Disneyland Vacation

This past week we have been in Disneyland and it has been great! We left at 4:45 am last Saturday (although very few there are some advantages of being an insomniac). We picked up Grandma and Grandpa T and drove all day and reached our hotel that afternoon. When we got there I discovered they charged $20 extra a night for a roll away bed. Being the frugal (aka tightwad) person I am I asked if how much an extra crib would be and found it was no extra charge. I am embarrassed to say that's where my almost 4 year old Daniel slept. In my defense he mostly fit inside it and he didn't seem to care so that makes it ok, right?!? Anyway, our hotel was within walking distance to the park and we were able to watch the fireworks from our balcony which was an added bonus. We even got adjoining rooms with G&G T which was nice for us even though the boys loved knocking on their adjoining door every chance they got. That night we packed all our day packs so we could spend the next day in Disneyland. I bought each kid their own fanny pack and sewed it to fit their waist. I filled it full of snacks and water so we wouldn't hear any complaints about being hungry and it worked. I also found a great book that had very organized itineraries just for Disneyland so you could be efficient and yet get to see and do everything--I admit I am a nerd. Anyway the next morning we set out for Disneyland with the itinerary in my hand only for it to be lost somewhere along the way. I didn't realize it was missing until we got in the park so we just had to wing it. We started out at Space Mountain. In hindsight that probably wasn't the smartest thing to take Matthew on very first. Throughout the rest of the day we had to bribe and coax him to go on different rides until he found his all time favorite ride--Autopia. After he discovered that ride, that's all he wanted to do. After five days of riding the Autopia track it is ok if we never see an Autopia car again! He did enjoy parts of Fantasy land such as Peter Pan, Snow White, etc. , but his all time favorite was Autopia. Josh as always was Kamikaze Josh. He loved EVERYTHING especially anything scary or any roller coaster. His favorite ride was the Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror. They show you a Twilight Zone movie about an elevator being electrocuted and then you get into the crazy elevator to unexpectedly free fall 13 stories and bounce up to free fall again. He has no fear about anything! He was tall enough to go on most everything except for one ride and it about broke his heart to not ride it. Daniel liked every ride he was tall enough to go on especially Astro Blasters (Buzz Lightyear). He even liked Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion after Grandma T explained to him they weren't real ghosts. Daniel was a pretty good sport about not being able to go on some of the rides which was nice. Sarah loved the Carousel. She would giggle every time it started and the horse would move up and down. Sarah spent most of the time in the stroller since she couldn't go on too many rides. She came up with her own entertainment, however. She figured out she could reach into the basket under the stroller and pull things out. I lost a pair of sunglasses and who knows what else because she would pull it out and drop it as we were walking. If we didn't see right when she did it, we never saw what was dropped until it was lost. We had a five day park hopper pass and we took advantage of it. I brought my pedometer just because I was curious. We averaged about 12 hours and walked about 10 miles inside the park every day. By the time we returned to the hotel at night we were EXHAUSTED! It even wore Matthew out to the point he slept during the morning chaos of getting ready which says A LOT since he always seems to have limitless energy. Daniel even fell asleep waiting in line on Grandpa's shoulders with drool and all.

Our first breakfast in the hotel's breakfast room didn't go over so well. It was very tiny and not equipped to handle a family with more than 2 boisterous children. After much spilling, yelling, playing with the lights and the door which would lock when closed (and the kids were pretty bad as well) the other mornings we had breakfast in our room. Grandpa T who is an early bird and our alarm clock would go prepare us breakfast and bring it up to our room to eat where it could be a little more organized and quiet. It was very nice.

While we were there Aaron and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. We put the kids to bed and G & G T listened out for them while I, Aaron and Sarah went and enjoyed a couple hours in the park. Sarah protested loudly when we tried to leave her with the other kids; also since she only loves to nurse and no one has the proper equipment but me, she got to tag along. It was nice to have somewhat of a date even if Sarah was the third wheel.

We got to see some Disney characters off and on throughout our visit. Josh even got a picture with Mr. Incredible. Afterward he said, "I don't think he's real. I think he's wearing a costume." Aaron asked him why he thought that and then hurriedly changed the subject. Josh is getting too smart for his own good!

Of course you can't have together time without a few embarrassing moments. Here are just a few that we had to endure. One night we were watching fireworks from our balcony. In front of our balcony door we had some tall trees so we moved down a few doors to be able to see the fireworks. After a few minutes Daniel decided he had enough and ran back inside our room or so he thought. He ran into someone else's room and ran all the way through their room and into their adjoining room door which happened to be open as well. This meant I couldn't see him and he couldn't hear me yelling for him to get out. I didn't know quite what to do. I could either walk into a stranger's room looking for my lost kid or I could try and find the owner and ask him to find my kid. I decided on the latter and the owner was more than happy to get some strange kid out of his room. Another moment happened when we were in the busy sidewalk in front of the hotel. My mom and I were talking when a lady with her arms full of luggage came walking up. Josh went and stood right in front of her and told her to stop with his arm outstretched. Josh decided out of the blue he would start directing traffic and this poor lady with her hands completely full of luggage was his first victim. I bet she loved that.

Our last day of vacation we decided to head over to the beach. The water was a balmy 60 degrees. Needless to say it was too cold and we didn't do any swimming, but we did walk along the shore finding sea shells and clams. We also saw a jelly fish and a sting ray swimming in the water. Sarah loved playing the sand. Josh loved playing in the waves. Daniel and Matthew loved chasing the seagulls. Daniel would only get near the waves if Grandpa was carrying him on his back. It was a fun, relaxing day. That afternoon after returning from the beach we found a discount Disney outlet store just down the road from our hotel where we bought some souvenirs. All in all it was a pretty fun vacation.