Disneyland! Again! Tim especially loves Disney anything. I really love it too. And both the kids love the Disney channel, so we go there anytime we get a chance. Tim had a week break from school and we spent it in sunny SoCal. The kids did great on the drive down and we spent 4 magical days at Disneyland. Well...here's the thing, most peoples blogs tend to be super positive and perfect, and I could tell ya'll only the great things that happened and how wonderful and perfect the whole trip was, but I'm going to tell you exactly how traveling with two small children in a packed park goes.
Day one: Super fun morning, we went to California Adventure and the kids absolutely loved the Toy Story ride and A Bugs Land. I was a little worried they would get scared on the rides but they both absolutely loved them! That's all they wanted to do over and over. But the park started to get packed and it was hard to get on any of the rides. So we went to the Playhouse Disney show, where we forgot our brand new camera on the floor, and no one turned it in! So all the cute pics we had of our first day were gone along with our camera. Then we got a spot early to watch the Pixar parade, which Dustin feel asleep right before, and grumpily woke up because of the noise and watched the whole thing with a big frown. Then the break-downs started happening. Right around 6:00. We left the park early but the poor kids couldn't sleep at all that night because they picked up a nasty cough.
Day two: Dragged two extremely tired kids to a very packed Disneyland at 8:00am for Magic Morning Hour. The good news was that their cough seemed to go away in the morning and eventhough they were tired, we got to ride all the kiddie rides in Fantasyland which they loved. They loved Dumbo and the Choo choo train and Peter Pan was a big hit. Here we are waiting to go on the ride.
They were so tired by lunch that was had to go back to the hotel so they could take a nap. Mom and Dad were pretty tired by then too! We came back to the park later and got to go on a few rides and then parked it early to find a spot for the fireworks. One of the workers told us where a good spot was and we found a bench and waited. The kids were tired and said they wanted to go home, but we were determined to see the show. Finally the show started and the fireworks started going off right behind a big tree. We couldn't see a thing! It was a horrible spot! The worker lied! Irritated, we packed up the kids and went back to the hotel, which is where the kids wanted to be anyway.
Day 3: We finally slept in and got to the park at a decent hour. We did Toon Town all morning which was really fun, except that it once again, got really busy. But we did get to see Mickey and ride the roller coasters and after that we went to Rainforest Cafe for lunch. I've never been to one so it was kinda fun to watch the animals and lightening storms, and the wrap I had was delicious! But before we went in to eat, Dustin had the biggest melt down of his life. I carried him down stairs that he apparently wanted to walk down himself, and he started screaming and rolling on the sidewalk yelling, "I need to go down BY MINE SEEELLLLFFFF" over and over again. Everyone was rolling thier eyes at me like I was a horrible mother. There was no consoling him. I just sat beside him till he was finished and booked it to the hotel after we were done eating! We came back later in the evening and rode some of the bigger rides when the kids were happier. Dustin's favorite ride was the Matterhorn, and he does this really funny fake scream on all the rides. It cracked me up. Check it out
Day 4: The kids were pretty much zombies by the fourth day and Audrey spent a good portion of the morning asleep in the stroller, and Dustin fell asleep on my shoulder for most of the afternoon (4 days of theme parks is too much for kids under 3, take my word for it!) But I really enjoyed the Aladdin show while he was sleeping and Audrey loved all the animals and the magic carpet. We ended the day with the amazing fireworks show that left me misty eyed. Audrey fell asleep in the middle of it, and Dustin thought it was loud, but Tim and I loved it!
The rest of the time we spent catching up on sleep, going to the Aquarium of the Pacific and seeing all the fish and touch pools, hanging out at Newport beach and Balboa Island, and swimming in the awesome water park at our hotel. Now it's back to normal life and regular sleeping schedules and that makes me happy!
