Well it has been almost 2 months since our lovely trip to Southern California. I think I needed that much time to have a better remembrance of how the trip really went. If I would have written right when we came home I might have only remembered that even though we were in the happiest place on earth, our kids still fought, complained and whined just as much as they normally do. But since I have waited this long, I only remember the fun times, the warm weather and the looks on my kids faces as they saw their favorite Disney character! It really was a fun trip and one I think my kids will remember for a long time. So since I had a bazillion pictures, I tried to collage them up a bit. So here is our trip in a nutshell!
Arrival day. Jan 30,2012. We flew on Jet Blue and landed in Long Beach. I have never flown into that airport, and it was pretty interesting. It is sooooo small. They have you land and get off just outside. No terminals and the entire airport was practically a bunch of portable buildings. I was glad it wasn't raining that day! The kids loved riding on an airplane. It had been a long time! I loved not driving for 14 hrs. It made the trip much more enjoyable. Myah had a double ear infection and I was a little worried about her, but she did great! (and in case you might be wondering where Dawson is? We left him home with my mom and dad. I was soooooo worried about leaving him! He has become quite attached to me, but he did great! We all missed him terribly, but I think he was much happier not being toted around, missing his nap every day. Not to mention he was pretty sick with a cold when we left. I think he would have been miserable if he came!)
the rest of the first day was spent lounging at the hotel. We did take a one mile walk to find a pharmacy to get Myah's prescription that I left sitting on the counter. Having your Bishop as your pharmacist sure comes in handy! It was quite the adventure though. We ended up getting some groceries at Target and Darin and I just looked at each other when we had about 10 bags of groceries and a one mile walk with three kids at 9:00p.m. Luckily we found a bus that dropped us off in front of our hotel! Thank heavens for public transportation!
Disneyland!!!
The kiddos where pretty excited. Nothing quite as great as seeing your kids faces light up the first time they see the magical streets of Disneyland.
Myah meeting Rapunzel and seeing the castle. I was especially excited to take Myah to Disneyland. She is so in love with princesses right now. The last time she came she was too little to really care so it was fun to see her excitement. She was pretty shy about meeting them, but very excited to tell everyone about it when she was done!
More ride fun! The boys loved all of the rides. Myah not so much. If it went in the air or spun to fast she hated it! I tried to get her to go on the rocket ride in tomorrowland and she had a fit. I thought for sure she would settle down once we had our seat belts on. Oh no....she was fighting to the death. I felt a little sheepish as I told the attendant we needed to get off. I learned from then on that she needed to decide which rides she would go on if she was going to have a fun trip!
Mickey's toon town: Myah was so excited to meet Minnie Mouse!
Meeting Mickey. Always exciting to see where Mickey lives!
Silly kids. Camden wanted to try one of those large pickles. He loved it! Carter thought he would stick with some fresh mangoes but had to give it a crazy face as well!
Autotopia, Toy story mania and Bugs life. The fun thing about going to Disneyland for 4 days in January/February....extremely short lines and enough time to go on almost every single ride in both parks....many more than once!
Taking a time-out in Downtown Disney. Having some fun at ESPN zone.
Myah's all time favorite! Meeting Tinkerbell and Rosetta was probably her favorite. Just look at that smile!
The carousel. I think we took Myah on this ride over 20 times! It was her favorite....seriously we come all the way to Disneyland and that is her favorite ride. Carter loved it as well....he is such a nut!
Children for sale!
It's a Small World! My favorite ride. It was closed until our last day at the park. I was so glad it opened! I love it. Darin thinks I am silly. Not his favorite. The boys tried to act cool like their dad and say they didn't need to go on it. By the end of the ride however, they said it was one of their favorites as well! That's my boys!
Toy story mania again, the carousel again and Splash Mtn. My boys loved splash mtn. and since there wasn't a wait at all we went on it several times in a row. I love that ride too!
Carter's all time favorite!!! Jedi training! He was trained 3 times and finally convinced Camden to do it with him the last time. They loved it. I have to admit, it WAS really cool!
Camden has always been our biggest Lightning Mcqueen fan. A few years ago when we came he was pretty star struck. It's sad to see him growing up in a way. As much as he thought it was cool, he didn't seem as excited as when he was little. That is the main reason I think everyone of our kids needs to experience Disneyland at the right age. There just isn't anything quite as exciting as seeing their faces light up! However, I think in a few years when we go again Camden is going to love Cars Land. It looks really cool! I wish it would have been done when we were there!
And last but not least Myah met the princesses!
And here we are waiting for the World of Color water show. AMAZING!!!!! One of my favorite highlights of the trip. A must see! Just make sure to get fast passes for it or the seats are no good. We ended up watching it twice just to have better seats. So fun!
Overall we had such a great time! Camden loved anything fast and crazy so I didn't get as many pictures of him because I couldn't get out my camera. It was kind of funny one time, I went on Space mtn. with him and my paranoid mom-self kicked in. It was so dark and I couldn't even see him sitting next to me. I worried that his seat belt might not work and I wouldn't now he had flown out of his seat until the ride was over. It made me a little nervous! I'm crazy aren't I! It was fun just being together and spending time as a family. Darin and I needed a bit of a vacation ourselves by the time the trip was over, but heck...our kids will only be this age once!!! We will have to do it again in a few years when Dawson is old enough to come!!
Just for kicks....look how much we have changed in three years!
