Well, we had a successful and exhausting trip to Disneyland! We took Monday, March 17th at 2:45 am. Our crazy kids did NOT fall asleep in the car, yes, that's right they were awake during the wee hours of the morning.
The drive went great, the kids were real troopers. We had purchased a DVD player which worked out AWESOME. We hit some snow showers near Cove Fort, which was not fun to drive thru during the night. All in all the drive was very uneventful which is not a bad thing. We got to our hotel at about 2:00 pm California time, so we made great timing. We went swimming in the hotel pool and spa which was a great treat after being cooped up in the car for 12 hours. We had Hawaiin Haystacks for dinner, I had prepared everything at home so it was an easy throw together meal, and then we were off to bed in preparation for "D-day"!!
Disneyland was very fun and very exhausting! For poor Claire, the theme of the day was "I'm sorry, but you're too tiny!" She was so excited to ride Splash Mountain with Daddy, only to find out the she was just a hair too short, she was so sad that she sobbed and cried and carried on. We did have a fun time riding the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, exploring Tarzan's Treehouse, riding the Mark Twain Riverboat, Storybook Island and many other rides. Me being pregnant and banned from many rides spent most of the time taking pictures and patiently waiting! :o)
One big tip though, no matter how old your kids are, or how well they walk...ALWAYS bring a stroller!!
Tonight Overlake Elem. had its Night of 1,000 Stars, showcasing artwork and writings of its students. At dinner Lorenzo was telling us all about Picaso, art and such excited to show off his masterpiece. The kids had profiles done of themselves that they then decorated and wrote a class poem. Very CUTE!!
The poem reads:
Fases
We aLL have fAses.
Owr fases hAve mowths.
Owr fases have ises.
We all are diffrent.
That Makes us speshl.
I'm sitting here in denial that it is already the final days before we take off to Disneyland. I have to admit that I never thought we would really end up going. Back in December when I spontaneously suggested that we go "next year" I truly thought that somehow the whole thing would get swept under the rug and forgotten. Apparently I have two elephants for children and there was no way this was getting forgotten! We did finally break down and buy a portable DVD player for the car, I could only imagine the headache and frustration we would be facing with a 5 yr old and 3 yr old strapped in the car for 12 hours without one. We did a test run with it today, complete with the car adapter and headphones, I think (fingers crossed) that this will be a saving grace for the drive! We have a lot to do before 3:00 am Monday morning so I'm guessing this is the last post B.D. (before Disneyland!)
Yesterday we had a fun filled, full of kids day! We had Oliver Grimes over while his mom went to the temple with the other members of the RS Presidency. He has morning kindergarten with Lorenzo, he is in Miss B's class. The kids had a great time having lunch outside, the weather was GREAT! I made them lunchables which is TONS cheaper than buying the real macoy and they loved them just as much. I think I will make them again for our pitstop on the way to Disneyland! When they were out there Brynlee came out to play and joined them. We also had Timmy and Sabrina over for their regular Friday visit. It was a crazy fun day!
I did not like the last Counter we had for our Disneyland trip. It was the only one I could find on the web, but it would only count down in month increments which is totally lame and takes the fun out of the countdown. So, I decided to make my own!! I found the castle image through Google and tweaked it in Adobe Photoshop, found a free image hosting site, uploaded it and created my own counter in SpringWidget!! Like the saying goes, "If you want something done right, do it yourself!!" :o)
