Disney Recap

My only Disney complaint...My Hair is Hideous!

Although it seemed as if I had disappeared off the face of the earth,(truthfully it did seem weird to look at my blog and see that it was so long since my last post)I was not kidnapped by aliens! (Weird coincidence that my last post was about aliens and then I disappeared :)) I have instead been on a family vacation.
Jerry and I have had this Disneyland trip planned since summer, which seems kind of pathetic when other people seem to just have a whim and go. We left Andy with my mom and dad and just took Ty and Micky. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about a stroller or diapers for a few days, even though every little kid I saw that was Andy's age made me miss him. This is all you need to know if you don't want to be bored stiff. Fair warning, I am going to go into a lot of detail because I am using this kind of like my journal, so just know that it is going to be long and boring! If you want, skip ahead, to my slide show with some of our fun Disney Pics.
We left on Saturday, Oct. 25th, not early in the morning, because that is just not our style. We borrowed Jerrys dad's car, so we had to stop and pick it up in Monroe. It added about an hour to our drive, but was worth it when we figured out that we traveled the entire trip on what would have be one tank fill up in our car. The first day we just went as far as Buffalo Bills Casino, which is on the Nevada/California border. Needless to say, we couldn't gamble with the kids, so we ended up renting, 'Get Smart' and watching it that night in our hotel room.
The next day, Sunday, we traveled the rest of the way. We had decided to splurge this trip and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel (no regrets, the service was awesome, the room was clean, and the park convenience was amazing. Kayla fell down and skinned her knees and I went to the front desk to get her a bandaid. Not only did they fix her up, but they gave her balloons too, which I didn't even have to pay for. Now that's service!- I seriously think Disney owes me some money for this free advertising on my completely popular blog :0)) We went into the parks that day. It was busy, but not crazy, and we watched the Fireworks show. I have to say at this point that I love Disneyland at night. It does seem kind of magical with all the twinkling lights and yummy smells and music playing. We were also able to walk on to a few of the Disney must-rides (Dumbo, Tea Cups, etc.) that night.
On Monday, we woke up a little late, so we decided to go into the California Adventure park first since it was just opening. We made two mistakes this day. Mistake #1- Ate 2 doughnuts for breakfast. Mistake #2- Rode California Screaming two times in a row. Enough said, except that Jerry got sick enough that he had to spend a few hour in our hotel room. The kids and I were gung ho (I don't even know how to spell that) and decided to stay and ride what we could. We went on the new Toy Story Mania ride and then explored places that are kind of hidden in Disneyland. We had a blast going to Turtle Talk with Crush. Crush actually picked Tyler out of the audience to talk to (I knew that red hair would help him in some way in his lifetime) which meant he also had to talk to me. Embarassing! I always sound like such a dork on a microphone. Afterwards we found the 'Beasts Library' and took a quiz to see which Disney character we were most like. Kayla was being grouchy, so the quiz told her she was most like Malificent, the evil queen on Sleeping Beauty. We laughed about that one, because she really is evil when she gets hungry. Not so funny though when the character I was most like was 'Lady' from 'Lady and the Tramp'. Yes, I am most like a dog. Then we went to Ursula's lair, where she steals your voice and puts it into a cartoon. We played on that for a while and had some good laughs when we figured out you could say whatever you wanted and it would dub it in. Jerry was better by then and met up with us for lunch. At this point, I must give a shout out to Disneyland food. It is expensive, but so worth it. I didn't eat a yucky meal the whole time I was there. This was something else we decided to splurge on also. I didn't want to have to sit eating a peanut butter sandwich again while other people walked around with churros. We ate pretty much every meal in the park, and it was so worth the 5 pounds I gained. Anyway, the rest of the day was spent in Disneyland park. It looked busy, but we ended up walking on to every ride. Our longest wait was like a half hour, so not bad at all. That night we watched the 'Parade of Dreams' and the kids loved it. Ty, Kayla, and I had spent the entire day in the park from opening to closing, so we were exhausted, but happy.
Tuesday morning, when I woke up, I felt like I had run a marathon. Every muscle in my body hurt. It was a major wake up call that I am no longer young. I felt a little better when Ty and Micks also said their legs hurt from the day before. (Aren't I a mean mom?) We spent that day riding rides (walking on again). I saw so many kids freaking out or having to be forced on to rides, and I felt so grateful for my little daredevils. Micks and Ty rode every ride. They loved the scary rides the most (California Screamin' was their favorite ride). It was also a highlight to meet Jack Skellington and Sally from 'Nightmare before Christmas'. The actors sounded just like the characters and spent about 5 minutes talking to the kids, which is a lot when there is a huge line of people waiting behind you. Jack was horrified (a thing he loves) when he found out humans eat something called 'scrambled eggs' for breakfast, and Sally was fascinated by the swinging jewel on Micks pen.
That night we met Jerry's sister, Joelle, and her family for dinner. We were going to meet somewhere else, but ended up running into them in Downtown Disney. We ate at the Rain Forest Cafe and then played in the Lego Store. It was nice meeting up with them. Their twin girls are darling. Every time a "thunderstorm" hit it the restaurant and then ended they would say, "Whew, I made it". Afterwards, we decided to take the kids to see High School Musical 3. It was ten o'clock at night, so Kayla fell asleep during the opening credits, but Ty loved it. (And okay, I've already admitted to being a geek, so I guess it won't hurt, I kind of enjoyed the dancing and singing too). We had to pack Kayla back to the hotel afterward, so it was a good thing our hotel was right next door to the movie theater.
By Wednesday we had rode everything, so we just recapped our favorite rides. That morning we decided to do a Character Breakfast. It was also a major highlight of the trip. The kids thought eating with the characters roaming around and teasing them was great. Ty got this vendetta going with Captain Hook. Hook took Ty's hat and threw it across the restaurant and made him go get it. One of the workers told Ty that you only had to say 'Tick Tock' and Hook would run away. Ty decided to try it, and it worked. The second he said 'tick tock' Hook took off running and hid behind a counter. Every time he would peek over Ty would say 'tick tock' and he would hide again. I have to give a shout out to whoever was in that costume because it made Ty's day. Plus, it was really entertaining for us. We met up with one of my old friends that I used to work with that day. She taught with me last year, but quit at the end of the year to work at Disneyland. I wish I had those kind of guts. Her and her husband went around the park with us, and gave us the inside scoop on things. It was really great to see her again. We watched the Pixar Play parade that day and got wet. The kids went swimming in the NeverLand pool that night. (which Kayla claims was the best part of the entire trip). They had tried to go swimming the day before, but one of the other guests at the hotel had left a little present in the pool and it had to be evacuated (all I can say is EWWWW).
I have to say that I was really sad to walk out of the park on our last night and leave the twinkling lights, the yummy churros, and the Jiminy Cricket music behind. My friend told me that she smiles every day as she walks into work in the park, and I have to say that I would too. I love Disneyland. It is seriously the happiest place on earth for me. I can't wait to take Andy back when he is big enough to ride everything. Our kids were the perfect age. They could ride everything, but they were still mesmerized by the characters and the magic.
Anyway, sorry for the novel, but you didn't have to read the whole thing :) Maybe I wouldn't be all that sad to have been abducted by aliens, if their home planet was a gigantic Disneyland. I would go back tomorrow if I could.