The Happiest Place on Earth

It really was a great trip for us. My in-laws got us a portable DVD player for the car, which made the 4.5 hour drive *much* more tolerable for the kids! They watched Nemo, Home on the Range, and Lion King 1.5.

Our Disney tickets were waiting for us at the Concierge desk with a very nice note from the lady who dropped them off. It was a GREAT experience for us, and we'll probably keep doing the ebay thing for tickets!

The hotel (Hyatt Regency Orange County...we got it on Priceline for $45 a night) was VERY beautiful and VERY fancy. It had a 17 story atrium, which Violet realized *very* quickly made a lovely echoing sound. *giggle* we are just not the fancy hotel type. Our room was on the tenth floor and the kids loved arguing over who would push the elevator buttons. We dropped off all our stuff and drove over to a shopping center down the street... I wanted to get a pair of comfortable shoes (all I brought were my birkenstocks... comfortable, yes... but not for two full days of walking). We also saw a Wal-Mart and wanted to look in there for a beach cruiser bike for me, since we found one reasonably priced at Walmart.com. Sure enough, there was ONE bike at wal-mart! Already assembled and everything. I rode it all over the store and to the checkout counter. Rick made fun of me as I tried to scan the barcode (which was stuck to the front reflector) by picking up the whole bike. LOL. That wasn't working so I finally got it to peel off enough to scan it. Then I rode the bike through the parking lot to the car. I was having a BALL!! We leaded in the bike and got a pair of lace up canvas shoes for me at Payless, then we stopped at Baskin-Robbins for some ice cream dessert. Such a happy time so far and we haven't even gotten to Disneyland!! Back at the hotel we parked the car ($36 for 3 nights... OUCH!) and I rode my bike through the lobby up to the elevator. Rick thought I was insane. We tried to get the kids tired enough to go to bed, but they were pretty wired. We took them to the hotel pool, which was nice and warm but the air outside was so cold it wasn't much fun.. and the spa was waaaaay too hot. So back in the room the kids got a bath before bed and actually fell asleep at a decent time.

Kids got up at 5:30 am chanting "Dis-nee-land!!!! Dis-nee-land!!" and so we got up, took showers, and had breakfast downstairs in the lobby (buffet was $15 per person... OUCH again! I guess this cheap hotel thing wasn't such a great deal after all!). The shuttle to the park picked us up at 9 a.m. and we headed over. We met our friends Jim and Valerie at the entrance and went in and saw Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy right away! It was a great autograph and photo moment for the kids. You should have seen Riley talking to the characters! He LOVED it! He scrunched up his little shoulders and said, "Hi Mickey!" in the cutest voice! We did all kinds of rides and fun things for the kids... Small World at Christmastime is seriously my favorite. I was so excited to share that with them! Violet and I did the Matterhorn while Riley slept and she enjoyed it ("except for the scary parts," she said!). We were pretty much nonstop all day. Rick and I had a leisurely late lunch at Blue Bayou while Jim and Val took the kids to the Snow White show, which they said was awesome. The PARADE was wonderful and the fireworks were amazing. And that was just the first day!!!

On Day 2 we decided to have breakfast with the princesses at the park, and that was a GREAT choice! It was $22 for the adult buffet and $12 for the kids (Riley was free), but the food was OUTSTANDING and the fact that the princesses came RIGHT to the table to talk to us, take photos, and sign autographs was the BEST thing! Sooooo worth it! We hopped over to California Adventures and watched the Aladdin show (INCREDIBLE) and played at the Bug's Life Bugs Land (that was fun for the kids... kinda boring for the grownups). Finally at 2 we met Rick's parents and we all went back into Disneyland, rode the train, did Small World again, played in Toon Town (Violet's favorite ride was the Gadget's Go Coaster that she rode onwith her Grandpa Rich), met another family from Vegas (the Russos) for dinner, and watched the snow fall while we had mochas. Such a wonderful time. And great to do the trip with a couple of extra grownups (since I think *every* time we were halfway through a line Violet needed to go potty). Such great memories... and SIX rolls of film to develop! :)