(warning: it's a long post... Over 70 pictures long...)
About 2 months ago we announced to the kids that we were going to go to Disneyland right after Thanksgiving. Some good friends of ours, Rebekah and Josh offered to take Sophie for us most of the trip. I took her to their house Saturday night, since they lived about 40 minutes away and we'd be leaving so early the next morning. It was a little hard to say good-bye, but I didn't cry :)
Sunday, November 25th - Day 1
We got up and left by about 6:30am for our drive. The kids were so good in the car. They had plenty to entertain themselves with and we had lots of yummy snacks.
The drive went fairly well until we hit Las Vegas. Then all of a sudden it was bumper to bumper traffic. This is what it looked like pretty much the rest of the drive.
The kids were pretty patient, despite the slow progress we were making. It took us two hours to go from Las Vegas to the California boarder!
As the sun went down it made it even harder to tolerate. We still were pretty stop and go all the way to Anaheim. I hung paper towels up to keep the sun out of the kids eyes.
We finally made it to Anaheim about 8:00pm (a lot later than we'd thought). We walked over to Disneyland and picked up our tickets. Our hotel was right across the street, the Tropicana Inn.
We decided to put Jeff on the floor on an air mattress since he has the tendency to wet the bed when he's really tired. Good thing we did, because the first and last nights there he woke up wet :(
Lily and Cedric shared the bed.
Monday, November 26th - Day 2
The kids were up a little before 7am, which wasn't too bad considering the time change (in fact, they were up around 7:00 every morning, like little alarm clocks). We got up and headed to the park. Today was Disneyland! The weather was a little overcast, but reached 70, so it was pretty nice. The kids all got free backpacks with our "Get Away Today" package. (Funny side note, that night while in the park Cedric asked where his backpack was. I asked why he needed it and he said "because I need something to entertain me." As if Disneyland wasn't entertaining enough?)
Our first ride was the Jungle Cruise. Jeff was our timid one this trip and was even a little nervous for this ride. Lily was our ambitious one, and Cedric just did what we did.
The kids loved how they'd dressed up the Haunted Mansion and changed the ride to be themed after the show "The Nightmare Before Christmas". They'd been watching it in preparation for this ride.
Cedric's been really into Winnie the Pooh lately and was excited when Pooh and Eeyore were the first characters we saw.
The crowds were heavier than we'd expected, but overall it wasn't too bad. By mid afternoon Cedric was starting to get tired. He ended up falling asleep in Tom's arms and slept through the entire Finding Nemo Submarine ride!
We rode lots of rides and saw lots of characters. Little did we know, this would be the first time out of many that we saw Snow White.
That evening we waited for the Christmas parade. Tom had bought a bunch of glow stuff back home for a dollar, so we wouldn't have to get expensive ones in the park. The kids put on their glow goggles for the parade.
It didn't really feel like Christmas while there, but it was fun to hear Christmas music and see the awesome parade and decorations.
My favorite was It's A Small World lights. The picture just can't do justice. This was the ride we went on after the parade.
One hard thing on this trip was how early it got dark. That didn't stop us from having fun though!
That night we watched the firework show. It was amazing to me how well they coordinated the fireworks to the music.
Then it snowed! It was so awesome to see it 'snow' everywhere. It looked so real, but up close we realized it was just bubble foam. It smelled like cinnamon too!
The castle was awesome at night too. They did an amazing job with their decorations.
I had forgotten my jacket in the room and so I bought my first souvenir, a new Disney Jacket. I pretty much wore it the whole week!
We tried really hard to not spend a lot of money on food in the park. We had a continental breakfast with the hotel (which was just doughnuts and juice, so I ended up buying some yogurt, milk and oatmeal at Walmart to help supplement. The hotel room had a microwave and fridge, so it wasn't too bad). This first day we ate lunch in the park (ouch!) and after the parked closed at 8pm we went to Jack-in-the-Box for dinner. I also bought bread, peanut butter and jelly at the store which, along with the snacks and Capri Suns from home, provided us with a practically free lunch for the next two days. In fact, breakfast for a week and lunch for two days was $10 cheaper than just our one lunch that day in the park!
Tuesday, November 27th - Day 3
Today was California Adventure. Although I feel like Disneyland is the more classic park, I think I like California Adventure a little better.
We tried to hurry in and get Fast Passes for the new Cars ride, but the line was ridiculously long and Tom figured they'd all be gone by the time he got up to the machines. I took the kids straight to Radiator Springs (along with everyone else) and the crowds were crazy! So we deiced to try later and went to the other side of the park were we pretty much walked on every ride for the first hour. So our first ride was the Little Mermaid ride. This wasn't here the last time we came, in fact a lot of California Adventure was new to us.
We caught the Phineas and Ferb dance party and Lily loved taking part in the dancing!
The Robot
Here we are on the back row of Tower of Terror. Last time we came, Lily cried after this ride and Jeff loved it! This time, Lily loved it, but the boys were not to keen of visiting that ride again. Sadly enough, this ended up being our only time on this ride.
Bug's land is always a big hit with the kids.
By early afternoon we'd pretty much done everything that didn't have a long line and so we decided to head to Cars Land and fight the crowds. We grabbed our PB& J's to eat while in line for the Radiator Springs Racers, which ended up being an hour and a half wait! I was surfing the net on my iPhone while in line which ended up causing me to have a major headache. So by the time we got on the ride, my head hurt so bad it was hard to enjoy it. Unfortunately, I felt it was not worth the wait. Then we lost our stroller and took over ten minutes trying to find where it had been moved.
I pretty much had my headache the rest of the day, so I sat on a bench to save some seats for the Pixar Parade while Tom and the kids did a few other things. Funny enough, there was hardly anyone in our area of the street watching the parade, so I really didn't need to save seats. It was great to be able to see so well!
We stayed until closing and watched the World of Color water show (although we didn't have the best spot and it was hard to see). Cedric ended up falling asleep during the show and wouldn't wake up even for dinner at IHOP. We got him to eat at least his eggs, then I took my dinner to go and walked back to the hotel to put him to bed while Tom stayed at the restaurant with the other kids.
Wednesday, November 28th - Day 4
We decided to go back to California Adventure again, since our early morning passes were only good for Disneyland on a Tues. or Thurs. This time we were a bit smarter. Tom went to wait in line early and as soon as they let him in he got into the Fast Pass line for Radiator Springs Racers. Then I came when the park "officially" opened and found Tom in the line to pass on our tickets he'd need to get the passes. Then the kids and I did a few rides while we waited for Tom. They picked the Little Mermaid ride as their first ride again.
All the kids loved looking for hidden Mickeys. Here's one Lily found made out of the ornaments on the tree.
On Tuesday California Screamin' was closed a lot so we never made it on. But as soon as Tom met up with us (Fast Passes in hand for Cars) we went on it. Jeff was tall enough, but too scared. Cedric was too short, so Lily and I went on it, then Tom and Lily went on it again with the stroller pass. Here's Tom and Lily, second from the back.
Lily loved the ride and was sad Jeff didn't want to try it.
We went back to Cars Land, it's just so cute how they designed it after Radiator Springs in the movie.
Here's all of us with Mater.
We ate our PB&J at the Cozy Cone. I was so proud we didn't buy a single treat in the parks the whole week!
We only waited in line for 15 minutes for the Radiator Springs Racers with our Fast Passes. MUCH better than the day before. Plus I didn't have my headache anymore, so the ride was much more enjoyable and well worth it. Tom and Lily went back and did the single rider line and rode it a third time in a matter of minutes.
I'd have to say weather wise and crowd wise Wednesday was our best day. We made it over to California Screamin' to use some more Fast Passes. Lily ended up riding it six times that day!
Rebekah sent me a text of Sophie bathing in her sink. She kept standing up to look at her reflection in the mirror. Since I'd only texted Rebekah a few times it was nice to actually see Sophie and know she was having fun. I loved having that picture to see whenever I was missing her (which wasn't too often. Sorry Sophie).
We played around in the cool Wilderness Explorers playground. The kids could've spent all day there on rope bridges, slides, magic caves, zip-lines and rock-walls.
However, we had to go because we had reservations at Goofy's Kitchen for dinner that night.
Goofy's kitchen is a little pricey, but we got it a little cheaper through "Get Away Today" and I felt like the entertainment of characters was well worth the money. The food was pretty good too.
We saw Chip...
Minnie Mouse...
Of course Goofy, being goofy. He stuck Cedric's sticker on his nose.
Dale... (Lily kept giving all the characters kisses, so Dale gave her one back. I love her reaction!)
Pluto...
Snow White (again) and Aladdin. Don't tell Jasmine...
(I felt so bad because I had a persistent cough that I came down with the week before and it stuck with me through the whole trip. I didn't have much a voice, couldn't scream on the rides and at night I couldn't talk without coughing. So at Goofy's Kitchen I felt so embarrassed whenever my cough would flare up again.)
Needless to say it was fun, but it was late and the kids were tired. Low and behold Cedric didn't fall asleep that day in the parks, but after dinner Jeff zonked in the stroller on our walk back to the hotel.
Thursday, November 29th - Day 5
Thursday was our magic morning where we got to go into the park an hour early. We hit Fantasy Land First since we hadn't made it there much on Monday.
It was a standing joke that Tom and I would often give Cedric kisses (he's so cute and cuddly, it's hard to resist) and Cedric would always say back "I don't like kisses, Mom (or Dad)!" So here's Cedric giving Tom a kiss while waiting in line for a ride.
The kids were getting harder to control in lines the more days we're there. They kept climbing on things and teasing each other. It was frustrating at times and we'd try to make up games to keep them occupied.
There was a sort of mist in the air all day and although it didn't really rain, it was wet enough that some things were shut down for the day. One of those things was the Jedi Training Academy, where young children are trained in the force of the Jedi and then take turns fighting Darth Vader. This was something Cedric really wanted to do, but unfortunately they cancelled it. We still got to meet Darth Vader and some storm troopers as well as some Jedi knights. Lily and Jeff even used the force to push the storm troopers back :)
We also made our first visit to Toon Town. The kids could've spent all day here too.
However, we spent about a half hour waiting in line to meet Mickey.
After that long wait we were hungry and Tom was done in Toon Town long before the rest of us, so he left the park and got nuggets and fries from McDonald's across the street to bring back. We then met up for another cheap lunch.
Here's the castle during the day with the 'snow' on top. Lily and Jeff are posing as reindeers, I don't know what Cedric's posing as...
One of our favorites! Arr Matey!
Because of the wetter day Splash Mountain had hardly any line. We went on it twice in a row.
The kids were excited to run into Jack Skelington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. And actually, he was one of my favorite characters to meet as well. He had a great conversation with the kids about Halloween and was fun to talk to.
Tom and the girls (#3 Snow White, for the record).
Disneyland had an amazing giant tree at the end of Main Street. It was awesome!
When trying to decide what to do for dinner, the kids picked IHOP again. Since two of our kids ate free, Tom and I didn't mind. This time Cedric was awake to enjoy it.
Friday, November 30th - Day 6
This day we got up super early as the park opened at 8:00 compared to the 10:00 time the other mornings. Again it was misty, but not raining... yet.
We saw many princesses at the Fantasy Fair, Arial, Jasmine, Aurora, and yep, Snow White.
Sadly we planned on going to Tom Sawyers Island that day knowing it would be more crowded of a day, but it was closed due to the weather. So we took a ride around on the river boat instead. By the time we got off it was raining a bit.
Riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the rain is a whole new adventure.
It kept raining. Here we are in line for the Winnie the Pooh ride. Although the ride is indoors, it loads outdoors and the seats were more like puddles. When the ride mimics the 'rain, rain, rain comes down, down, down' we felt like we were really there in the flooded Hundred Acre Wood.
At first we were just wet, not cold. In fact we went on Splash Mountain and no more than a half dozen people were on it. we walked right on and I honestly think we got wetter walking to the ride than on it. We finally started getting wet enough that it was starting to get cold. So we pulled out some cheap ponchos and put those on (we should've done that after the river boat, duh). They did help a little though.
We tried to do a few more things, mainly indoor rides and shows, but we were getting hungry and not any drier. So we left the park and went to the McDonald's across the street again. They had blow dryers in the bathrooms, so that was nice to dry off a bit using those. Then we headed back to the hotel, threw all our wet clothes in the hotel dryers, set our wet shoes upside-down on the heater in the room and put our pj's on for a bit. Our goal was to take naps so the kids would have enough energy to make it through Fantasmic that night. Cedric and I were the only ones that really napped. So after a bit Tom took the older two back over to California Adventure while I let Cedric sleep a bit longer.
Low and behold the rain had stopped. We took ponchos, jackets, & sweatshirts expecting it to be cold that night, but it ended up being our warmest night the whole week. Jeff decided he was no longer scared of California Screamin' and went on it twice with Tom and Lily.
Then when Cedric and I met up with them he went on it a third time with me. That made nine times for Lily! It was our favorite ride!
We went back over to Cars Land to get a good look of it at night. Tom took this panoramic photo of the main street down Radiator Springs.
That night we met up with my good friend, Laura who lives in California now and has a season pass to Disneyland. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture with her, but she hung out with us the rest of the night.
We went back to the Animation Studios. I love this place! You can talk to the sea turtle, Crush, get your voice stolen from Ursula, the Sea Witch, or learn how to draw Disney characters. We'd already drawn Jack Skelington and Phineas & Ferb, but this time we learned how to draw Tigger. Since Cedric was Tigger for Halloween, he's one of his favorite characters right now. We sat on the front row of the 'class' and even Cedric did really well following along on how to draw Tigger. At the end the teacher presented her drawing to one of the audience. This time she gave her picture to Cedric! Here he is holding his drawing standing next to the artists drawing.
We left California Adventure and went back over to Disneyland again. Despite the earlier rain and smaller crowds, the evening was quite crowded. Typical for a Friday, I'm sure.
Sadly they still cancelled the Fantasmic show. I was so sad. We ended up eating dinner at a nice restaurant on Main Street. Laura had a co-worker give her a Disney gift card with some money still on it, and Laura was able to use her season pass discount on the meal, so it actually ended up being a pretty inexpensive meal.
It started to get late and we still needed to do our souvenir shopping. We'd hardly let the kids even look in the gift shops until that last day, and we were purposely waiting to shop with Laura so we could take advantage of her discount again. By the time we finished shopping and parted ways, it was 11:30pm. It had been a long day and Jeff fell asleep in the stroller again.
Saturday, December 1st - Day 7
The week was over. We ate one last breakfast in the room. The kids were sad to go. Cedric even cried when he realized we were done. He'd grown to love our 'Disneyland house' as he'd called it.
The drive home was a lot better than the drive out as far as traffic goes. We stopped off in a small town somewhere and they had a very fancy urinal fountain in the gas station men's room.
We made it to St. George around 8pm and made camp at my Aunt & Uncle's house there. We quickly ate our Papa Murphy's pizza, then headed to the club house swimming pool in the neighborhood. The kids had so much fun despite it being almost 10pm. And the jets in the hot tub were so relaxing!
I also took advantage of the washing machine and got all our trip laundry done that night too.
Sunday, December 2nd - Day 8
The last day we slept in a bit while the kids played air hockey and with their new souvenirs in the basement. Then we went to church for the sacrament. We had to do a bit of cleaning around the house before we left and the kids had fun playing outside while Tom and I did the cleaning. Then we stopped at Cafe Rio for lunch and headed home.
I dropped off Tom and the kids at home and quickly drove to my sister's house to pick up Sophie. My dad had taken her from Josh & Rebekah Friday night into Saturday, then my sister, Aimee and her family took her from Saturday until Sunday. When I held Sophie for the first time after eight days, this was her reaction...
She wanted nothing to do with me at first. But once we got home and she started to recognize things, she was much happier.
Now I need to put together our Disney alphabet book. We thought it'd be fun for our scrapbook to make it a book about something we saw/did starting with every letter of the alphabet. Here's the list of some of the things we're including in our book...
It was such a fun week! The kids are already talking about the next time we go to Disneyland (which will probably be in about three years). It was a great way to kick off the Holidays, grow closer as a family, and make fond memories!
