We saved up our pennies, and took the kids to Disneyland in January (which by the way if you ever go to Disneyland...go the last week of January, it was awesome!).
We invited my parents to go, and my kids were more than excited to say the least!
We got to California at 9:00 in the morning, left our bags at the concierge desk, and headed over to Disneyland. When we got there it was ridiculous how quiet it was. I am not kidding, for the first 3 days we were there the longest line we waited in was 3 minutes...HEAVEN!
Serious, not another soul anywhere near Cinderella's castle-it was crazy!
We hadn't been there 10 minutes, and my dear mother had to use the restroom...just had to document it for my posterity!
Halle, and the beloved rockets...I can handle any roller coaster, but this ride nearly puts me over the edge...literally! I feel like I am going to fall out of this one. Luckily she was big enough to ride alone!
Kylee and Cade riding the tea cups, Cade was going so fast Kylee was nearly at ralphing stage! She was holding her eyes so she wouldn't puke!
Halle and Boompa's favorite ride, the tea cups! I think we rode them 20 times!
Halle and Kylee riding the wild and crazy merry-go-round!
We rode the Tower of Terror. I am a horrible mom, I made Halle ride every ride...I told her it is like vegetables, you have to at least try them once! Needless to say, she HATED it, it scared the snot out of her! I am covering her eyes, and she was petrified! We sat out the other times Kylee and boompster and granny rode this one!
Not sure where this is, but something was funny!
Halle was UBER excited to ride "Screamin", she couldn't wait...Here she is on her first of MANY times riding it! I am pretty sure that they rode it 5 times in a row, not waiting 1 minute to get on the ride! My stomach could only take it twice in a row! Thank heavens for siblings and gramps!
It was crazy how much she loved this ride, she would totally psyche herself up to keeping her eyes open as they went upside down. I am pretty sure that one of the last times she went, she did actually keep her eyes open!
This is awful of me to say this, but I think one of the things I LOVED about this vacation - was that we didn't wait to see a single character. Infact I MADE my kids get a picture with Goofy, and Kylee was so mortified excited, that she even put on a smile!
Club 33 in Disneyland, it is hidden back by Pirates of the Carribean. It is a private club for celebrities. Pretty cool, if you stay there and watch you can see people come in and out.
We decided that since we had been on EVERY.SINGLE.RIDE at least 50 times that we would visit Toon Town. I couldn't remember how badly I hate that place. I was quickly, or not so quickly reminded as we stood in the longest line of the whole vacation (25 minutes) to ride the STUPID totally awesome Roger Rabbit ride. We then visited Minnie's house, and promptly left Toon Town, never to return again.
Halle waiting to see the World of Color. This was one of the coolest things I have ever seen! It was a huge water show in California Adventure that shows pictures onto the huge water fountain thingy's. Not sure how to explain it, but it was cool!
Halle, my mom, and I drove into Los Angeles to have lunch at the American Girl store. I thought it would be such a fun thing for Halle, since she is totally into AG dolls right now. She had been saving her money for the last year to spend there.
We sat out on the Veranda and had lunch. It was a COMPLETE waste of money if I do say so myself! She was so excited to spend her money that she hardly ate a thing. It was WAY overpriced, and hardly any food. BUT, after we ate she had all the time in the world to spend her money. She couldn't decide for the life of her how she was gonig to spend it.
After an hour of looking around- I informed her that we needed to leave or I was going to kill myself, or we would get stuck in traffic! She decided on the Cupcake stand, it took all of her money, and she couldn't have been more happy!
We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel (which was under re-model), they have a super nice pool, and the nights we swam there wasn't another soul in the pool.
Kylee, Cade, & Hal riding the Monorail into Disneyland
Halle a little nervous about "driving" the Autotopia car...she didn't realize that she wasn't actually going to drive off the cliff and kill us!
Once again on the tea cups...big thumbs up!
We went to the Disney drawing class one day, and we learned how to draw Minnie Mouse, here are their final drawings.
The last day we were there we let the kids sleep in-they were literally out until I woke them up at 8:30!
It actually worked out perfect- the room we were in had 2 Queen beds, and a couch. The original plan was to have Cade sleep in my parents room (we had adjoining rooms). Then we realized that my parents beds were Queen beds...and you know how you are when you are old, you can't sleep in a Queen bed (I didn't realize that this was a rule, but apparently so). The point to this story is that Kylee and Hal shared a bed, Clay and I shared a bed (shocker), and we made Cade a bed on the couch. It was perfect. They turned down his bed each night and gave him his own chocolates!
The token photo infront of Mickey. Cade forgot his hat apparently, and um I guess I forgot to comb his hair! Nice!
Hal and Minnie!
Cade and Clay driving behind us in Autotopia
We flew home on the 7:35 flight. I didn't realize when I made the flight plans that we were losing an hour...our flight was late...Hal fell asleep on the plane...she was exhausted!
It was a great trip, we had to much fun, we are at such a fun stage in life!
I am so thankful that we were able to pull this off...my kids are just getting older!
