We were hopeful that we could make it back to Disneyland this year, but thought it would be toward the end of the year. We ended up getting more in tax returns than we anticipated and the mentions of disneyland began. Brian and I have been sooo burned out from this move. We have been incredibly blessed by getting a job down here and have been even more blessed to find out our loans will be repaid, but short of that this move has been anything buy smooth. It's been a mess and Brian hates the work. We will just be counting down the days. We both desperately needed a recharge. So in a short amount of time we went from hoping to planning. Kory just happened to facebook me while we were in the planning stages and asked when we were going to Disneyland next. A day later we planning with the Calls. It was my lifeline for a while. Knowing it was on the horizon was wonderful and exciting. Disneyland is not a relaxing vacation, but I personally adore every tiring moment of it. I love everything about that place, short of the pricetag. We were rather concerned about Gracie causing problems because she is super high maintenance, but she did awesome and actually forced me to really live in the moment the whole trip. I didn't spend time thinking about the stressors in our lives and now that we are back in the throws of life, I sorely miss California. I miss farmers market. I miss the beach. I miss the baby center at disneyland. I miss waiting in line for Splash Mountain. I sorely miss the smells and sights of Pirates. Eesh. It makes my heart hurt just typing it. With the exception of Spring Break 2005, this was the crowdy-est we have ever had. We plan to move our every-other-year trip to a more off season time next time around. Thankfully we went in with the expectation of it being crowded so some days were what we expected and some days we were pleasantly surprised. I am going to do a three posts for our trip. One will be for Disneyland highlights (it will be long), one for the beach, and one for our farmers market/off day.
Mainstreet-awe the sounds and smells
The girls-waiting for Haunted Mansion. Our tradition is to ride Pirates first because it is me and Brian's favorite ride. This year Pirates was closed when we got there...so was Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain and Winnie the Pooh. Not a great start. Haunted Mansion ended up opening up as we were walking back so that was our first ride of the trip.
Pirates is hands down my favorite ride, but I loved riding Splash with the kids this year. Adin always wanted to be in the front to "get soaked". Meg was always anxious and nervous about getting wet. :)
Prior to the trip Adin mentioned how much he wanted to do the Star Wars show. I didn't want to get home and have him remember he missed it, so I asked them how important it was. Very important to both of them apparently. To guarantee getting chosen to participate you need to be right in the center in the front. They pick these kids because they know you have to be waiting there for a while before the show starts. Trick two is you have to act very enthusiastic to get picked. We've got this business down and both kids were picked. Phew. Gracie and I saved seats with backpacks for 45 minutes. Gracie had had it.
Meg's turn to fight Vader.
Adin's turn. We got this on video thankfully but apparently Adin's face was quite intense because the speaker guy commented on his fierceness.
Don't let this picture fool you. I think Grace was pretty anxious the duration of the trip because she didn't want anyone to hold her but me. This is really her looking at me, freaking out, begging me to take her back.
First visit to Cars Land. Very cool.
This was the first year Adin was tall enough for Screamin' and Indiana Jones. He LOVED both.
The babies. Quite the troopers.
Gracie adores Sophia the First and her little 1 year old reaction to seeing her was adorable. Lots of ohs, pointing and reaching for her. As soon as it was her turn I set her down and she walked halfway to her and stopped. She wouldn't look at the camera despite lots of "getting attention" noises". She was enthralled.
Adin's #1 ride.
Meg's #2 ride
Meg's #1 ride
Adin's #2 ride.
Meg and Adin's #3
Gracie's favorite ride. It was adorable. She was enthralled. She would dance and squeal and point. She says dika dika dika while she stomps her feet (that's her dance). Most other rides she just sat there acting mildly entertained like she was sitting at home watching TV. This one she loved.
Not sure if Brian's doing the peace sign or #2. This is he second favorite ride...so maybe...not sure.
Disneyland 2014 was epic, and I think I miss it more than ever.
We tuckered this girl out.
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