the happiest place on earth

Last week we took our first family vacation to Disneyland.  Luke stayed with my mom in Pocatello.  As much as we love him, a 12 hour car ride and 3 days walking all over Disneyland and the Ocean didn't really seem like a good idea with our busy and restless 21 month old. 

He ended up having a blast with grandma and Bop.  He got new shoes, ate like a king,

ate at Texas Roadhouse,

did lab work with Bop,

played with toys,

 

snuggled with grandma, got rid of the bottle (yippee!), and played with the dog, Champ.

He came hope happy, eating more, and smelling like grandmas yummy perfume.  Grandma rocks!

We drove all day Wednesday and had a brief stop in Vegas to eat dinner at a buffet in one of the Casinos.  I felt like I was taking my pure, innocent children into a rats nest.  They felt it too.  Mary mentioned to me that her heart didn't feel good there.  I guess the thick smoke, gambling, empty glossy eyed people, and the pictures of naked women didn't exactly give us the warm fuzzies.   We ate and left, and decided that Vegas wasn't for us.

We got to our hotel, crashed and woke up excited to head to Disneyland!  We ate breakfast at our hotel and took off.  It was fun to see my kids so wide eyed at how huge the place really is.  The weather was predicted to be really bad all 3 days we planned to be there.  Flash flood warnings and everything. It poured all night, but we woke up to sunny skies and were very relieved!

For being in a place with all things Disney, my kids were all about the rides.  We saw tons of characters walking around, and I would get all excited.  My kids would just shrug and ask where the next ride was.  As a Disney person, I was shocked at first, but it was pretty funny, and it actually saved us hours of waiting in line to see characters.

We learned that my cousin and old roommate Gina and her husband Sam, who is good friends with Ben, were at Disneyland also.  We ran into them and had a good time talking for a little bit.

We played hard all day, and walked and rode rides until we dropped.  I only did 2 rides, but I truly didn't mind. I was really happy just to watch my family have fun.  I wanted to be very careful with the baby inside me,  and the rides didn't exactly mix well with the morning sickness that seems to be lingering. We walked and rode all day. We left the park to go to dinner that evening, and my pregnant self had had enough.  William was sound asleep in the stroller as well.  We decided that William and I would walk back to the hotel, and Ben, Mary and Sam would go back to the park and check out California Adventure.  It turned out great!

I put William to bed and flopped down on my bed, turned on HGTV and didn't move a muscle.  William snored next to me. I was happy as a clam.

When they returned, Mary and Sam were beaming and bouncing all over and talking about a million miles a minute about the rides.  Ben collapsed on the bed, and fell asleep mid sentence. 
It was a day well spent, and I loved seeing my family have fun.

Williams neck muscles aren't strong enough to hold his head up on the fast wild rides, but he loves them, so Ben is holding his head up for him.  This cracks me up!

Ben took pictures of the pictures they take of you on some of the rides.  Ha! Smart man of mine.

The next day we woke up to rain pouring so hard it was unbelievable.  It was the day we planned to go to the beach, and I was so sad and frustrated!  Sam prayed for us to have good weather at the beach, we ate breakfast, and headed out.

When we got to the beach, the sun was out!  I was thrilled, we all were. Something about the ocean made all of us come alive.  The kids LOVED running from the waves, collecting clams and shells and building sand castles.  I couldn't believe how much they loved it.  Ben and I found ourselves basking in it too, and Ben was able to feel childhood feelings of playing in the ocean come flooding back.

Sam loved running from the tide going in and out.

Mary found a bunch of live clams.  She also found a HUGE shell...bigger than her hand, that was not broken.  It looks perfect in her under the sea bedroom. 

William's sand rockets

The kids ended up getting wet and cold after a couple hours, so we decided to go get lunch.  Right when we sat down in the restaurant, it started pouring and didn't stop the rest of the day.  Perfect timing. God listened to Sam's prayer.

After the beach, we headed to the California museum of Science.  Sam had come down with a fever and an ear ache, and the kids were wet and cold, but the museum was so cool!

The space shuttle Endeavour was there, yeah, the real thing.  I am a space nut, and always have been, and I was in heaven!  It was amazing!  The whole museum was awesome and had so many displays to look at and things to do.  The kids liked the ones about the human body and the marine life. If Sam weren't so sick...poor kid, we could have stayed for hours. He did his best though.

We had a good time there , and I was so excited to be able to actually stand next to a space shuttle that had been to space 25 times!!!   The kids felt the wonder of it too, and realized how special it was to see something like that.

After the museum we drove around LA and looked at some of the mansions in Beverly Hills.  I was surprised with how much more I liked LA than I thought I would.  Ben was amazing at navigating such a huge city in the pouring rain.

The next day we woke up to pouring rain again.  Sam was also still sick.  Ben gave him a blessing, we loaded him up on medicine, and we took a leap of faith, and headed to Disneyland anyway.  It wasn't raining when we got there, and somehow it didn't rain until later in the evening.  It was cloudy all day and looked like it could pour any second, but it held out, and we were more than grateful!  Sam also perked up and was fine until the evening.  Another blessing!



We spent most of the day at California Adventures.  It was awesome!  We waited in line for an hour for the Cars ride, but it was worth it.  It was the only really long line we waited in. It was by far the favorite ride for most of us...right up there with  Tower of Terror and Space Mountain.

William was freaked out with the life size Mater that moved and talked, so he isn't in the picture.

 

He did love the Mater ride though.

We went back to Disneyland for a few more rides on the favorites.  I had to laugh when Ben had to smash into this little rocket with the 2 boys.  It was funny watching them all try to squish in.  Sam was cold and wore my pink jacket all day...it was hilarious how many people called him "princess."

We played hard all day again, and finally left after we were soaked and frozen.  We ate dinner (well Ben and I did, the kids slept right through it), and crashed.

It was back home the next day, and the drive was long, but went well.

We had a great vacation, and I hope it is one the kids remember forever.  We plan on going back when the youngest ones are old enough to ride the rides and remember it as well.  Probably in 3 years.

Until next time....