Disneyland!!

After Spencer was in Texas for three weeks, we decided to have a fun vacation. Disneyland came to mind because Tyler LOVES Mickey Mouse and we hadn't been there for a couple of years. I really wanted to see it at Christmas time, so we decided to wait till the boys were off track in December and go. We obviously had some meltdowns and tantrums (five kids 8 and under!) but it was an amazing week!

Thursday December 9, 2010 Pictures of most of the kids first plane ride :)

We flew JetBlue so everybody got a TV...I love JetBlue!

We landed at the Long Beach airport in California. I had never been to this airport, but thought it was awesome because we unloaded outside. It is a small airport with only like four gates, but nice because we could find our way around easily.

The boys didn't know any difference because the ones that had flown before were too small to even remember it. We took a shuttle from the airport to our hotel. After a couple of hours of just sitting in our room, we decided to go to the hot tub.


The next morning we ate the breakfast buffet at our hotel and headed out to our actual destination DISNEYLAND! This is not the night picture I exactly wanted, but it would get so crowded around the castle at night for the parade and fireworks...and my husband stays clear of crowds like that, so this is the best I got :)

Spencer does love the tea cups, I don't have the same love.

Mr Toad's wild ride was fun


Taking a break to eat was even fun

and miserable for others that didn't get exactly what they wanted :(


The scenic view was never a disappointment!

Toon Town was perfect for a bunch of little boys with lots of energy!


Of course we saw characters. We were in California adventure one night and just happened to walk past an employee who invited us into this special event. They had all the main characters. We just walked up to each one and got pictures taken. It was SO awesome! They got some real time with all of them, and Minnie loved Bryson, she kept kissing him, and when we were leaving he said I sure love Minnie, but why did she keep kissing me?

We got a nice family shot

After this we walked out to find Sully

Bryson was dying to find Woody, so of course we did!

And then there was Jessie with a soldier. While waiting in line for his turn, Bryson turned to Spencer and asked "Where's the green guys surfboard?" Spencer couldn't believe it, seriously he is so smart...but he said why don't you ask him. The soldier replied it was at Jessie's but I am sure he really didn't know what Bryson was talking about.

We split up one day, I took the younger three and Spence took the older two. I thought this was going to be hard, but it ended up being great!

It's a small world is decorated for the holidays too, and it was nice hearing We Wish You a Merry Christmas in the mix of the small world song....added some spice, and the ride did not disappoint. It was also a longer ride, so it was kind of a nice break from it all.

Splash Mountain! This is my favorite ride, and I took the older two boys first. I took pictures of our picture, but Spencer didn't take any of him. Bryson was too scared to go on this ride. It didn't help that we started the first day with Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. Tyler and Bryson were terrified by the time we got to Splash Mountain and didn't want to go on anything else. ha ha They quickly got over their fears, but we still eventually bribed Bryson to go on, and HE LOVED IT!

I did finally get to go on the Tower of Terror with Trev and Dilan. They are so big!

The Toy Story ride was new since we were last there, and we all loved it. You wore 3D glasses and the ride was actually 5 different game screens. It was a cool way to play carnival type games this way. Tyler LOVED this ride. The only bad thing was there wasn't a fast pass and the line was always at least 45 minutes long, and it never failed I was holding the kid that fell asleep in the line, but we made it :)


Played in Tarzan's tree house







and while they did this....I sat with two sleeping kids. Spencer took this picture from the tree house, and by then Kairi was awake.

Kairi was really good. She never really cries anyways, but she would sleep when tired, and eat when hungry. I did make it a point to leave her alone for at least one good nap during the day, and she slept in the stroller pretty good.

It was awesome having all the Christmas trees around, because it was so warm, it didn't feel like December at all!

The color of wonder show was absolutely amazing! I wish I could have viewed it by myself in the front...ha ha. We stood by some awesome people who let the boys get in front of them to get a better view...there are still good people in this world :)


We did take time off from Disney to go swimming though too....can you even believe swimming outside in December? It was so much fun. Kairi of course looked adorable in her little swimsuit.

Spencer took a hold of most of the boys, because Kairi was squirmy...I think she did awesome considering the water had a slight chill at first. The boys were in heaven.

Trevor does pretty good swimming on his own, and enjoyed a couple of cannonballs!

Dilan has always been a fish.

I had to throw this picture in too, because I love her eyes in it.

We also played in Downtown Disney. We enjoyed ice cream, pretzel bits, and buying most of the boys toys there. We were hanging out by a fountain and the boys were running around crazy, it was getting dark and the lights on the trees came on, it was so cool!

Before we knew it, it was time to go home :(

As worn out and tired as I was, I was so sad to see it end. It was so fun to take the time out to get to know my kids on another level, talk to them on the shuttles to and from Disneyland, watch their eyes dance with the whole experience, and to just let them be true natured kids. Took off from Long Beach to come home to a cold snowy city.