Disneyland!

A week after my parents left, we drove down to Disneyland.  We debated on this for a while because it is SO expensive!  We were spoiled so much by DigiCert that this was our first time paying for any part of it.  It was truly worth it, though.

Not everything went to plan.  We were hoping to stop over with my brothers halfway into our drive, but they ended up being too busy that weekend.  The rest of the drive went pretty smoothly, though.  It was Christopher's birthday that day, so we went to The Hat for dinner.  Yum.

After lots of swimming in the hotel pool that night, we were ready for the park the next morning.

I told Christopher that I was making matching shirts, and he gave me the look.  The "as a guy, I think you are an insane woman" look.  He told me he wasn't going to wear a matching shirt and be "that family".  I told him that he would be the only one in our family not matching, since I was making myself one too.  And somewhere along the line he caved and let me put a Mickey on a polo shirt he hasn't worn in years.

The amazing part is that, as we were going to sleep that night, he honestly asked me if maybe we should wear the shirts the rest of the trip.  We noticed that having bright, matching shirts meant that even strangers knew which kids belonged to us, and that the Cast Members all knew our kids' names to help them with things all day.  It really helped!  (I almost never convince him of things he considers "girly", so I'm proud of this victory.)

It didn't stop Jasmine from getting lost, unfortunately.  Tyler and Daddy were going on a ride together while I took the girls to see Princesses, and somehow as a large group swished past us, Jasmine disappeared.  I was really not happy with how the Cast Members handled it, which surprised me. I thought they would have this down to a science, but all they did was tell me to stay put with one Cast Member while the other one was "about to" call security ten minutes later.  Thankfully someone nearby overheard us and said they spotted her, so we got her back.  Complete with a special pin they gave her to cheer her up.  When she can't find me, she always says "I losted you everywhere!", so that's what I told her as I hugged her.

That was towards the end of the day, though.  The rest of the day was awesome!

I thought my kids would be too old for characters, but they still got so excited to stand in line and meet them.

While Daddy was in line at Nemo, I noticed that the crowd was fairly thin for the Jedi Training Academy.  So we hopped out of line to watch.  Tyler had no idea what a Jedi was at the time, but Daddy talked him into jumping up and down to get picked, so up he went!

This was another moment where I was grateful for the shirts.  Tyler was happily spacing out and having trouble with the instructions, but the leader with the microphone could see his name on his shirt and say "Tyler! Turn around!  There you go!"

After their training, they each got to take a turn battling Darth Vader or Darth Maul.

Despite how they tried to let the kids win each time, Tyler went into "crazy attack" mode and the light-saber flew out of his hands.  Oops!

I could post a hundred pictures on here.  Jasmine loved meeting Jasmine.

We watched shows and rode rides, and by the end of the day, we were just too tired for fireworks or the night time parade.

The next day we headed to California Adventure.  And, amazingly enough, the lines were wonderfully short for all of the characters my kids had been dying for.

Jasmine LOVES Doc "a-Stuffins".  It is her favorite show!  So walking up to see her there was pure glee.  We were the last to see her, and (noticing my daughter's dress), they told us that Sofia would switch places with her if we just waited around.  So we were first in line for her.  Which was good, because as Sofia came up, Jasmine went running towards her for a hug.

I wish those characters could talk, because Sofia gave Jasmine a kiss and she talked of nothing else for weeks.

The dress, by the way, had been in the works since March.  She had a cheap version that was literally falling to shreds because she wore it every day, everywhere she went.  I nearly bought the Disney Store version, but bought fabric instead that sat while I figured out how to do the flowers.  Once I had my embroidery machine, I spend forever putting all the appliques on and sewing it together .  It was a fun project to engineer!

After that, we went across the street to wait in a short line for Olaf.  Tyler's shirt was embroidered with "Hi I'm Tyler and I like warm hugs", so that was another important vist.  We were all just bored in line, but then I looked down at Tyler and saw that he was just staring at Olaf, grinning from ear to ear and nearly bouncing on his toes in anticipation.

He ran in for a hug the instant it was our turn, and when the photographer asked him to turn for this picture, he still refused to let go.  Just turn his head.

I love this picture.  Tyler is the happiest a kid has ever been, Kaitlyn is trying to be grown up and smile perfectly for the camera, and Jasmine is looking at her big brother like he is crazy.  Yup.

Onward, to Anna an Elsa.  Anna was particularly excited to read Tyler's shirt and give him a hug.

And Kaitlyn was so proud to show off her outfit to Elsa and tell her about how she painted the cape by herself.

At that point, Christopher turned to me and said "we've made all our kids' dreams come true by 9 am.  now what?"

Rides!

And shows!  I love how many of them are interactive.  The kids loved coming up to dance and play along.

A bunch of people stood nearly in front of us the whole parade, but the kids still loved it. (When we asked them to sit down, she held up her camera as an excuse to stand.  Yes, you have a camera.  So does every person in this park.  Front row sits down.)

Day three was back in Disneyland.

I love Mark Twain island!  It is nice to have somewhere the kids can just run and play, with no lines.

Of course, Tyler did what his teacher has been trying to convince him not to do, which is just wander off to go to the bathroom without telling anyone he needs to go.  We looked for him for twenty minutes before I walked up as he wandered out of the restrooms.

Oh, and this picture has a story.  Kaitlyn pointed out the "mooses", and so I told her that the plural of moose is still moose.  And Daddy jokes that they are "meese".  "No!  they are mooseseses!"  "Moosi!"

And then Jasmine topped it all.  "No Daddy! You are wrong!  They are hippos!"

We found out that 7 is a good age for Disneyland because you can technically ride by yourself.  Not that we were going to send her in line by herself, but that did mean she could sit by herself and not on my lap.  They both loved the big rides like Indiana Jones and Matterhorn.

Everyone reading this is probably asleep, too, at this point, but I can't get enough happy, colorful pictures of my kids!