"Disneyland Here Us Come"

Last month our family decided to take a trip to Disneyland. The kids were so excited they could hardly stand it (and, so were we for that matter). So, rather than making plans for a long time, we decided to go, and then left 6 days later. The kids did extra chores around the house without being asked in order to earn some spending money, plus they were allowed to bring whatever money they already had (thanks to Marmee who in large part provided the money in their piggy banks). It was so much fun, so I thought I would put some pictures of our adventure. Oh yeah, that quote at the top is from Hallie -- she kept saying that over and over during our ridiculously long car drive to California (made even longer by the storms in Southern Utah).

This was at Rainforest Cafe. The kids totally loved it, especially Kale. Hallie still gets nervous every time one of those pretend thunderstorms starts up, but other than that she thought it was cool too.

Our first day in the park was way fun. Most of the pictures only have Rachel because by 1:00 Kale and Hallie were sleeping in the stroller. Good thing because it was super hot -- at least they had the constant shade.

Character dining is totally the way to go if you don't want to be waiting in long, super hot lines. We went to Goofy's Kitchen one day and all the kids were so excited, but none so much as Kale. He loved seeing all the characters walking around and couldn't stop looking at them, but as soon as they came close enough to touch him or just talk to him, he immediately felt a little more wary.

We had the girls wear their bright yellow shirts a couple of the days we were in Disneyland. It's funny how people thought it was such a genius idea to put them in those bright shirts. Quite a switch from when there were 20 bright yellow shirts wandering around -- 2 yellow shirts = genius, 20 yellow shirts = crazy!

Half way through one of the days we decided it was just too hot, so we took off and went to the beach. Rachel absolutely loved it. She couldn't wait to get in the water and loved jumping over the waves with Jon. Hallie didn't mind getting her toes wet, and even let the water go over her ankles on one occasion. Kale on the other hand only liked the sand. He didn't even like the water to touch my feet while I was holding him. So, he and I sat a safe distance from the water and built sand towers.

Well, that was about it. The kids loved it and so did we. It was so fun to just have the experience of a vacation with just our family (something I don't think we've ever done). We loved being able to just spend every day together with no distractions (work, errands, cleaning, etc.). So, definitely worth the craziness of the 11 hour drive. Wahoo for Disneyland, the happiest place on earth (at least when you're with your family)!