Disneyland

We have been talking about going to Disneyland for EVER!!  Disney started their Give A Day Get A Day program and we thought what a cool idea.  Let's give a day of service which will be a good experience for our kids and then we can actually take them to Disneyland.  Well we were 1 week outside of our date of service and Disney announced that they were no longer doing the program.  That they had reached their limit of 1,000,000 tickets.  So even if you had already reserved your day of service, done your day of service or showed interest you were our of luck cause there were no more tickets.  Needless to say I was heart broken.  We had already discussed with the kids what we were doing and they were very excited to be going to Disneyland.  As you can imagine it is quite expensive to take a family of 6 to Disneyland, or pretty much anywhere for that matter...LOL.  So Pete and I talked and decided that we were going to do our day of service anyway, because again, it would be a good experience for the kids and maybe give them some appreciation for the problems they do have and the ones they don't.  And we decided we were going to take them to Disneyland anyway.  We thought maybe we would go next month and then I mentioned to my husband Sunday morning that our good friends Ryan and Steve were leaving that night for their Disneyland family vacation.  Pete looked at me and said "Do you think they will mind if we crash their vacation?"  I totally thought he was joking, then again I should have known better because Pete is always popping up with big plans last minute.  I know that life will always be exciting with my husband :)!  So, I called Ryan and asked and she said "Absolutely not, that would be a lot of fun!"...well maybe not that EXACTLY, but something pretty darn close.  We jumped online and made our hotel reservations and bought our tickets and I hurried through cleaning the house and taking care of a few loads of laundry.  Between noon and 6:00pm we had planned, booked and prepared for our 2 day trip to Disneyland.  The kids had NO IDEA what was coming.  Well, Zayna did only because she was at Ryan and Steve's and overheard the conversation between Ryan and I.  Skyler was at her dad's and Ryan was at Grammy and Pops' house.  Ryan came home about 3:00 and was SO excited when we told him.  Skyler walked through the door at 4:45, one hour before our departure time.  When she came in there was a stack of bags by the front door.  She looked at me and asked "Are we going somewhere?" and I said "Yes, we are going on a trip".  That is when my son, who was relaxing in his recliner and watching a Scooby Doo movie, turned his head around and said "Yup we are going to Disnyland".  I thought Skyler was going to come out of her skin.  It was so neat to surprise them like that.  So we left Sunday night got to the hotel and attempted to crash with full anticipation of the next day.  We got up early Monday morning and had breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen.  The kids had lots of fun there.  They were able to meet Pluto, Goofy, Chip (from Chip and Dale), Alice and Baloo.  They danced with them and helped Goofy mix some stuff up. 

 Next we headed off to Disneyland.  We rode rides from 10am to 10pm, it was a LONG day.  Emily even got to ride some rides.  She rode Peter Pan's Flight, It's A Small World (which was her absolute favorite!!!), The Hauted Mansion, Finding Nemo (Emily didn't really care for this one) and the Train.  Everyone really enjoyed The Matterhorn, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain (well except Ryan).  Ryan didn't so much like the fact that he couldn't see the track on Space Mtn.  He cried when the ride was over, but he was ok. 

 Then we left the park and went to Tony Romas for dinner.  We were exhausted, which caused the sillys to set in.  Ryan (my friend), myself and Steven were in tears we were laughing so much.  I think at one point I actually started to cry, literally cry.  We had so much fun.  Then off to bed, no one had trouble sleeping Monday night.  Tuesday we woke up and headed off to iHop for breakfast.  After that we went to California Adventure.  We watched the 3D movie A Bug's Life, Emily HATED that movie!  Then we were off to Soarin' Over California.  The Lee family went in and rode it and then when they were done they watched Emily for us so we could ride it as a family.  It was SO neat.  You actually feel like you are flying.  I have NEVER had an experience like that in my entire life.  I don't know how they do it.  I did get motion sick and almost lost it, but was able to keep it together.  It was worth it!!  Next we walked around and found some food and then parted ways with our good friends.  They had a reservation at Ariel's Grotto and we wanted to ride one more rollercoaster before we left.  We were headed towards the biggest roller coaster in the park.  California Screamin'...we got there and Ryan stood up to the marker and he was BARELY by a hair big enough to ride the ride.  Pete and I told him over and over that it goes REALLY fast and it goes upside down.  We kept asking him are you sure you want to ride this ride and he kept saying yes, yes, yes.  Skyler, Zayna and I got in line first while Pete, Ryan and Emily waited for us.  When we got to the front of the line Zay's tummy wasn't feeling too well (our diet hadn't been the best the last couple of days) so she left through the exit and hung with the other 3.  So Sky and I rode the rollercoaster.  It scared the daylights out of Skyler, but I thought it was AWESOME!!  When we were done we ran down and told them all about it.  Ryan couldn't wait to get on.  Skyler decided she wanted to ride it again, so off she went with Pete and Ryan.  2 minutes later Skyler came running back, she didn't want to get on it again, she changed her mind.  Right then Zayna decides she wants to get on it so she takes off running to catch up with Pete and Ryan.  Minutes later Pete and Ryan come running down the ramp.  IT WAS AWESOME!!  When they first got off the ride Ryan said "That was not cool" ( only because that is his new thing right now ), but when they got to me he said "That was kind of awesome" with the biggest smile on his face while he was jumping around like a jumping bean.  I asked where Zay was and Pete told me he had no idea.  She came down the ramp at that point with the biggest smile on her face!!  She wasn't able to catch up with dad and Ryan so she rode it by herself and LOVED it.  She took off and rode it again.  Ryan wanted to ride it again too, but it was time for us to go.  We had an awesome 2 days of family fun.  My husband didn't work, was hardly on the phone and we got lots of time with him!!  I am so blessed and so thankful for my family!!!  I can't wait for our next adventure together.