Disney

Here I go again, being all cliche-ish, but this really was such a fun vacation for us...and I don't think I have been told off so many times in a two-day period. Last year when we went to Disneyland it was an unexpected quick thing and I was 7 1/2 months pregnant which equalled not much fun for me. This time was quite different.

We decided to line up our trip with Spencer's birthday AND with Veteran's Day so Emma only missed 2 days of school and Tyler only missed 1. And Spencer got in for free one day. I have never gone to Disneyland for more than one day - we usually rush and squeeze it all in, exhausted and all, because 1) it's expensive and 2) I'm usually too tired to even want to go again. But we had some serious Disney gift cards we had to use up, so two full days it was. It made me tired even thinking about it.

Day 1 turned out to be one of their lowest attendance days. We knew this because they were filming ABC's Christmas Day parade as we walked down Main Street (don't feel bad for those teeny bopper singers for having to work on Christmas Day - they don't work on Christmas Day). We saw Ryan Seacrest and didn't hang around for Demi Lovato. Instead, we hopped onto Nemo and got that out of the way.

I'm convinced that Disneyland is a magical place. But I've come to realize that what is really magical is when you have no babies, no diapers, no nappers and your kids are over 40" tall. We ditched our stroller (we only even had a stroller to carry junk around) so many times to all go on rides together, and that was way more fun than any other time we've gone. We took the kids on Space Mountain - I haven't been on that one since high school. I don't remember much about it because Tyler was next to me bawling his eyes out and I was trying to comfort him the whole time. The ride picture is awesome. He was pretty mad at me afterward.

Some of our friends from home were there too and it was fun to run into them and go on a few rides. The lines were the shortest I've ever seen them so we went on 3 rides in the first hour. (It doesn't ever happen that way.) Then we headed over to California Adventure. I really wanted to go on Tower of Terror (I had never been.) So, I was honest when Emma asked me if it was scary and told her I didn't know. Holy cow, I got chewed out by my 5-year old when that ride was over. You should have seen her shaking her finger at me, telling me I had "lied" to her. I told her I didn't realize it was going to be that scary. Boy, that one took my breath (and stomach) away a FEW times... Some spectators even pulled up a chair and watched me get chewed out. She was mad for a few hours. Even now she'll say, "Why do they tell you to say goodbye to your old self??!! What does that mean??"We got to meet up with my very best friend from high school. She and her husband have a cute baby who kept Emma entertained during dinner and the Pixar parade.

The next day was the big birthday! Spencer got a button he was so incredibly proud to wear (ha), and we took the day pretty easy. I did make the kids go on Splash Mountain, and once again they weren't happy with me. But it was totally worth it. (I say that now, but I don't know if they'll ever trust me again.) We let the kids repeat the rides they really liked from the day before, and I even stood in line outside Pixie Hollow for a whole hour (!!) so Emma could meet Tinkerbell. The boys went on Buzz Lightyear and Star Tours two times each while they waited.

Jedi Training was the only frustrating part of the day... our kids weren't picked by the Jedi Master so there were tears, and then we had to go back for the next showing to try again. Spencer learned quickly that he had to act crazy to help them get picked so he did a good job jumping around and making a scene, and he didn't let them down again (though I did move away so as not to suffer the embarrassment). What a good dad. I was missing my nice camera with a great zoom at this point.


We went home at 4:30 so we could have Spencer's birthday party, complete with that massive Costco chocolate cake. Quite possibly 10 pounds. Yumm.

We had to drive home the next day so Spencer could fly to Utah for work and so Emma could go back to school. I have decided the best time to go to Disney is between Halloween and when they start the Christmas stuff (2 week window). We loved it and went on all the rides we wanted to, usually more than once. I think Tyler rode Astro Blasters (Buzz Lightyear) 5 times.

And there's our trip. Fun stuff.