Adventures in Disneyland

This Disneyland trip was the best decision we've made in awhile. We love Disney. We love spending time with family and it was just a perfect week. With 2 double strollers our family headed to Disney.

Here we are walking from the Paradise Pier Disney hotel across the street to the park.

The crew (minus Mom taking the picture) in downtown Disney.

Mallie loved the teacups the most.

I had flashes of Mallie turning 16. I'm not looking forward to that day.

Bumper Cars.

The new cars ride was AWESOME. Here are David and Bug with the Johnson fam.

Hannah has been talking about meeting Cinderella for at least a month now. You'll remember that I at one time discouraged all things princess and tried so hard to not go down that road. But Hannah loved them so much and I couldn't resist so I let her dive into the princess koolaid with two feet. Anyway, one night I decide to take Hannah and Mallie to meet the princesses while David took Ashton and Lucy on a different ride. Did you know there is now an official spot and subsequently enormous line to meet 3 princesses in one stop? We got in the line and I realized we had at least a 45 minute wait ahead of us. I told the girls and then we waited patiently. Ten minutes later one of the princess Disney workers comes by to remind everyone at the back of the line that the princesses would be switching out in 20 minutes. I looked down at Hannah and I paniced. She could see Cinderella beyond the gate taking pictures and she had been waiting patiently without whining. I did my best to explain to Hannah that Cinderella had to go back to her castle and we'd come back tomorrow. Cue tears. Obscene amounts of tears. So as the line moved up a little we're planted right in front of the railing and Cinderella is taking pictures 12 feet away. I told Hannah to wave goodbye to her and that we'll see her tomorrow. So Hannah goes up to the gate and keeps waving and crying (a little more softly at this point) because Cinderella isn't waving back. It truly was a pathetic scene. Then Cinderella spotted her. She must have figured out what Hannah was crying about because she left the family she was supposed to meet next and came right to Hannah. She leaned over the gate and said, "Oh sweetheart don't cry." Then she took Hannah's hand and said some other princessy sweet things that I don't remember. Then she blew her a kiss goodbye.

I was so busy taking pictures of Cinderella so Hannah could look at them later that I didn't get to capture her face. She was on cloud nine. She had the biggest grin I've ever seen that lasted the next 20 minutes straight. It was the cutest thing ever and a moment I will never forget. I am now a total believer in the Disney Princesses. Because that my friends was magical and Hannah is still talking about it.

Parade watching.

Souvenir hats and more parade watching. Hannah had gotten a piece of her hair in her mouth while eating churros. Apparently I decided to take the picture before helping her get it out.

We've never stayed for the parade. It usually entails 30 minutes of sitting on main street just waiting and the kids usually can't hold still. But David and decided we were going to wait and I was so glad we did. It was really cool and the kids LOVED it.

The week before we left I let Ashton look on the Disney website and watch all the videos to figure out what he wanted to do once we were there. He was obsessed with this Jedi training academy. So we waited for it to start and then hoped he would be chosen out of the crowd. He was and it was the cutest little show with a real Darth Maul and Darth Vader. Ashton got to wear the robe and actually sword fight Darth Maul for a minute. Super Cute.

He keeps telling everyone he is a real Jedi now. And thanks to this training academy we avoided going on Star Tours.

David took Ashton to buy his R2D2 hat and came back wearing this Mickey Hat. I love my husband who could careless about looking cool. He loves Disneyland just as much as the kids and got totally in the spirit. 

 

Sisters on the rainy night on the Pier -- we missed you Abbey!

Hanging out in the hotel with cousins.

 

Lucy got to meet cousin Evey for the first time.

 

The nice thing about doing 3 consecutive days in Disney is by the 3rd day we had done pretty much everything we had wanted to do so we got to relax and go slow. It was rainy this night and their was a little band playing by one of the restaurants so we brought the kids over and they all started to dance. Those 9 little kids (plus 2 babies) must have made that band's night. They were the best audience for a good 10 minutes.

 

And since we skipped naps a couple of times.... we had lots of sleeping on the go.

It was so funny to me to that the girls just gave up at certain points and passed out anywhere.

World of Color was SOOO cool!

Hannah and I had a magic moment of the swings. The swings are my absolute favorite ride of all time at any theme park we go to. Hannah was tall enough to ride tandem with me and the minute we got in the air she was so excited. She kept saying she was flying and we put our arms out and pretended to be Peter Pan. It's her favorite ride now too. She is definitely my daughter.

We loved Disney yet again. We've been enough now to know that it's the place of the happiest moments and serious meltdowns. Going into it knowing that is half the battle. Our kids did really well and it was the perfect balance of time with my family, kid swapping to do the adult rides and branching off so we could each take care of what our separate kids wanted to do. Some would argue Disney is not worth it until your kids are older and can remember. To that I say you are so wrong. I will never forget the smiles on their little faces when they were besides themselves with joy. And David and I as always would still choose this as a top spot for our family vacation everytime. Disneyland is Magical.