Disneyland!

I was a little worried that with only 10 days of anticipation build up, the kids wouldn’t be as excited for this trip as they have been for past trips.  Wrong!  And another pleasant surprise – Calvin was the most eager.  I wasn’t even sure he remembered previous trips, but he must have remembered (or been told enough good stories) to be excited this time. 

We decided last-minute to head down on Saturday instead of Sunday and stay Saturday night in Vegas.  I’ve heard horror stories about the traffic on Sunday mornings between Vegas and LA (and we experienced it ourselves on our last trip).  With it being post-New Year’s weekend, I didn’t want to get stuck in that. 

As a result, we got into Anaheim nice and early on Sunday.  We got settled into our room and then had time to walk around Downtown Disney for a little while.

Monday morning we were at the front of the line and ready to go.  We decided to try day 1 without a stroller for Calvin.  That didn’t go so well . . . he had a rough day.  He didn’t want to try any rides (at all) and pretty much whimper-cried the whole day.  He finally fell asleep on a bench while we waited for the parade and did a lot better after that.  The next day we brought another stroller and he did much better.  That, and we spent most of the day at Cars Land.  Whatever the reason, he had a great week after that.  On Wednesday he VOLUNTEERED to go on Splash Mountain and he loved it!  I’m so glad he got adventurous and decided to try new things.  He ended up having a fantastic time. 

  

One of the reasons we decided to go when we did is to see all of the Christmas decorations up at Disneyland.  (Well, that and I really needed to break up this 5-week school break.)  They certainly didn’t disappoint!  Monday and Tuesday were still officially “Christmastime” at Disneyland, and when we got to the park on Wednesday we were amazed to see just how fast they take it all down!  Even the flower beds had been replanted!  Now that we’ve experienced Christmastime at Disneyland once, I don’t think we’ll do it again.  It’s cool, but it was still very crowded even though it was after Christmas.  And I think the Halloween decorations are my favorite.  The weather was GORGEOUS though – just as nice as when we’ve gone in October.  Couldn’t have asked for better. 

This little girl was so cute meeting Minnie.  She’s her favorite.  (Even though she still calls her Mickey.)  I worried that she would be scared of the characters (like Calvin was/is) but she walked right up to her and held her hands, then reached back and grabbed the autograph book and handed it to her.  After she signed it, Oakley gave her a big hug.  It was adorable. 

 

I think this may be the only picture we got of all 6 of us the whole trip.  We did a lot of splitting up.  That’s kind of how it works when you have a kid who can’t go on all the rides.  But it’s nice that they do the stroller passes so everybody gets to ride, and actually the older kids get to ride a lot more than they would otherwise.  The older kids got to ride Radiator Springs Racers 3 times each on Tuesday, thanks to (1) being there early, (2) getting a stroller pass, (3) getting a fast pass (which I did while they rode the first time) and then (4) using a stroller pass again with the fast pass. 

 

He LOVED this ride.  Of course he did. 

We generally do Disney hard.  We go-go-go.  We’re there when the park opens.  We stay until closing or very close.  We eat in line.  The kids were so tired on Tuesday, I’m not sure if any of them actually saw the fireworks.  We slept in on Wednesday – first time we’ve ever not been there when the park opened. 

We’ve never done 5 days in the park before – in the past we’ve done 3.  So it felt like we had some “extra” time to do some of the things we haven’t done before.  We decided to go see the Disney Junior show and it was a big hit with Calvin and Oakley.  We also saw the Aladdin show, Mickey and the Magical Map, and Great Moments with Abraham Lincoln. 

I thought with the extra time the kids would want to seek out more characters.  But we actually visited with the fewest number of characters of any trip.  I guess the kids just don’t really care that much.  They didn’t really even want to spend the time to meet Ana and Elsa.  (Granted, that would have been a pretty big time investment.)  Or maybe they’re just not interested because we already have autograph books full of character signatures.  Oh, and Calvin is scared to death of all characters.  So that might have something to do with it.

I’m not entirely sure why we love Disneyland so much.  It’s utterly exhausting.  And really expensive.  But man, it just really is a magical place where you forget you even have other cares and worries and responsibilities.  We love it.  And while this trip had some hiccups (our room was pretty crummy, plus then the maid stole $150 so that sucked) but overall it was still a really really fun vacation.  And once again, I’m already planning and plotting to get back as soon as we can. 

 

Saturday morning we loaded back into the car and headed to Phoenix.  We got to meet our newest niece/cousin, Sophie and be there for her blessing day.  (I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of her!!!) Another hiccup with this leg of the trip – Calvin got croup and couldn’t breathe, so he and Will got to go to the urgent care instead of to the blessing. :(  The good news is they got him his medicine and he did fine for the rest of the way home.  We really wanted to get all the way home on Sunday night, but we were so exhausted that we ended up stopping in St. George for the night around 11:00.  When we finally pulled into town on Monday afternoon, it felt so good to be home!  It felt like we had been gone a really long time!

I love having a vacation to look forward to.  The anticipation is a big part of the fun for me.  Our next vacation will be with the Davis family in June, and I’m already really excited for it!  Come on, summer!