California Trip Days 7,8 & 9 Disneyland Here We Come!!

Friday morning and finally we get to go to Disneyland. Lauren's face was still a little swollen Friday morning, but her temperature was back to normal and she was feeling fine, thank goodness. We got up early and headed out the door to get in as much fun as possible.

Here are the kids sporting their Mickey Mouse ears that I bought them before the trip at a Disney Clearance store back home.

Waiting for the bus to pick us up.

We're finally here, wahoo!!

Riding the finding Nemo Submarine.

Logan driving on Autotopia. He loved this ride and was so fun to sit by while riding. I just love the pure joy on his face in the video. He is having so much fun, worth every penny!

Lauren and I doing our Charlies Angels pose on Buzz Light Year

Tyler and Logan on Buzz, Logan came back to this ride time and time again. One of his favorites.

We brought rain ponchos with us in case of rain and decided to pull them out for splash mountain. Tyler decided to use his to wrap the backpack in so our camera's didn't get wet. Logan heard that and decided we was going to leave his off like Daddy. Here is the result of that, Logan soaked from head to toe and not happy. The kids both loved the ride though.

Next up was a stop and Mickey and Minnies house's. The line was forever at Mickey's house and the kids were ready to ditch it, but I made us stay and go for it. I'm glad we waited and I think the kids were too. Although Logan didn't want to get to close.

Lauren with Minnie

Lauren and Logan posing outside our hotel with the dolphin fountain. Our hotel was called Dolphin's Cove. We came home for a dinner break and to meet up with the Stubbs.

The Stubbs had decided to go to California Adventure that morning, but we decided we would meet up with them for dinner. We decided to go somewhere a little nicer for dinner this night, and ended up at Claim Jumper.

Our waiter asked us if we were there for a special occasion and Mindy told him it was Tyler's birthday. We were just kidding obviously but the guy didn't catch on and went and ordered Tyler a cupcake. When he brought it back, we were just laughing and went along with it and sang Happy Birthday. Our kids were so confused.
The Birthday Boy!!

After dinner we headed back to Disneyland with the Stubbs. We figured we would catch a few rides and then watch the fireworks together.

Splash Mountain, Logan opted for the poncho this time.

After this ride, the girls went to get a spot for the fireworks and the boys went and rode a couple more rides. The made it back just as the fireworks started. It had started raining by this point so they didn't know if they were going to be doing them or not. I am so glad they did though, cause they were the most amazing fireworks I have ever seen, so cool. Logan however did not like standing in the rain listening to load noises. He was so ready to go. After the firework show all the boys decided to head back to their rooms and Lauren, me, Hailey and Mindy stayed at the park. We were troopers running around in the rain, but we had a great time and stayed til the park closed at Midnight. Unfortunately because of the rain I opted to leave the camera with Tyler. One of Hailey's favorite rides was Big Thunder Mountain so we decided to make that our last ride for the night. Lauren was not sure she wanted to go on it cause it looked scary. By the time it was our turn to board she had definitely decided she was not going to ride it and we ended up just walking through the ride to the exit side and waited for Mindy and Hailey while they rode it. I was a little disappointed to not get to ride it, but i was not about to force her to ride it if she really didn't want to. The Stubbs were leaving the next morning so we said our good byes when we left and parted ways. I am glad we at least got to spend a little time with them at the park.

The next morning it was back up to the park we went.
The carousel was the first ride we hit.

After that we headed to the Tea Cups, which I was not about to ride. I get motion sickness just watching that ride.
Tyler being silly, waiting in anticipation with the kids.

All settled in and ready to ride

Tyler again being silly, pretending he is going to throw up.

After this we decided to split up for a little while and Lauren and I would go and see the princess's and Tyler and Logan would go ride some more rides. Tyler even convinced Logan to ride Space Mountain with him and when they got off, Logan's response was, that was not super awesome. The lines were super long for the princess's and Lauren grew very impatient. She kept saying she didn't care if she got to see them or not. I wouldn't let her leave though cause I knew she would love it when she got there. Sure enough, she was in awe of them and loved the special one on one attention she got from each of them. She was even lucky and got her three favorite princess's.

After the princess's it was off the pixie hollow to see the fairies. It is a good thing that Lauren knew their names because other than Tinker Belle I had no idea who they were. First up was Silver Mist.

Next up was Tinker Belle and her very fairy friend Terrance.

We met back up with the boys after this and I think went back to our room for a dinner break. Afterwards we went back up to the park. We were going to watch the fireworks again but Logan convinced us otherwise. Which ended up being a good idea since the rides are empty during the fireworks. We rode Pirates, the jungle cruise, and Tyler and I took turns riding the Indiana Jones ride since the kids were too little for that ride. Logan was a little less ornery this night so we all stayed til midnight. We even talked Lauren into riding Big Thunder Mountain.
Here is a fun picture of the castle at night.

We were supposed to leave on Sunday and drive all the way home but we decided to stay an extra day. Because of Lauren's sickness we had only used 2 days on our 3 day park hopper and we figured since we were already there we might as well make the most of it. Who knows if we will ever get back there, so we wanted to make the most of it. We decided to go to California Adventure first this morning and do a few of the rides we heard were must dos. Before we hit any rides though we ran into Lightening McQueen and Mater. Logan was excited to finally see someone he liked.

After that he went over and rode Soarin' over California. That was a fun ride, the kids were a little nervous at first, but really enjoyed it. Then we went and started standing in line for the Toy Story ride. It was over and hour wait and we weren't sure if we wanted to wait that long. Then Tyler saw that they were giving out glasses and remembered his cousin say you have to ride the one with the glasses, so we continued to wait, and I am so glad we did. It was probably my favorite ride and had the line not been so dang long, I would have rode it again and again.
A Bug's life 3-D ride was next. It was pretty cool, except the kids got spooked out a little and didn't want to keep the glasses on. My favorite part was the bugs crawling under your bums on their way out.

Logan was so worn out by Sunday that he really wasn't having it any more. Here he is stopping mid step and refusing to continue on unless someone came to get him.

We went back over to Disneyland after that and let the kids each pick their favorite ride to go on one more time. But after barely stepping into the park Logan through another major tantrum and we wasted at least a half hour sitting on a bench waiting for him to calm down. Tyler left to get us fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain, as that was Logan's ride of choice. Logan had gotten a hang nail and that is what was causing his grief cause he was insisting he needed a band aid. There was a photographer that worked at the park that kept staring at us and finally came over to me and pointed me to the first aid building if we needed anything. We went there and got a band aid and he continued to cry for awhile before finally calming down enough that we could continue on. Lauren's ride of choice was It's a Small World, so we went and rode that ride for the millionth time. The first time was fun but by the end of the trip, I think I have that song stuck in my head for life.

We then went and used our fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain, which was great cause the line was way long and we were able to go right up to the front, fabulous. After their rides we went to a gift shop and let them each pick out a toy to take home. Lauren picked out a Tinker Belle polly pocket set and Logan picked out a Toy Story set.

We only spent half a day at the park and decided to drive to Vegas that night so we didn't have such a long drive on Monday. That and we had to check out of our hotel so we didn't really have much of a choice. The couple we stayed with on our way down had said to us if we need a place to stay on the way back that we were welcome to do so. I told them we wouldn't need to but thanks, yeah I called her and said just kidding, can we still take you up on your offer. They said yes of course and that is what we did. We were so exhausted that me and the kids slept most of the way to Vegas. We had so much fun, but I don't think I have ever been so exhausted in all my life. I had blisters on the bottoms of both my feet and if you don't believe me, here is a picture to prove it. Yummy!!

I am so glad we had this opportunity to go on this trip as a family. It was so good spending such quality time together. Thank You Tyler for working so hard for us to make it happen. You are the best!!
I now love my family more than ever!!