Disneyland!!

Even though we never had much money growing up, my parents always found a way for us to take a family road trip. That is where most of childhood memories were made. Now that I have my own family I am a firm believer in taking an annual family vacation. Last week we spent 4 days in Disneyland! I've never spent that many days in the park, but we still didn't get to everything. It was a fabulous vacation and we sure can't wait to go again. Oh man...where do I start?
Dave had a CME conference in Anaheim so his work paid for the gas, hotel, and Dave's food. How could we pass up the chance for all of us to go too!? He had a few hours of seminars in the morning and then we'd go into the park after lunch. The kids and I went into the park without him one morning and came home when it got too hot. It was pretty crowded in the afternoons and evenings, but we used a little thing called Fast Pass for the the popular rides. They even have a cool "Switch Rider Pass" that allows families with babies to go in two groups and the second group uses the pass like a Fast Pass with very little wait. It worked perfectly with our family size. Here are my favorites out of the 220 pictures we took.

Dumbo! Derek was 9 months old the last time we went to Disneyland. We have a picture of him riding Dumbo then and look how we've grown over the years! We spent one of our days in California Adventure. It does have a few great reasons to go in, but the kids begged to go back to Disneyland. It was fun, but I'm not sure if we'll spend a whole day in there again.

Please ignore the socks with sandals. :) I thought it was a cute picture. They loved watching their shadows...instead of where they were walking...urgghhh.

There are lines for any character you want a picture with. We found Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Goofy, and Stitch. Goofy was in a hurry to get somewhere. So we got a picture of the kids with him walking away in the background. We did get cute pictures with Mickey and Pluto though. Sorry Stephanie...we never saw Jack Sparrow. ;)
They have a fun new show inside Disneyland called "Jedi Training Academy". A Jedi Master choses children from the audience and trains them how to use a light saber. Then the stage rises up dramatically and Darth Vader and Darth Mal appear. The kids each get a turn to battle one of the characters. We were too late for seats the first day and just watched from a distance. Dave really wanted the kids to get chosen, so we came back on the last day. This time we were in the front row and Dave coached the kids how to get noticed. Well, Taylor suddenly became against the idea and Derek just stood there with his hand raised while the other kids jumped up and down wildly. Surprisingly, Derek was chosen to participate. (I guess good things do come to the patient ones.) I'm not sure who was more excited about it...Derek or his parents. :)

The kids battled either Darth Vader or Darth Mal, but somehow Derek was lucky to battle both of them!

One of the best parts of vacation...eating free donuts for breakfast every morning!! :) We stayed in the Tropicana Inn and loved it. The rooms were small, but not stanky! It was literally across the street from the Disneyland entrance. Walking to our hotel was faster than using a shuttle. We would stay there again.

The new Buzz Lightyear ride was a total hit in our family. It was the most-ridden ride for sure with Star Tours as a close second.

McKenna loves her stroller, so she was pretty good to sit in it for four days. She got a little restless at night, but nothing that fruit snacks couldn't cure. :)

Derek's favorite ride was Indiana Jones, even though he sat with his head in his lap and his eyes closed the whole ride. And he went about four times. Funny kid. Taylor was too short to go. I was quite proud of my boys. They went on every ride.

What Taylor had to say about the trip: I like Buzz Lightyear. Buzz Lightyear was fun and Star Tours was fun and bumper cars was fun. That's all.

Derek's Opinion: I really loved Indiana Jones a lot. It was cool. I liked the donuts too.

Overall, it was great family time together. I'm thankful we were able to go and hopefully the kids will have some memories of it. I'm sure we'll have to go again when they are older...maybe during the off-peak season though. :)