Disneyland Day 4 & Heading Home

We spent our 4th day back at Disneyland. As we were walking into the park we noticed all of the "main" characters out on main street. The kids (and Allen) were anxious to get riding on rides but I convinced them to get a picture with Mickey first.

 Emery loves Daisy almost as much as Minnie so I kept her while everyone else went to ride and we waited in line to see Daisy. Emery is pretty shy and had not loved seeing other characters in the park so I wasn't sure how she would react to Daisy (she loved Minnie). Turns out she loved Daisy and was even willing to give her lots of hugs.

The girls had been begging ALL week to see Anna and Elsa from Frozen. I knew it would be a long wait so Allen and I swapped back and forth in line waiting and taking the kids on rides. It ended up being a 2 hour wait and we got to ride a lot!

The house where the princesses were was decked out so cute. Olaf was asleep on top of the house and would periodically wake up to visit with the people waiting in line. He was hilarious and made the wait much more enjoyable.

The ladies were THRILLED once we got inside and were able to meet Anna and Elsa. I swear it made the whole trip for them. I so love that we weren't rushed through the experience and got a few minutes to chat with them. As a side note, there was not a SINGLE piece of Frozen merchandise available at the park when we were there. Nothing. Not a tshirt or stuffed animal or dress. It was sad and my girls were really disappointed but there is no doubting the love that people have for the movie!

Another small world selfie!

This picture is of the kids and the ridiculous treat they picked out. They were dying for the fill your own pixie stick all week and we finally relented. It was gross and not worth the money but they loved them. 

Big kids were so happy they were old enough to drive themselves on Autotopia.

Emery steered our car and laughed hysterically as she bumped into everything a million times. We had whiplash but it was worth it!

 The new princess area was open with a fun theater with a couple plays. We saw a short version of Beauty and the Beast which we loved. I love the Rapunzel tower in the middle of the square.

Dole Whip - our all time favorite Disney treat. The line was an hour long on Monday so we only got it once. So delish!

Being the amazing big sis that she is, Makenna ended up sharing hers with the little girls. She is amazing with them!

We loved our trip this time and Emery was such a blast to watch take it all in.

We flew out to Portland the next morning and had to rush around to finish getting packed to leave for Saudi the next day. It was a looong trip home. We are so glad we were able to go to the US but it is a rough few day so travel for everyone. Make no mistake, it is painful to travel internationally with 4 kids and takes an extra measure of patience when everyone is melting down at the same time.

This picture was taken at the London airport. We had already been traveling for about 18 hours and still had 10 to go. All 4 of the kids were crying at the same time and we had to let them sit for awhile to wake up and calm down. It's super glamorous to jet set around the world with kids. I always remind myself that while the getting there (and back) is painful, it's always worth it to have great experiences.

I was really happy to be home and was surprised that Saudi has actually started to feel like home to me!

Disneyland - Day 3

For Day 3 we headed back to California Adventure but this time my parents joined us again. We were able to do tons of rides but also see quite a few of the fun shows at CA. I love the remodel that the park has gone through and the whole experience there is wonderful and totally different than Disneyland. 

The girls on Hollywood Blvd.

My parents were AMAZING troopers with us and rode all of the scary rides multiple times with the big kids. Tower of Terror evidence:

Meeting Sully in front of Monster's University:

 I took Addie and Emery to playhouse Disney while everyone else rode big rides. It was so cute and the girls were so enthralled seeing some of their favorite shows come to life on the stage. A must see if you have little ones.

Emery waiting to get on Toy Story. Watching her in any of the 3-D attraction was a hoot. She would duck and swat at things in front of her. So much fun!

Lunch break!

I love these fun chairs they have in a new lounge area in the park. I took some fun pictures on the chairs for the girls to put in their rooms.

Emery became obsessed with pirates on this trip. She called this her pirate face and did it a million times. Complete with an loud Aaargh and fist pump. She definitely enjoys being the center of all our attentions.

It got pretty chilly when the sun went down as we were waiting to see the Aladdin show.

I love this wall outside of Turtle Talk with Crush (so fun if you've never seen it). I've tried to take this picture a few times and the lighting is horrible so this is the best I've got. Our life is not perfect but it is pretty great and we are living our happily ever after!

Dinner at Flo's V8 cafe was right up my parents alley as it is a cute 50s diner and the food was good too. Carter opted to get a huge turkey leg instead of dinner there and ate almost the entire thing himself.

We were all cold and tired and left the park a bit early to head back to the hotel. It was a great 2nd day in CA and I love that we were able to take things a bit slow and see so many shows.

Disneyland - Day 2

We spent the 2nd day of our Disney vacation at California Adventure. My parents decided to spend the day at the hotel and it worked out great. We met for breakfast and then went our separate ways. We go-go-go while we are at Disney and it can be really exhausting!

We were super excited to see Cars Land. It did not disappoint. It was so dang cute and the kids loved it despite none of them being into Cars at all. I so wish they would have had it when Carter was little and so into the characters and movie. Everything was done to perfection and it is a perfect model of Radiator Springs. There are some really fun rides too. We especially loved the Cars racers!

This was the tree in Radiator. Disney has such fun and gorgeous Christmas trees and every detail is absolute perfection!

After riding a bunch of Cars rides we headed over to Ariel's Grotto for lunch. This is tree they had in the lobby. It was incredible and done with multi colored sea theme.

The girls were really excited to meet so many of princesses.

The food was also really yummy and put together in such a cute way. This was the kids meal dessert plate. The adults got to have chocolate fondue!

Another amazing tree. There were so many ornaments you could hardly see the tree at all. Can you see the Mickey heads in there?

The older kids rode and rode and rode the big scary rides and Allen and I swapped back and forth with them and taking the little girls on more tame rides. They loved the carousel:

I think we figured out that Carter and Makenna rode California Screamin' 10 times each. It is the first trip that Makenna could ride it (closed last time we were there) and they lived it up.

Our family has really mixed feelings about the Swinging carts on Mickey's Ferris wheel. It makes Makenna and Allen sick but Emery laughed her head off the entire ride. She LOVED it. I really wish we would have taken some video of her on the ride. Pure joy!

Allen's dinner - onion rings and chili cheese fries. So healthy. Somehow he managed to lose weight on our trip despite lots of treats and unhealthy eating (sooooooo not fair!)

Funny text message pictures sent to Allen while I waiting in line with the kids to go on Soarin over CA. He was waiting outside with E.

We finished Day 2 with treats from the new Ghiradelli soda fountain. Allen and I shared a salted caramel hot fudge sundae. It was heavenly. And no, I didn't lose any weight on our trip ;)