Disneyland ‘09

With the kids getting older, and family vacations with the whole gang being numbered, we decided to forego the typical Christmas and take a vacation instead. So rather than buying lots of presents they don’t need, and that I’d have to pick up 6,547 times over the next year, we bought California City Passes… 3 days at Disneyland and California Adventure, a day at Universal Studios, Sea World, and San Diego Zoo!
The trip was lots of fun and filled with lots of learning experiences. The first: never travel from Las Vegas to L.A  on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Or probably any Sunday for that matter.  Remember our detour on ol’ Route 66 last time? This was somewhat less adventurous, but reminiscent nonetheless.

Can you see the bumper to bumper traffic through the dust?

Thank goodness for the GPS Randy’s dad loaned us. It saved us time once we got into CA and had more freeway options. But the drive that should have taken 4 1/2 hours took 7!
The first stop was Disneyland. This was the second lesson learned. Save the best for last. We didn’t want to be there on the weekend, or when the kids were tired from a long week. But in hind sight, I think it would have been better. Next time.
As is tradition, I make matching shirts whenever we go to the big D. It makes it so much easier to find everyone. Not to mention, my kids are pretty good sports about all the attention it draws. Tyler even wanted to keep a tally of how many times somebody commented. I don’t think that would have been possible. These shirts drew quite a bit…

We hit Fantasyland first. We have always skipped over Fantasyland in past visits. One day isn’t enough to do it all, so something has to go. But not this time. We did it
ALL!



Our first time in California Adventure. The kids are hooked! I’ve got a bunch of adrenaline junkies on my hands! They couldn’t get enough of California Screamin’!
  My personal favorite was Tower of Terror. Nathan- not so much. According to him, this ride gave him the ‘shivos’.
Casey discovered his dream job: the Green Army Men drummers. Does it get any better than that? Seriously! They were hilarious. They called the kids up, referring to them as ‘Team Creamsicle”. Tyler and Nathan were a bit too shy to get up there and Emma was sleeping.

Hannah and Casey got called up separately, as well.

Randy took the older kids on the Grizzly River Run and they got soaked. It was not a warm day, but they were good sports about it!

I braved the Maliboomer with Casey and Hailey. Tyler was bummed he was barely too short while Randy chickened out gladly took the other kids on the ferris wheel. (after we convinced him it wasn’t so bad, he finally mustered up the courage to ride it!)

Unfortunately, Emma was an inch and a half shy of the 40 inch mark for most rides. But she was old enough to know what she was missing out on. The Matterhorn was the biggest ride she could go on, and she loved it! Nathan warned her she would be ‘freaked out’.  After the first ride, she said, “I was totally freaked out! LET’S GO AGAIN!” She was fearless.  Nathan on the other hand, doesn’t care for the Abominable Snowman. On the way back to the hotel one night he asked why the monsters don’t leave Disneyland. I tried telling him they weren’t real, but it didn’t help that Dad kept telling him stories of the monsters eating little kids. No wonder Nathan liked riding that ride with me instead!
Whenever Emma was told she was too small for a ride, she’d stand on her tip-toes and say, “I’m growing!” :( To make up for it, I’d find something fun for just the two of us while the rest of the family rode the big rides. (Don’t tell the others, but that is when we’d buy cotton candy and Churros!) She loved the characters!

Disney goes all out at Christmastime. Everything is decked out for the holidays. “It’s a Small World” and “Haunted Mansion” are completely transformed! And the fireworks at night are amazing!

At the end of a long day, it’s hard to get little feet to keep going. Nathan shoved his body- face first- into the stroller. It didn’t look too comfortable, but it got us to the car!

Three fun-filled days behind us…three more to go!