Disneyland.

This is a long documentation of our recent trip to Disneyland.  I recently printed off another edition of our blog book and it reminded me that I need to be journaling more.  So this is full of stuff you most likely don't care about.  Also, I know it's not always fun to read about other people on vacation.  It always makes me wish I were there.  So consider yourself warned.  

We headed out on a little trip to St. George.  Or at least that's what they told the kids.  And they were thrilled.  We could have spent the week there and they wouldn't have even cared.  But we picked up Melissa and Jack and started driving.  Poor Jack was so confused.  He thought we were taking him to school.  Carter asked him why his school was out in the middle of the desert.  Poor Jack.  Carter couldn't stop talking to him.  It was hilarious.  We even heard him say, "I have 4 words for you.  Bats  Hang   Upside   Down."  It was fun.  Around Mesquite they started really wondering what was going on.  So we decided to tell them.  We gave them each an envelope with Disney Dollars.  They opened them and then looked at us sort of confused.  We asked them where they could spend them and they said Disneyland.  So I asked them if they'd like to go there.  Savanna was worried it was too far away but I told her we were getting closer.  So she started asking how many minutes til we got there.  We may have told her a little early.  Hal just smiled and asked to turn the movie back on.  Anyway, it was funny.

Carter was just smiley most of the time.  We had a little incident where he got soaked on Splash Mountain, but other than that they were so well behaved.

I did the girl's hair like this every day to keep it out of their faces and so many people commented on it.  I just wanted to remember.

Meeting Minnie.  Please notice Hal's face in NEARLY EVERY picture.

Toon town.  I bought the Minnie shirts at Target for $7 and gave them to the girls one morning.  They were thrilled and I saved $40.  :)

We were there a few weeks before Hal's birthday so we celebrated it a little while were there.  Everybody told her happy birthday.  All the princesses, workers, random strangers.  I think she felt like a celebrity.  Even Mary Poppins told her happy birthday during the parade.  She was beaming!

Sleeping Beauty.

Ariel.

Hal picked out her own hat.  They were so cute.  I want to remember every last second of this.  They were so much fun.  What a fun age.  Savanna really believed every ride.  On Star Tours, she leaned over and asked me if we really were in space.  She thought we left Disneyland and went to space.  On the Nemo ride she thought we were in the Ocean.  She asked if they were the real princess.  She asked if we were in a real Airplane.  It was the greatest.

The Genie.

Jedi Training.  Savanna was convinced it was the real "DARK VADER".

They learned a little fighting sequence and they got to fight Darth Vader or Darth Maul.  Savanna was the first one to fight Darth Vader.  It was so cute.

Carter really loved the lego store.  They made some really cute stuff.

A little excited during the parade.

The parade.

California Adventure was so fun.  The new Cars Land was AMAZING.  You really felt like you were right in the movie.  It was so cute.

We had lunch with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto.  The girls were in HEAVEN!

So we heard that the new Cars ride was a MUST DO!  So we got to the park right as it opened and ran to get fast passes.  The line was probably an hour and a half JUST FOR FAST PASSES!  And then the ride wasn't open until 2pm.  Apparently it breaks a lot.  So we got in line.  After waiting for nearly 2 hours, the ride broke again and they couldn't give us an estimate of when it would be back up and running.  We were frustrated.  So we went back at the end of the night.  If you're in line before the park closes they let you ride it.  The wait was still 1 1/2 hours.  And even after explaining our story to the lady, she wouldn't help us or let us get in the fast pass line which was only 25 minutes.  So, Mike exercised his talents and went to talk with Guest Services.  He really has a way with words.  He ended up getting us each a FREE park hopper pass for the next day and special tickets to get us to the very front of the line for the Radiator Spring ride.  It was amazing.  So the next day we came back for bonus day and went to the ride.  We had a few extra tickets so we grabbed a cute little family from the back of the 4 hour line and took them to the front with us.  It was fun.  They couldn't believe it.  And the ride was AMAZING--SO WORTH IT!

Really, they did such a good job with this.  You really feel like you're there.  The details are unreal.

So here are just a few pictures from our trip.  I have 400 more if you'd like a more comprehensive view.

So I remember:
The kids were so brave.  They rode ALL THE RIDES.  They loved Splash Mountain, Star Tours, Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, Soarin, Screamin, The Tower of Terror...seriously all of the rides.  It was so fun.  We walked a TON and they did so well.  It was so much fun with them.  I hope they remember this little family trip.
The Jedi training was so cute.
We loved the Aladdin show, the Crush show, and The Bugs Life show.
I had to bring my pump because we left Asher home.  We left it in the locker one night and i didn't get it back until noon the next day.  I thought I was going to die.  Don't want to forget that.