DISNEYLAND

Our family went to Disneyland this week! We left Monday afternoon and drove up to Anaheim to our hotel where we just hung out and went in the pool and jacuzzi and took a little walk and waited for Nonna to drive up and join us. After my mom showed up she stayed in the room with the boys while Anthony and I got to go out for the evening! Yes, like on a date! We went over to Downtown Disney and walked around the shops for awhile and then we ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which felt very much like Disneyland itself. I had a terrible night's sleep that night. I had been having a little bit of insomnia for the last 3 days where I would fall asleep OK but wake up really early in the morning and not be able to go back to sleep... but this night I couldn't even fall asleep! I think I slept a total of 3 hours. It didn't help that we had no idea the alarm clock in our room was set for 6 am. It woke us all up and Aidan, Anthony and I couldn't fall back asleep. By the way, after Anthony messed with the thing for a long time and it was seemingly 'off'... it woke us up again the next morning at 6 am!! That sucked because again Aidan wasn't about to go back to sleep. Luckily for me I had taken Advil PM the night before and I fell back asleep for another 2 hours! Anyway, Tuesday morning we all got ready and took the shuttle over to Disneyland. The first ride we went on was Pirates of the Carribean! It started out like almost every other ride for the rest of the day for Aidan... "I don't like it... I don't want to go..." and along the way he was literally shaking in his seat! But no crying and no fits or anything so I figure he isn't traumatized or anything! Anyway, as soon as we would get off the ride he would say, "That was fun!" After Pirates we went on the Jungle Cruise and then Nonna took the boys on the Winnie the Pooh ride while Anthony and I went on Splash Mountain... BIG mistake! We got SOAKED! And not even on the last big hill it goes down, no, that just kind of splashed us a little... the two smaller ones before that literally dumped buckets of water into our laps! Then we went over to what used to be Tom Sawyer's Island and I guess is now Pirate's Island and walked around and let the kids explore. We had to cut that a little short because we had reservations at the Blue Bayou restaurant. So we went over there for lunch. It brings back a lot of memories for me from childhood and I enjoyed it but with the prices of their food and limited selection I doubt we will go back there again on our next visit. We headed over to Fantasyland after lunch and road on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride... I always remember that ride as one of my dad's favorites. We also waited in line to ride Dumbo. The kids were doing great, Alec is a rock... nothing phased him either way, he wasn't scared but he wasn't jumping up and down with excitement either. He would say after each ride, "Not over yet, Not over yet!" The one ride Aidan got really excited about and wanted to go on more than once was Autopia! Of course he has some experience there since he owns a yellow Corvette! Unfortunately, two cars ahead of us was a kid who obviously couldn't reach the gas pedal very well because we were constantly stopping and the car in front of us had his mom in it who instead of nudging him along was stopping every time he did to take his picture (from behind!). Anyway, we also took Aidan on Matterhorn because he just made the height requirement. Let's just say he didn't love it... I mean he was shaking! I did tell him he could close his eyes, which he told me later that he did... but if you ask him about it he will tell you about the mountain with the monster in it. It was also hard to resist going on a ride like that when the wait was only 15 mintues! It was the perfect day really... the weather was great and it wasn't crowded at all, we waited on average 10 to 15 minutes per ride and the longest we waited was 45 minutes for the Nemo Submarine ride. We went to Toon Town where the kids got to meet Mickey Mouse and Goofy and they weren't scared at all, they loved doing that.

The next day we went to CA Adventure. It did seem like there were a lot of rides the kids couldn't go on because they weren't tall enough. We all went on the Ferris Wheel together and will probably never do that again! The cage that you sit in swings around as you go around the circle and at one point Aidan said he was sick! Luckily there is actually a sick bag on the ride so I was holding it in case Aidan threw up, which he did not! After lunch we went to some of the shows they have. The first one was an Aladdin musical and it was really good but both boys fell asleep which was actually perfect. Aidan hadn't even taken a nap at Disneyland so I was glad he got some rest that day. After that we saw the Muppets 3-D show which was fun to see the kids' reactions. Then mom and I took Aidan to the Playhouse Disney show where he got to see all of his favorite characters from his favorite shows like, The Little Einsteins, and Handy Manny not to mention Mickey and Donald and Goofy. Anthony took Alec to Bug's Land and they went on rides and Alec ran through the water stuff they have there. After the show we met Anthony and Alec at a bench where we sat and waited for the Disney Pixar parade to start. That was a lot of fun since Aidan knows all the caracters and he was waving at them as they went by. The park closes at 6 pm during the week so after the parade we hit the store and loaded up on souvenirs and then headed home!

We had a really fun time on our Disney vacation with the boys and I am so glad my mom was there to share it with us. I wouldn't say that the kids thought it was the best time of their lives... which I think has to do with their age and their personalities.... like they aren't still talking about it or asking when can we go back. However, they did great and they had a good time. I think we will wait a few more years to go back and then it will be like going for the first time all over again!
Check out all of our vacation photos at: COSTCO PHOTO