Bibiddy Bobbity Boo!

We finally did it!

After 8 years we took the kids to Disneyland...

One day we were talking about the last time we had been to Disneyland,

Emmy was 2.  Kaden had NEVER been.

With a new school term just starting it was a perfect time to get the kids out of school and with it being February we knew that was the best time to go to Disneyland.  Having lived in Orange County we consider ourselves to be Disneyland snobs... if we have to wait in line longer than 10 minutes then the park is too crowded.  We had to go NOW.

And 7 days later we were in the car driving there.

Jeff and I decided to surprise the kids though.  Maryn got up and got ready to go to Seminary at 5:30.  She saw some suspicious activity going on with bags going to the car, snacks being organized and waking up the other kids way too early for school. 

After we were in the car with everyone, driving away at 6:00 am., heading South instead of North we told them where we were going.

I had arranged with all the teachers to provide homework for the 4 days they would be missing school.  One teacher forgot and slipped to Maryn that she would be out for the rest of the week. 

Emmy's teacher had a packet for me with a note to Emmy explaining the homework.  The letter began, "I hope you have a super fun family vacation."  She gave it a mighty effort to keep the note against her chest but as she was speaking to a parent began waving the papers around where Emmy's eye's followed the words and saw that she was missing school.  That day was a hard one because Maryn and Emmy were trying to figure out what was going on while Ady was mad as heck that we were going to make her miss school when she was trying to have perfect attendance.

Oh brother!  I couldn't win!

However,

Once they discovered our destination that cold and dark Tuesday morning they were thrilled and elated with the news.

We stopped in Las Vegas for an early lunch at the Circus Circus buffet.

Emmy was proud of her cake and mashed potatoes as her first plate of food.

Blah!

There are a couple trillion pictures that were taken and only a 1/2 trillion posted here on this blog.  I'm sure pretty much anyone who's anyone has the exact same pictures as all of these, only with your child's faces instead of ours. 

Feel free to browse quickly.

We knew Uncle Wes and Aunt Lois were there for the week.  We planned on calling them until we found them outside a bathroom and saw that Shawn and Angie were there with their girls too.  We ended up bumping into them a few times which was fun!

Uncle Wes and Shawn ready to be big winners on the Toy Story ride.

Maryn LOVED LOVED LOVED the cars Autopia.  She hoped that if she rode them enough times then it would count as Driver's Ed and she could get her driver's license early. 

 Emmy made me want to barf every time I drove with her in the cars.  Good thing she's not driving any time soon.

This was so fun.  We were right at the entrance of Toon Town as it opened.  Mickey and Friends came to the gate to open it up.  Then they hugged some kids and took pictures.  Mickey came back to my kids and took their hands and walked them up to his house where he went in to greet visitors.  It was so cute so see them walk hand in hand with Mickey!!!

As I rode the Carousel at California Adventure I saw Drew Carey.  Fun!  He looks different without his dark framed glasses and he's lost a lot of weight, but he probably thought I was crazy each time I came around on the carousel snapping a picture of him.  I just wanted to make sure it was him.  And it WAS cuz Jeff and Maryn saw him ride the Screamin' roller coaster right before them.

Ady's hair got messed up on the train.  After she fixed it she took a picture of herself then looked at the picture to see if her hair looked ok.  Man alive!  That's my Ady. 

This was the 3rd and final full day at Disneyland.  All decked out in our sweatshirts and completely exhausted. 

Our kids were perfect ages to be going to Disneyland.  It was the first time we didn't have to haul a stroller around, although we did end up renting one for all the kid's to trade off riding in it to get a break.  We didn't ever have to do the spouse-swap thingy or take turns riding because all the kids could ride all the rides that we wanted.  Even Kaden went on Indiana Jones, which surprised the heck out of me, but he loved it.  But, he and Emmy did hate Splash Mountain.  I wanted a good picture of us going down that big hill since this was the first time we could all fill up a log.  The first time Jeff and Maryn put their arms up which covered some one's face.  I made everyone ride it again so we could get that perfect picture.  Well, Emmy and Kaden did NOT want to ride it and were freaking out so bad they became hysterical on the ride and wanted off.  As we flew down that big hill Emmy was sobbing and Kaden put his head way down that he bonked it on the seat in front of him giving him a little bloody nose and making him cry with a bumped head.  Oh darn!  They are traumatized for life on our favorite zippety do dah ride and I NEVER got my picture.

We stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn which was 1/2 mile from the park.  We did get a shuttle pass the last 2 days because our feet were SO tired that the thought of walking a 1/2 mile was agonizing. 

Oh,

and

the

weather...

That was scrumptious!  It was nearly 80 one day and we were sweating.  Yes, we were actually hot, and we tried our hardest not to complain about it because it felt delicious on our skin.

And no, we didn't have to wait in any line longer than 10 minutes.  (except for the Toy Story ride that was consistently 30 minutes long.  We rode it 3 times so it was worth the 30 minute wait.)

We had a blast!  and it was great for our family to be together and to forget about our troubles and stress and just to have FUN!  Where better place to do that than the

HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH?!!!