Farewell Disneyland

We take our kids to Disneyland once a year - usually in October or December when it's decorated for Halloween or Christmas. Last year because I'd accidentally bought the wrong tickets online we paid the difference & upgraded to annual passes. I was with my mom & dad & they LOVE Disneyland so when my mom suggested it I went right along with it.

I hate to say it, but I am officially Disneylanded out! We will definitely be skipping Disneyland next year! :) Maybe we'll give Legoland & Sea World a try instead. We only went 4 times with our passes, but that's plenty - especially when Jeremiah thinks of Disneyland as the most miserable place on earth instead of the happiest place on earth! LOL

The kids & my parents & Jeremiah's mom drove over Wednesday night. I wanted to get to DCA right when they opened on Thursday to get tickets to the World of Color show since we hadn't seen it & I'd heard it was awesome & it would be our last chance & tickets are handed out first thing in the morning & you can't get them after that. So I had everyone drop me off at Downtown Disney & I booked it to CA Adventure with everyone's passes & waited in a pretty long line for the World of Color fastpasses. You'd have thought it was a line ride for the number of people in the line! I got to the front & found out that since the rest of our party hadn't entered the park & had their passes scanned I couldn't use their passes to get the fastpasses. My dad's pass has free parking so he'd gone to the Grand Californian lobby to wait for me to bring him his pass. I had him go through the entrance (lucky guests of the Grand Californian have their own entrance to DCA & we were able to use it), and then I went back to the car with him to get my mom & the kids so that all of their passes could get scanned, since they won't scan passes without the person being present. After that I booked it back to the fastpass distribution place where luckily the girl working had said to not wait in line again & just go to her since she'd also said I needed to be back w/in 30 minutes or they would probably be out of passes. She was cute - she was asking me why I was the runner for the group since I was pregnant. My dad had actually said I should let him go but I told him I thought I would still be faster, preggo or not! :) Anyway, I got the fastpasses, my mom took the kids to do a couple rides while I took my dad his pass again so he could go park. Then I was sent to get Jeremiah's mom's ticket to get into Disneyland. I knew it'd be a while before they got parked so I took advantage of the time & booked it back to Downtown Disney to the Lego store so I could look for a particular thing for Jack for Christmas. Of course they were sold out in the store & online! So if you're familiar at all with the layout of Disneyland & Downtown Disney, you'll understand how at this point I'd already walked a couple miles at least in the 45 mins that I'd been there! I thought I totally deserved one of the best treats of all times: a Hagen-Daazs Rocky Road Dazzler! It is SOOO good that there's not a Hagen-Daazs anywhere near my house! You think I'm big now... (and if you don't think I look gigantic in this picture then I'd say it's a flattering picture cause I am BIG).



After a busy start to our Disney day we went on Buzz Lightyear (less than 5 min wait - gotta love Disneyland during the week this time of year), and Small World. Jeremiah HATES this ride more than anything so it was good that he wasn't with us this day! :) Ellie hadn't been on it since she was a baby I don't think so it was pretty awesome for her. She was completely captivated the entire time - pointing & smiling & just staring, trying to take it all in.



The rest of the afternoon for me went by quickly. Jeremiah's mom & I had to leave Disneyland by 3:30 so we could get ready for my niece Katelyn's concert - she's in the Primary choir of the Orange County Mormon Choral Organization. Kind of like MoTab (Tabernacle Choir if you're not hip on the lingo) on a smaller scale & with some youth choirs. Katelyn's concert was great & Katelyn was adorable. My sil Richelle was supposed to be singing in it too, but instead she was in the hospital with a brand new baby born that afternoon!

After the concert I left Jeremiah's mom with Jeremiah's bro, Justin & raced back to Disneyland to make it to the World of Color show at 8:15p (& pick up my m/d/my kids). It had been an eventful afternoon for my poor mom - she'd tried taking Ellie potty a few times & Ellie refused to go because she said it was too yucky in the bathrooms. She'd finally peed her pants once or twice. So between the concert & getting back to Disneyland I stopped at the hotel to grab pj's to change her into. Jeremiah & his dad drove over that night.

The next day we went to the hospital to see our brand new nephew, Triston Adam. Ellie LOVED getting to hold baby Triston! I hope she enjoys her new brother/sister as much.



After the hospital Jer & the kids & I went back to Disneyland. Our passes expired this day so it was our last time to go. The park was packed & not so enjoyable so we didn't get much in. We got fast passes to Buzz Lightyear (Jack's fav besides Pirates), then tried to go on a couple other rides but the lines were ridiculous. Not summertime ridiculous, but I would NEVER go to Disneyland in the summer so to us they were bad.

We ended up going to the Reindeer Roundup where the kids got to see real reindeer while I waited in line to see Santa.



After probably an hour wait (stupid, I know. But where else are we going to see Santa this year? Walmart? Blech!), Ellie cried & Jack refused to go anywhere near him. I had to get down on Jack's level & growl threats in his ear to get him to even stand by Jeremiah for a picture. Ellie stopped crying when Jeremiah promised he wouldn't make her sit with Santa. Callie soaked it up.

After seeing Santa we stopped at the shooting arcade because Jack had been dying to shoot. I love his face in this picture!



We finally headed towards Tomorrow Land to use our Buzz fastpasses & we saw people lining up already for the parade. I don't think we've ever really watched the parade with our kids. We'd already decided we'd watch it & leave after, & since people were lining up at 4:20 for the 5:30 parade! I let Jer & the kids go to Buzz & I looked for a place on the curb. Of course I didn't find out until I'd been in my spot for about 10 mins that once the parade route was roped off my spot would be completely blocked from view. So Jer & the kids got back & we had to watch for the Disney people to come out with the rope so we could dive to the rope & sit along there. It was ridiculous & Jeremiah said it's that kind of stuff (besides the amt of people there on Friday) that makes him hate Disneyland. Luckily we got a great spot, right at the rope along the parade route. I'd promised the kids they could pick out a souvenir since it was our last Disney trip for a long time, so once we had our place secured I took Callie to the Main Street Emporium to make her choice. She chose an Ariel music box so I set it aside & took her back to Jeremiah to get Jack & Ellie. Ellie said she needed to go potty and I asked her if she had to pee or poop. She said poop & she also said she didn't need to go right then. So I took her & Jack into the Emporium & Ellie picked out a Minnie Mouse polly pocket toy right away, while Jack browsed a while & finally settled on a Toy Story 3 Hot Wheels toy. We were in line to pay & I was holding Ellie who was basically sitting on my belly when all of a sudden my belly got really warm. Oh yeah, Ellie totally peed all over me! She rarely full-on pees her pants (except it seems when we're in CA). She sometimes will dribble a little cause she waits too long, but when she does that her jeans are still dry. But oh no, this was soak city! There was even a trail of pee on the floor. I was beyond exasperated! I paid for our crap & we made our way back to Jeremiah, Callie, & my parents who'd joined us by then. I was not happy to say the least. Thank goodness I'd thought to take the kids' pj's again so at least when we got to the car we could change Ellie.

During the parade all the kids waved & called out to the different characters. In this picture Callie was waving & saying "Hi Minnie!"



It's very difficult to tell, but those are big snowmen in the picture. When they came by dancing Ellie got up & danced for a second, then turned to me & said, "Mom, can I hug him please?" Also when Buzz went by she said, "Hi Buzz! I love you!" She was so fun to watch during the parade!

The kids LOVED the parade & it was worth the hassle of getting a spot to watch it. It was the perfect ending to our year of Disney. 8:)

On Saturday we got packed up & went to Justin & Jamie's to visit again & to get Jeremiah's parents. Justin was really sick so the kids & I quietly played Pretty Pretty Princess with Katelyn. Even Jack got in on the fun! :)



Jeremiah's parents decided to stay in CA for a few more days so by the time we got a vehicle figured out for them & things taken care of it was late afternoon. I hate the drive to/from SoCal! It was nice to get home & have Sunday at home before starting another week.

The End.