Disneyland Recap

Get ready for the mother of all posts! This Disneyland vacation has been in the works for the past 18 months, since the last time we went to Disney. I told Allen during our previous visit that I wanted to go in December 2009 to experience it at Christmastime. We plotted and planned how to make it happen and in the end were able to do it very inexpensively (relatively, of course). We saved our credit card points for the entire 18 months and had just enough to pay for all of our tickets. Our hotel was also free due to all of the travel Allen did for work this last year. Anyway, long story short, we anticipated this vacation for a long time.

I had been watching the Anaheim weather for a few weeks and was so sad when I saw the forecast for the week we were going - pouring rain for all 5 park days. I was worried but we prepared the best we could with rain gear for everyone. We arrived on Sunday the 6th and met my friend Mindy and her son Charlie who were vacationing with us. We had also promised Carter that we would take him to Legoland for his 7th birthday (when we were living in AZ and LL was only 5 hours away) so we decided to tack on a day at LL as part of our trip.

Monday morning we woke to pouring rain, just as forecasted. We picked up Mindy/Charlie at their hotel and drove the 1.5 hours to LL only to get there and find that it was closed due to the weather. Ugh. We turned around and tried to decide what to do for the rest of the day and decided to just spend a half day at Disneyland. Once we got there and got everyone settled in their rain gear (the rainboots I bought for the kids on a whim were the best thing I did for this trip! Saved us!) we ended up having a GREAT first day. I didn't take many pictures this day since it truly did pour rain the entire day. Here's one of the kids right as we were walking into the park (No, I have no idea what Carter was doing here):

The silver lining was that we were able to walk onto every single ride that day. We rode more that first half day than you would normally ride in a couple normal days at DL. It was awesome!! And guess what? Monday was the only day it rained on our entire vacation! Woohoo! Because of the forecast the crowds were really minimal and we had such a great week.

On Tuesday we had sunshine and rushed to the park for Makenna's appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, which is new to Disneyland. As soon as I heard about it I knew it would be THE experience for Makenna. At the boutique you get to pick a hairstyle, have your hair, nails and makeup done, pick out a crown and jewelry, all completed by your own fairy godmother who sprinkles you with fairy dust at the end. At the end you get to keep all your makeup/nailpolish and get a princess sash and backpack. To say she was in heaven would be putting it lightly. She adored the experience!

The big reveal:

I could hardly drag her away from the mirror the entire day. At one point in the bathroom she was looking at herself and said, "Mom, I just look SO dang cute I can't stand it." She got a lot of compliments on her hair everywhere we went and loved when she got to meet the princesses all dolled up! It was a magical experience for her and as is typical with Disney, they did it right.

The requisite family-in-front-of-the-castle picture:

I spent a lot of the rest of the day waiting in line to meet the princesses and the fairies at Pixie Hollow while everyone else rode rides. We are definitely at a crossroads with the kids and characters. Makenna still LOVES meeting them and Carter is pretty much not interested. So Kenna and I met a lot of characters while Carter rode rides with Allen.

I have to say, the Christmas decorations were seriously amazing. They even change a few of the rides up for the holiday season. We LOVED riding It's a Small World as the entire ride is changed to reflect holiday traditions around the world. The haunted mansion was also AMAZING as it turns into the Nightmare before Christmas. We rode and rerode both of those rides.

Mind and I got these huge turkey legs this afternoon for a "snack" and had to take a picture because it was cracking us up. We both tried to stay as low carb as possible during the week and pretty much failed miserably:


And yes, I have officially entered the realm of Disney Dorkdom as I bought myself a pair of ears this trip. I just couldn't help it. I *heart* Disneyland!!!

We headed to CA Adventure for a couple of hours that night and wanted to get on the new Toy Story ride. It was another HUGE favorite for us and the only ride we actually had to wait in line for the entire week. (We loved it so much that the kids will be getting the Wii game based on the ride for Christmas this year.) Carter also discovered California Screamin' which ended up being one of his favorite rides. We rode that one a lot too. Such a fun, crazy roller coaster. Makenna was devastated that she was too short to ride and cried every time we left her to ride it. It was really solidified for us this trip just how big of thrill seekers our kids are. They weren't scared even once, even on the scary/intense rides. It made it so fun to ride and ride.

In front of the CA Adventure tree:

Wednesday was another early morning as we had a character breakfast scheduled at Goofy's Kitchen at 8:00 a.m. We ate there the last time we were at DL and had a great experience. This time we still felt like the food was awesome but that the characters were lacking a bit. We only met about half as many characters this time. We still had a grand time and ate waaaaaay too much.

I made these shirts for the girls. They were so easy and only took me about 1 hour to do both. I also had a girl in my ward make these darling Minnie Mouse bows. You can't see them in the picture but they were so cute. Makenna chose to wear her princess hair for the second day in a row:

Our group at Goofy's Kitchen:

Group hug while dancing with the characters:I have tons more pics of the kids with the characters at the breakfast but you get the idea. Before heading in the parks for the day we took some traditional shots.

Carter with the C:

Frost Family F:Disneyland Entrance:

We spent most of this day at CA Adventure and had a great time. We still loved Soaring over CA but really loved the coaster and TS ride the best there this time. We also ate at our favorite place in the parks - the Sourdough breadbowl place. Yum! (we actually ate there twice on this trip).

That evening we headed back to DL to see the holiday parade. We just happened to have really great seats and LOVED it. They redo the parade just for Christmas and it was amazing. Addie fell asleep in Allen's arms and he ended up holding her for about an hour while she slept.

Our family in front of Small World all lit up for Christmas. It was beautiful!

Thursday: Legoland. Will do a separate post for our day here!

Friday: We decided to pack in as much riding as we possibly could in both parks. I didn't even bring my big camera to the park this day because rain was forecasted (it never rained!!) and I knew we wanted to ride a ton. A few random ride shots:

M, Mind and I going into IASM (just look at that amazing garland/wreath):

Outside Tower of Terror. This ended up being both Carter and Allen's favorite ride out of both parks:We spent time going back and forth to the parks this day and tried to stretch kids later so that we could stay for the DL fireworks/holiday show. We almost gave a up a couple of times but decided to keep pushing them. I AM SO GLAD we stayed. I cannot say enough good things about the holiday fireworks. Both Al and I were in tears by the end (he will kill me for posting this). It's hard to adequately describe but it is fireworks to holiday music and was just awe inspiring. It was honestly the perfect way to end our week at DL.

We had such a magical vacation. I'm sure you get that from this post. This was a great time of year to go as the crowds were so low and magic is high. We rode every single ride in both parks at least once and just loved it! I am so happy we were able to make this vacation happen this year. Many, many fun family memories were made that we will cherish forever! And don't worry, we are already planning our next Disney vacation!

Be back soon with a Legoland recap! Whew!