Disneyland '08!

We are finally back from Disneyland, which means that we will be blogging again. There was a business center in the hotel we could have blogged from, but c'mon... we were on vacation, which means we were much to busy for stuff like that. :)

We had a great time in St. George on the way down and back, with the kids playing in the pool at the condo. Unfortunately the special kid's pool we played in had an extra special treat that someone had left in it, so we had to move to the less-fun adult pool. Makenna was very afraid of the water, and wanted me to hold her the whole time. Cole on the other hand was too brave, and kept walking off into the deep sections, so I had to hold him too. That was pretty much how I spent my time in the pool.

We got to California, and had to kill a couple of hours while we waited for the hotel to finish our rooms. We decided not to go to the fireworks as we had planned, because the kids were already pretty tired, and asking them (or us) to keep them up until 10 pm was just not fair.

We went to Disneyland on Monday morning, and the kids loved it! It was pretty hot for the most part, except for Tuesday which was a little on the cool side (notice the jackets in some of the pictures.) Little did we realize at the time that the cold weather was the best part of that day, because Tuesday was the slowest day at Disneyland and we literally walked onto several rides, including splash mountain. We met up with my sister Ali and her family for lunch and a few rides, which was fun. It kind of reminded me of a family vacation we took to Disneyland when I was thirteen, and how much fun that was.

The kids were pretty good at taking naps in the stroller during the day, but not for nearly as long as they would at home. They were pretty tired, so we usually didn't stay any later than 6:00 in order to get dinner and give the kids baths. Marianne, Jason, Natalie and I were pretty tired then too, and we usually just spent the rest of the evening watching TV. We had good intentions before we left, and we brought games with us. Yep, they never left their boxes. The dumb hotel had also disconnected the A/V connections on the TV's, so we couldn't plug in the DVD player we bought. Another gold star for Embassy Suites. Thanks a lot...

Makenna loved "The Pirates of the Carribean" ride, as well as the new "Monsters Inc." ride the most. She kept asking (and is still asking) about the "Pirates" ride, and when she will be able to go on it again. The biggest ride we took her on was The Matterhorn, which there is a picture of in the slide show. She was so terrified, and she kept trying to get out of her seat belt. She almost did, and that made me a little terrified. I had to put the camera down after I had to start using both hands to keep her in.

We spent a total of four days in Disneyland, and we easily could have spent a fifth. We didn't feel rushed, and we were very casual about riding the same rides again and again to appease the kids. I didn't mind the "Pirates" ride four times, but the Winnie the Pooh ride was definitely getting old the fourth time I rode that. Going with the Natalie and Jason Miller and their family was a great decision, because not only did we see eye to eye on most of the day-to-day decisions, but we were also able to take turns watching one another's children so Marianne and I could ride a few rides just by ourselves.

We took Makenna to the princess' school, where she learned how to be a princess from Mulan, Snow White, and her favorite... Cinderella. She was lucky enough to have Cinderella come down and grab her hand to take her over to the may pole, and Makenna was loving every minute of the show. Cole didn't want to be overlooked, and since he was tired, he decided to lay right down on the middle of the stairs to the stage. I got after him to get down, but one of the "helper" prince and princess people came over and were talking with him, and even laid right down on the stairs with him. They started tickling him, and you could just tell that he loved being the center of attention. Makenna was interested in all the characters that were actual people, but the characters that had masks on made her really nervous and scared. If they were in a full costume, she didn't want anything to do with them. Even her favorite character, Jessie from Toy Story 2 didn't seem to make any headway with her. She did however convince Marianne and I to get her a doll of Jessie, which hasn't left her side since.

We hit the beach on the last day before we left. Even though the waves were incredible, and very tempting, the water temperature was way too cold to have fun in. Cole didn't like the beach at all, and Makenna was just tolerating it. We only stayed for an hour or so, and then we were on the road back to St. George. The 6 hour trip took us 8 1/2 hours due to a bad traffic jam, and 5 or 6 bad traffic accidents, but at least none of them involved us.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Anaheim, which is only a mile and a half from Disneyland, but we took a shuttle everyday. The hotel had a great cooked to serve breakfast that we made good use of for breakfast, and for lunch. I'm sure we weren't the only ones, but we made sure to take a few extra bagels, yogurts, and fruit with us when we left for snacks while we were at the park. The hotel turned around and wanted to nickel & dime us for each local call made from the hotel rooms, so I don't feel bad about doggy baggin' the breakfast... :-)

After taking an eight day vacation though, it is good to be back home. The kids did very well in the, mostly thanks to the DVD player, treats galore, and a few good naps. Marianne and I are looking forward to heading back in three or four years, when the kids are a little older. It is one of our favorite vacation spots, and if this last trip was any indication, it looks like it might be one of Makenna's and Cole's as well.