Disneyland

Disneyland was awesome!

Monday we drove down to Anaheim and stayed in a hotel so we could be at the park as soon as it opened on Tuesday morning. The hotel was sweet! We stayed in a kids suite, which means that there are two bedrooms separated by French doors. The kids room had bunk beds, a pullout sofa, it's own TV and a little kid's table and chairs. The parents room had a king bed, TV, bathroom and the usual amenities. The kids loved the bunk beds! I was worried about them falling to their deaths, so we took them for a walk around the hotel, then went to the hotel restaurant where kids eat free!

The next morning we got up at our usual time, showered and got ready and headed across the street for breakfast at IHOP. My parents and brother joined us. After breakfast we took the bus into Disneyland, which was also exciting for the kids. We had such a fabulous day, I don't know if I can fully describe it. Every part of it was amazing! The weather was cool and cloudy, perfect for an amusement park, in my opinion. The kids did fantastic with no major meltdowns, even from Ava who skipped her nap and stayed awake until the fireworks were over. There was hardly any wait for anything--the longest we waited was 25 minutes and that was only for two rides, everything else was ten minutes or less. We did every ride on our list and had time for more. My mom stayed with the kids while the rest of the adults went on a few rides (Space Mountain, Mataterhorn and Indiana Jones). The kids didn't pester us to buy them anything, but we did because we wanted to. They even ate their meals!

I had a few moments of near-tears in realization of the perfect moments I was experiencing. One was with Ava on It's a Small World. The look of awe on her face during the ride was precious. By the end of the ride she was bobbing her head and clapping her hands to the music. Another time I reached down to hold Drew's hand and it was warm. Before surgery his hands were ALWAYS cold. And he never got tired during the 12 hour day. His favorite thing was the monorail. He had a genuine look of joy on his face the whole time we were on it.

We started off the day taking some pictures by the Christmas tree, then moved down our list of kids rides. We meandered back to Toontown, where we had lunch and took pictures with Mickey. Did some more rides, then visited with Santa's reindeer and caught a glimpse of the man himself! We did some more rides with the kids until about 5, then stopped and had dinner. They were both pretty tired so afterward we went to Main Street to secure our spot for the parade. That was great too! I got to hold Drew on my lap during the parade and he kept pointing things out saying "Look Mom!" After the parade we stuck around for the fireworks and it was the most amazing show I have ever seen. It was coordinated to the music. And then I realized, of course Disney makes the best fireworks show, what did I expect? Afterwards it snowed! The whole day was magical.

And Dan and I have already decided, if we go to Disneyland again, it will definitely be the Tuesday after Thanksgiving!