I can't believe I'm even writing about this in the past tense. We spent so long planning that it's still hard to believe it's over.
But we went to Disneyland!
On Friday October 17th we sent the kids to school. We hadn't packed a single thing because we didn't want them to have any idea that a trip was in the works. We packed SUPER fast (and we didn't forget anything!), dropped Carson off at the Bennetts, and headed to school to pick them up. They have short days on Fridays, but we still decided to get them a little early to allow drive time to Gallup, NM and time for some swimming in the pool at the hotel.
Here's the video Dan shot of them realizing that we were headed to Disneyland.
Cade's reaction is just as we expected, very blase. He just couldn't quite wrap his head around the fact that we had planned all this w/o him knowing, and that we could even go to Disneyland right then and there. Alex was of course immediately bouncing.
It's funny, right after picking them up we stopped at a nearby Wendy's for lunch. The kids were still processing the news and were very very excited. They both went to the bathroom, and when they came out they told me they had decided to be very good and helpful. I think it had finally sunk in!
Friday we drove to Gallup, New Mexico. The kids were in what we called 'the honeymoon phase' of excitement. Lots of happy moments in the car and fun in the hotel pool that night.
Saturday we drove from Gallup, New Mexico to Anaheim, California. We made a short detour at Meteor Crater. It's not far off of I-40, but be warned it's a little pricey. But by the time we realized how much it was we were already stopped, out of the car and had excited kids.
It was pretty cool though!
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| Just a piece of the meteor! |
After that stop we went the rest of the way to California. We stayed at the Knottsberry Farm Hotel, it was just part of our package deal for our Disney trip. It was fun to stay there because they were having their Knotts Scary Farm going on, so the lobby was filled with people in costume, and of course, Snoopy!
The hotel was only a few highway exits away from Disneyland Dr and kept us out of the hustle and bustle of other Disney visitors. It didn't have a breakfast, at least one that didn't cost an arm and a leg, so we hit Carls Jr., McD's and IHOP to get our tummies full each Disney morning.
We got up early on Sunday and got all ready for our first day at Disneyland! We opted against taking the hotel shuttle since the return times were at either 9:20pm (in the middle of the shows) or 11:20pm! Yikes! Instead we drove each day and parked in the Mickey and Friends parking structure. This allowed us to either leave and take a break when we wanted, or come to the car for lunch, which we did a couple times.
Now it was time for rides!!
First I have to say that Sunday (our first day) was the busiest of the three days that we were at disney, but it wasn't really until the afternoon that the lines got long. We immediately got on Star tours, Space mountain, Astro blasters and the nemo submarine ride w/o much waiting at all. Then we started to use fast passes and wait in line for other rides that weren't fast pass rides. That day we rode Big thunder mountain, splash mountain, the Matterhorn, pirates of the caribbean, indiana jones, peter pan (remind me not to ride that one again- we were all bored!), tarzan's treehouse (fun!), haunted mansion, Storybook land boats- it had monstro so we had to do it, and the astro orbitors.
Our first day was long. We got there at 8, went to the car for lunch and a 'nap', and then stayed for the 9:00 Fantasmic show and the 9:30 fireworks. We were so dead by 5pm, but trudged through for the shows. At first I thought I felt like I was dragging my whole family around for no reason, but the shows were amazing, and there wasn't another Fantasmic the rest of the time we were there (which we didn't know), so we're all glad we didn't miss it. But from 2-7 we didn't accomplish much but blisters, grumps and a few long lined rides. Our other two days ran a lot smoother, but probably because it wasn't as busy in the parks.
Pics from day 1!
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| Star tours! (our very first ride at Disneyland) |
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| Star "Cade"t |
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| Look who we found in Tarzan's Treehouse! |
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| Splash Mountain! |
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| Dole Whips! (kids didn't like them...) |
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| Space Mountain! This is where I got the nickname "Screamy Girl" from the kids! |
We were SO tired and didn't get back to the hotel until like 10:30, but we still got up early the next morning and headed to California Adventure for our second Disney day!
We loved California Adventure. There's a lot to do, there's a lot more room to move around, and the bathrooms are way more accessible. We nabbed fast passes for the Radiator Racers first thing and then started riding some other rides until it was time for that. We came up with plans for other fast passes and rides, but honestly, the only ride we waited for was Toy Story Mania. That ride needs a fast pass system! We still grabbed fast passes for the ones that could use them but they were only like a half an hour out from the time that we got them, and even without the FP most rides were at a 15 minute wait. It was pretty awesome.
That day we rode the Grizzly River Run (3 times!) and got very wet, Monsters Inc, Tower of Terror, Bug land, Radiator Racers, Mater's junkyard jamboree, luigi's flying tires, california screamin' (just Cade and Dan since it was the only ride Alex wasn't tall enough for), king triton's carousel, toy story mania, symphony swings, golden zephyr, and soarin' over california.
Let me tell you, Tower of Terror absolutely frightened Alex. The very first time the elevator dropped he started crying and hyperventilating. Then of course it happens over and over again. He was beyond himself. I felt so bad, but there's not much you can do in the moment but hold on to him and tell him it'll be over soon. Poor guy! After that he had a hard time on even simple rides because the feeling in his stomach reminded him of Tower of Terror. Oops! We rewarded him with time at Bugs Land, since he's such a bug lover, to help him calm down.
Pics from Day 2!
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| Churro! |
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| Popcorn! |
I have to tell you, Flick was super funny. Right when I went to take the picture he turned around and showed me his backside, lol! Then the lady noticed Alex's bug shirt and asked him what his favorite bug was. Alex shouted, "Beetle!", to which Flick replied with hands on his 'hips' and stomped his feet. Too funny!
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| Dan went on Tower of Terror a second time since the rest of us were too scared, and this was his photo from the ride. Hahaha! |
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| Radiator Racers was fun! We won our race! (though alex looks a little scared...) |
On our second day we actually went back to the hotel and slept. We left about 1:30 and got back about 4:30. We were all refreshed and ready for more rides and shows. The park closed at 8 and the World of Color show was at 8:15. We could see this show a lot better than Fantasmic, though they were both amazing shows. What neat technology! Dan took this timelapse of the end of the show.
Sadly it was time for our last day at the Disney parks. We got up early again and got over to the parking garage. To our surprise there was a huge line of cars that wasn't moving into the garage like usual. We were even running a little late that day, it was almost 8:30. Well it turns out that the park doesn't open until 10 on Tuesdays, and it's a magic morning day, so they get in at 9. We were a little upset at the park and ourselves for not knowing this info. We were super tired and that extra sleep would have been nice. But we still parked and headed into the park to see if by chance our tickets were magic morning tickets. It was crazy. Both of the other days there were no lines to get into the park or on the trams, but on this Tuesday there were obscene lines to get in. It was 9:30 by the time we got up to the ticket agent, who let us in. We sighed and thought, well at least we can get going now. We had a whole plan to ride certain rides in disneyland and then hop over to california adventure later. But guess what? On Magic morning days only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland are open at first, and you can't get any fastpasses until 10. It wasn't very magical, herding everyone into two areas and creating long lines for no reason. They would've done much better just opening to everyone at 10 and letting everyone in the whole park. Rant over. After the full park opened we were able to ride everything in Disney that we wanted with little to no wait
In Disneyland we rode Space Mountain, Astro Blasters, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, Tarzans Treehouse and Big Thunder Mountain again. We took a break in the car...
...and then went back to California Adventure. We rode the Grizzly River Run, saw the Muppet 3D show, Pixar parade, Goofy's Sky School, California Screamin' (me and Cade this time!), Mickey's Fun Wheel (not so fun if you ask me, scary ferris wheel!), Toy Story Mania, and ended with the Aladdin show.
Pics from Day 3!
*phew* Those were 3 very fun-filled and exhausting days.
One thing we did to help with behavior was give the kids a Disney Allowance. We decided on an amount of money we thought was appropriate for souvenirs and told the kids that any time we had to raise our voice or repeat ourselves multiple times to get their attention they'd lose $1. This was mostly for Alex who tends to wander away with the first shiny thing he sees. I knew there'd be a lot of exciting and distracting things and didn't want to lose him, or spend all day yelling at him. Holy cow did this work! They each only lost $4-5. They also weren't allowed to spend their money until later in the 2nd day, which removed the constant asking if they could buy stuff, just looking to see if it was something they wanted to come back for.
We left California Adventure on the 3rd day at about 7:30pm and headed to some old college friends' house near San Diego. We haven't seen them since college, but have kept up on Facebook. We chatted until midnight and then slept. The next morning her kids had to go to school, but the 4 kids got to play for a few hours until they left. They were instant friends!
After the kids went to school Kiersten took us to some awesome beaches. First one that had seals! Then one to swim and play. We miss the beach, we may need to find our way to a beach again! It was such a great visit! (And if you're wondering why i took just as many pictures at the beach as we did at Disney, well, I was standing still, not riding rides!)
After visiting our friends we headed to Parker, AZ to visit dan's sister Marsi. We haven't seen them a year or so and it was on the way home so we stayed one night and most of the next day so cousins could play and we could rest a little bit. (oops! no pictures!)
About 3:00 on Thursday we headed towards Flagstaff, AZ and enjoyed one last night in a hotel with a pool. We swam until 9:30 and crashed. Sooo tired! The next day was a looooong drive home. We got in to Colorado Springs about 9pm, picked up Carson (we missed our puppy!), and unloaded the car and slept. The boys had soccer games the next morning at 9:30 and none of us were quite ready to wake up.
Vacation is over :(
Some numbers from our trip!
5 months of planning
2 hours packing
39 hours driving
2,450 miles roundtrip
1 week gone from Carson and home
33 hours in Disneyland
11 souvenirs bought
3 podcasts, with numerous episodes listened to
8 states missing from the 50 state license plate game
3 canadian provinces and 1 mexican license plate
Countless memories made!
We asked Cade if this was the best family vacation we've had and he said, "Above and beyond!" And he's right. We've never quite done a vacation like this, and won't be able to afford another one for awhile, but a lot of memories were made. Alex kept telling us that Disneyland really was the happiest place on earth. We had a blast!
