Hey, let's go on vacation... day 3

We got up bright and early, ate breakfast at the hotel (we love Holiday Inn Express for this reason) and walked to the happiest place on Earth. You know what? I believe that it is.

I may or may not have been REALLY excited. I may or may not have gotten us there an hour before the gates opened. We may or may not have seen a lady trip over a crack in the pavement and break her arm I kid you not. Don't you worry, the happy employees of The Mouse, who were wearing uniforms straight out of a Mickey Mouse cartoon helped her.

Holding our place in line... sorry guys, I was really excited and really wanted to get there...

But don't you worry, we made it inside, used our generic fast track passes, and rode every ride of our desire. And guess what? We only had tears on ONE ride. Splash Mountain. We made them go anyway. If you'll remember, last time we went to Disneyland we had tears on EVERY ride, so much so, that a ride conductor gave Tay a flashlight on the Snow White ride. THE SNOW WHITE ride!

This year was much better.

And Cas and Tay bought super cute mini mad hatter hats.

We took a lot of pictures in Toon Town while we were killing time for our Roger Rabbit ride fast passes to time out.

I love this one ha ha:

We went inside Mickey's house:

And we had no idea, but going into Mickey's house is deceiving, that which looks fairly small, went on and on and on... until suddenly there we were, primping to meet The Mouse himself:

I'm just thankful I'm not the only one with this problem:

Why is it that every time we go to Disneyland, our kids end up passed out on the pavement?

But it was oh so worth it. We watched "Fantasmic" and I just can not give it justice. I was cussing that I had to take pics on my phone. You need to go see this show!

The pirate ship came out of nowhere and fired a canon shot, no one was paying attention to it coming and the crowd collectively ducked. It was awesome!

That's a life size Mickey there... which means that dragon from Sleeping Beauty that was blowing real fire every where was HUGE.

My favorite detail of the show? The black and white Mickey driving the steamboat... Steamboat Willie!

When can we go again?

California Day 7: Disneyland day 3

This was a fun day. One, we were exhausted, but two, we'd done a lot of new things, and we'd made the complete rounds of Disneyland, so today was all ours to take our time and re-ride (and re-ride, and re-ride, and re-ride (ahem, pirates of the Caribbean...)) all of our favorites. It was fun to see what everyone kept asking for. Majority of us kept going back to Space Mountain. The VERY last run of the day we finally got Tayler to go on it, and she now claims it to be her favorite part of the trip (along with West, Jayme, and Sean). Casidee liked Thunder Mountain, and Cali and Brynn favored the Matterhorn. I'm Pirates all the way, but I did enjoy Splash Mountain.
By this day we knew the park inside and out and had come to discover Cali's personal interpretation of this sign which is on EVERY ride. Ask Cali and she'll tell you it means no dancing on the ride. (But it's totally OK to hold hands on it).
I'd threatened West with it the entire trip. We decided to hit it first thing on the last morning so at least we weren't waiting in a long line for it. It's a Small World. Come on, the kids have to go on it at least ONCE in their lives, if only to understand all the jokes about it. (Yes, those are penguins dancing above Brynn's head in the ride ha ha). Really, the detail in there is amazing, if you can get past the song.
Trying to get Excalibur out of the stone.
Today was the day. We were going to see a princess if it killed us... or if it meant standing in a line for an hour. I wish I were exaggerating, sadly I'm not. Cinderella got confused when she asked if they were all sisters... I finally jumped in and explained that Jayme's dad and I are dating. She was super cute, and very sweet with all the girls. Sleeping Beauty didn't say much, but she's a favorite in our group so SCORE.
Ariel was hilarious, again we needed to make clarification on how we all fit together, but Ariel was quick to speak of all seven of her sisters, and she could even fire off their names for us. She and Jayme had a funny stand off when talking about siblings.
Group hug!At one point in the afternoon we caught the ferry to Tom Sawyer's Island and let the kids discover all the pirate stuff that's on it. West promptly found a spot, kicked off his shoes, and fell asleep.Hee hee, this next photo is me trying to get a "no flash photography please" of Jack Sparrow inside the pirate ride.Cali wouldn't be happy if we left Disneyland without letting them ride the huge carousel.
Actually, I think the teacups were Brynn's favorite. She wanted to end with riding them on her own. Overall we had the time of our lives. The kids were exhausted but all such good troopers about it. I think they realized as much as West and I did that this may very well have been a once in a lifetime trip for us, seeing EVERYTHING that we did. Hey, when the package is right, jump on it. I'm so proud of my girls especially branching out and trying new things that made them scared. In the end, they found that they really enjoyed it.

California Day 5: Disneyland day 2

Are you tired of reading about our never ending vacation yet? I think the kids were beginning to feel like this was the never ending vacation. Can't say that I blame them though, here we are on day FIVE and the end is not yet in sight. We started out with a few rides in Disneyland before the crowds set in. Tayler was bawling about the simplest rides. The lady working the Snow White ride (oh yes, the Snow White ride. The simple one where it just takes you around and basically shows you the story line) gave Tayler a flashlight to take into the ride with her because she was crying so hard about getting on it. Oh brother. Here's a couple of pictures of the morning: Watch out! The whale is going to eat you just like Pinocchio... no worries though. Pinocchio made him sneeze his tail of so we just came out the other end.
After the crowds and lines started forming in Disneyland we decided to cross over to California Adventures. Hey! It's Goofy. Doesn't he know he's on the wrong side? It's all good by us.
West bee lined for the Tower of Terror. What do you know, height restrictions hit us again. But only Sean was willing to go. We decided to child swap and West entered in with Sean at his side. The girls and I wandered off to see what we could see. Look who we found by the bathroom.
Pictures break up the boredom of waiting.
At this point Brynn stands behind Wall-e. "Do something different Brynn. We have a million of the same picture." Uh... yeah, way to be creative there kid. That pose standing SLIGHTLY behind him is much different than standing DIRECTLY behind him.West and Sean didn't ever actually make it onto the Tower of Terror. Sean was panicking and the bailed with the intent that when we met up with Suzann and Lindee, we'd take turns watching kids and riding with them. We never made it back over. Waiting for the muppets 3-D show. Yes, yet another 3-D show. But the atmosphere was fun. You can't expect anything less from the muppets.
We found the mission tortilla place where we watched the make tortillas and then they handed us each one, hot off the grill (or rather hot off the giant hot plate). We tried to go on some rides but my girls (minus Cali) were whining and literally crying that they didn't want to go on the rides. It was a little harder in California Adventure because the height restrictions were taller and we just didn't have enough adults for children (even just the ones willing to ride). It was at this point that West came up with a brilliant reward plan. The kids had seen a lot of other kids walking around Disneyland with all sorts of creative Mickey Mouse ears on their heads, and they had their hearts set on a pair. Well... those ears are for kids who actually ride rides. So I guess if you guys want some you better start riding. We got them on one in California Adventure, and then in frustration over the height restrictions gave up on the place and crossed over to slightly more friendly kid height territory. From that point the kids rode ALL the rides with threats of ears hanging over them. What do you know? Casidee found she actually LOVES roller coasters. And Brynn and Tayler, after trying each and everyone, where allowed to say "sure it was fun, but I'm not doing it again." Yeah right. Like I'm going to let you get away with sitting every ride out again!
Some of the kids wanted to see Star Tours again. Being as it's a simulator, and those things make me so incredibly sick, I took a pass on this round. I can't remember who sat it out with me, I think it was either Brynn or Tayler... or both. Wait, it was Tayler and Cali because they needed a bathroom break. When we met up with the rest of them West tells me they were in line, and the kids were bouncing around on the railings, as they have been doing the entire week (we heard one mom tell her kids, "this is a line, no having fun!"), when Casidee's flip flop fell off and down below the walk way that they were on. West looks down at the shoe, and then at Cas, "you're mom is going to be so pissed." They continue on down the line for a bit when West gets an idea. He takes Sean back down the line to the spot where the shoe was lost and lowers Sean upside down by his ankles over the railing. Sean reaches as far as he can and grabs the shoe. West pulls him up and Sean proudly holds the flip flop into the air. Everyone around them in the line started cheering and clapping. Mom didn't have to get pissed after all. Next time I go on vacation I'm super gluing my children's shoes to their feet.
Lindee packed Cali around a lot. The poor girl was just dragging, as we all were. Here, Lindee decided that Cali should be giving her a piggy back ride instead.
On our way out of the park that night we stopped at a store on "Main Street" and the proud ride riders picked out their ears. Except Cali who was dead asleep in Lindee's arms, but she'd talked about it enough that we knew which ones she wanted. They proudly wore them across the street to IHOP where we fell asleep over pancakes before walking the two blocks to our hotel. Ears on the whole way.