Our Disneyland Adventure

I know some of you are wondering why I wasn't around last week. We were in Disneyland! This was our first real family vacation! And boy was it fun and tiring, all at the same time! We were fortunate enough to bring Dave's parents with us (Bill and Helen) and the kids were so excited for them to come! They love being with them and they had an aweomse experience being with their grandparents for 5 days! It's a luxury that you sometimes don't get when you live close to each other. You don't think of spending all that time together.:-) But boy was it fun! I'm sorry that some of these pictures, well most, are out of order, but forgive me I can't deal with bloggers picture format all day here people. And this is really a picture extravaganza so get ready. We were fortunate enough to have Dave cave to the idea of us flying and I am SO grateful for that! The kids were a bit nervous for the flight (well mostly Matthew), but they were okay once we got on the plane. Matthew even got a tour of the cockpit. The pilots were really nice to him! This is us before we walked the 40 miles or so that we walked over the 5 days. We're still fresh here and excited at the entrace of Disney! lol


This is Matthew in Toontown posing with some characters. This is sad because I can't remember their names, but they were fun!
The boys with Mini Mouse, this was a feat to get Matthew to pose with any "girl" character. But he did it with dad.


This is Dave and Matthew on their favorite ride, Buzz Light year. It's kind of like a video game. It's pretty cool, but I eventually got sick of riding it. The boys did not. We were also spoiled at the beginning of the week to be able to walk onto several rides!

Okay this picture and it's partners are out of order but bare with me. Anyway, this may have been the best day of Matthew's entire life! We went to this really cool thing called "Jedi Training". It was a stage show and then you sit your kids in the audience. I skillfully placed Matthew on the front row in his Star Wars t-shirt in the hopes that he would be the chosen few selected to learn the way of the Jedi. They picked about 15 kids and there were TONS there. Anyway, he did get picked and when he did both Dave and I had tears streaming down our faces. You would have thought he was graduating college or something! lol But he got to wear a Jedi cloak and have a light saber. This is one of the final pictures because after they were trained for a few minutes each child either got to fight Vader or Darth Maul. Matthew got to fight Vader. It was SOOO awesome!!! Imagine this event in the mind of a 7 year old boy! Totally priceless! Vader even complimented him on his skills!

Matthew with Captain Hook. Even I have to admit he was kind of scarey! lol

Maren absolutely loved the princesses. Her favorites were Snow White and Cinderella. Mimi was nice enough to buy the kids "autograph books" while we were there and you can get all the characters to sign them. It's something only a grandma would buy, but the kids absolutely loved them!!! Thanks Mimi!

Matthew just hanging out at the entrace to California adventure. He thought this was the perfect photo op and told me to take his picture. lol

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, which I highly recommend! This was the swimming pool there. It was a lot of fun! The kids enjoyed swimming as much as Disenyland itself.
One of Maren's favorite rides were the tea cups. It makes me sick just thinking about it. Only Mimi was brave enough to ride them with her and the only one that could ride them without throwing up afterwards.


Will was in love with the furry characters! He hugged them all and laughed at all of them, it was so cute!
Even Dave got into the spirit! He was only happy because we got to eat at so many buffets! lol


We ran into Alice and the evil Queen of Hearts. Maren wasn't sure what to make of her. She kept talking about her eye brows afterwards.
This is Matthew after his Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich. Do you think any of it got into his stomach?


We went to hear princess story telling and this is Maren before it started. They had this really cool royal looking stage area.
We even got to meet Jack Sparrow!! He seriously looked SO real! I would have gotten in the picture only I knew it wasn't the real Johnny Depp. Otherwise you know I would have been the only one in the picture. Jack Sparrow was awesome though and talked to Matthew a lot about all his questions of "pieces of 8". Don't ask me what it means, but it is very important to pirates I guess.

Matthew fighting Vader.


Maren with Cinderlla, she absolutely loved her!

Will in his pirate Mickey ears! I loved this on him because he totally has the hair for it!

Matthew and Maren in their Mickey hats. It's tradition that you have to get your name sewed onto the back of one of these things. Something you would never let your kid wear normally becomes a treasure after you have been in Disney for a few days. Propaganda!

Us with Goofy at Goofy's Kitchen restuarant.

Maren and Matthew in Toontown!

Dave attempting to take Will on his first ride. He didn't love it. Will pretty much was on meltdown mode for the entire trip. Note to self and all who are friends: never take a baby old enough to walk, but younger than 3 to Disneyland.
Matthew learning the tools of the Jedi.


At the end of the trip Dave's sister Holly was in the Disney area so they met us for dinner! This is Matthew and Maren with their cousins Jill and Dean.
Here's how our kids looked on the drive home from the airport. Do you think they've had enough! lol

All in all it was a wonderful trip! I loved being with my kids and enjoying all the wonders that they experienced! Even though they wore me out I can hardly wait to go on another Disney trip with them again. It really was awesome! What a wonderful life I lead with these beautiful children. As Matthew put it when we first entered Disneyland "this is a really good life". I am so blessed!!