COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Eighteen families of fallen soldiers here in Colorado Springs are now at Disneyland, thanks to the Snowball Express.

Snowball Express started in 2006 to help the families of fallen soldiers who have served since 9/11. American Airlines chartered six planes to bring nearly 1,400 people to Disneyland from 20 different cities.

For Meagan Staats, the trip to Disneyland is bittersweet, flying out exactly two years after her husband David was killed in Iraq. "He'd probably rather us be nowhere else on the anniversary of his death than doing something exciting and fun, so it is a blessing," she said.

Daughter Katie has been there once before, and remembers her favorite part. "When they did this 3D thing, Honey I Shrunk The Audience," she said.

"For the first time probably all year you get to see joy in their faces," Meagan said.

The fun began even before landing in California. Waiting for the plane, the kids hung out with Sox the Fox, mascot of the Sky Sox team, got their faces painted and sang karaoke.

"He has smiled more in the hour and a half that we've been here than he has smiled in months," said Christina Ezell of her two-year-old son, Tristan, who lost his dad in April.

"He is too young to understand the full scope of what happened to him, but children understand fun and happiness, and Mickey Mouse, so hopefully this will be good for him," she said.

As they boarded the plane, they made good on David's plan. He wanted to take the family to Disneyland, when he returned home from war. Ezell said, "It is kind of fulfilling what we wanted to do together, and, in a way, he is here in spirit."

The families will return home on Saturday.

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