Disney Day 3

After a super adventurous first day at California Adventure, the kids were so excited to go to actual DISNEYLAND. With all their Disney Jr. and Pixar characters, California Adventure still felt like Disneyland- but I was excited to take them to the real thing. We started out with an awesome Breakfast with the Characters (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!!!) and it was such a cool experience. There were SO many characters and the breakfast was awesome. 

Captain Hook was a pretty funny guy- he had to use his hook to hold the kids books down. Eeyore was probably the favorite- he was so sweet with his bashfulness. I don't know how we missed a picture with the Fairy Godmother, but we loved her too! She was so sweet. Grandpa Carbonneau might have that picture- I'll have to ask!

We tried to make some plans about what rides and fast passes to do next and ventured off to get some fast passes for Splash Mountain and then hit a different ride, but with a 10 minute wait we decided to go on it. Bentley and I couldn't go on so we decided to stay back and at the last minute Macy decided she was too scared and she was going to go on rides with us. The two kids and I went on the Winnie-The-Pooh ride and then sat and waited for the others. Macy was SO mad that we went on one ride and then had to sit and wait. She thought we were going to go on a bunch of rides while they went on their one and was VERY grumpy with me. When they got off the ride she was basically in tears and had to have a good heart to heart with Dad before this turned into a big thing. She didn't love that we went on Winnie-The-Pooh AGAIN (for the others in our group that didn't go yet) but it helped her decide she was just going to go on the big rides with London. London LOVED Splash Mountain and was so happy that she decided to go. 

We figured with little kids we would spend a lot of time in Toon Town and Fantasy Land- and Toon Town gets CROWDED fast, so we went over there. The line for It's a Small World was only 10 minutes so we jumped in there. On Kyle's school trips we have a late policy for meeting times- for every minute that you're late, you have to ride It's a Small World. If you are two minutes late, you have to ride twice- if you're 10 minutes late you ride it 10 times in a row. The first year we didn't have a single kid late- ever! The year, we had a few kids like 3 minutes late and they learned their lesson with that. As they ran up the whole group would sing "It's a Small World After all...." We had to get a selfie with the ride and let everyone know we were just going on it for fun- we weren't late for anything :) 

I love this picture that Kyle got of the two kiddos- pure Disney aw :) 

Next up- Toon Town! The kids were having tons of fun just playing in the houses and cars but really quit decided they wanted to just go on more rides- I was so proud. What's Disney without the rides?! The hit the Roger Rabbit Ride and then over to the Go-Gadget Rollercoaster. We were SO excited that Bentley go actually go on that one. I stepped to the side and Bentley went with Kyle and then London rode- they all loved the little coaster.

We asked the kids whether or not they wanted to go hit some more houses (Mickey, Minnie) or go on rides and they picked rides- so off we went! We saw the Storybook Land ride wasn't very long so we went on that. What a deceiving little line that is. It makes you think about 10 times they you're almost there but NOPE. We waited in line for probably 30 minutes and thought it would only be a few. The girls got to be the "whale watchers" and sit on the very front of the boat- they loved it.

We had some fast passes for the Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters and my parents had some for Space Mountain that we needed to use and off to Tomorrow Land we went. The kids LOVED Astro Blasters- of course. It's my favorite :) So fun!

By this time it was about noon and HOT outside. Ice cream for lunch it was! We needed to wait for Grandma and Grandpa and my hands were getting SWOLLEN. The ice cream was SO yummy and I'm really grateful we asked for cups AND cones. Most of out ice cream would have landed on the floor had we not had the cups, it got drippy pretty fast. Macy kept complaining that he legs were hot and I'm sure they were, it was pretty hot outside. The kids found the little shade they could.

After ice cream and getting back in touch with Grandma and Grandpa, we went over to Fantasy Land where we stayed most of the rest of the day. We hit the carousel (even ME! But there doesn't need to be photo documentation of that and my big ol' pregnant belly) and pretty much every single ride in Fantasy Land. Somewhere in there Grandma, Kyle, London, and Macy went on Star Tours while Bentley, Grandpa, and I went on Peter Pan and another ride, but we went on them again with the girls.

All day long we were also searching for our Easter Eggs to put stickers on the chart. The kids really loved this part of the trip and were always so excited to put their stickers on the eggs. Kyle got an especially cute picture of London and Grandma skipping while they looked for eggs. Too cute!

We finally found a ride that our whole family fit on! Alice in Wonderland! That was pretty exciting!

Kyle had a brilliant idea with souvenirs- if the kids ever said "I want this!" then we took a picture. After the whole trip we flipped through the pictures and the kids told me what they wanted. Then at the end of the day Kyle took the kids back to the hotel and I went and bought the one thing they decided they wanted. Poor London would have come home with these ADORABLE ears if I would've let her. I couldn't spent $30 (!!!!) on pink sparkly Minnie Ears that she would probably want to wear the church every Sunday. I wanted her to get something she could actually play with (and under $20!!) She did look stinkin' cute in them though, and they were TOTALLY London ears.

A must at Disney is the teacups- I took one for the team and sat out for pictures but the kids and Kyle sure had fun!

The sun started going down and boy was I grateful- it was such a hot day. We finished up Fantasy Land with trying to pull the sword out of the stone and then went over to the Finding Nemo ride in Tomorrow Land. Bentley didn't last long after the sun set. He was TIRED. The girls LOVED Finding Nemo and kept asking me if we were really in the ocean. A shark would come and they would squeal and get nervous. Disney is so fun with kids. As the carts of glowing things came out my Mom pulled out these super cool twirling toys for the kids. They were a huge hit and our kids still play with them to this day. I really wanted the kids to go on Pirates of the Carribean so Kyle and sleeping Bentley went and found a spot for the parade (he found an AWESOME bench!) and we all went on the Pirates. They kept asking me if we were inside or outside- Macy was so confused "I see a house and stars and lights, but Mom- we went inside a building! Are we inside or outside?!" I'm the worst liar but would not kill the magic so I just kept saying "It's cool huh?!" and "Whatever you think we are, we are!" :) 

After Pirates we found Kyle just in time to sit down for the coolest light parade I've ever seen. I'm not one for taking pictures of parades, but this was seriously cool. In maters truck were thousands of light bulbs that danced to their music- they were AMAZING. Little Mermaid was pretty cool too- they were all SO cool!

My Mom and Dad and I went and did the souvenir shopping while Kyle took the kids back to the hotel- he is such a smart guy, that saved so much time by not taking the kids/stroller through all the stores. My parents have Year-Passes to Disney so we got to use their discount for buying all the things- awesome! I got a Disney zip-up hoodie, Bentley got Big Hero 6 toys, London got a super cute baby Ariel, and Macy got a Anna and Elsa doll that pretty much became a failure- but more on that in a minute. My parents had parked in the parking lot (free with their season pass!), we made a quick stop to Subway, and then dropped me off at our hotel. Kyle and I watched some Jimmy Fallon while eating our midnight subs and then off to sleep we went!

We hopped the kids would sleep in the next morning and luckily we got to sleep till around 7 and then they were bright eyed and bushy tailed. We passed out the kids toys and got two YAYs and one Nay. Apparently Macy wanted the Elsa with JUST the Elsa- but I got the Elsa with Anna. They come with different pieces apparently. She made such a fit about it I really wanted to give the toy to London and just tell Macy "now you don't get anything." but I really wanted her to have something to take home from Disney. We needed to go to the Downtown Disney Easter Egg Hunt anyway, so we met up with my parents and took back Macy's toy and let her pick a new one. She walked away with a package of the fairies from the Tinkerbell movies. We went into the Lego store and Kyle found his souvenir- a big lego set! It was like $30 off and he was super excited for it. The kids played with the legos for a bit and got a little surprise from the lego worker- some legos to take home! While my Mom and get went and got the last of the eggs Kyle, my dad, and the kids put together their little lego sets.

I am so happy that we got to take our kids to Disneyland and let them enjoy it. It really is such a magical place and we love going. It's family friendly, clean, entertaining, and there is never nothing to do. I'm so glad that my parents were able to come and that the kids got to have them there to experience it with. It was a huge help to have others to go on rides with and extra sets of hands and eyes. Thank you for coming with us!

Disneyland is FUN! Day 1 & 2

This past January Kyle and I decided we really needed to take our kids on a vacation. We've taken them to Las Vegas (cousin's wedding) and to the valley a billon times, but we've never been on a real family vacation. We've always used the excuse "They are little, they won't remember it anyway" but even Bentley remembers things from a year ago that I would have never thought he would remember. Maybe in 20 years they won't remember a lot, but for now they'll all remember the experience and family time. We knew we wanted to take the kids to the beach so we started looking at different options in California on where to go. First we looked at San Diego, Lego Land, and Sea World and after looking at prices it would only cost about $50 more a day to go to Disneyland. When you're already spending the money anyway, you mine as well through the extra $50 in! That was that- we were going to Disneyland! Spring Break was looking like the best option so we booked our hotel and invited my parents along. We ended up telling the kids about 3 weeks before we went and I'm so glad that we told them. Half the excitement around here was the kids looking up Disneyland YouTube videos and deciding what rides they wanted to go on first. They were SO excited!

The trip started on Sunday. We went to church, ate dinner at Maries, and then loaded up the van to go to Buckeye. We got to my Mom's house where she had goodies for the kids, really it was more like a Disneyland stocking- these goodie bags were packed with all kinds of loot! They had crayons, coloring books, jelly beans, shirts, playdoh kits, lanyards, autograph books, and all kinds of other goodies. I'm still shocked that the kids slept that night, but after a good nights sleep we were off to California the next morning!

Our first stop was the beach! The kids Grandma and Grandpa Gardner served their mission in Tonga and Marie came home with shells the size of your face that the kids love to play with when they go to her house. I kept prepping the kids that they won't find those kind of shells at the beach we were going to which made the shell aspect a little anti-climatic for them. They did thoroughly enjoy putting their toes in the sand though, the second they saw it they whipped their shoes off! It took a little bit for the kids to get comfortable with putting their toes in the water, but we finally got them to let the water come up to the feet and then run away from it. They were loving it! It was so fun to watch them laugh and giggle at the waves. They were all having a ton of fun so I went and sat by my parents while Kyle ran with them in the waves. Everything was going great until a bigger wave came and literally took the kids feet underneath them; it was the saddest/ funniest thing! The wave came and all the kids got completely drenched. Kyle swooped up Bentley so it wouldn't take him and then started looking for London, Macy was crawling out of the water as fast as her arms and legs would go. They all came up in big crocodile tears cold and wet. London finally warmed up to the water again and went and ran with Kyle, but Macy and Bentley were both done. They came and sat by my parents and I and we played in the sand a little bit. Then we went back to the car to get the kids warm and a change of clothes and then walked up and down the pier to kill some time. There were some surfers that we enjoyed watching for a little bit. My mom anxiety was on full force and I was pretty paranoid about the kids falling off the pier, but everyone had a hand and I had to focus on breathing a lot- we got through it and the kids had a blast. :)

We all hoped back in the cars and made our way to the hotel. The kids were completely amazed with our hotel- Macy kept saying "This is the life!". We probably haven't had to stay in a hotel with the kids since before Bentley was born so this was a whole new experience for them. Macy kept telling me it was way different than she expected- she thought it was going to have a toy box maybe and a bed, but it has TWO beds AND a TV! It was pretty adorable. It's so fun to see new things in kids eyes. We brought it all the luggage, freshened up, and then met my parents at Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. It was my parents wedding anniversary and we tagged along to celebrate!

Side Note: We've stayed at this same Super 8 Motel the past 3 times we've gone to Disneyland with Kyle's students so we decided to just stay there again. We know the hotel, it's walking distance away from Disney, and a good price. I was going to just book two hotel rooms for us and my parents until I read the fine print that said only one parking space per reservation. With two cars, we needed two parking spaces. I called my dad, told him the hotel, and was on the phone with him when he booked his own room. Fast forward to Sunday night before we went to bed and my dad said something about the address of the Super 8 on Katella. I told him I wasn't sure of the exact cross roads but I knew it was the Super 8 on Disneyland Drive... well apparently there are 2 Super 8's. One on Katella and one on Disneyland Drive and we were staying at both... we booked different hotels! Bummer! We each had a 24 notice cancellation policy so we were stuck.

The kids were pretty good at the hotel, especially for all sleeping in the same bed, and woke up bright and early ready to go to Disneyland! They each got two new Disney shirts and were so excited to wear them Kyle took the kids down for breakfast while I finished getting ready. They were all chatter boxes and talking about the things they were excited to do.

When they came back we got their Disney water bottles (also in the Disney stocking), their lanyards, and autograph books all out. We stopped at the van and picked up the awesome sit-n-stand stroller that I borrowed from my friend Stormy, and off we went! We are pretty much the luckiest people ever and scored a few free tickets to Disney (from a friend of ours that works for Disney) and waited for my parents and our favorite Disney employees in between Disneyland and California Adventure. While we had some down time we laid out some trading pins that my Mom got off Amazon and let the kids each choose some to trade through out the day.

We got into the park and snatched a picture with Robin, said a billon thank you's, and headed over to get some fastpasses for Radiator Springs racers. Since the kiosk for them is right by It's a Bugs Land, we went through there to check the line for London's first choice, Tower of Terror. The line was pretty short and the fastpasses for for the next hour, so we decided to head over to Monster's Inc for our first ride all together. On the way we found Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and Frozone! The kids were a little star struck, but we got all out books out and they all got signatures. Everyone that could go on the big rides (everyone but Bentley and I) got in line for that while Bentley and I continued over to a It's a Bugs Land for the first CHURRO of the trip and a few rides we could do.

Bentley was loving life and the rides- the girls decided they were never going to go on Tower of Terror again. Pretty much the worst ride ever. We took them over to pretty much the slowest ride ever to help them realize how fun Disneyland was. The great thing about the little kid rides is the toddlers get to sit on laps, which means our uneven numbers weren't a problem most of the time.

After our group found out we got a churro they were pretty jealous, so we made a family churro stop. Raisin' kids how they should be raised. By this time we noticed that the Disney Jr. shows were starting and wanted to try and watch one so we headed over to Hollywood Land to see if we could catch a show. On the way we found Doc McStuffins (London's favorite!) and Jake (Bentley's favorite!) they were the big "we had to meet" so we were SO excited when we found them. After standing in line for them we barely made it into Disney Jr. show. They had the characters from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Doc Mcstuffins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Sophia the First- at one point in the show gold zabloons fell from the ceiling! The kids loved the show.

The figured the girls could use some little rides after the terrifying Tower of Terror experience, so we hit the Little Mermaid and then some space ride. The big kids went of Goofy's Flying School (my FAVORITE ride) and the girls didn't enjoy that one much. London said she didn't like the dips and Macy didn't like when it felt like you were going to fly off. While they all went on that Bentley and I jetted over to Soarin' Over California to get everyone fast passes. I'm not really sure why we couldn't go on that one, but we couldn't. We met back up, ate lunch in Cars Land (at the Cozy Cone- yum!!) we got a chili cone, a chili verde cone, and a macaroni and cheese cone that we passed around to everyone to share. Super yummy!

After lunch it was time for everyone to go use their fast passes so Bentley and I stayed in Cars Land to do some of the rides in there. The line for the first ride (Mater's Jamboree) was pretty quick but the line for Luigi's Dance Cars took forever. The ride kept breaking down. Luckily half the time we were in air conditioning, but Bentley was getting pretty restless. I was totally one of those parents that pulled out my phone to keep him entertained after an hour of waiting. The girls, Kyle, and my parents went on Radiator Springs, Soarin' Over California and ______________ and loved them all. Their favorite was Soain' Over California. They even got to meet Goofy and Mater!

The day was going quick and before we knew it, it was time to line up for the parade. Bentley was getting pretty tired and the girls just needed to relax for a minute. We found a bench and got some ice cream to hold us over while we waited for the parade to start. The kids all loved the parade with the music and dancers. Macy kept saying "This is the best parade I've ever seen!!" and she was totally right.

We stopped to eat at Flo's Diner where the kids all scarfed down their food. My sandwich wasn't the best, but Kyle's chicken was pretty good. We figured we had enough time for a ride or two more, so we went over to Toy Story Mania. The line was only 45 minutes and knew the kids would love it. We got on the ride and poor Macy's shooter wasn't working. I tried to get her to use mine but she was just sad. We got off and I let the worker know it wasn't working and they let us right back on so Macy could have a chance at the ride. I'm really glad she did because Macy was nothing but smiles, she had a lot of fun!  The kids noticed the carousel  on the way to Toy Story Mania and about lost their minds until we promised we would go after Toy Story. Then we tried to hit the big ferris wheel but they had already closed it for the World of Color. Instead we decided to stroll through Cars Land before we went back to the hotel, it is such a neat place at night time with all the neon! About this time we realized that we needed to finish up the Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt that we got at the beginning of the day! We got a little map and after you find all the eggs around the park you get a souvenir egg that you get to take home. They were way tricker than we thought they would be and we found a couple of people that were looking for them too. It took us a little while and more walking, but we got all our eggs!

The kids were totally wiped out by this point. Bentley fell asleep pretty early on and London fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. It was such a great day at Disney. At one point in the afternoon we had a couple breakdowns, but it was hot and it was easily overcome. It was actually a lot easier than I expected our day to be! At the hotel, the kids all went right to sleep. Day well spent!