Disneyland !

The happiest place on earth! It was a treat to take our kids to Disneyland last weekend. I don't even know where to begin!

Ryan's favorites:
1. It's a small world... (he loved the singing in both this and Pirates)
2. Pirates of the Caribean (both boys sang "Yo ho, Yo ho, a pirates life for me!" the rest of the day!)
3. THE PARADE!
4. Snow White (He keeps saying this and that he liked the witch - I remember him being nervous about the witch. I have issue with this ride because you tour several witch rooms offering you the apple, then you are suddenly at a wall that says, "Happily Ever After." BUT you never see a happy Snow White at the end!)
5. The Jungle Cruise

Sean's favorites:
1. Dumbo
2. The Carousel
3. THE PARADE!



My Favorites:
1. THE PARADE!
2. It's a small world...
3. The Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster ride
4. Meeting Mickey and Buzz

Scott's Favorites (my estimation):
1. Pirates of the Caribean
2. Taking Ryan on Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain (Ryan was in front and got drenched)
3. Taking the boys on Autopia. (a bit jerky since he let them steer the whole time!)

There are too many favorites to only say one! We really had a great time! The kids did great, even after staying up way too late after the first night! Both kids went on the Materhorn! Sean wasn't a fan so he didn't join everyone for their second time around. We were so proud of Ryan for trying so many rides. He went on Star Tours and Space Mountain too...though he didnt' love them. It was a great time and I only wish we would have had even more time...though I'm not sure if I had enough energy for another day.

Lessons learned from my first trip to the Happiest Place on Earth as a Mom:

~ Where did all the characters go? I remember meeting many more, scattered throughout the park. There was so much to do and we didn't even make it to California Adventure Park. The bummer part of that is that they spread the Disney stuff between the two parks, so we didn't get to see as many characters as I expected. In fact, if we hadn't gone into Mickey's house to find our cousins we wouldn't have met Mickey! Ryan really wanted to meet him and had been talking about it for weeks beforehand, so I'm glad it worked out...even though it was a super long wait and it was only Ryan and myself. Everyone else were ahead of us and we didn't know if they made it through or not. They bailed when it was taking so long and went on a roller coaster twice and waited for us for a long time! Good thing I don't have a girl, because the ONLY princesses we saw were in the Parade.

~ Small World is much longer than you remember when your 4 year old says he needs to go to the bathroom but he can hold it through 10 minutes of line and the ride. A bit stressful. (Still one of our top favs...a fabulous super happy - the world is a wonderful place kind of ride!)

~ When you tell the people at the front of your line your party consists of 11, then 13, and then 15, they tell you to wait for the next car every time! (We went with most of Scott's family. We started out on Friday with 11, then Ryan and Erica joined us on Saturday and a few hours later, Chris and Lindsay totally surprised us and made us 15!)

~ When you are near a bathroom, insist on mandatory stops - we didn't have any accidents, but were stressed out a few times trying to find a bathroom when needed.

~ Waiting an hour and a half for front row seats for the Parade was completly worth it! (we also had enough adults to take the kids on rides while a few of us waited)

~ I have driving control issues...allowing Sean to steer his Autopia car without any helps was too hard!

~ Ryan LOVED hanging with the cousins...Scott and I were grateful for the rides that wanted an adult next to small children so we could see stuff with him!

~ The bottom of Tarzan's treehouse stresses me out! Having my eye on the exit and all this stuff to explore at the bottom, kids were free roaming around...and Ryan started back up the treehouse without me realizing it...most stressful.

~ Ryan was not timid around the characters at all...the first night, most the kids got a sword souvenier...on the tram to our car, we saw Capt. Jack Sparrow and his crew passing us. Ryan (who learned who Capt. Jack Sparrow was that day) got excited and got out of his seat (our tram wasn't yet moving) and moved toward the side)...saying, "Excuse me! Capt. Jack Sparrow, look! I have a sword like you! I'm a pirate!"

~ Our boys didn't appreciate 3-D. "Honey, I shrunk the audience" was a bit scary. The big snake that comes at your face is a bit much for little ones. Ryan was done and taken out, Sean just had me cover his eyes every time something scared him. Our nephew who's a few months younger than Sean was so funny. At the not scary parts of 3-D he was trying to touch the things that were close to his face. Imagine his arm reaching out trying to grab the Hologram.

~ Disney employees are strict traffic controllers. Don't try to go the wrong way in on a one way path when approaching Firework show (happened to be cancelled at the last minute!). And don't try to hold parade seats with strollers...an hour before the parade, multiple employees told us the same spiele. It was funny.

~ It's all about the kids. Watching them light up and have fun from each event was so fun! It was a magical trip! (a few moments of fright is okay too)

~ We were happy and pooped after 2 full days!


This little video is of Sean dancing in the street to Parade music just before it came to us. He's pretty cute.