We drove up Thursday after school, got there late to check into our hotel, found a gift with shirts for each of the kids waiting for us on the bed - they couldn't believe it that the hotel knew what size they all were - that's amazing - ha ha! It was hard to get the kids to settle down and go to bed because they were all excited, but we finally did and then we got our butts up bright and early and hit the parks to party! Each kid has a request to meet one character: Emma didn't actually say anyone BUT when she saw MOANA she was like a 5 year old again and was freaking out! Eli just wanted to meet Chewbaca, Tyler wanted Pluto and Tyson wanted Goofy! We were able to grant all these wishes plus some bonus ones! Meeting Groot was really good too!
It was our first time on the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. Even though it is just Tower of Terror rethemed - they also changed the drops and they were the best! Tyler's face was AWESOME - pure joy and we went up and down! Smiling from ear to ear! We got to finally try the new Soarin' Around the World! We all loved that! We hit up Grizzly Rapids in the morning - in November - luckily we didn't get to wet and there were no lines so Jared, Emma, Tyson and Eli went on it a second time - Tyler and I were smarter and stayed off - which was a good decision considering how wet they got the second time - suckers! This year the twins were finally tall enough for Screamin' the upside down rollercoaster. THEY LOVED IT!!! I am pretty sure they rode it 3 times in a row! We upgraded all of our tickets and got max passes - that was money well spent. Instead of Jared running from ride to ride getting our fast passes - he could just set a timer on his phone and sign up for the next one without having to run anywhere. We never waited more than 20 minutes for a ride! Loved it! One of the twins requested we ride Nemo the Submarine, so we hit that up, met some Star Wars characters, I forced everyone to watch the Christmas show fireworks the last night - they were exhausted and may have been falling asleep waiting for them to start and complaining, but once it started they woke up, enjoyed them and then the snow falling on our faces afterwards - well that just picked their energy right up and they were excited and hyper as can be! We tried the corn dog stand for the first time - why have we never tried this before - DELICIOUS!! Everyone loved them! While we waited for World of Color to start, we went and got a couple of Ghiradelli ice creams and shared them. According to Tyler's face - it was quite good! At one point during the show Jared and I looked over at Tyler and he was bobbing his head up and down to the beat - we were dying!
We didn't quite shut the park down on Friday because we knew Emma had to be back up and at California Adventures by 7:30am for call time for them to dance. So we left around 10pm and went to bed. I didn't think the boys were going to get up and come with us, but they all did. We were the first ones in the park! Jared took the boys and went off and rode tons of rides while I waited with Emma for a bit and then I met up with the boys and then I went back and watched Emma's performance while they kept riding the rides. Jared was trying to make it back on time, but they were in line for Guardians so I told them to stay and enjoy. It was fun to see Emma up there and dancing! As soon as she finished we rode a couple more rides, including Radiator Racers for the second time, ate at the Coney Cafe - another yummy new find and then we headed over to Disneyland for the rest of the day and shut the park down! Pretty sure we got back to the hotel at 1am. The twins were finally tall enough to drive Autopia - they weren't brave enough to do it themselves, but they did handle the drivers part! Eli even drove his own car by himself, but after the first time it stressed him out so he rode with Emma the next time!
We were hoping to sleep in and slowly wake up and head home, but sadly our neighbors thought it would be more fun to yell at 7:30am, after they woke up all my kids I called security, we got up and headed home - not going to lie - it was rough. On the bright side - we were able to head straight over to Eli's football tournament and he got to play in several games! They even won the championship so that made it worth it!
I LOVE DISNEYLAND!! I LOVE THE HAPPINESS IT BRINGS EVERYONE! I LOVE THE MEMORIES THAT ARE MADE THERE!! Sometimes the pictures tell the best stories! I love hanging out with my boo while my kids ride some little kid rides and we eat treats together and talk about the kids. I love my family!
