Disneyland!

Five years ago, as we drove our boys to their forever home for the first time, they asked us, "Will you please take us to Disneyland?" That question, that moment, I've replayed in my mind time and time again.  For five years, we've saved tiny bit by tiny bit to try and take the boys on the vacation they've dreamed about for as long as they've known us.

On Monday, we left for the happiest place on Earth.
To say this vacation was magical, would be a enormous understatement.  Now that we are back and relive the trip in our minds, this vacation was as special as vacations can come.

Bright and early  dark on Monday morning (we woke up at 4 a.m.) we left our house with the GPS destination pointed to Anaheim, CA.  I'm not sure honestly who was more excited, the kids or the big kids (Dad, Nana, Papa and me).

For 300 plus miles we talked about what we were going to do, we studied the map and we made a plan of what ride we were going to go on first.  As the miles ticked down and we entered the city of Anaheim, the excitement was tangible.  Isabelle would shout, "I'm going to Disneyland!"  While the boys would have their eyes glued out the window, trying to spot the first sign of Disney-anything.

Finally we arrived and as we pulled into the Disney Paradise Pier parking lot, we all couldn't wait for the fun to begin.  After checking in, getting into our room and grabbing a quick bite of lunch we strolled out of the hotel and headed straight to Disneyland.

What follows are some of the best times, the greatest laughs, and reliving of our childhoods through the lives of Gabriel, Michael and Isabelle.  Simply put, it was magic.

In the lobby of our hotel was Goofy, who Isabelle greeted each morning and every evening upon our return.  Here she and Nana are saying hi for the first time.

The view out of our hotel room looked out into the parks.  The kids LOVED having the view we did, each morning they'd open the curtains, look out into the park and pick out what ride they were going to go on.  In fact, the first night they slept with the curtains open, just so they could admire all the lights.

Nana and Papa brought along tons of tasty food, so we could save some money and eat in our room.  Here they are talking about how excited they were to go enter the park!

Here we are minutes after stepping inside the park.  While we are all squinting to see, actually we are super excited for what was just ahead!

Right away we saw Aladdin and Jasmine walking through the park. 

And then there was Goofy who just seemed to be waiting for us to come!  He welcomed us with open arms.  To which Isabelle just screamed in happiness!  "HI GOOFY!" She repeated, followed by, "SILLY GOOFY!"

Isabelle's reaction to seeing all of her favorite characters was to just race off after them.  It wasn't long before we realized she'd have to be confined to Dad's shoulders or her stroller, neither of which she was too excited about!

 Seconds after Goofy disappeared, Isabelle spotted the one and only Mickey.  She charged straight to him, thankfully I was able to swoop in and grab her before she reached him.  The other 20 families in line gave me the look of "please go to the back of the line" so we followed doing our best to keep her from having a fit.  She had yet to learn one key rule about Disney.... you wait in line for everything!

Thankfully the line moved pretty quickly and soon enough she was at the front.  We let her down and she charged straight to her favorite male mouse.  Wide open hugs and shrieks of "MICKEY!" were music to our ears.

After big hugs, Isabelle and Mickey danced together, I think she was trying to show him she knew the "Hot Dog Dance"  Those fellow parents of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will know exactly what I'm talking about.

Soon we were off to Toon Town where we rode on Goofy's Go Coaster, a roller coaster ride for kids.  Isabelle was just tall enough so we all went.  It was so funny to watch Isabelle's face as she has NO idea what she was in for.  As soon as the ride took off and raced around the corner, he mouth was as wide as it would go.  It completely matched her eyes, I've never seen them so big.  At first I thought she was scared, but as we pulled back into the ride station, she smiled and said, "I want to go again!"  I cried it was so funny.  Meanwhile Gabriel rode with Nana and was just as scared, he said, "Nana, make sure to hold onto me!"  And then were was Michael, who we've determined isn't afraid of anything!  

Here the kids are on the first truck outside of the Roger Rabbit ride.

It was SO wonderful having Nana and Papa with us.  Not only were Jarrett and I SO thankful for the extra help with the kids, but it was fully enjoyable to experience the Disney magic with them.

Here they are on the eve of their 42nd wedding anniversary.  Disney was the place where they went on their honeymoon, so what better place to celebrate an anniversary!

At one point, everyone else went on the Indiana Jones ride while Isabelle and I discovered Tarzan's tree house.  She loved it, I tolerated the 87 stairs... my legs were just a tiny bit sore from running the half marathon the day before.

In all honesty, the views from the top of the tree house were pretty great.

Isabelle liked looking out into the park too!

Here she is testing out one of Tarzan's contraptions used to cook his food.

While there was SO much more to day one than are captured in these few photos, I can tell you that we stayed at the park until it closed, getting home and to bed well past 10:30.  Only to have the kids wake up at 5:30 the next morning, begging to get up and go back to the park...

Back at the hotel and getting ready to start day two, the kids paused for a minute so I could take yet another picture.

 On the second day of our adventure, we woke up to find it foggy and much cooler outside.  We were headed to California Adventure that day, determined to experience all the Frozen Fun Disney had in store.  Wait, perhaps Elsa knew we were coming and made it frozen...

The first thing we were told to do, upon entering the park was to race to an E-Ticket machine so we could get a ticket to stand in line to meet Elsa and Anna.  Yes, you read that correctly, you have to have a ticket simply to stand in line to meet them.  Crazy. I know, but Frozen is HUGE and Isabelle's favorite, so that is exactly what we did.

On the way to get our ticket to wait in line, we ran into Doc McStuffins.  I made the boys take a picture with her, they weren't too thrilled as Michael said, "She is for babies!"  

 Isabelle also happened to see the store front for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, to which she again, jumped out of her stroller, ran up to them, started waiving and talking.

 After getting our ticket to stand in line for Elsa and Anna, we headed straight to Cars Land.  We stopped to ride on Maters Junkyard Jamboree.  It was a lot of fun!

 The next stop was the most popular ride in the park... Radiator Springs Racers.  Its back by those mountains you see in the picture below.

In this ride you race around a speed track with a car next to you.  It was awesome and the boys were so happy that we were 2/2 in our races, winning each time.  The great thing about that ride is that it is different each time, not to mention the scenery is Disney perfect!

There is so much more to Day 2 and the visit with Anna and Else will probably get its own post.  Stay tuned for more Disney updates.  I went through the pictures last night have more than 60 to share (that's narrowing it down from the more than 600 I took).

I can't wait to share the rest... oh it was so wonderful!  A vacation we will all remember forever!

Until next time,
Angie