The Happiest Place on Earth!

We finally did it!  We caved & took our kids to Disneyland.  They have begged & pleaded, and we have put it off, thinking they were too young.  Then last month, an unexpected opportunity arose.  My sister Janna was going, and was desperately searching for someone to come with them. She kept asking and asking, and I kept telling her the time wasn’t right yet, and finally she said they would give us all their extra hotel points so our hotel would be free.  Well, that was enough twisting my arm!   Since it was a last minute decision, we decided to keep it a secret from our kids.   Seth and I told them we were taking them out of school for a day to drive down to Price & look for houses.  After we’d been in the car for over 4 hours & St. George was on the horizon, Kenni finally noticed that wherever we were didn’t look much like Price.  Seth told all of the kids he must have taken a wrong turn and that we were lost.  They were panicking and getting ready to cry, so we quickly said “Surprise!  We tricked you!  We’re actually on our way to Disneyland!!!!”

Um…….. Lets just say we didn’t get quite the response we were hoping for.  Noodle immediately started sobbing.  He said he didn’t want to go to Disneyland! (I think he was really tired) Smurfy was already asleep.  Sparky was very concerned about school and told me his teacher was going to get mad at him for not coming back the next day. (I assured him she wouldn’t)  He asked me how he would possibly ever get all his make-up work done?? Only Kenni really understood and was jumping for joy.

I have to admit, I was really hoping for the commercial.  You know the one- that amazing Disneyland commercial where the kids get surprised by their parents and they can’t stop screaming?  It makes it all seem so magical.  (sigh…….)

Only now can I look back & realize how funny our kids response was.  And it was so typically “them”.

Anyway- after another hour or two of driving, they began to get really excited, and about another hour later the “are we there yets”  started to set in.  The rest of the drive was even less magical.  But, we made it in record time, and the kids devoured every MINUTE of the trip from that moment on.

We really, truly had such a great time.  I think the kids were just the perfect ages.  And my dear friend Michelle volunteered to keep baby J at home which made all the difference in the world.  At nearly 4, Smurfy was tall enough to go on all the rides he wanted to except one.  It wasn’t too crowded and we had PERFECT weather.  High 70’s and sunny the entire trip.  It was amazing!

Seth whined for ages about being “forced” to go to Disneyland, but he’ll be the first to admit now, he had a great time.

We can’t wait to go back again soon!!!!

I made these sweatshirts for the kids & gave them to them on the way there.  There were some cute t-shirts like them on Disney.com but they were $20 each.  I got these white sweatshirts at Wal-Mart on clearance for $1 and used my cricut to cut the fabric & ironed it on.  Much more economical, if not a little magoo.  But, the kids loved them & showed them off to people everywhere we went.

The “World of Color” light/water show at California Adventure.

The last time Seth went to Disneyland he was three years old, and apparently the only ride he wasn’t terrified of was Dumbo.  So we made sure to take lots of pictures of it so we could show his mom that its still his favorite ride :)

The kids all wore these lanyard with all their collectible pins on them the whole time they were there.  My sister told me that “pin trading” is one of her kids favorite things to do while in Disneyland. Let me just say the the pin trading was a hit- and that next time we’ll leave them home!  They cared more about finding cool pins than they did about enjoying Disneyland.  It drove me nuts!

Goodbye Disneyland!  We will miss you!