Disney Land

We just got back from an awesome family vacation. 

We went to Disney Land! I haven't been to Disney Land since I was about 14 and Kory was about 17. Our kids had never been.  Last year some friends of ours invited us to go with them the following fall. We pinched our pennies and made it work.  In the end we had 3 families, 6 adults and 14 kids. We traveled together, stayed at the same hotel and hung out at the parks together. It was great!

A few years ago we went to Lego Land. I made us all matching shirts. What I loved about it the most was that we were all wearing the same color. It made it so easy to spot each other in a crowd. Knowing we were going to be at Disney Land and California Adventure for a total of 4 days I wanted to make sure we had some matching shirts. 

Hunter chose Captn' Jack Sparrow. Mom was Fiona.Dad had Shrek (our 1st date was seeing Shrek at the movie theaters). Brayden was Baymax. Madelyn chose Mike Wazowski

Emily the Little Mermaid and Kylie of course chose Elsa.  I think they turned out great!

Monday we all wore our Mickey shirt.

While daddy and the big kids were on a ride Kylie and I went exploring. 

We found Princess Tiana from Princess and a Frog. 

The famous Dumbo ride. Kylie was excited to have her turn after a 10 minute wait. Hunter having watching Dumbo fly around in a circle over and over wasn't to sure he wanted to be on it. He survived!

These 2 were dubbed the "twins". These 2 are the best of friends. Owen and Kylie are both 4. They use to be in the same church class until we both moved. They now go to the same preschool tue/thur and I watch Owen a few hours after pre school while his mom is at work. Kylie gets to hang out at Owens house when I have a notary assignment during the day. They get along so well with one another. 

 One of Kylies favorite rides was the carousel.  

Emily decided she wanted to give it a try to.  

Daddy and Kylie waiting in line for the Peter Pan ride. They ended up waiting almost 45 minutes for this silly ride. It was the longest we ever waited during the 4 days we were here playing.  

Emily wanted her picture taken at the castle. Although it was only Nov 7 Disney Land had already decorated for Christmas. 

The infamous Splash Mountain. Kory (wearing yellow hat), Hunter in front of him and Madelyn at the front. This ended up being one of the favorite rides. Especially for Brayden.

We saw Storm Troopers rounding up children.  

Emily and Kylie getting ready to go on the rocket!  

We found Pluto! 

The park opened at 10 am and closed at 9 pm. We brought our own lunch and snacks to eat in the park. By the time the park closed and we headed back to the hotel everyone was exhausted. This little man fell asleep on the way back. We stayed in a hotel that was literally right across the street from the entrance. It took us an average of 7 minutes to walk from our hotel door to the ticket entrance. It was great being so close!

On Tuesday we decided to go to California Adventures. The absolute most favorite ride for everyone was Grizzly Rapids. California is having a heat wave right now. Instead of the normal high 60's to mid 70's it was in the high 90's. We were hot! This ride helped cool everyone off. Unfortunately it was one ride that Kylie was just a few inches to short to go on.  

There are spots during on the river while traveling that has geysers shoot up out of the water. Depending on where your sitting you may get drenched. The geyser was shooting up just as we came towards it. Luckily (for me) it stopped just as we crossed it's path. I love Hunter and Madelyns expressions.   

We didn't get to wet this time.  There was a time that Madelyn got off this wet soaking wet. She didn't have a dry spot on her clothes or body. She looked like she had jumped into the pool clothes and all. She loved it!

This is the ride Scream'n. It is the 8th longest roller coaster in the world. It has a 108 foot drop and in 4 seconds you go 0 mph to 55 mph. This was not the ride for me! 

But my older kids and Kory loved it.  

Here's Madelyn living up to the rides name. I love Hunters expression sitting right next to her. Emily is behind Maddie and Kory behind Hunter. 

We found another carousel for Kylie. This time Daddy took her.  

One of my favorite rides was Toy Story. Love the 3D glasses. This ride doesn't give fast passes so we had to wait a good 30 minutes. But to me this ride was worth it.

Kylie loved this spinning lady bug ride. She giggled the whole time.

Honda's Autopia where we all got to drive our own cars. Madelyn and Emily rode together. Brayden drove me while Kylie drove Daddy. Hunter was lucky to get his own car but I wasn't able to get any pictures.  

Another ride on Toy Story!

Madelyn and Emily getting ready to go on Thunder Mountain. That was the one roller coaster I did enjoy. It was perfect for me.  

The two favorite rides for Kylie was Winney the Pooh is Disney and the Little Mermaid in California Adventure.  

Winney the Pooh was right next to Splash Mountain so every time the big kids went on it Kylie and I went to our ride.  

We loved our time in these parks. We were there when they opened and stayed pretty late each night. It was great being there with other families. We let the older 5 kids ages 12-17 go off together and do their own things. Meanwhile us parents were able to take the 4-10 year old's on the rides they wanted. The nights we got back to the hotel before 10 pm the kids swam while the adults rested our tired bodies in the hot tub. It is definitely a week we will remember.  So many memories were made. I love my family!