Not sure what social pressures your kids have in life, but for our children the fact that they had never been to Disneyland was top on their list of unfair issues in life. I was not about to indulge the children for the price that it required and was content to let my children experience Disneyland first hand when they were old enough to pay for it themselves!!
Well that all changed for us. Earlier this year we participated in Disney’s give a day, get a day. We did a day of service and we got 5 free tickets for a day at Disneyland. Since it was still going to be too expensive to take the whole family and since my mom was suppose to be with us I put the tickets away and figured they’d expire before we could use them.
With my mom passing away and a SUPER, WONDERFUL friend, agreeing to watch our 3 littlest kids, the idea to actually go to Disneyland became a reality.
We told the 3 older kids that they were responsible for all their own food and souvenirs for the whole trip. We told them they couldn’t earn the money from us because that would defeat the purpose. Jaime and Alix were AWESOME! They did chores for our neighbors including staining Roberta’s fence. Jaime did some babysitting jobs and they all had some money left over from birthdays. Then our wonderful friends Joey and Gayle decided that the kids should have a FABULOUS time and gave them some money too. So nice, Thanks guys!! Then Jaime and Alix both shared $10 each with Milo. Then each kid gave mom and dad $10 for gas. I think this was a good experience for them all around.
On Thursday September 17 we left Niah, Afton and Keri at the Eyre’s house for their first ever sleep over. When we told the older kids that we were taking them to Disneyland, the only requirement was that they don’t talk too excitedly about it around the little kids. We had a perfect plan to keep the little ones from feeling left out and thankfully it worked. The three little girls were so excited to spend time with the Eyre’s that Niah proclaimed ‘I’m going to have more fun than you guys!’.
We left their house about 6:30pm and headed south. Things went well. We made way more stops than we should have but we were taking our time and enjoying ourselves. We made it to Dean and Ally’s house about midnight. We were asleep by about 1am. We were so grateful to Dean and Ally for their generosity. Their new place is so beautiful.
Friday September 18 we got up at 6am and showered and dressed and spent some time with Dean, Ally and Blaire before heading off to ‘The magical Kingdom’.
[Jaime and Blaire meeting for the first time]
[Milo sure does love his uncles!]
[On the tram headed to the entrance]
We got to Disneyland about 8:30am. Boy has it changed! I hadn’t been there for 15 years and it’s not the same place! By the time we got into the park it was 9:15am. We looked at a few shops and then got down to business. Here is what we did:
[Our first picture inside Disneyland also happens to be our first stop!]
Buzz Light Year
Captain EO
Indiana Jones
Tarzan’s Tree House
Pooh’s ride
Splash Mountain
Space Mountain (Me and Alix only!)
Mr. Toads wild ride
It’s a small world
Peter Pan
Pirates of the Caribbean
Tiki Room
Roger Rabbits Car Toon
Gadget’s Go Coaster
Story Book land
Autopia
They also had this Jedi Knight training. Milo got picked out of the crowd to participate on stage. He got to fight Darth Vadar himself. It was a pretty sweet opportunity for him. He LOVED it!
We also watched the fireworks show and stood in line to see the Winnie the Pooh gang and some princesses.
The kids had so much fun eating food that they chose, buying souvenirs without being told no, and having all the junk food they could swallow. They had so much fun and melted about 11pm. It had been a long day full of walking and over stimulation. I was so pleased with their ability to keep up with this insane mom who took them from one ride to another and kept telling them they’d get their break when they sat down on the ride…. I figured with only one day we better do as much as we could!
[On the tram going back to the car]
We only had to wait a max of 20 minutes for the things we did. It was so nice! Way different than when I was there as a kid and waited no less than an hour for anything!
[I just LOVED the moon over the castle. So pretty]
We left the park by 11:30 and I started driving in the direction of home. I was feeling pretty good and making GREAT progress. I thought I might actually make it home without stopping to get a hotel room. But at about the top of the grapevine, Milo puked everywhere! I guess he had a little too much fun! After that we knew we had to stop. But that was easier said than done! We finally stopped at a hotel in Buttonwillow. About the worst dive I have EVER stayed in (and I’ve stayed in some pretty bad hotels). But we just needed a place to rest our weary heads.
[This is what Scott and I used to look like….]
We left Buttonwillow about 11am the next morning. We picked up the kids about 3pm from the Eyres and they didn’t seem to have missed us one bit. But we were sure glad to see them. We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning out the car, doing laundry and resting. We rested A LOT!! I think the 5 of us who went to Disneyland were a little grumpy, but it was SO worth it! Thanks Eyre’s and Disney, we couldn’t have done it without you!
Wow now that is a day at Disneyland!!! 8:30 am until 11:30pm!! Sounds like it was both great fun and an awesome learning experience for the kids… Did you count those hours as homeschooling? ;-) I am so jealous- I want to go to Disneyland!!!!!
Ummm…Sami? I don’t think Scott has ever had that much hair. But it looks like you had a ton of fun. It is something that I am sure that Jaime, Alix, and Milo will never forget.