Where All the Dreams Come True...

Disneyland!!!!!
What a trip! What a great, long, fun, tiring, exhausting, joyful trip. I know it's hard to be all those things, but it really was.
We had the opportunity to go for 4 days, which was intense, but also good because we didn't feel like we had to do EVERYTHING in one day. Of course, just my nature, I wanted to make sure that we did EVERYTHING by the time we left, and even with 4 days we didn't come close.

We piled the kids in the car early Sunday morning, and tried to make them go back to sleep.
It's pretty hard to get 3 very excited kids to go to sleep when they know they are going to go to Disneyland.
No, scratch that.
It's impossible to get 3 very excited kids to go to sleep.
Even if it is 4am in the morning.

The drive down was good. I was so impressed with the kids. They usually have a 35 min drive span. Meaning, after 35 min, they are all whining and wanting out of the car. (We don't travel much, can you tell?) But this time, they did awesome. I didn't have to put on a movie until about 6 hours into it, and that is a record!




Our hotel was great! Free breakfast - a real breakfast, not just pastries and coffee, but waffles, toast, eggs, potatoes, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, coffee and juices! We brought a cooler full of food for lunches, and dinners that I had originally planned to make, but surprise, surprise, the place we stayed also included free dinners! And I am talking, real dinners! Salad bar, pasta, burgers, etc! So, I actually had a bit of a vacation from cooking too! I made our lunches everyday to take into the park, but besides that, I was totally off duty! It was great! (And we saved a ton of money too!) The hotel also had a pool, and free shuttle so we could come and go as we pleased, and swim when we weren't meeting characters and riding rides.

When we stepped into the park on Monday morning, I almost cried. No, for reals, I did. It was so cool to see my kids faces as they looked around! They were amazed at everything! (Brynn later told me - "Mom, when we first walked in, I thought it was just 'ok', but then, when I saw all the rides, and the characters, and all the lights, and all of that, I realized it was going to be really, really fun!")
We spent a considerable time in line waiting to get autographs from all the characters. It was NOT my favorite part of the trip, but since we were there "for the kids" I had to suck it up and smile. Maeve did great with all the characters, and got some hugs from Winnie the Pooh, and was loving it until she met Donald Duck. At one point she reached up to touch his beak, and like the spaz that he is, he made a loud quacking noise and it scared her so badly that she wouldn't even look at any of the other characters. Her all time favorites are Chip and Dale, and she refused to get out of the stroller to see them because of (what we will forever call) the "Donald Duck Incident".


The first ride we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean. It was one of my favorites (until I rode Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones - and those quickly took the lead for best rides). Let's be honest here. I was just as excited to do all the rides as they were. Maybe even more so. Maeve and Nolan came out of that ride crying. Looking back, it might not have been the best choice for the first ride.
We did as many rides as we could, which ended up being almost all of them, because the crowds were not bad at all! I converted my eldest two kids into roller coaster lovers on this trip. I allowed them to try it once, and they were hooked!
And the park was decorated for Christmas!!!! It couldn't have been more beautiful, and magical, and holiday-ish, and wonderful!

We tried to do all the things that people told us were "must do/must see". The fireworks show, the parade, the rides, the hugs from characters. We were also lucky enough to schedule a visit with Katie, my long time friend. If you compared this picture to one from 15 years ago, there wouldn't be much changed. Except we are both married now. And I have had 4 kids. And her hair was blond, and I had no wrinkles, and crooked teeth. But besides all that.....


I was excited to see California Adventure too. I have never been, and heard it was great. It was a lot of fun! Different then Disney - way different- but lots of fun. And my hubs totally gets "Daddy of the Year" award for this photo shot. No joke, he was walking around like that for quite awhile, and got many stares.


Day 2 Nolan came down with a fever, and a random projectile vomit episode. Day 3 we dosed him up with Advil, and made him suffer through. Day 4 he was feeling much better, but Maeve was so tired from everything that she basically slept all day in the stroller.


Cannon enjoyed most of it, but was pretty much done with each day of Disney at around 2pm, and Angry Birds on my iPhone would keep the peace for him for awhile. We just can't ever escape that game.
I have to mention this, cause I think it will be one of those things that the kids look back on and say "Moooooooooom, what was your deal?" I made these identification badges for the kids. I kept thinking that if they got lost, they needed to have something on them so that people could get a hold of us. These things worked like a charm! I got several comments from random people at the park about it being a good idea. The kids just wore them on their belt buckles. I only put the kids first names, our first names, and our cell number. Thankfully we didn't have to use them, although for about 5 heart stopping minutes we lost Cannon. Actually we lost him twice, but the second time was when I almost passed out from adrenaline and fear....(is that one of "those times" that I will look back and laugh? I don't know. It was pretty terrifying...for all of us.)

The drive home was a N.I.G.H.T.M.A.R.E. After getting our bags packed, and checking out of the hotel, we found out that our car battery was dead. We waited around for someone to come help us jump start it, but it added about an hour to the trip home. There were considerably more tears on the drive home. More clenched teeth, more "Can we get out of the car now?" questions. More fighting, more bickering, more crying, more "That's my pillow, don't put your head on it" types of situations....But that's the stuff memories are made of right?