disneyland!

22 hours in the car.
5 days in Disneyland.
A handful of meltdowns.
Equals total family vacation bliss.

The highlights, according to each member of our family:

Makenna:  "I loved everything.  But if I had to pick one thing, I would say...I don't know!  It's SO hard to pick just one.  I just really liked doing it all with my family.  Okay, maybe Autotopia was my favorite."  (she's dying to be 16 and behind the wheel of a real car!)

9, going on 16.

Oh, her excitement!  Makenna exudes happiness, in fact we love to
remind her that her name means "happy".  We named her well!

The Mickey Ferris Wheel had puke bags...just in case.  Luckily no puke bags
were needed here!  It was touch and go there for a bit, though, for this
motion sensitive little girl.

Waiting in line for Mulhound Madness, for the 6th time.

Ahhh...If I could only freeze time.

Main Street decked out for Halloween! 

Makenna rocked the Jedi training.  

She was a total pro when she went up against Darth Vadar!

Luke:  "Does it have to be my favorite ride, or favorite thing there?  My favorite thing was making my own Mickey Mouse ears, and the zip line (inside California Adventure's Bear Park).  My favorite rides were Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain, and Monsters, Inc."

He also loved Indiana Jones, but not during the ride.  During the ride he was too busy either hyperventilating, or possibly peeing his pants.  But as soon as the ride was over he would say things like, "was that IT?  That was AWESOME!" or "That wasn't scary at all", and then I'd ask if he wanted to go again, and he'd quickly answer NO!

I love this picture of Luke, it is so perfectly him!  

Total enthusiasm for everything he does!

It was a blast to ride this ride as a whole family.  Jared rode with me and was
NOT a happy camper when he realized the ride was slowing down for us to get off!  :)

The zip line that Luke zipped down like 40 times.  No joke.

This boy loved the Haunted Mansion so much.

Buzz Lightyear.  It was a toss up who loved 

this ride more.  Ben or Luke.

Luke's really only asked for one thing while at Disneyland.

A light saber. He saw one on the last night we were there,

 while we were waiting in line for the World of Color show. 

And we'll just say he was persistent!

Jared: loved the Pirates of the Caribbean, the Tarzan Treehouse, and Pooh Bear's ride.  And he absolutely loved the World of Color water and light show!  Which we saw on our last night there, what a great way to end the week!

World of Color.  Amazing!

Holy moly. I love these guys!

I so loved this moment.  Way better than any ride at Disneyland...

Mickey came up and just grabbed Jared's hand and walked 

down the sidewalk with him.  Jared didn't seem to

mind one little bit.  He blew him kisses and gave

huge hugs to Mickey!

Jared had a major soft spot of Pooh Bear, too!

This picture cracks me up for a few reasons.  First, hello awkward sitting position.  

Secondly, any time we needed to get Jared to a happy place we would give him

a bag of trail mix.  He would spend 30 minutes carefully picking out the M&M's

and then move onto the raisins until all that was left were the nuts.

It was a price we were all willing to pay!

The highlight for me?  Caption EO.  100%  I must have been a little nostalgic about MJ passing away or something, but I couldn't help but rocking out to it.  Like 3 times.

 

I could have gone on this ride 50 times, but I only got to squeeze it in once.  Makenna hated this ride, but she went a second time with me anyway.  She's cowered over in her seat thinking happy thoughts and trying her hardest not to throw up.

I must not be a teenager anymore because the other highlights were the Tiki Room and It's a Small World. I think it really has more to do with the fact that I could see the magic in my kid's eyes while they watched.  I think I spent more time watching them, than I did watching the show/ride.  Seriously so perfect!

 

Here's proof that she was miserable the whole time!

 Makenna also hated this ride...her face tells no lies!

What made the trip even better was that my Mom was able to come along.  It made the whole trip do-able.  She would take Jared back mid afternoon for a nap, or hang out with kids if they wanted to swim at the hotel.  It made things so much easier with an extra set of hands, and made the trip so much fun!  Her favorite ride was California Screamin' for sure!  Okay, not really.  She only went because Ben was so persuasive!

Having Grandma Ruth come with us was a highlight 

and a treat.  Such fun was had, and great memories made.  Grandma has 

a special place in our hearts. 

All in all, we could not have asked for a better trip to introduce our family to Disneyland. 

The weather was amazing, the kids were fantastic and Disney magic was felt by all.  We're already

scheming on how to make it back out there.