Vacation, part 3 {Disneyland}

We woke up Tuesday morning so excited to go to Disneyland! {Poor Jeff spent a good part of Monday night throwing up, but thankfully seemed to have recovered by Tuesday morning.} Not only did we get to go to Disneyland, but we got to go in an hour early!! {Gramma knows how to get good tickets.}

Posing by the California "R" for Ritchie. Check out the uber cute shirts that Aunt Courtney made for all the kiddos.

Minnie was the first character we spotted in the park. Aunt Bailey and Minnie posing with all the little girls.

Ben and Holli go to Disneyland almost every year so they were our official Disney guides and led us around the park. It was fabulous to have their experience. We went on Buzz Lightyear {too fun} then to the Nemo Submarine Ride. We had to wait in line a bit for that one and so Papa thought he would love on baby Lila a bit. So cute!

After that we headed to Space Mountain. Courtney, Jason, Jeff and I went together. Jeff and Jason loved it and laughed the whole time. Courtney and I both nearly puked. Then we went to Star Tours, Jeff took Mylie, I opted to just sit for a few minutes! Gramma took Blake on the rockets, he loved it. Aunt Holli took Eliza and Blake and Eliza were so cute waiting in line and watching the rockets.

Then we headed to Fantasyland and the first sighting of the princess castle, yay! Oh there were so many fun rides there. The carousel, Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Storybook, Alice in Wonderland and the Tea Cups.

Papa with his grandsons on Dumbo.

In the afternoon we headed to Adventureland! We started with the Jungle Cruise, which is always fun and funny. It was so funny because at one point when the tour guide was narrating the scene she told everyone to duck because the natives were shooting arrows. I don't know if I have ever seen Max move so fast. It was hilarious! After that we went on Pirates, I love Pirates. Blake and Mylie loved it too. Then kids went to play at the treehouse and the adults switched off taking turns going on Indiana Jones. Holy cow, I love that ride. It was so much fun. It is so fun going on rides with Jeff, he giggles like a little girl the whole time.

After that was Splash Mountain. It is so funny because Mylie {I thought} is kind of scared of heights. She won't climb to the top of the Carl's Jr playland, but that girl went on Splash Mountain and LOVED it. So funny. Holli and I took the little kids on the Winnie the Pooh ride while everyone else was on Splash Mountain. We went to the Haunted House {which Mylie, Papa and agreed was kind of freaky}.

By this point Mylie was about to have a coronary. The girl is my daughter and she wanted to shop. She had saved her pennies for so long ($30 of change in fact) and had almost $60 of spending money. She had gotten her ears {princess ears, so cute!} but wanted to shop more.

So everyone else went to Thunder Mountain and we went to the Bibbidi Bobbity Boutique for princess stuff galore! She did quite well looking at everything and asking how much they cost. She was certainly much more conscientious about spenging when it was her own money.

We met up with everyone at the Tiki Room. They have a Dole pineapple stand outside of it and we had delish pineapple soft serve ice cream. I don't think I had been to the Tiki Room before and it was hilarious! It was a show and had singing birds. Blake danced like a madman the whole time. It was so hilarious. After that we headed for the parade. It was so fun to see some of the characters and watch Max and Bailey dance to the music. Mom and Dad offered to take all the kids and feed them so that all the adults could go out for a kid free dinner. Didn't take long for us to agree to that!

Wednesday morning we first went to Toontown. It was so cool!! Blake was a big fan of all the cars he could sit in and pretend to drive.

We checked out some of the character's houses and then Mylie and Jeff and Blake and Gramma went on the Toontown roller coaster. Mylie, in fact, went three times. Blake had this look on his face when he got off and I asked him if he wanted to go again and he yelled, "NO!" We stopped to buy Blake a Disney baseball hat which he then refused to wear and Mylie some socks because she was getting a blister. {Would you like to know that a 2-pack of Minnie socks costs $12.95, yikes!}

Mylie and I then headed to the Princess Fantasy Faire. Apparently the princesses don't just walk around like the other characters, they are in the area and you wait to see them. And wait. And wait. Seriously, we were in line for well over an hour. Mylie was starting to get a bit ancy. But she was excited, she loves princesses. She especially loves Snow White, her most favorite princess. Right before we got to our turn {like 2 people in front of us} they switched the princesses and Snow White was one of the new princesses. When we turned the corner and she saw her she literally started jumping she was so excited. We first met Jasmine, then Sleeping Beauty and her prince and then Snow White. This is my favorite picture from our whole trip. Mylie is telling Snow White that she is her favorite princess. {This one is getting blown up big for her room.}

Jeff and Blake kept busy while we were in line going on a bunch of rides, including Autopia, where you got to drive a car. Yep, Blakey loved that. Soon after this we all headed over to California Adventure Park. We had lunch and then we on California Soaring, which was super cool. I have a issue with heights, so I was unsure about going on it, but am so glad I did. You sit in airplane seats and there is a big screen {like an imax} and it appears that you are soaring over California. The scenery is gorgeous and the infuse scents into the ride, so for instance when you are flying over the orange trees, you can smell them. Super cool. Mylie was sitting next to me and I was holing her in the seat for dear life. Not that she was scared, just me.

We went on a fun Monster's Inc ride and then the rest of my crazy family wanted to go on the Tower of Terror, seriously? No way. Jeff and I took all the kids to Bug's Life and went on the kiddie rides. Later we found another carousel and went on that a few times. My crazy family then went on Califoria Screamin', nope. We got in line for the Toy Story ride. So cool, it was 3-D and like and arcade almost where you played arcarde games {like shooting, ring toss} from the ride. We waited in line a LONG time, but it was super cool.

After that we went to the parade in California Adventure which was so very cool. Many of the Pixar characters were there and the kids loved it! Eliza was totally getting into it.

And Lila was bouncing and grinning the whole time!

After the parade, Gramma and Papa took the kids and the grown-ups went back to Disneyland. We had so much fun and fit a lot in. We went on the Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Indiana Jones. Then they suggested Thunder Mountain Rail. I don't really like roller coasters and was not going to go on it, but I did and I loved it!! Of course when I was younger I went on it many times, but I am much older now, and much more afraid. I screamed like a girl, but loved it! We finished off the night with one last rendezvous on the Buzz Lightyear ride. It was a competition to see who could get the most points. Jason was the bomb-diggity.

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Ben told us it was a short walk ... hahaha. We had a great time and super good cheesecake. What a fun night!

Our tickets were supposed to be 2 day tickets, but ended up being 3 day tickets. Ben and his family decided to stay a 3rd day, we weren't going to, it was going to be a long drive back, but we couldn't resist and stayed on Thursday until 1:30 or so. We went on Peter Pan, Mr. Toad, the carousel, It's a Small World, Autopia and the Toontown Roller Coaster.

We did a little shopping {Mickey and Minnie Mouses for the kids} and then it was time to leave.

Mylie had sad tears because she never wanted to leave Disneyland, which made me have sad tears because I never wanted to leave either.

We had a great uneventful drive home. We were on the road by 2, stopped in Vegas for dinner and then stayed in Cedar City that night {we got in about 10:45}. We headed out the next morning, stopped for lunch in South Salt Lake and then pulled in to our house around 7 that night. We were so grateful that all of us traveled safely and know that we were being watched over.

We had a fabulous time!! We loved spending the time with family. There were many, many memories made last week!!