Disneyland Day 2

With the passes that we bought we got to have one Magical Morning. That means that you get into the Disneyland park an hour earlier than anyone that does not have this....but tons of people do! One of the perks is that there are characters right after the entrance that you can get pictures with and autographs from.

Here the kids are with Chip.

And Donald.

The Tea Cup ride. The ride is blurry but that is because they are all spinning wildly around and around and around...this was one ride I was happy to miss!


Mr. Toad's ride.

Back to Dumbo because only Jagger and I got to ride on Day 1.


Jagger had seen this whale on a map of Disneyland weeks before our trip. He was sooo excited to see it. The ride (Storybook Boat Ride) was closed our first day but was open this day.


It's a Small World palace....
I do love all things Moose!



We heard the trick for meeting Mickey in his barn was to go as soon as Toon Town opens so we headed straight over and found him!
And one with just the birthday boy.

Go Coaster in Toon Town. Very fast. Very fun. All the kids loved it.

Playing in Toon Town.




Well hello there Pluto!

We took a raft over to an "island" and got to play with lots of Pirate stuff. We even saw a Pirate Ship!


Hi there Aladin!

We found a spot on the curb of Main Street and got to watch the Celebrate Parade.




James got to go out into the parade and dance with them.

And the kids were given instruments to play.



Another great day! We left after the parade and headed to MacDonalds for dinner. We still didn't get back to the hotel until after 9! It was 12 hours of Disney this day!!

Disneyland Day 1

We were up bright and early and headed off to Disneyland by 9am Monday morning. We were very blessed to have a free shuttle from our hotel so we just had to hop on at the hotel and we were let off right inside the Disneyland gates. Perfect!

We spent most of Monday in Tomorrowland where they have a lot of futuristic stuff. The very first ride we saw and did was the Star Wars Tours. You get on a simulator and get to fly off into the galaxy at light speed. It was very cool...especially to Jagger who is a HUGE Star Wars fan!

Next we got on a submarine and got to see the goings ons under the "ocean."


And then it was Autotopia where we got to drive our own cars.


This was an awesome Disney Moment. They do a Jedi Training class (which the boys got to do and we will do a separate post on that) and we happened to walk by and catch the end of one on the first day. We also just happened to be standing where the characters exit and this Storm Trooper came rushing up to Jagger and got right in his face. Scared Jagger to giggles and he LOVED it! It was definitely a "magical" moment for him.

Buzz Lightyear's ride. Very cool. You get to shoot lasers at targets and rack up points which then get stacked up against all the people on the ride.


My least favorite thing at Disneyland was a futuristic house. It was booorrrinnnngg. But the kids and Jimmy did find rockband and did look super cute trying to figure it out!

Look who we ran into!!

I had a coupon for the Rainforest Cafe that is in downtown Disney so that is where we ate lunch on Day 1.

The Lego Store in Downtown Disney.


While Daddy took the big kids on a scary ride Jagger and I headed off to some cool little kid rides.



I really don't have a clue what ride this is...I'm sure it will come back to me eventually. Pirates of the Carribean maybe??

A picture in front of the Castle.

The kids going on Thunder Mountain with Daddy.



We all went on Splash Mountain, got soaked and loved it! They take a picture of you going down the big drop at the end. Here is a picture of that picture.

Winnie the Pooh ride.

We didn't get home until after 8pm the first night and we were exhausted. Had quick baths and headed straight to bed so we could do it all again tomorrow!

Viva Las Vegas

As we were driving from Zion to Anaheim we realized we would be driving right through the heart of Las Vegas. And you cannot, I mean simply canNOT, drive through Vegas and not stop. So, we explained to the kids that they were about to enter a whole new world, one that is not completely appropriate to kids! We made them promise to stay close by us, we parked by the Excalibur and started our tour....


This is walking from the bridge at Excalibur over to New York, New York. MGM Grand is across the street from New York, New York.

Interesting little fact...Jimmy and I took a week vacation when we were 3 months pregnant with Kaylee to Las Vegas and stayed at the New York, New York. It was really neat to be back there with three kiddos now.

Statue of Liberty made out of jelly beans...sooo cool!

Harley Davidson Cafe.



One thing I remember most about our trip 12 years ago was the tour at the Coca Cola factory. Well, they stopped giving tours 10 years ago but they still do the taste tests. They give you 16 different flavors of pop that are popular around the world and put them on a numbered tray. The numbers correspond to a list of countries and flavor of pop. The kids LOVED the taste test...even the disgusting ones (the one from Italy was voted unanimously as the worst of all!). It was definitely the highlight of the afternoon.


Right next door to Coca Cola is the M&M store....I'm talking 4 stories of M&M bliss!




We stopped and ate back at New York, New York and then Jim and I took turns doing a little gambling. Jimmy headed out with $21 and was back in less than 5 minutes completely broke. Ummm...what was THAT?? I decided to go out and play $5. I tripled it to $15 and then we headed back onto the road.

This is what happens to my conservative James after being exposed to Sin City for a few hours!!


All in all, it was a fun stop for the whole family. The boys were very interested in the cards with naked woman that were laying all over the streets. They got to see some women wearing a little less than what would be appropriate on the beach. And they saw some billboard signs that were nothing like the ones back home!

More than anything it was a nice break in the middle of our 6 hour drive to Cali!