The wonderful world of Disney

Sometime during the 1st week of January as we were winding down from the holiday season, I was getting myself ready for the day and thinking about the new year. The thought came to my mind that we haven't taken a vacation to anywhere besides the cabin and Fallon. Ever. The idea of Disneyland came to mind. I tried to dismiss it because we have been adamant that we were not going to do Disneyland until all our kids were old enough to not have to be carried. I know, I know. Some of you out there would say Bah Humbug, but every family is different and the idea of traveling with young children to an amusement park is something that really causes us stress - especially with my crowd phobia. Anyway, I kept thinking that now would be a good time to do Disneyland since big brother is still free and little brother is such an easy baby. I kept thinking that it would still be magical for big sister at this point, and if we didn't go now we probably wouldn't for 5 or 6 years more. At which point big sister would probably still love it, it just wouldn't be as magical. So I finally looked into it, figured out a rough cost estimate and approached husband about it. After thinking it over he decided it sounded like fun. I figured that January is the best time for us, since there would be less of a crowd, so we planned a trip. And then realized we were leaving in 2 weeks. Yikes! We decided not to inform the kids until the morning we left. Big sister didn't sleep for most of December because she was so excited about Christmas. I figured she should be well rested for Disneyland. To keep them from asking too many questions as I worked like crazy to get ready the day before, we told them we were going to the rec center on Saturday. That backfired a little on us. When we informed them over breakfast that we weren't going to the rec center and we were actually going to Disneyland, little sister got upset and said she wanted to go to the rec center. I had also done such a good job convincing Big sister that we wouldn't be going for at least 5 more years that she didn't really believe us at first. Ah, well. It sunk in eventually. We drove through some white-out conditions and met up with Husband's parents and brother in Vegas, where we stopped for the night. On Sunday, we drove to Anaheim and checked into the hotel. We let the kids go swimming in the indoor pool to get some wiggles out and to ensure they would actually sleep that night after 2 days of sitting in the car. (Did I mention I LOVE the DVD player in the van? The kids traveled so well and were so excited that this trip was long enough that we allowed them to use the DVD player.) We booked a hotel right across the street from Disneyland and there were several restaurants to choose from. So we went to Mimi's that night. I must say it would be very dangerous for me to have one of those within walking distance of my home! The kids slept well that night and Monday morning we woke up ready to go! Except that it was raining. And cold. The forecast had put the storm in for Sunday, but it arrived late. We decided to make the best of it, bought ponchos and bundled up.


That worked for the morning pretty well - the kids had fun going on several rides and there were considerably less crowds. There were a lot of websites and comments from people about how rain was fun in Disneyland because there's less crowds. Which is true, but I'm sure more so when it's 80 degrees so it cools down to 70. It was 60 to start with so the rain cooled things down to 50. I don't know if you knew this, but little kids get cold fast. Little sister started shivering and her lips were turning purple after a couple hours. So I decided to take the 3 youngest back to the hotel and Husband and Big sister would go on a few more rides and meet us back at the hotel for lunch. I did get many sympathetic looks and comments as I pushed the double stroller with little brother in his baby carrier strapped to my front while holding an umbrella. I must have looked a little pathetic! I was glad we chose that hotel, though. a 10 minute walk, at the most. Even closer than the Disneyland hotel, we learned later, and MUCH cheaper! I turned the heat all the way up in our room and draped the kids wet clothes over it, and they snuggled under the blankets and watched Disney Channel. We ordered some lunch and by the time we finished, the sun had come out. YAY! We headed back just in time for some of the characters to come out on the plaza!

Here we are with Minnie! I think Big brother wants to marry her. He was checking her out and kept saying "MINNIE!" the rest of the day!

Pluto rubbed noses with big brother, which he thought was pretty darned cool.
I wish we could've gotten a better angle for this picture's little story, but it happened really fast. The characters all have "handlers" to make sure that they get breaks. So the characters were heading back for a break and Chip looked at his handler and pointed at our girls. The handler nodded, and Chip went over to a flower garden and picked 2 flowers. Then he came over and shyly handed a flower to each of our girls. They were in heaven! It was so cute! They carried their flowers around the rest of the day!

We took the kids on several more rides. Big sister went with Grandma and Uncle David on a couple bigger rides, and Daddy took her on a few as well. She loved Star Tours, hated Space Mountain. Big brother loved Buzz Lightyear and we learned is a pretty good shot with the gun - he was on the 3rd level according to his score! We learned that little sister SO does not appreciate the state of the art sound systems they have on every ride. WAY too loud for her. I had to cover her ears. She eventually figured out that she could cover her own ears and then she enjoyed the rides much more. I just had to remind her on every ride that she could cover those ears. It started raining again, so we ducked into Innoventions and did some indoor stuff until the sun came out. Then we hit more rides. When it started getting dark, it also got cold. So we ate dinner and I took the 3 youngest home again while Husband stayed with Big sister to watch the parade. They got popcorn, candy bars to bring back for everyone, and a little stuffed Goofy for little brother, since the other kids already have little stuffed Disney characters. She didn't want him to be left out. They also bought me a caramel apple - my favorite! Big sister loved having time with Daddy and loved the parade.

Tuesday morning was bright and sunny, so we took advantage of the Magic hours and went an hour before they opened. We got to see more characters, which thrilled the kids.

Big brother LOVES Donald!

MICKEY MOUSE!

We did every ride we possibly could and the kids had a blast. We met up with Husband's parents and brother for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.
It was a serious walk since it's not in the park - it's in downtown Disney. Next time we will take the monorail! The kids loved the thunderstorms, the big butterflies opening and closing, the fish tanks, and the gorilla who came to life every once in awhile. It was pretty expensive - little sister's hot dog lunch cost us $8! Holy crap! But the prices on the adult meals were pretty typical for a nice, sit-down restaurant and it was SOOOO good! Totally worth it to have a meal that was fabulous for everyone. The people around us were quite entertained by my many trips to the bathroom - first the girls had to go, then I had to change big brother, then little brother, and then little brother again. Whew! Bathroom trips in Disneyland were always and undertaking, to say the least. After lunch, we headed over to California, where big sister went on Soarin' over California with Daddy and his parents and brother, while I sat on a bench and let little sister and big brother play angry birds on my phone. We went to the Disney Junior Live on stage show. Big brother was out of his mind with excitement. He just kept repeating the character's names over and over again for the rest of the day. He couldn't believe he was seeing Rocket, Quincy, June, Leo and Annie in person! And Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Mickey, and Minnie! He was in heaven! After that we went to the bug's life stuff. We tried to do the 3d show, but little sister only lasted 30 seconds. Too intense, too loud, and when something exploded at us and she felt the blast of air, she freaked. So we took them on a few more rides in the bug's life area, as well as Monster's Inc. After that ride, we met this guy:


Husband's mother took over for a bit so Husband and I could go on California Screamin'! It was so fun to do a big roller coaster! We met up with everyone on Ariel's ride, and then the kids were acting pretty tired and it was getting kinda late. We went back to Disneyland and staked out a spot to watch the parade. Next time we'll go for that spot again - we were right at the end of the parade and got right out after it was over. The kids loved the parade. Big brother was dancing and jumping and shouting with excitement! He loved the drum line and was pounding his legs, drumming right along with them and Mickey! On our way out we got everyone their "ears". Big brother will only wear them if it's his idea, but when he does it's so cute! Big sister picked out sequined Minnie ears, and Little sister wanted the silver sequined Minnie ears.


Pardon the quality of pictures. We used my iPhone so we wouldn't have to haul the camera everywhere. Not the best quality, but I don't really care about that. We captured the memories and that's we really matters! We had gotten them popcorn, so nobody was hungry for dinner except Mommy. I went down the street to Mimi's again. I love their chicken artichoke asiago spaghettini. Yum. I could eat that every night! By the time we got all the kids in bed, it was about 9pm so they'd been going for 12 hours straight. This pretty much sums up how everyone felt:


The kids, of course, woke up way too early considering how late they'd gone to bed. We took our time getting to the park and just took it easy that day. We did some of the rides we hadn't done, like the Steam boat, Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the Caribbean. The kids loved all of those. Daddy took big sister on Big Thunder Mountain, and she LOVED that! After that ride, she spotted cotton candy. She'd been begging for 2 days to try it and we finally found a place that took a credit card since we weren't carrying cash. They took about 8 bites total and then it stayed in the stroller the rest of the day. Big sister did eat some that night before bed, but I think she thought it might taste better than it did.

We did Winnie the Pooh, and then the kids just wanted to go back on their favorites that they'd already done. So after lunch, we hit all of those.

I think we still had a bit of a Disney hangover from the previous day, so everyone got tired pretty early. We decided to buy some souvenirs and go rest at the hotel for dinner, then come back for the parade. We got t-shirts for everyone, another caramel apple and some Minnie ears for me, and headed back. Unfortunately, when we asked the kids what they wanted for dinner, little sister said "I want a hot-diggety-dog!" Great. The only place to get those was back at Disneyland! Whatever. We rested for 45 minutes, then headed back to Disneyland and got the kids their corn dogs, er, I mean hot-diggety-dogs. Husband's parents had saved us a bench on the parade route, so we sat and ate while we waited for the parade to start. The kids loved the parade, of course, and then we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!

Thursday we packed up and drove all the way through to St. George. The kids loved that hotel. The indoor pool was actually warm! They even had fresh chocolate chip cookies. After swimming and getting wiggles out, we went to Olive Garden for dinner. Amazing how cheap that felt after paying Disneyland prices for everything! We took the kids swimming again in the morning and headed home! It was so fun and I'm glad we did it. And I'm glad to be home now!