Disneyland vacation!

Life got pretty busy after our fun-filled family vacation, but I wanted to write about our trip before I forget all the details. I picked so many photos to add to my blog, I decided to make it into a video. Unfortunately, that means I can explain any of the pictures as I go along. So we get the printed version and the visual version!

We left Saturday morning to head to St. George. We planned on spending some time with Chris and Krissy's family on our way there and home. I had packed some presents for the girls to open along the way to help with the long car ride. Steve had to outdo me though, and bought each of the girls their own iPods! He purchased them all used, with various problems and was able to fix them up, get them loaded with videos, music and games and wrapped them up with new headphones! We asked the girls if they wanted the big or little presents first and they chose little. So they had fun with a couple of my gifts all the way until we stopped in Beaver. Then they wanted the "big present." At first they were disappointed with the size of the package, but quickly changed their tune when they realized what it was! I already had an iPod from our anniversary present and even Eden knew what it was and how to use it! I don't think we heard a peep out of them until we got to St. George! Just Chris was home when we got there, the others were at a school carnival. But Chris let us use his wireless internet to download some more fun games he told us about. We got to see his Nook too - now that's what Steve wants! We went with their family to their ward Halloween chili dinner and activities for the kids. The girls loved spending time with Sloanie and Holden!

We planned on leaving SUPER early to get to Disneyland the next day. Turns out Eden woke us all up around 2:00, so we just decided to leave then! We had a great trip with very little traffic. I was even happy that the fruit and vegetable natzi stand wasn't even opened yet. I still have bad memories of them trying to steal our apples last time we went to California! We decided to stop at McDonalds for a 2nd breakfast before heading to Disneyland. We got there by about 11:00 so we had a good full day of fun. We got there right in time for the Disneyland band and character show right in front of the castle. We were in the front of the audience, so Alice picked our girls (and some others) to dance with her to the Very Merry Unbirthday song. They thought that was pretty neat. This was the busiest day we went, because it was the weekend and the day before Halloween. We felt like we didn't get on many rides, but we sure had a fun time looking around and seeing all the decorations. When we felt tired and hungry enough, we decided to go find our hotel and check in. It was far enough away from Disneyland that we got to take a charter bus to the park everyday. Of course, the kids thought that was as fun as any ride! We liked our hotel room with its separated kid suite. We thought it was going to just be a bunk bed, but it turned out to be a bunk bed AND a twin bed, so they all got their own beds. They also had their own TV and Xbox. The only thing we didn't like was that the only microwave was in the gift shop on the main level. So every night we headed down with our micro meals to heat up our dinner. We did like the free Restaurant breakfasts each day. There were only a few free choices, but it was nice to start the day with hot eggs, pancakes, hash browns, juice and toast instead of the packaged donuts and pastries we had at our hotel last time!

The next morning we decided to swim in the outdoor pool and hot tub. We thought it was awesome to be swimming outside on Oct. 31st! We also had time to find a Kohls to get me some new shoes. About a month earlier, I'd stubbed my little toe so hard that it completely blistered over and hadn't been able to wear shoes or even socks since. Since I'd hoped it would heal by then, I only brought my swimming flip flops and regular shoes. I was VERY sore from wearing the cheap flip flops all day the day before so we went and got some nice Nike sandals that didn't touch my toe. Those were a lifesaver the rest of the week.

We had special event tickets for that day to go to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. They let you in 3 hours early, so we had a few hours to get some more rides in before they kicked everyone else in the park out and started the Halloween activities. There were a lot of characters in special photo op places all dressed in Halloween costumes. There were also trick-or-treat stands all over the place. Some had really long lines, but we usually skipped those and found ones with shorter lines. They are very generous with the candy and even had fruit and veggies to give out if you asked for them. We ended up with enough apples and carrots to put in our lunches for the rest of the week! We really enjoyed the Halloween parade and the Halloween fireworks. We were glad we decided to buy that extra special event ticket!

The rest of the week was so nice compared to the crowds the first 2 days. Most lines were 10 minutes or less. The girls discovered the Big Thunder Mountain and we rode that about 10 times in a row (with Steve and I switching off since Eden was too little.) If Eden was too small for a ride, we would also pick up ride-share tickets, so the other person could go to the front of the line (and they usually let both E&E ride as well, so we got 2 rides in a row pretty quickly a lot of the time!) Eden was content to watch videos on her iPod or play the app games, while we waited. She was a trooper and handled the long days pretty good. She usually fell asleep in our arms for a while late afternoon. We, of course, liked all the kiddie rides as well! We had fun visiting the Princesses and got to see Cinderella, Jasmine, and Snow White. I was amazed how much Cinderella and Snow White look and sound like the real characters! This time there was also a Pixie Hollow area where we got to meet some fairies. We met Rosetta, Tinkerbelle and Videa. They were sure a spunky bunch! We really enjoyed California Adventure, so we actually spent most of our last day there as well (also since they closed many of the rides in Disneyland because of some rain.) We rode the new Little Mermaid ride about 6 times in a row! It was a good place to stay out of the rain. We didn't even leave our cars, we just went through over and over again! We also loved the new Toy Story Mania, but that did have a long line most of the time. Ella braved California Screaming with me THREE times! (We used Steve and Emily's fast pass tickets to get through the line quickly!) That was an awesome roller coaster! I even convinced them to ride the Tower of Terror with me! But that wasn't their favorite. Neither was the Star Tours I took them to on Halloween and it had been converted to a Halloween themed spooky show. The other ride that they convert to Halloween/Christmas theme is the Haunted Mansion. Ella was TERRIFIED to ride, but we forced her on anyway. She might have liked it more if we'd ever watched the Nightmare Before Christmas movies. We also rode Soarin' over California for the first time - so fun! We also really enjoyed watching the Aladdin show - especially since we missed most of the downpour while we were inside! There were so many fun things to do and we were VERY grateful that we got to do so much since the crowds were so minimal. It's definitely the way to do Disneyland!

We bought each girl a souvenir, and they brought enough of their allowance money to buy one more each. Ella ended up with 2 Princess Polly Pocket sets, Emily got a giraffe pillow pet and a Princess Polly Pocket set, and Eden got a Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster and a Woody Mickey eared hat. I even got a hat this time - a Minnie Mouse one. So we all had some ears to wear this time. We also got a cool Christmas ornament to remember this vacation and we bought the Photo CD of all the photos the photographers took of us all week. They changed it a little, you get the photos online when you get home and can add borders, signatures, etc.

I was amazed that Steve braved so many more rides this time! I guess that's what happens when the kids get older and braver too! The kids are already counting down till our next trip. Steve says he wants to go in 3 years again. I hope that really happens, we LOVE our Disney family vacations!