Disneyland - We Finally Made It

Nobody in our family has ever been to Disneyland...that would include both Yates and myself! We decided that this was the year and went with our good friends, the Sparks' and had a BLAST! It was really a trip that financially we had to stretch for, but we made it and I don't think if we had forced ourselves to that we would have ever made the trip. Both Tucker and McKinlee were good ages to go and we left Titan in Las Vegas with Jared and Kylie. It was a fabulous decision on our part! There is too much running around, long days, late nights, heat, crowds to have to worry about a baby on top of things. I was REALLY worried to leave him (we've NEVER left any of our kids for that amount of time, with ANYONE)! Titan had a great time in Las Vegas and I have the pictures to prove it...I'll just have to post them later since I just remembered I never did get them from Kylie. He played with little Dax and Jared and Kylie took GREAT care of him. I knew they would, but I was still a ball of nerves.

So, to start off our trip. We left Monday, June 15th and met the Sparks in Vegas after dropping off Titan (and ALL his luggage. Kylie told me I way overpacked...that would be normal for me! She didn't use 1/2 the clothes I took for him. LOL!) We ate at Carl's Jr. in Primm, NV and finished the drive to Anaheim, CA. We checked into the hotel and got settled in and then headed to Disneyland for the evening to see the Electrical Parade and walk around for awhile.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites about 1 mile from the Disneyland entrance and I was very impressed with the hotel. We stayed in a suite that had a seperate bedroom from the living/dining area so that if we wanted to stay out and chat the kiddos could snooze in peace. Our bedroom had 2 full size beds so Yates slept with Tucker and I slept with McKinlee the whole trip. The bathroom was a good size and nice. There was a little fridge and microwave as well as a sink/food prep area so if you brought your own food you could save some $$ on eating out. They also had a complimentary breakfast, but don't think it's just normal. They had cooked-to-order omelettes, and most anything else you could imagine that could possibly be a breakfast food available. They also had a "Happy Hour" for a couple hours each evening where they had complimentary beve rages/snacks available for all the hotel guests. All great things, but the BEST thing was it was very kid friendly...there were a LOT of families staying and the hotel staff was very accomodating and gracious. They had a waterfall, stream feature in the main area of the hotel with real fish and turtles in. The kids favorite though, was a robotic lion that would twitch his paws, open/close his eyes and every 1/2 hour would come alive and roar. It was VERY FUN for them!

Our day basically consisted of: waking up in the morning, getting ready, eating breakfast, heading to Disneyland until early afternoon, coming back to the hotel, taking naps for all of us (ahhh, even Tucker), swimming at the hotel, getting ready and going back to the park until bedtime. We squeezed dinner in there as well. We ate at Subway one night, PF Chang's one night and pizza from the hotel one night.

On Thursday, we went to Huntington Beach. I got lots of video, but must not have taken my camera because I don't have any beach pictures. :( We had fun. Tucker got buried, all the kids frolicked in the surf, Yates & Sean body surfed their guts out and Yates & I got FRIED! I was so tomato red that night we had to make a Target run for some aloe vera...sad! The smog hadn't burned off when we first got to the beach so it wasn't hot OR sunny (I know, I know...you can still get burned when it's cloudy...I'm a believer!) but I just didn't think to put sunscreen on myself. Of course, I slathered it on the kids so they were safe. At least I'm a good mom! LOL! It was mostly only brutal the NEXT DAY when we spent all day long clothed and in the sun on a hot day at Disneyland.

So...here we have our Disneyland trip:

FAMILY

CHARACTERS

I wrote down all the characters we saw each day, but do you think I can find my list now? Argh...no! It'd be easy if we got all their pictures/autographs, but that's not realistic. From memory we saw: Mickey, Minnie, Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora), Jasmine, Ariel, Cinderella, Cinderella's Prince, Woody, Jessie, Goofy, Clarabelle, Pluto, Chip N' Dale, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, Alice in Wonderland, Pooh, Eeyore, Rabbit, Tigger, Pinnochio, Geppetto, Lilo, Stitch, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. The kids had a BLAST with this!

RIDES/ATTRACTIONS

We hit as many as we could and went on:

Tower of Terror, It's Tough to be a Bug (3-D), California Screamin', Grizzly River Run, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Indiana Jones, Jungle Cruise, Tarzan's Treehouse, Mad Tea Party, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, It's a Small World, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Space Mountain, Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear, Pinnochio's Daring Journey, King Arthur Carrousel, Donald's Boat, Goofy's Playhouse, Mickey and Minnie's Houses, Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walkthrough.

GOOD FRIENDS

We had a really good time with the Sparks family. Lesley and I joke that we are collecting pictures for Tucker and Ellie's wedding album. They really are such good little friends. All of our kids get along so well that it makes it so nice. Of course, it helps that Tucker and McKinlee are USUALLY best little pals. That's why they tease to the point of driving their parents insane, right?!?

One of my favorite pictures from the trip deserved its own spotlight. We really didn't eat much in the park. We had brought food from home and made sandwiches/took drinks that we kept in the hotel room fridge each day. However, Yates HAD TO HAVE the turkey leg! LOL! Yup, folks, this is the man I CHOSE to marry! Got to love every bit of this hunk-o-burnin'-love!

On another note, we just happened to run into Jose Conseco while we were there. Yates and Tucker came off Indiana Jones and he came straight over to get the camera and told me Jose Conseco was on the ride with them and was coming. He was stoked! He loved him as a player when he was younger! He was definitely taller than I pictured and was still built (thank you steroids!)
On a p.s. note. I fainted for the first time in my life in Disneyland! Well, we weren't actually in the park. We were standing in line to get on the shuttle to head back to the hotel one afternoon. It WAS hot and I didn't feel real great, but it hit me like a brick. I started sweating, tried sitting down, stood up when the shuttle got there, grabbed Yates 'cuz I got light-headed. Next thing I know the shuttle driver is asking if I'm okay and there's a small crowd and Yates is talking to me as I look up from the ground at him. Apparently I was holding onto him and he felt me slip so he grabbed me on my way down so I didn't fall hard, just kind of "layed" down. I was a little embarrassed to say the least and still didn't feel good at all, but managed to stand up, get on the shuttle and Yates made me eat like 2 packs of fruit snacks before we got to the hotel and drink a bottle of water. All the while I was getting stared at by everyone sitting on the bus. I think they were waiting for me to return all the fruit snacks to the shuttle floor at any time. By the time we got back to the hotel I was feeling good enough to walk up to the room and lay down for a bit. I don't know what happened though. I had eaten breakfast...maybe just not enough water. Shrug! Ah, the memories!