Best trip ever! I could never figure out why people that went to Disneyland were so passionate about it, and now I know. That place is truly magical.
However, it didn't start out in the best way. The first day we were waiting for our bus to come, and Peter puked all over. Back to the hotel room to clean up, then back to waiting for the bus. We finally did get there and the kids were so excited. Okay, we all were :)
To start off I wanted a classic picture in front of the castle. The sun was right in our eyes, so I think Hattie opened her mouth huge in an effort to help open her eyes. Ha ha!
Right when we got into Disneyland we got to meet a bunch of the classic characters. There couldn't be a better way to start a trip off then having Minnie Mouse dote over your kids. It was fantastic!
Through the Sleeping Beauty castle and off to the rides. My goal was to take a tonne of pictures of everything, including the rides, but I was too awe struck and having too much fun to even think of my camera. First ride: Peter Pan. So awesome. Definitely rated among everyone's top ride at the end of the trip. Then deeper into the park! We went on ride after ride and didn't stop (probably because lines were a stop, but even they weren't bad... except for the princess lines =0)
We got in this huge 'Tangled' line thinking it was going to be an awesome ride. Soon enough we discovered it was to see Repunzel. The boys were gone so fast after that, but us girls + sleeping Peter stood in line and got to meet Repunzel. Hattie was so cute. She was smiling so big. I loved watching her! And the characters were really great at making the kids feel like they are super special.
After Repunzel, we caught up with the boys again and kept going!
The Sword and the Stone was pretty fun to get pictures with. Tanner was so animated with all his pictures.
Peter was sick so he did a lot of sleeping the first two days (which, sorry Peter, was great since we didn't have to entertain him in the lines). When he did wake up, we took him on the Casey Jr Train ride thinking he would Love it. Um, maybe he would have if we weren't locked in the monkey cage :)
While us girls were doing more girl rides, Larry took Tanner to watch the Star Wars show. He LOVED it! They tried to get him up on stage to fight Darth Vader, but it was a no go. The next day we even dressed him in all his Star Wars clothes hoping he might get picked, but again, no. I don't think he really cared too much in the end since he had so much fun just watching it. I wish we could have met them. That would have been awesome!
Hattie got to meet Tinkerbelle while the boys were watching Darth Vader.
Then we took a car ride. Everyone doubled up in these cars and got to drive around these tracks with 'guidelines' that kept you going the right way. Peter and I 'got' to go together, and actually, he loved it at the beginning and thought he was driving. However, I was a horrible driver and kept stalling and hitting the edges, so at one point while we were stopped, Peter tried to bail. Saralynn had to yell at me from the car behind before I noticed he was almost completely gone. After that, every stale he tried to leave.
The Toy Story ride was another super fun one.
In the evening we got to watch the parade. We got awesome seats and cheered and watched in aww as the parade went by. Santa was on a float at the end, and we are Certain we saw him reading the very letters we sent to him before we left. How awesome is that :)
Day number two. We got there nice and early and met more characters in the main square.
That day, we kind of dedicated the first part to going on more 'adult' rides. We went on Indiana Jones, and it was so awesome! Saralynn watched the kids while Larry and I went and she took them to the Tikki Room. Ha ha ha! She said that Peter and Hattie loved it and danced the entire time.Then Saralynn and I went on Indiana Jones (with the baby pass-best thing ever) and Larry took the kids on the Winnie the Pooh ride over and over again because they loved it. The kids also loved the crazy fast mountain rides, which they would cheer as loud as possible on.
Rides like Space Mountain (so awesome), Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain Railroad were favourites of the kids. I would be holding onto them incase they got too scared, but they were letting out the biggest 'Yahoo's' the whole time. It was so fun!
Back through the main square where we met some more characters, and off to California Adventures.
To start off Larry, Saralynn, and Tanner wanted to do Grizzly River Run. They did, and they got Soaked. Ha ha ha! Hattie, Peter and I, we were more into the Ariel ride, which was awesome!
Saralynn was a lifesaver again in that she took the kids on the spinny rides over and over again. Aunties are the best, and she will definitely be invited to come again next time!
Fun little photo op.
Then on to another Toy Story ride. It was like an arcade game where we were supposed to shoot at these giant 3D games. We each got our score kept so we decided to have a friendly little competition. Larry went with Hattie, I went with Tanner, and Saralynn went with Peter. I thought I did pretty awesome, that is until Saralynn told us her score. Not sure how she did so awesome with Peter in with her. That was a fun ride!
We went to the Bug's Life section and got to watch a 3D movie there. We got a fun little picture with our bug glasses. Such a fun show. Tanner and Hattie kept taking off their glasses because it was a little too scary at times. At one point giant spiders come down from the ceiling right above us. Tanner is SO scared of spiders I knew he would have a panic attack if he saw them. I covered his eyes and told him not to look. He didn't argue at all.
After that Larry took Tanner and Saralynn on the Hollywood Tower of Terror, against my better judgement. Hattie, Peter and I went on more Bug's Life easy, happy rides only to return and find that Tanner hated it. Not so much the drop, but before the drop there is a little movie and it says "this is the end of the real world as you know it". Apparently that sent Tanner in to panic mode because he thought they were going to send him into outer space. We are still talking about that ride. Then we went back to Disneyland and watched their evening show with all the characters on the water. Again we got a great seat and loved it! So amazing!
Day 3, we were all sick except Peter. It started off with Hattie puking in the morning, but then we were all okay for a while. We went on the Star Wars ride, and I almost died and had to scream for a puke bucket, which is a pitty because it was so neat! Tanner, Larry and Saralynn loved it though. After that, no one really felt very good. Tanner fell asleep in a stroller, so we decided it was a good time to line up and meet the princesses. Seemingly 3 hours later, we finally got to meet them.
I know this may seem a little bad, but Hattie saw Tianna, and her heart dropped. We don't really know who she is because the movie is so scary and Hattie is in a phase where she wants to know why people have different coloured skin. At first she wouldn't go near Tianna, but eventually warmed up to her and went in for a little talk and a hug. Since coming back though, she loves her because she got to meet her.
Then there was Belle. Hattie was all smiles again. Belle was so sweet and kept talking to Hattie like she was a princess too because she was in her Aurora dress. Hattie (and I) absolutely loved it!
Then Ariel. At first Hattie didn't know who she was, so after standing still and staring at her, I explained that it was Ariel after she turned into a girl at the end of the movie. Then Hattie was in love again.
The we went into Toonetown and Peter thought he had found his life's dream. It was definitely geared toward little kids. He just went running around a million miles an hour, so happy. Tanner was still asleep in the stroller and Hattie was at half speed since she wasn't feeling super great.
Larry took Peter through Toonetown, and they had a blast together.
By the evening we had done absolutely everything we wanted to do, so we sat down to watch the 5 o'clock parade. We were all seated nicely when I asked Larry to pass Peter to me on the ground. He lifted Peter over to me, and he puked ALL over me. Needless to say we packed up and went straight to the hotel for an early bedtime, which no one fought.
I didn't really want to mention that we were sick during our trip because it's all anyone remembers when I tell them about our trip. The trip was actually so amazing! It was more than any of us imagined and it was so fun watching the kids with their eyes glowing the entire time and the biggest smiles. We all loved it and will definitely be returning again and again!
