The Happiest Place On Earth

We just returned from a magical Disneyland vacation. It was very different than our last Disneyland visit 2 years ago. We now have older kids and spent 3 full days hopping between Disneyland and California Adventures. We also tried to pick a time to go that would avoid the huge crowds of peak season that we experienced last time we went. Someone recommended the beginning of May since it's after all the Spring Breaks and during testing in school. They were absolutely right. The crowds were small and the lines totally manageable (most lines were 15 minutes. 30-40 minutes for the most popular rides). Instead of giving a play-by-play account of our trip I'll just post some of the highlights I want to remember.

*I may have drugged the kids with Benadryl to get them to bed several hours early the night before we left since we had to wake them up at 4:30am to make our flight. *Optimus Prime joined us for the flight. He was such a great traveler I didn't mind having him along for the ride. * Scott took Mason on the Tower of Terror without giving him any warning of what it was. Mason did not like it one single bit and was apprehensive of every single ride we went on from that point on...even Dumbo. Mason calls it "The Terrible Tower" which accurately descibes how he feels about it.

* Brynn's face while riding on the teacups went from complete elation for the first half to gagging.*Brynn had as much fun climbing all over the railings in line as she did on the actual rides, and has plenty of scrapes, bruises, and a goose egg to prove it.*Brynn, the birdwatcher, chased birdies all over Disneyland and exclaimed, "Birdie Flo Away" over and over.

*Mason was just as excited to eat dinner at McDonalds as he was to be at Disneyland.

*We made sure to get front row seats to World of Color. The show was incredible, even though we were drenched by tidal waves throughout the show. (Next time we'll probably aim for a little further back in a dry section).

*Our solution to having one umbrella stroller and two tired kids.*Magic Morning (entering park 1 hour early) got us through all of Fantasy Land in one hour. We were able to walk straight onto almost every ride. *The Splash Pad in a Bug's Land was right up Brynn's ally. She would put her face right over the holes in the ground and wait for them to spray up. I got nailed a couple times, but obviously didn't mind because she kept going back for more.* Mason got to choose ANYTHING he wanted in the entire park for his souvenir and he insisted on getting a little, overpriced, key chain with a miniature Buzz Lightyear Astroblaster on it. We tried to talk him out of it since we already have the full sized astroblaster that was his souvenier last time we went to Disneyland, but his mind was set. What is with this kid and miniature things? (Look for it in his hand or hanging from beltloop in all other pictures)

*Brynn's face the first time she saw Mickey was like she couldn't believe it was really him. Several times when we walked past a character I would look down to find an empty stroller and realized she had jumped out and was running over to the character. She loved hugging all the Mickey Mouse characters. So Sweet. *Brynn made the height requirement for Autotopia with some crazy hair and generosity from the height checker. Both kids drove a car and both kids almost ejected them self by driving so crazy. It was definitely a favorite ride for both of them.

*Finding Nemo submarine was such a different ride and so cool. It was my favorite, by far.

*Mason got chosen to be Padawan for the Jedi Training Academy Show. He got trained on how to use a lightsaber and then got to fight Darth Vader himself. I was so proud of him for not being scared at all.*We went on the Toy Story Mania ride more than any other ride even though it was the longest wait, because it was a favorite for all of us. We really enjoyed several things we might not have done if not for other people's suggestions, so for anyone planning a Disney trip soon, here were each of my kids top ten favorite things.

Mason's Top Ten

1-Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear Astroblaster (fast moving lines are great!)

2-Jedi Training Academy (they choose volunteers out of the crowd)

3-Autotopia
4-Finding Nemo Submarine

5-Brother Bear Play Area--Especially the Rock Climbing Wall.6-Disney Junior Live Show (Jake and the Neverland Pirates were his favorite)
7-Grizzly River Run
8-Peterpan
9-World of Color (Maybe not front row to avoid getting drenched)

10-Tea Cups

Mason's NOT favorite rides

1-The Terrible Tower" (didn't like thunder and lightning)

2-Space Mountain (didn't like the pitch black)

3-Maderhorn (didn't like the yedi)

Brynn's Top Ten

1-Brother Bear Play Area (no lines and just running around being crazy)2-Splash Pad in Bug's Land (take swimming suit and waterproof shoes)

3-Disney Junior Live Show (Includes Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.)

4-Autotopia

5-Nemo Submarines

6-Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear Astroblaster

7-Toon Town

8-Dumbo9-Storybook Land

10-Running around and jumping off planter boxes at enterance of park. We concluded our vacation with a day at the beach enjoying the sun that has been a stranger to us in Utah. Both of the kids absolutely loved the sand and just ran around happy and content for 3 hours. Mason spent his time searching the sand for treasures and has quite the sea shell collection to show for it. Brynn continued to be enthralled with birds and fed all the seagulls chips and then chased them away. Both kids tried out the water but decided they liked the sand much better. I love having two kids and I love the ages of 2 and 4. Life doesn't get much better than this.

P.S. I am so sick of Blogger doing crazy spacing on all of my posts, deleteing pictures out of my post, and all the comments disappearing. Aaahhhhh!