The Other Part of Our Trip to California

The first time we went down to California to visit my dear Grandma before she passed away, we decided to make the trip a little fun. First of all, the kids had no idea we were going. No idea! They were totally oblivious to the fact of any trips coming up. This was so fun because this trip was a last minute decision.....so it totally didn't kill Brett and I to keep it from them. The kids love, love, love road trips so we knew they were going to be so excited!

Second, we decided to take them to Disneyland!!! They've never been and have been dying to go, but we wanted to wait until they were the right age, to appreciate the park to make our dollars worth it. My SIL, Kim, found a great deal on tickets on ebay, so we decided to do it.

The kids woke up Wednesday morning. They were all sitting at the table, eating breakfast. I said, "Sorry guys, but you can't go to school today..." They all looked at me grief-stricken, and said, "WHY???" I non-chalantly said, "Because we're going to California today."

They freaked out.

And then I added, as normal as possible, "Oh, and we're going to Disneyland."

They were stunned.

After the stunning wore off, the kids were exstatic! They were beside themselves with joy. It was so much fun to watch them and see how excited they were. Bad new for us was, we still had a 6 hour drive ahead of us ! Crazy-excited kids, cooped up in a van for 6 hours was not our idea of fun, but they did great. The drive down went great.

Here are some highlights of our trip:

I've never understood those parents who were FREAKS about taking their kids to Disneyland like 4 times a year, but now, I do. In fact, I may become one of them......Disneyland really lives up to it's name as the "Happiest Place on Earth."

Connor with my cute brother Rob and my sweet SIL Kim with my cute little nephew, Jaxson. All my kids LOVED the Materhorn. I was very surprised. McKay's favorite ride was Space Mountain!

McKay in his "Jedi Training" moment of truth.....could he defeat Darth Vadar?

Yes, he could.
Connor fighting against Darth Maul. Could the skills he'd been taught spare his life?

Yes!

Connor was totally into this. He really got into the practicing the moves and was really doing well with the light-saber.

Kenna and Daddy on the Autopia ride, which by the way, really gives your quads a work out because you have to push those pedals down so dang hard! (Does anyone else know what I'm talking about?)

Me and the kids on Dumbo. I had to go on all these types of rides with the kids because Brett's tummy could not tolerate them.

EXCITED, HAPPY KIDS

We had been a D-land for about 2 hours when McKay turned to me and said, "This is the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!! Even better than Christmas!!!" It was so cute!

The worst part of our Disneyland Experience also became the best part of our experience. After dinner, we wanted to go to Adventure Land and ride all the fun rides over there: Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean. Guess what? They were ALL closed!!! Due to technical difficulties! We couldn't believe our luck! The workers said to come back later and they might be reopened. So, we decided to go back over to Space Mountain. The kids loved that ride. So we went over there and guess what? It was closed, too! Along with Buzz Lightyear and a few other rides over there. Some people were totally irate! And, I can see their point: you pay them an arm and a leg to get into the park, first off and then what if you flew or drove forever to get there, and what if you were only there for 1 day???? I could see being upset. But, the day, thus far had been so perfect I didn't feel to bad at all. We rode a few other rides that were open, and Buzz Lightyear did open up again. So, we hopped onto that ride, and then decided to go back over to Adventure Land to see if any other rides over there had opened up.

They were still closed.

So, we decided to jump on the Jungle Cruise, which was quite fun, I might add, and by the time we got off it was 10:45, time to go home. So, on our way out Brett asked, "Are you going to stop by Disneyland's City Hall and give them your 2 cents?" At first I wasn't going to, but then I thought, "What the heck...." So I did. A very nice lady greeted me and I told her how sad we were that those rides were closed. She said, "You know that man Murphy? He came to visit today." Anyway, she asked how long we were here and we told her only for this 1 day. She asked where we were from and how often we come. I told her, "From Utah, and that we never come out here." She said, "If I give you five, 2-day, park hopper tickets, will you come back and see us? Oh, and I'll make them good for 2 years."

I was completely and utterly SHOCKED!

I couldn't believe what she just said! We were so thankful and just can't believe our luck! We'll take technical difficulties any day!! Disney sure knows how to treat their customers right! We can't wait to go back and the kids are just thrilled to know we're going back soon!