September 14, 2014

All the waiting and planning and patience finally paid off. We finally made our family trip to California.  When I was pregnant with Bethany the kids were with Jake one day and they were building Lego's and in an attempt to entertain showed them on You-Tube what Legoland was.   They were desperate to go!  And so Jake told them when the new baby was one we could go.  And so they spent the next  18 months or so planning their trip.  Mom didn't think it was worth going al that way just for Legoland, but if we could go to Disneyland too- then it would be all worth it.  So we planned to go in September.  The kids had a giant old cookie container that happened to have mickey mouse on it that we used all summer to save.  Each kid got one quarter each day for chores to put in the Disney Jar.  Kate in an attempt to get us their faster always offered to put her own money in the jar.  I put all my picture money from this summer in the jar- and we by summers end we had about half of what we needed.  So Jake of course covered the rest and we were off.
We ended up moving the trip up two weeks a week before we left so it came really fast.  On Sunday early morning we headed out with one very packed car.  The kids were great on the way there.  So great that I even read an entire book and took a nap.  We stopped in St. George for a half hour at a park to stretch and eat lunch.  And I think that was the only stop.  We checked in to the Anaheim Desert Inn Suites which is literally the closest hotel to Disneyland's front entrance. We had a two bedroom suite which worked out so well.  Jake and I said it was the best night sleep we had ever had on vacation with our kids.  Once we unpacked a bit, we took the kids to walk around Downtown Disney and get some dinner.  Beth was done by then of sitting in a seat, so her and I ended up just walking while Jake and the kids ate pizza. and got balloon hats and swords and things that they some how managed to not pop the entire trip. But the excitement was building especially as we explored the Disney Store they have that is so huge there- with every single character.
Then we came back to our hotel and got kids to sleep all before 9pm!
The next morning we had to kill time a bit because the park didn't open until 10am but our kids were up early.  We went to breakfast at the hotel.  Then walked over and were some of the first in line at the main gate for California Disneyland Adventure.