California!

We have been planning a family vacation with my siblings to California for over two years, and at the end of July it finally happened! It was everything I hoped for and more, and it will be a week we talk about for years to come. 

One of the things we were most looking forward to was visiting Disneyland for the first time with the kids. We went two days, and on the first day my parents and youngest brother Jesse came with us. It was so wonderful to have them with us on that first magical day!

Here is our picture of the park's Splash Mountain picture. Do you see Ali? Somehow she got right in front and was ducking to avoid getting soaked. And notice the nice random man in the back who is now a part of our family history!

The kids were tall enough to go on basically all the rides, and they did. I felt like a mean mom sitting next to Eli on Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion, both of which terrified him. Ali did not like Space Mountain at all either, but Logan was a huge fan! Their favorites were: Ali- Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin and the Haunted Mansion; Logan- Space Mountain and Splash Mountain; Eli- Buzz Lightyear and Cartopia. Jason and I went back one night without the kids (so fun, and such a different kind of fun), and went on the new Indiana Jones ride and absolutely loved it.

One of my biggest fears before going was how long we might have to wait in lines and how the kids would do waiting. But we were very strategic in our ride orders and made good use of fast passes which made our average wait about 15 minutes, with waits between 5-20 minutes and just one that was about 30. We ate snacks in line and were often silly to pass the time. Not bad at all.

Another one of mine and Jason's favorite rides was actually It's a Small World. Not only was it about a ten minute ride sitting down and in a lovely air-conditioned space (did I mention it was about 90 degrees and sunny every day we were there?), but the kids absolutely ate it up. Especially Ali and Eli squealed and giggled and pointed things out the whole time. Ali would copy the dolls' motions or songs and was generally adorable. 

Logan is very into Tikki Masks right now (not sure how he even knows about them) and rejoiced in finding several scattered throughout the park. 

We took the boat over to Tom Sawyer's island and had fun getting lost in caves and paths (ok, so that part stressed me out a bit, but the kids had fun).

One of the days we went home in the afternoon when we were tired and hot, took naps, had dinner and then came back for the show, fireworks, and more rides. My dollar store light sticks were a huge hit, and honestly cooler than some of the stuff the park had for sell.

It was seriously fun, and we're already looking forward to going back in ten years or so!