DISNEYLAND!

Growing up we always went on family vacations, that's one of the things I remember most. One of our most popular vacation destinations was Disneyland. I remember always going to Disneyland before it opened and working our way up to the front of Main Street and we would wait behind the ropes for the park to officially open and my dad would pretend to run in place and then when it did open we would take off running to Star Tours. I loved it! One of the things on my must-do lists is to go to Disneyland with my parents. Finally, we were able to accomplish that goal of mine. It was everything I had hoped it would be (minus Emma having a fever for two out of the four days)! Six months before we went we started getting the boys pumped for our big vacations. We measured them to see how tall they were and what rides they would be able to go on. They each had a goal, Eli 46 inches so he could go on the ride with "the man and the whip" (Indiana Jones), Tyler 42 inches because there were several with that height requirment and Tyson 40 inches to he could enjoy himself and be apart of our family without missing out on too many of them. We were pretty confident that Eli and Tyler would make the requirements because they were so close but Tyson, he was another story.   We would randomly grab him and stretch him out just because he thought it was funny, but our favorite was talking the boys into eating all the fruits and vegetables because that is what will make them grow taller so they can go on the good rides at Disneyland, it worked!

On Sunday Jan 6th, we headed out to Disneyland. My parents and Caryn and Cade left about an hour and half after us and we all got to the hotel about 15 minutes apart from each other (poor Jared had to stop and change a totally flat tire on the I10 on the way over, it was not a good start to the trip). After we all got checked into the suite we decided to go to Outback for some dinner. The kids were super pumped for the next day! Jared had to get up earlier than the rest of us and go over to Discount Tire to get a new tire and while he was gone I got up and started getting the kids ready and  myself - Conner got his hair done like his cousins.

When we finally got to Disneyland the line looked longer than the one in California Adventure so we ended up spending the day there instead. As soon as we made it through the gates, Jared took off running with our tickets and grabbed us some fast passes to the new Cars ride while I took everyone to the Monsters Inc ride. Its a nice warm-up ride with no lines so it's a perfect starter ride. We rode it two times in a row, the second time we rode it because Jared scooped up Eli and Emma and took them off to go ride Tower of Terror.

We are awfully lucky that we have brave kids who LOVE riding these rides and don't chicken out. As soon as those 3 were done on that ride, they came running back to us and insisting that we all go on that ride. So we did (minus Grandpa who stayed with Conner). Tyson acts scared each time before he rides this ride and acts like he doesn't want to go on it, but then as soon as its over he acts like a tough guy and likes to tell all of us that it's not really that scary! Tyler cracks up the whole time out loud and finds the ride to be hysterical especially when your body rises off the seat and then likes to repeat how the ride tickles his "cha".

The first time for Emma and Eli

The first time with the whole family, including Grandma and Caryn

The last time with just us 6 plus Caryn

We spent a lot of time in the Bugs Life Land riding all the nice and easy rides for the little kids and then we went to the Bugs Life show and that freaked them out when the bugs crawl across your seat, when the spiders come down towards you, some times the boys would remove their glasses hoping that the things would go away!

Flick and the boys

The kids loved getting autographs from their favorite people. I didn't buy the twins very nice autograph books because I thought for sure they wouldn't want to go up and get signatures - especially Tyler, but dang they proved me wrong, they loved it!! Their very first one was Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates!

As we were walking to meet up with the rest of our group the boys spotted Mickey Mouse!

Tyson was determined when he very first got his book "I need to get Pluto cause Pluto is my favorite dog!" Phew! We got him! Conner might be a little unsure of this, but Tyson is most pleased with himself!

Finally that night it was our turn to cash in on our Cars ride fast passes. We get on the ride and we are cruising along enjoying ourselves, but I really can't figure out what all the hub bub is about, then its time for the "race" part of the ride and you start flying - now I get it! We had to break up and go into different groups  and its fun to see everyone's different expressions when they are on the ride for the first time.

 Here is Caryn and Grandma and Grandpa one last time on the ride....

Here we are one last time...

The boys riding a ride in Bugs Life Land

The girls on the same ride

The spinning Lady Bug ride - I don't do spinning rides, sorry kids :)


All of us waiting to go watch a Bugs Life Show

Tyler and Eli swinging on some rope swing thing

All of us at the top of some playhouse/rope thingy we climbed...

Grandma and Grandpa on the Mater ride

We finally left California Adventures that night just after 8pm and headed back to the hotel and had Red Robin take out for dinner and then crashed!


The next morning was pretty much the same thing - Jared had to go back to Discount Tire first thing in the morning to get the tire they ordered for our Armada and we stayed behind and got ready. This was officially the 3 youngest first day at Disneyland!

I have decided every time Eli comes to Disneyland, he will have to take a picture with the man who he is named after...

 We headed over to go ride the Jungle cruise ride, another first day starter ride for the little ones :)

 Eli pretending he is too cool for the "slow" rides just kept begging and begging to go on Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and Indiana Jones. We slowly worked our way over to those rides. He couldn't have been more thrilled to ride them! (I am not sure how he weasels his way to the front of every ride, but some how he manages it!)

This picture is of course one of our top favorites because of Grandma's face! 

Me and Grandpa stayed behind with the 3 little boys while everyone else went to go ride Indiana Jones...we had our own fun!

Some more autographs...

 The Queen of Hearts was mine and Emma's favorite, but that's because she was so in love with Emma! She kept touching her hair, curtsying at her and then Emma would curtsy back and she actually lovingly pushed some other girls aside to be with Emma some more, dang good thing Emma is so cute because the Queen was diggin' it!

 I just think this is the sweetest picture of Tyson holding his book for Eeyore.

Each day late into the afternoon, the little ones would crash and take a little nap on us while we waited in some long line. While I was sitting down in front of Matterhorn holding Tyson, some dad and his son walked by and he asked if I wanted a picture taken, he said, he has lots of little kids and really thought we were cute sitting there. Eventually Conner couldn't hang any longer either and made his way over to us too. (This is probably the last time I will have one of my kids crash on me for a nap ever in my life, tear).


So the pose is weird we know, but our boys refused to take their hands down because the sun kept shining in their eyes so the photographer had us copy them!

At about 5pm, Grandma and Grandpa took all the kids back to the hotel for the night so Jared and I could have a little date night to celebrate his birthday! Caryn snapped this picture of the boys in front of the Main Street Christmas tree, good thing too because it had completely disappeared by the next day!

After we walked the kids out of the park Jared and I took off to go ride a few rides by ourselves. Space Mtn was our first stop...

After that we decided to head over to Blue Bayou so we could try and be a little bit early and hope to get a table by the water, mission accomplished! We had a most delicious dinner and enjoyed just being there and relaxing with just the two of us!



We had plans to ride more rides together but the after we rode Pirates again, my body was done and we had to head back to the hotel. Which was more depressing when we got to our room and all our kids were sleeping and it was only 9pm, sigh. Happy Birthday anyways Jared!

The next day was Caryn's birthday and the first day that Jared did not have to get up and go to Discount Tire, woo hoo! What a great day it was going to be! This was the day we hit up Toon Town! The kids of course loved it and we adults were sorta bored with it :)










We rode the train around the park while we ate some snacks and lunch and then we all rode Autopia.





More autographs...


 I love how Tyson is looking up to Woody!

Mary Poppins and Bert loved Emma and Eli and Bert wouldn't take a picture until Eli stood like him

In case you didn't know, please don't make the same mistake, Chip and Dale have different noses, I did offend Chip, but luckily Emma knew which one was which and why, phew she saved the day!

Ash Tyler if he got Minnie Mouse's autograph, nope he didn't, he didn't want it :)

Me, Dumbo and the boys, I guess I was the only one interested in taking a picture...

Peter Pan, a classic ride with a totally long wait every time! I will never understand that!


I think Grandpa ruined me when we were growing up. I remember riding the Tea Cups with him and he would spin it around and around and around, too much, I get dizzy just typing this! So, I no longer ride spinning rides, makes me sick. Thank heavens Caryn was there to take my kids on them.


 
Space Mountain!

When the photographer was putting the picture on the CD for us, he thought the little boys looked so brave he gave them Citizen's of Disneyland pins to wear!

Is anyone having fun?

Here comes some fun riding people...

Every trip I have some sort of thing that makes my eyes water up, this time it was Eli. He really really wanted to be picked to fight in the Jedi Training and he got picked! He was so super happy it made me so super happy. Even grandpa gave up riding rides with Caryn, Conner, Emma and Grandma so he could come and hang out with us in hopes of Eli getting picked. Tyler of course, wanted nothing to do with it, but Tyson was hoping to get picked too, until it came down to it, then he changed his mind :) Eli worked so hard to do everything he was taught to do with his light saber. When it was over he asked me, "when we get home, can I go outside with my light saber and practice with daddy so I will know how to fight Darth Vader?"




"engage!" "disengage"







He was so proud of himself!

Those who didn't go to the Jedi Training rode Casey Jr's Train and the Carousel.
 

Matterhorn (dumb new height requirements, Tyson could not ride this one, sigh)

That night we went back over to California Adventure and rode on the Cars ride again and watched World of Color. I have to say, Jared was pretty awesome and would run around getting all of our fast passes at each park for us to save us time in lines, I was pretty impressed!

The next day was our last day. It was bittersweet for sure. The Jensens and Caryn used our early entrance day this day and we got into Disneyland an hour early and rode 2 or 3 rides before the park opened. I might have had to use a little attitude to get us into the park early, but only because a worker the night before had told us wrong and in order for us to go to where we were supposed to be, we would have completely lost the extra hour, so attitude was totally needed.


All the kids got to pick their favorite rides that they wanted to do one last time and we made sure to hit them all up plus a couple of ones we hadn't been on yet. We ate all the treats we wanted to eat one last time, mostly more churros! Last time on Indiana Jones, notice  Eli won't touch the walls of the cave, that's because Jared told him it was made of bat poop so he wanted nothing to do with it!

Emma being crazy with a stuffed cat...

Last autographs...

Caryn needs a little more Disney in her life and a little PBS, she wasn't sure if this was Handy Manny or Bob the Builder, how embarrassing!

 
Emma had one last height requirement she had to make in order to be able to ride all the rides, this year she was tall enough. On the very last day she finally got to ride "Screamin' California" - she LOVED it!

We had such an amazing time at Disneyland! I never regret going, I only regret not going more frequently. I love the memories we made and how we always grow closer together spending that time together. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa and Caryn and Conner for joining us on this vacation!