Wednesday, October 12, 2005

The Happiest Place on Earth







Here's some pictures of our trip to Disneyland. No matter what I try, I can't seem to allign them correctly, so feel free to rotate your computer.

The picture of Mikayla on her knees occurred before even entering the park on the first day. (See the "reality" part of my anticipation post). Yes, that would be a tantrum. It didn't last long.

The picture of Brayden indicated him reaching 46 inches and being able to go on Indiana Jones as well as many other rides. It was a major victory since we bought special shoes and inserts to achieve this. We also have similar pictures of Mikayla hitting 40 inches, although her victory was bittersweet as she was usually terrified after the rides that this height allowed her.

Other pictures were embraces and greetings with characters -what a treasure to watch the kids so enamored. My favorite moments.

I'll list some things that were surprises beyond what I could anticipate for our trip:

- Apparently everyone else in the world didn't get my memo. October is supposed to be a slow time for Disneyland - instead the weekend we were there nearly met capacity for the park. How dare other people pick this weekend too...

- The "H" trolley does not connect you to Marriott Residence Inn. In fact, it takes you the opposite direction onto the freeway. Fortunately, it does connect you back to Disneyland, so you can wait in line again - and this time take the "J" trolley.

- Fast Passes are AMAZING. When well orchestrated, there never has to be a wait for major attractions. We constantly had someone collecting all 12 of our tickets and entering them for fast passes. Very cool.

- At 27,000 points, I am terrible at Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters. Congrats to Michele and Michael for continuously exceeeding 200,000 points.

- Losing gravity in the Tower of Terror is a thrill I will never forget. I can't get past the idea that if I weren't strapped in, I would have been floating.

- One can get two "I-HAVE-TO-GET-IN-MY-BED-IN-THE-NEXT-5-MINUTES-OR-ELSE-THROW-UP" migraines, sleep them out and still enjoy the majority of a vacation (yes, see the ANTICIPATION post once again...)

- Sitting close enough to the FANTASMIC show in which the water is set on fire will make you toasty warm - and cause a 6 year old to be terrified.

I could go on and on. Way too much fun. I am already trying to list all the things I'd do the same and do different to make the next Disneyland trip even more successful (maybe a "down day" would be a nice idea....can you say, EXHAUSTION?). Praise God for the tremendous time we all had!

3 comments:

StephieAnne said...

Okay, I forgot which pictures I posted. The kids were waving at the characters in the parade. Also, the pic of Michele and I with Chip and Dale is very special since we have home movies of us with them when we were 5 years old. My grandmother even used to call us her little chipmunks. We appreciated both of them to indulge us in a joint picture.

HollieHobbie said...

I love the pic of you and Michelle with Chip and Dale. How appropo! And I noticed all the feet surrounding Mikayla haha; those are the times you just laugh. And Brayden....way to go,man! Isn't it awesome when you reach THE height?Also, right there with you, girlfriend, with the low Buzz Lightyear score. And Tower of Terror: I get a tower of terror just looking at it, but Pete and Emma liked it. What a wonderful, memorable time for all of you. Oh this was Columbus Day weekend, right? SOme schools are out etc? I hate it when we hear of the "slow" time only to have everyone there. Then again your group took up half the park, didn't it? haha

AMY said...

The fastpast is very cool. We used it to get onto Thunder Mt. and Splash Mt. and Buzz's shootem up game thing. Fantasmic can be rather scary. Its even more intense at Disney MGM in Florida. This time Emma really wanted to see part of it. She seemed to have no problem with it from a farther distance and off to the side. Its definitly not as intense from that angle. I'm thankful to hear that you could still enjoy your trip with such a head ow-ee. Its helpful to see the kiddos have such a wonderful time, huh?