A little back story to our trip to Disneyland - it was early February and we were discussing the possibility of a family vacation or doing something fun for spring break - Jake's work had an early spring break and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to travel. So I booked a hotel on Priceline one Monday - Wednesday rolled around and Jake was had to "resign" from his job... Well the 300 was already spent and non-refundable... So what to do? Jake thought we might have to just cancel and lose the money, but I thought that we should just go for it, use some tax return money and some severance package money and have a nice family trip. It definitely was a wonderful trip, I am glad we went!
So our journey begins! Our plan was to leave at 6:00 a.m. on March 19th and were trying desperately to get everything done the night before but Nate had other plans, he knew something was up and would not go to bed...
It was about midnight by the time he went to bed - I don't know what time he really fell asleep because we went to bed then too. So instead of getting up at 5:00 like we'd planned we got up at 7:00 and out of the house at about 8:00.
We drove and drove and drove, and stopped to go potty and stretch our legs and fill up the gas - thanks to the gas buddy app for finding cheaper gas prices! Nate LOVED watching movies in the car - thanks Barb and Gary for letting us use the DVD player! He slept a bit but was awake and happy most of the time. He was a bit antsy and there but a change in movie or a new treat seemed to help lots. He finally fell asleep for a nap around St. George and slept until just past Vegas.
We stopped just after Las Vegas in Jean for lunch and a bit of walking around. Nate was in a sour mood at this point and would not eat anything, we got pancakes, eggs and bacon and would have nothing to do with them. While Jake was freshening up Nate went to the car and I offered him what we had in the car to eat: string cheese, grapes, cantaloupe, pineapple and goldfish - those he gobbled right up...Silly Kid!
The drive was windy and used too much gas, we learned which stations to not go to in the future. Gas Buddy was a great app to have and made filling up kind of a funner thing to figure out where we were trying to go.
So we arrive in California pretty late and were happy to check in and get to our room - we ordered a pizza for delivery that night because it was late and we didn't want to get in the car again. The room was not great... It was a great deal and saved us money, but we never could get the "Free WiFi" to work or even find the network... And walking around in socks was gross, within a few minutes the bottoms were almost black, so we made sure to keep them on and keep Nate up off the floor as much as possible.
Sleep was a challenge every night, Nate usually sleeps in his own room where its basically silent and dark... Hotel - not so much. So we had to lay with him to get him to sleep most nights and almost pin him down. The beds weren't very comfy and the pillows were useless - we ended up buying some while we were there.
The first morning we got up and headed out for Disneyland, we thought we were prepared for the weather, bundled up with sweatshirts and a blanket for Nate,but it was pretty cold and rainy, that describes pretty much the whole trips weather, it was kind of nice though because it scared some people away so the lines were short and the crowds weren't too bad. It was our first morning and we walked into the park right as Mickey was coming out to meet people, it was great we hopped in a pretty short line and got a photo, Nate was so excited!
This was his "say cheese" face pretty much the whole trip it was so funny, he was so excited to be there and to meet Mickey, I was afraid he would be really nervous, but no he was so excited!
After meeting Mickey we decided to start with Tomorrowland and got in line for the Astro Orbiter first, we attempted to all ride in one, but no luck, so I rode with Nate and Jake went alone, which allowed for better photos!
Buzz came next, which was Nate's favorite (at least the most requested)
Then we journeyed into Fantasyland, and got in line for what we thought was a Tinkerbell ride, but it was to meet Tink, the line was short and Nate likes the Tinkerbell movies (I know, its not manly, but they are cute shows) so we met Tink!
(Side note about this fish - Gerry has a pond with a fish that spits water and when Nate saw/sees it he talks to it about Tinkerbell, so cute!)
Can you name the fairies? I was trying to remember all of their names because they have lots of them there, but I can only remember Rosetta, Vidia, Fawn, Tinkerbell, Silvermist, and Terrence.
These flowers were giant, as you progressed in the line the scenery got bigger so it was like you were shrinking to fairy size.
There is his crazy "cheese!" face
Then off to the teacups Nate really love this ride too! (He pretty much loved everything!)
This is my FAVORITE picture!
One thing that was so nice about the cool weather and just being there ourselves was that we could go on all the rides, even ones we've heard were lame, so we went on the Storybook Land Canal Boats - I thought it was pretty cute actually.
We were a bit camera happy on the first day of our trip - well everyday probably!
Pirates, we also did Pirates at least once everyday I think. We wanted to try the Blue Bayou restaurant but at $35 for a lunch plate we decided to pass.
Speaking of food a bit - we save SO much money by packing in our own drinks, we bought a case of bottled sodas for each of us before we left and (some waters too) and we were so glad we did, drinks in the park cost about $3 each and you can't carry them on to the rides, so you'd have to buy a new drink each time if you didn't have a bottled drink. Yikes!
After doing Pirates again on day one the rain came in HARD! We decided to escape the weather and head back to the hotel for a break or the day which ever worked, it ended up being the day with record rainfall and snow in the higher cities. We hoped for better weather as we hunkered down for some much needed rest.
