Spring Break 2011 part one - Disneyland

The little hotel pool that the kids thought was better than any ride

The coolest larger than life Darth Vader
Ryan's face says it all
I think that we might have to upgrade to a larger hotel room or additional rooms with 4 kids now. This is how the kids slept at night.
In their matching Disney jammies they got on Christmas Eve last year ready to watch the fireworks show from our hotel room.

Right next to the aquarium at the Rain forest Cafe in Downtown Disney

Ryan showing his scary face displaying that he belongs in the rain forest with the other animals there too.

Look my kids are for sale as Toy Story characters! Okay so catching Mr. Incredible right next to us was cool except that he came out those doors right next to me where I was trying to discreetly nurse Christian and a crowd came flocking very quickly. I was no longer discrete anymore - thanks Mr. Incredible

Can't you see the excitement on their faces as they wait while we buy tickets?

We decided that after having not been to Disneyland in almost a couple years it was time to go again especially with Ryan loving all things Disney. We were really excited to tell the kids but decided to make it a surprise until just a couple of weeks before when Jared had bought Mickey Mouse shirts for all the kids when he was in Las Vegas. Julia and Dallin were super excited but Ryan didn't really know what to expect because he had no memories of it. Julia and Dallin filled him in quickly as the the amazing place that it is making him just as excited if not more so.

After some deliberation, we decided to make it a two day affair in order for us to not feel rushed and to take our time considering that we were going to be having a little baby in tow. The park was pretty busy with a lot of people on spring break, but all things considering, the kids were amazing little troopers. It was super nice having a hotel just across the street because by the end of the day I don't think that any of us could have walked any further. The other nice thing about staying in a hotel across the street was that we were able to watch the fireworks show in the comfort of our jammies while eating takeout from the nearby Mimi's restaurant. I do have to say though that I think that the kids were almost more excited about the little pool that the hotel had than Disneyland itself! It was so hard to get them out even when it was getting very cool outside.

The week prior to us going, we let the kids earn some money by doing some extra chores. With their earned money, Julia picked out a cute school bag, Ryan picked out some Toy Store figurines and Dallin picked out some fun Legos at the Lego store they have in Downtown Disney.

We had intentions of going to a science museum in Los Angeles the third day but after two days of walking around Disneyland, we were pooped and decided to just head up to my parents house for the rest of spring break while Jared took care of some business at the same time up in Lodi.

We had such an amazing time and I love experiencing life watching my kids get excited about fun things like this. I loved watching Julia get sick to her stomach in fear about going on Space Mountain. I loved hearing about Dallin's total elation when he discovered that he was tall enough to finally go on the Indiana Jones ride and have him tell me how much fun he had on it. I loved showing Ryan all the amazing Disney things that he knows and loves come to life at Disneyland and watch his reactions to it all. Jared and I both agree that our life would be pretty boring without these kids and are so grateful that despite all the hard work it takes to have kids, we wouldn't trade it for anything in the world especially when you have such fun experiences like these.