Thursday, June 17, 2010

Disneyland April 25 -29, 2010

Now that I am finally getting around to posting about Disneyland a whole MONTH and a HALF late you will just have to be happy with what you get. I still don't like how Blogger wants me to upload pictures. Yeah it's great that you can upload a picture where your cursor is, but I still have to click each. individual. picture....and now I have to do it twice. Sigh. 
Anyway, basically what I am saying is I will write about Disneyland and I am just going to let the pictures speak for themselves. Good? Ok on we go.  
 

We opted to drive to Disneyland because we wanted to have money to actually, you know, eat once we got there. We left Sunday, April 25. I personally adore long car rides. Long car rides with child are not ideal, but given enough preparation it really doesn't have to be torture.

I packed each kid their very own travel basket. I wrapped half of the goodies in wrapping paper and left the other half as is. This turned out to be wonderful. The kids had fun stuff right away to play with, but they also had the anticipation of not knowing everything in the baskets.


The rule was you could only open one present an hour. There where 10 wrapped items which just about made them last the whole trip down. Or it would have had there not been two accidents just after Prim that added two hours to our trip.

The only other snafu of the ride down is we discovered that Tennyson gets car sick on long car rides. Thankfully he is a master vomiter and managed to vomit only in his lap on both occasions. Leaving clean up less than it could have been .

Also a bonus, weird, but a bonus none the less, is that his vomit had no smell. I can't tell you why, but we were super grateful when we realized it.

After arriving at our hotel, The Anaheim Fairfield Inn, we told the kids that grandpa Jim and grandma Candace were staying in the hotel room right next to ours. Karaia must not have been paying very close attention when we were planning the trip because she got HUGE eyes and said, "You mean, Grandpa and Grandma are going WITH us to Disneyland?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!"

It was the best! Might as well have been a second Christmas for her.

(proof positive Jim and I belong in the same family! ~Check out my crazy eyes

Kevin and I were SO grateful Jim and Candace were able to join us. They made the whole vacation run very smoothly. Every kid had a special someone to ride the rides with. When the parents kids needed a change of pace they had a friendly, loving face to go to. Thank you so much!!!!!You two really added to the magic!!


We left Sanders home with Meghan & Alex, Emily & Ryan, and Mom. Thank you so much for watching him for us! We knew he was well cared for and it allowed us to just have fun. There are no amount of words to properly thank you enough!!


On a side note, I have done Disney with a 4 month old (with 3 kids) and a 19 month old (with 2 kids), different times, as the youngest member with us. If you can help it, leave anyone under 2 years at home. They are not going to remember it and their attention spans, nap schedules, and over all inability to go on rides makes it more challenging......it's do-able, but we have found it is more enjoyable with the youngest being at least two. If you still want to bring all your kiddos, give me a call and I have some tips for you that will make it easier.



Kevin surprised Tennyson with his first set of Mickey ears while we were in line for Dumbo. There were one size too big, but you wouldn't know it from the smile on Tennyson's face when he put them on. He fixed the size problem himself, kind of, by wearing the strap across his chin instead of under it.
(Tennyson is completely adverse to actually LOOKING into the camera. It's not from lack of trying on our part)
It kept slipping off his head or over his eyes. Undaunted he would straighten it out and be on his way.

We were on the Jungle Cruse when I pointed out the Parana to Tennyson who leaned slightly over to get a better view. Immediately his hat fell off his head into the mechanical fish. I tried to grab it, but the boat was moving too quickly. Oh. My. Goodness. I have never heard a sadder sound come out of a child's mouth. It wasn't the give-it-to-me-now cry, it was a my-heart-was-attached-to-those-ears-and-now-it-too-is-fish-food cry. It was so sad.

We told the cast members what had happened. They immediately jumped into an empty boat, passed the line of waiting people, and headed around the ride. It was all too much for Tennyson and he cried himself to sleep on Kevin's shoulders as we waited for their return.

In the mean time, unsurprisingly, Beckham began chatting up the cast member who was waiting with us. I was just far enough away that I couldn't hear the dialog. If the cast members laughter is to be trusted I can only imagine that Beckham was being his friendly, non-censored, hilarious self. That kid made more friends with Disney employees than most people do in their whole life time. That's just who he is.


They were unable to locate the hat. Another victory for the vicious metal Parana. They were kind enough to give us a voucher for a free hat! Hooray for exemplary customer service! We were able to get a new, smaller size while Tennyson slept hoping he would forget about the whole thing. Nope. That kid has the best memory. He was grateful to have Mickey ears again, but kept asking for his "real" hat.


We ate every breakfast at the McDonalds in the hotel parking lot.

On Monday we went to Disneyland.

Tuesday, California Adventure

Wednesday, Disneyland again.


We had plenty of time to do everything we wanted plus double and triple up on the ones we loved the best. As well as take it slow Tuesday evening and spend some time in the hotel pool instead of heading back to the parks after dinner.


The kids really did great on this trip. Very little whining........unless you count Beckham loudly insisting, every ride, that, "I do not want to go on this ride. I am getting out of line right now!" He is our cautious adventurer and would psych himself out that the ride would be unpleasant before he'd even entered the line.


Not wanting him to miss out on any fun opportunities we insisted that he try every, reasonable, ride at least once. Also, he was no longer allowed to say, "I do not!" which he obliged us by changing it to, "I'd rather not" Most of the time he would finish a ride with a big smile on his face. The only one we should NOT have pushed was the Tower of Terror. But our 4 year old niece had just gotten back from a trip to Disney and loved and gone on that ride 3 times.


It was too much for our Beckham.

He banned us from even saying, "Tower of Terror" for the rest of the day because it made him feel scared.

Meanwhile, Karaia got off the ride and ran right back in line.

I'm always amazed at how different children are.

Tennyson did awesome the whole time. He fell asleep every afternoon in the stroller and really was mostly good waiting in line. It helped there were four adults to bounce between, but for a 2 1/2 year old he did really well.

Bobble head Beckahm


Beckham's Yoda back pack...isn't it awesome?!

Karaia and I waited in line for an hour to see Belle, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. Grandma hopped in line toward the end with Tennyson...he just HAD to see the princesses too. Karaia was perfectly content to wait for that long. We kept our selves busy in line taking blackmail funny pictures.

(Starting sweet...we are waiting to see princesses afterall...)
 Tennyson was smitten with Belle. When we moved onto Jasmine, just across the isle, he couldn't take his eyes off of Belle. Then, of course, at the end you walk right into a store selling all things princess. Tennyson immediately found a Belle barbie doll and really, really, REALLY wanted to take it home with him.

Our favorite rides this year were:

Dad: Pirates of the Caribbean
Mom: Toy Story Mania & Pirates of the Caribbean
Karaia: Tower of Terror
Beckham: Jungle Cruise
Tennyson: Buzz lightyear


 The ride home was awesome. We pumped Tennyson full of Ginger Ale and ginger snap cookies hoping to keep all of his food inside his tummy. They did the trick! Meaning there is nothing eventful to report about the trip home.

We love Disney and can't wait to go again when Sanders is 3 years old and will come with us!
















10 comments:

Emily said...

So. Much. Fun. (!!)

Darn those piranhas - they'll get you every time.

And for the record, it is requisite that grandparents come to Disney with you. It is the only way to go (and properly spoil the children).

Colle said...

I love Disneyland! Looks like you had a good time.

Chrissy said...

Yea for a Disneyland post! All the pictures are so fun and you guys obviously had a blast, I love that all your kids wore their mickey ears the whole time! What great memories. :)

Elder and Sister Longhurst said...

Love your direction about Grandparents - Disneyland really is the best - especially when you are with the kids! Also - the photos are great - thanks for taking so much time to post all of them!

April Weeks said...

It was worth the wait! FunFunFun!

Megs said...

Yea for Disney! It makes me SO excited to take my kids someday!

Brianna said...

Disney makes for the most, fun stories and memories... I smiled this whole post!

Also, in Beckham's defense, Marlee only went on Tower of Terror twice. ;)

P.S.- We stayed at that same hotel! Gotta love a close McDonalds!

Lawson Family said...

Yay! Us out-of-staters relay on these posts (no matter how late) to see pictures of these fun events!

Marge said...

great posts - sorry you had such a hard time sharing - thanks for pushing through for the rest of us. love the hats. thanks for all the great tips

Anonymous said...

FUN! We're headed there this Fall so pass on more tips!! I'm a little offended I didn't see you--Ely is better than Disneyland and it's on the way. Kind of. Not really, but it could be. :) Glad you had so much fun. I can't wait to go.