Disneyland

So we did the much anticipated trip to Disneyland. We kept it a surprise from the kids and that was so fun!  We haven't been since 2008 I think it was. So we woke the kids up early and of course I had a camera set up to record it all. I had made Mickey Mouse pancakes and made each of them a green shirt with either tinker bell or Mickey Mouse on it, partly to keep track of all of them and it turned out to be a great idea. We could spot them pretty quick if they drifted a little away from us. I packed 5 days worth of clothes, but they wore their shirt almost every day because they liked them so much. We also had a headbands game that had Mickey Mouse ears so we had them put them on and then asked them if they wanted to go to Disneyland. They were excited.

They did really well on the airplane. I hoped they would sleep some since we woke them up so early, but no luck. After we got off the airplane we still had to take a shuttle to our hotel, which wasn't too bad, it was about 45 minutes.

 

Our hotel was right across the street, so the walk only took a few minutes to get there, thank goodness. The breakfast was next door and it was a pretty good buffet breakfast. There was so much that happened I couldn't possibly remember it all or really want to take the time to remember it all, so a few points to note.....

1. The first night we made the mistake of staying until it closed and then trying to get dinner. I think by the time we sat down it was 9:00 (10:00 our time) and it took them 45 minutes to get our food. All the kids were asleep and half of them didn't even wake up to eat. 

2. Cooper got picked to be one of the participants in the Star Wars show and loved it! He wanted to try again the next day, and we did, and both he and Bella got picked. They had a lot of fun with that.

3. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it, but we had the best corn dogs and they were filling and didn't cost us $100 to eat! Disney food is crazy expensive! But it's also really good.

4. The most ridden on ride was Pirates of the Caribbean, largely because of the lack of a line, the jungle cruise and the older kids loved Space Mountain. We hit Splash Mountain a few times as well. Another favorite was the Cars ride in California Adventure. Such an amazing and well put together ride!

5. The little girls had a wonderful time meeting the princesses. Took longer to get to them than most the rides!

6. The weather was perfect!!!

7. Only one major issue happened with bad behavior and that person had to sit out a ride and then was great the rest of the day!

 8. Along with all the fun, we did get some unhappy news that Brian's Grandpa Chudleigh passed away. No matter how prepared you think you are that it's going to happen, it's always a little of a shock and so very sad.

9. At the end of it, Brian swore off family vacations for the next 5 years. Ha! I will just swear off Disney for 5 years. :) It was a lot of work and very stressful and exhausting, but now that I'm several months away from it I can say that it was a lot of fun and the kids seem to only remember the good parts! :)

10. Everything was so fun, the shows, the characters, the rides and mostly watching the kids enjoy it so much! I wouldn't go as far as to say it's the "happiest place on earth", but it was a lot of fun.