Disneyland!

We had a great time with 3 days at Disneyland!  The Disneyland Hotel was very nice, classy but with lots of discrete Mickey and Disney details worked in. It was great having the hotel right there so we could go back and take breaks midday too.

 The first thing upon arrival Sunday, we met Rolayne for lunch. It was great to see her and get a chance to catch up. When we arrived at the hotel, the first thing we HAD to do was try out the swimming pools!  This was Jackson's idea of course.

 Mind you, it wasn't really warm enough to be swimming. About 68 degrees, as Mike's face attested when he hit that water for the first time...

 But, Jackson was determined to spend some time in the pool and we knew there wouldn't be time once we started into Disneyland. He really liked the water slides, and Daddy did too after he got used to the cold water.

Monday, our first real Disneyland day, we went to California Adventure.  We all liked Cars Land best. Jack was scared of most of the rides at first, but he ended up liking Radiator Springs Racers and all the different Bugs Land rides a lot. We made him cry with Goofy's Sky School Roller Coaster and Grizzly River Run the first day...He was scared! But, fast forward a couple days and his favorite rides were two fast roller coasters!  He got to meet both Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen!  He also got to have breakfast with Goofy, Pluto, and Chip and Dale.

 All the lights were really pretty after dark, and the Color Magic water and light show was pretty spectacular. Jack was excited to stay up late for it!

On Tuesday, the whole family joined us for Disneyland. It was crowded, but the weather couldn't have been better.  The shirts look great, but they were quite a fiasco!  I made all 9 and put 6 of them in the mail on Monday, two day shipping. When they still hadn't arrived by Sunday, Marie ended up making 6 more to replace the missing ones. They didn't show up until after we went to Disney eight days later. Who knows where they were!

 I love all the holiday decorations too! And the lights at night were also great. The Small World ride is amazing after dark and Sleeping Beauty's castle is breathtaking day and night.

 We had lots of fun riding rides together and then dinner at the Blue Bayou!  We planned to stay for Fireworks, but they were cancelled for wind.

 This was Jackson's favorite ride! The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster. We rode it twice the first day and four times the second day. His second favorite was the Space Mountain ride, but I don't have pictures of that one.

We decided to keep Katelyn and Alyssa for day 3 at Disney, so they spent the night with us in the hotel room. We had fun day three riding rides, but it rained most of the day and we were all very wet. It did make the ride lines shorters...there were lots of repeats of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, and Pirates of the Carribean.  Jack was selected to be in a Jedi Training Show, but then they cancelled it because of the rain. He was heartbroken and just sobbed...Visits from Boba Fett and Chewbacca and ride 4 on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad really helped his mood improve though.

 Chewbacca taught Jack to use the force and then the force made Chewy's arm fly up a couple of times.

The kiddos also got to ride in the nose of the monorail, which they liked.

 We went to Toontown, mostly to humor mom, and stood in line to see Mickey Mouse.

Here we are again at Big Thunder Mountain...we ended up riding 6 times in total.

 Even though the show had to be cancelled, Jack did get to dress up and hold the light saber for pictures!

Space Mountain was the second favorite...I think we rode it 4 or 5 times...I lost track. I also didn't get any real pictures of that one.  Here's one pic...I didn't ride this time because I had to go back to Big Thunder to get Jack's hat, which we left in a cargo pouch...

We had a really fun time overall...Staying right there at the park is the way to go, but next time, we need to build in a day of rest in between the park days. I had no trouble getting my steps for a few days, but I plan to be lazy for the rest of the week...more to come!  Lori