Disneyland was a blast!!!

We started with a trip to Twin to visit old friends: Ethan and his beautiful girlfriend Sarah.
Adam and Stephanie, and Fonda and the kids met us at city park so we could see everyone. Ryan, Roxanne and Phoenix were supposed to meet us, but since Phoenix broke his arm and, unknown to us, was in the emergency room at the time, I guess we forgive them.
Our first ride when we got there Monday was The Jungle Cruise. My biggest complaint about the trip was the heat on Monday. They hit a record high, yippee for me. As most anyone who knows me understands, I HATE the heat. If I could move to Alaska without having so much darkness, I'd take it in a moment. It was like 97 degrees at the high and I was seriously dying. Carrying a baby, pushing a stroller the whole time, I had sweat rolling down my back, nasty. The only time I like to sweat is when I'm doing it on purpose, like at the gym.
Tarzan's Tree house, and the lady in the corner is the one who said Lily was as beautiful as the flower in her hair and started taking pictures of her. I'm a proud mom, so I said okay.
Eating lunch at The Rainforest Cafe. Seriously a cool place to eat, the animals would come to life every now and then, and we had a tropical thunder storm twice while we ate, the kids thought it was awesome.

The petting area in Frontierland was a huge hit.

Ethan drew a picture of Buzz Lightyear's online game and gave it to him. We had no idea he had it until he got up to Buzz and pulled this folded up picture out of his pocket and gave it to him. This is where my fantasy world and my parenting instincts come into conflict, I want my kids to use their imagination and have fun thinking these guys are the real thing, but at the same time, I refuse to lie or mislead my children into thinking they are real. What do I do??? Well, Ethan is a smart guy, we never told him they weren't real and we never told them they are, but Ethan said that the guys dressed up like the characters were so fun to see. Yet while he was there seeing them, you would have thought he thought they absolutely were real. It was one of the cutest thing I've ever seen him do.

I'm tuff, I know.
This was a bug surprise for Brett and I. We were in Toontown late Monday night and got a surprise, we got to meet Mickey in his house and we got a lot of time to see him. Ethan went up to him like they were long lost friends and said, "Hi Mickey, I saw your movie where you wore the wizard hat and the brooms were walking." I wish I had gotten it on tape, I can't describe how he said it or how he looked when he said it, but he was so sweet and Brett and I were amazed. They couldn't stop hugging and kissing him and talking to him. It was sooo much fun.
Minnie's house, my oldest daughter is officially a super big Minnie fan, and she has the Minnie flip flops to prove it.

Brett trying to get a good shot of him and the kids on Autopia. They were both laughing hysterically. When it was Lauren's turn to drive, the harder she hit the wall, they harder they laughed. I think this one was Brett's favorite because of the kids reactions. We picked a great time of year to go, we didn't have to wait in line for anything beyond a few minutes, and mostly we just walked through and straight in without a wait at all. The Finding Nemo submarine was the only one we waited on, and it was like 40 minutes, but the kids loved it so I'm glad we took the time.
These pirates were awesome. They had a Captain Sparrow guy roaming the island while we were there and it was unreal how much he looked like the real thing. Ethan played with these pirates for like 10 minutes, and the man ended up riding back across the water with us. He was teasing Lauren the whole time saying she must be a princess because princesses don't like him much. She was being super shy with him, then he asked if he could come back later and kidnap her because pirates really like princesses. When he was walking away, my loud mouthed daughter yelled at the top of her lungs(which is saying something), "Good bye, Pirate!!!

Pirates Lair Island was by far Ethan's favorite part of Disneyland.
I have pretty much this same exact picture of me when I was Lauren's age on this same carousel. I can't wait to get them side by side.
The water fountain my son was obsessed with. What is it about water that makes little boys want to throw coins in it???

Grizzly River rapids, Brett covering up Ethan so he didn't get sprayed.
He got soaked, Brett's efforts didn't help much. That lolli is going to last for a month at least, I don't even know what to do with it.
Okay, this was amazing, at the lego factory, this thing was made completely out of legos.
And here is the top, since I didn't have enough room to go all the way back and get the whole thing in.
Lauren LOVED Goofy, she was so excited to meet him.
Lauren's favorite ride was the Mad hater's Tea Party
The Brother Bear adventure course was awesome!
This was one of the challenges for older kids.
And this.
We got to go to Toontown Morning Madness, hardly any one there, and become honorary Toontown citizens for the day. This is Lauren proudly wearing her badge. It was a fun show, too.
I FINALLY got her to take a Binky again. I lost this one for a few months, and it's the only one she'll suck on. None of my kids have been Binky babies, but Lily will give me a break if I give her this particular one.
Our last few Disney moments.
The flag ceremony on our last hour there. I got all choked up, I'm a dork.

This was such an amazing vacation! I'm so glad we spent the money to do it. In the end, we will probably never have extra money just laying around to spend on trips like this, but we just decided to go. We are out a few thousand dollars, but the memories we made and the joy our kids had is something I'm willing to lay down some money for.

We took tons of pictures so that hopefully the kids can remember it for a long time. The weather was nice, it wasn't super crowded, and we had happy kids nearly the whole time.
Ethan's favorite ride was Buzz Lightyear, no big surprise, and he went maybe 6 or 7 times. Lauren was a little weary of Pirates of the Caribbean, the skeletons scared her, and Ethan got terrified walking into Haunted Mansion, even though he really had wanted to go. We were on it with a bunch of stupid teens who thought it would be funny to scream at the top of their lungs when it got dark. Ethan and I got out after that, I was disappointed because I've never been on it before.

Snowwhite's Scary Adventure ride was indeed scary for Lauren, but she kind of liked it anyway. I didn't much care for Poo's little ride thingy, especially when they got the the typical "someone smoked way too much crack while writing this" part of the psychedelic poo dream. I loved Pirates, never been on it, and wanted to go again, but kids don't allow you to do what you want. Who is the parent again?

I over did things. I'm glad we waited for a while after Lily was born, but it wasn't long enough I think. I walked with Lily strapped to me and I pushed a stroller the whole time, and we walked fast. I'm a fast walker, I hate fuddy duddying along. Is that a word even? Well, I don't. But I was really hurting at the end of the day. At the end of the third day I thought my uterus was going to burst. Every step was like a stab to my uterus. I'm feeling better now, but I think I'll be taking things easy this week.

Something else the kids loved were the palm trees, if we could take one home, I'm sure they would have jumped on it.

Ethan and I went on the Soarin' Over California ride. I had more fun watching him than I did watching the screen. Ethan was so over stimulated and excited by what he was seeing that his legs were shaking. He had this incredibly huge smile plastered on his face, and he exclaimed part way through the ride, "Mom!!! Did we fly through a whole in the wall!?!?" He really thought we were flying over California, it looked so real. I think it might have been a bit much for him though, he didn't want to go again, too much stimulation for a little guy to handle. Oh! In California Adventure Park, The Monster's Inc. Ride was totally awesome and the only one Lauren asked to go on twice. She also named the Ferris Wheel as one of her top favorites.

My and Brett's biggest problem was trying to hold back and realize that our kids are still so little. Rides we thought were boring were just right for them. They did like the bigger rides that we wanted to go on, but Big Thunder Mountain was too much for Ethan. Gadgets GoGo Coaster was just the right size for him, Lauren liked it too. There are so many family rides there that we could take Lily on so we got to do most everything together. More than anything my favorite part was just walking around looking at all the picturesque things and being with my family. I have to give Disney props, they have these amazing Baby Centers there. The one in Disneyland was in this adorable little shop where they had Lauren sized toilets, changing area, supplies like binky's, diapers and rash ointment, a room with comfy chairs where mothers can go to breastfeed. Lily and I used this several times every day. It had a picture of Walt Disney on the wall as a baby in his chirstening gown. I love that. What an amazing man, he almost went bankrupt in order to build this magical place for kids to go and explore. I don't care how old I get, it's always going to be a magical place when I go there.