DISNEYLAND 2016...Magic! (part one)

Oh, how I miss this trip! I'm concerned to say it is seriously influencing where we all want Brian to go to school. Brian told me the other day that he had swung back to wanting to go to USC. When I asked why, he said "Disneyland." We're all still going through serious withdrawals. Gracie just doesn't understand why we can't go there everyday. Brian and I agree that a huge game changer for our trip this year was a little splurge on a suite. It had two rooms so at night we could put Grace down right away and then shut the doors and have our evening to hang out and read and watch tv. We didn't have to be completely silent and have all the lights off like we did last time. It was pure genius. 

This is our first day at Disneyland. The morning hours of our first day were by far the slowest of our trip. It was beautiful. The pic above is Gracie realizing that Disneyland was real. She was SO excited. She just kept giving me and Brian these adorable bewildered looks. She had been watching Disneyland videos on YouTube for months leading up to this trip, but it was adorable to watch her realize she was there. An ingrained memory for sure. We ALL agree that one of our favorite parts of every trip is entering Disneyland and walking up main street for the first time. You feel like you're home. It's truly magical.

The first ride of every single trip. It was a walk on. This ended up being Gracie's favorite ride by far and she asked for it over and over again on the trip. We rode it a lot, but no one had a single complaint about that. 

This was walking off Pirates. Brian and Meg headed over to get fast passes for splash mountain. I turned around and realized there was no one walking in New Orleans Square but Adin. Pretty awesome. I wish I could say that this was a sign of a crowdless trip but alas that wasn't the case. Monday was a rare slow time and the rest of the trip was pretty busy despite it being listed as one of the slowest times of the year. 

The second ride of every trip. :) A walk on as well. :)

Adin made a autograph book during has "six days of disney". He wanted to get as many autographs as he could but there wasn't any way he was going to be seen asking for Sophie's autograph. This is him instructing Gracie to ask for her autograph. Teeheehee.

I packed along Gracie's Sophie dress and her amulet. Gracie loved meeting her. For a stranger shy little girl, Grace had no problem loving on the characters.

 This was a more memorable magical moment for me. I loved the one on one moments with each of the kids. This was just me and gracie on the teacups.

 We're also big on trying to take it slow. The long lines and heavy crowds kind of mess that up for me. I feel rushed to fit everyone's favorite rides in. We probably could have used a little more of just sitting around like this. Meg was adamant that she get another turkey leg. She regretted that decision pretty quickly and had an upset stomach after this thing. I'll be curious to see if she'll ever eat one again.


More to come. :)

Cali 2016- Drive and Day 1

If everything goes according to plan, we have some BIG changes coming up for our family this year. Brian and I wanted to have an epic disneyland vacation because we aren't sure when we will be coming back. We really wanted to be present and happy and make it super memorable. The excitement leading up to this trip was big. We had to delay a month on fairly short notice due to some work conflicts. Adin was so devastated. Meg wasn't very devastated because that meant she got to go to her Valentines dance. Grace had no idea. She definitely got that something big was coming though  because about two weeks before we were set to go she started asking frequently everyday if we could go to disneyland. She'd wake up in the morning and ask for it. It's hard to explain time to a two year old. Adin was by far the most excited. He could hardly stand it. He created the 6 days of disney to count down. He had a different activity planned for each day. 

The drive down was really smooth until we stopped in Vegas for lunch. We enjoyed some yummy in and out then Brian walked with Gracie and Adin over to a pet store to give them some more time out of the car. Meg and I were supposed to drive the car over. Welll, I got in the car and the engine would turn over and then immediately turn off. :( I can't even tell you how freaked we were. Stuck in Vegas on a Saturday with our trip all planned and waiting for us. Brian came back and we noticed a Meineke car place in the same lot that was open. Brian was able to get the van there by keeping engine revved up. I wondered stores in the strip mall with three very anxious kids. After about an hour, the car place couldn't find anything wrong with it and it was running smoothly again. It was such a blessing. We were all praying like crazy. They think we may have put some bad gas in it or something...still not sure. The van was okay the rest of the trip. It didn't run smooth all the time, but it never stopped again on us and we haven't had any problems now that we are home. 

The hotel we had booked for disneyland, was enormously expensive our first night there. We decided to stay somewhere else the first night. We stayed in a town called Monteray park. Incidentally that's one of our top places we would want to live if Brian ends up at school in California. We were able to explore the neighborhoods and get a feel for the area. Our first night we went to an authentic chinese food place. Everyone loved it (except maybe me who does not love chinese food). We thought Brian's fortune was meant for him with all our decisions coming up and his nagging fear that he's putting his family through too much by going back to school. 

Our first day was a Sunday so we try to keep it low key. We visited a small aquarium right off of a beach. It was really fun and they even had touching pools.

Then we headed to the beach. We wanted to go tide pooling so we based our trip on when the tide was the lowest that day. It happened to be in the evening. I've NEVER been to the beach at night and I must say that I think I'll always insist we stay till the evening from now on. I LOVED it. The beach is magical at night. I loved watching the sun set over the ocean. Brian and the older two spent a lot of time searching the rocks for sea creatures and they found quite a bit of sea anemone. Brian was on a hunt for a starfish but didn't luck out. I adored the lighting for looots of pictures. It was just stunning and magical.

 This girl does not like to be cold. She got chilly and really wanted to leave. She just kept asking for the car. I bundled her as best I could and cuddled with her to extend our time there. Such a great memory.

I need to get this image rotated and edited up (my photo editing software is gone and I have yet to get a new one). It was a great start to the trip!