I guess they both went to USC :).

After USC, we went to a Medieval experience with the band.  The knights performed various knightly feats such as jousting, etc., while we ate some medieval food without silverware.  The place is called Medieval Times and is located in Buena Park, CA, within 10 minutes of Disneyland.

Here is Ethan with Knights in the background.

Ethan and I also went to the rise of the resistance which you can see in the 2 pictures below and in the featured image.  It only took us 30 minutes to get through the line!

Taylor has told me that she doesn’t want her picture in any more blog entries, so I am honoring her request.

The band flew to Los Angeles airport (LAX) on Friday and will be returning on Monday.  In the past, when the school would announce a trip that extended over the weekend, Annie and I would typically say no for 2 reasons:

1. The Sunday part of the trip was not consistent with our beliefs.
2. We couldn’t afford it.

The second reason is pretty self-explanatory.  We just didn’t have the funds.

The first reason relates to our Sabbath belief.  I want to explain this reason a bit more.

Fundamentally, we believe in keeping the Sabbath day holy.  In Exodus 20, God commands:

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Our current prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, has also talked about Sabbath day observance.  He gave a sermon titled “The Sabbath Is a Delight,” in which he said that he used to make lists of Sabbath do’s and don’ts, but once he recognized that his behavior and attitude were a “sign” between himself and God, he simplified his approach of what he would do to keep the Sabbath day holy.  Whever he was making a decision about whether something was appropriate or not, he simply asked:

“What sign do I want to give to God?”

He also quoted Isaiah (one of my favorite prophets from the Old Testament), who said:

“If thou turn away … from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, … and shalt honour [the Lord], not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

“Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.”²¹

The phrases, “turning away from [our] own pleasures,” and “honour[ing] the Lord” have significant importance to me.  I understand them as meaning turning away from the things we would normally do on other weekdays and doing things that please God.

Another sermon I get inspiration from is one from Clayton M. Christensen, a former dean of the business school for Harvard.  This sermon can be found here: Decisions For Which I’ve Been Grateful.  In that sermon, Clayton talked about being on the Oxford Varsity basketball team and going to the equivalent of the NCAA basketball tournament.  When they got to the semifinals, he found out that the last game was going to be played on Sunday.  After some turmoil, he ultimately determined not to play on Sunday and described that decision 30 year later as “one of the most important decisions [he] ever made because…” his whole life “turned out to be an un-ending stream of extenuating circumstances, and had I crossed that line just that once, then the next time something came up that was so demanding and critical, it would have been so much easier to cross the line again.”

My simple belief is that I should avoid doing my work on the Sabbath, and that I should not be the cause of making others work on the Sabbath.  I also believe that I should affirmatively act to keep the sabbath day holy by going  to church and engaging in God’s work.

From a practical application, this means that when the kids have a school trip that may impact their ability to keep the Sabbath day holy.  For example, for this Disneyland trip, we determined that the kids would not be able to keep the Sabbath day holy if we chose to send them with the band.

When the kids go with the band, the kids are required to engage in the activites of the band.  They cannot stay in their rooms or attend church.  So if the band is going to be marching in Disneyland on Sunday, and my kids go, they would be required to march with the band on Sunday and go to Disneyland on Sunday.

In those cases, it is sometimes possible to go with the band as a parent.  Then, my kids can participate with the other kids during the other days, and on Sunday we can engage in our Sabbath activities.

Of course, you have to pre-arrange this with the Band directors, which is what we did with the e-mail below:

Dear Mr. Brassington and Mr. Windemere

My wife and I heard about the upcoming band trip to Disneyland a little over a week ago.  We were out of the country when our daughter, Taylor, told us about the trip.

Taylor and Adree (my choir senior) really enjoyed the Disneyland trip last year.  When Taylor mentioned the upcoming band trip a few days ago, she was really excited about going.

We initially concluded that the trip might not make sense this year, but after talking to Taylor and Ethan after we got home, we have thought of other options.  I started writing this letter over a week ago, but it took me longer than I expected to complete it.

First, I want to thank you for all you do for our kids.  So far, you have taught Max, Adree, and Taylor, and this year you have Ethan in the band. In 2 more years, you will likely get Paul in band.  He is our 9^th child, is in 7^th grade, and currently plays the oboe.

We have 3 more children younger than Paul.  We don’t know how many of them will eventually end up in band, but we potentially have 10 more years of band before we are done.

Turning to the upcoming Disneyland and other trips the band takes, the most significant problem we often have is what to do for Sunday.  We love that our kids get to interact with the other kids, receive some great music training, and be around you, but for us the Sabbath day is holy.  We avoid work we do on other days or causing others to work on that day.  We don’t feel it’s appropriate to be in amusement parks, take lessons, visit museums, play in sporting events, and so forth.  It’s a day we worship.

We recognize that you deal with 100’s of kids and families with different beliefs and requirements and that you have many constraints you face, so most often, we have just refrained from sending our kids on these trips.

But last year when the band, orchestra, and choir went to Disneyland, I volunteered as a chaperone because I knew how much my kids wanted to go.  On Friday and Saturday, my daughters went with their group of friends and enjoyed Disneyland.  On Sunday, we opted out of Disneyland and went to church.  We appreciate that you accommodated us for that.

If we could do something similar this year, we would like to sign Taylor and Ethan up to go this coming year.  I would be willing to come as a chaperone or just as a parent (finding my own lodging, etc.) and have my kids go with me on Sunday.

We know that the deadline has passed for signing up, so we understand if it is too late to go for this trip, but we wanted you to know what drives our decision process.  We appreciate what you do and want to support you and our children the best we can without adding additional burdens to what you are already doing.

Sincerely,

John & Annie

They responded:

Hello John,

Thanks for our email.  We enjoyed having you and your kids along on the last trip to Disneyland.

This year both the parade performance and the soundtrack session are scheduled on Sunday, March 30^th.  When we apply to perform at Disneyland we tell them the dates we will be there and they determine the performance and workshop dates and times.

I completely understand your religious practices.  With the fact that the performance will be on a Sunday this year, it seems like your children participating on the trip with the band would not work. Please correct me if I am wrong in this assumption.  If you would want to travel with Ethan and Taylor on your own and have them go to Disneyland on Saturday and Monday to experience the theme park with their band friends that would be something you could choose to do on your own.

Please let both Mr. Windemere and me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Percival

I responded:

Hi Percival,

Thanks for your note below.  Sorry for the late reply; it was in my junk mail.

You are correct.  Performing in an amusement park or doing a soundtrack training/recording on Sunday would not fit within our religious beliefs.  I’ll talk it over with my kids and wife to see if we will arrange our own way down so our kids can be with the band kids on the other days.

Thanks again,

John

And in the end, Annie and I decided that I would take the kids to Disneyland with the Band.

And that is why I am here now.  It’s been a great trip, and I have enjoyed getting to know the other parents who came as chaperones. That, for me, is the best part of the trip as I enjoy being around people.

Of course, it is more expensive to do it this way, but I would rather spend more and please God than spend less and violate the Sabbath.  His day is holy to me and one of my signs to Him is keeping His day holy even when it is not convenient.