Disneyland

This was our first trip to Disneyland as a family. The last time that I went was when I was 8 years old. I don't remember anything about that trip, and I don't think there are any pictures of it either. I made up for that this time, I took just about 200 photos while we were there. Don't worry, I won't post them all. I have already posted more than I should, but it is more for a journaling purpose, than to just bore people with photos from our trip. Aaron's parents and his sister's family were able to come with us. This was very helpful, 6 adults to 5 kids. Aaron and I tried taking our kids on a few rides a couple of times when his family went their own way - it was quite difficult to get all four of them on the ride. We really enjoyed the time we had to spend with them. It was a great experience for our family. I don't think we will be going back anytime soon, so another good reason to take 200 pictures - right?

Disneyland - Princess Dot's Puddle Park

The weather was perfect on Thursday and Friday - not hot, not cold. On Saturday it got a lot hotter. I think it was in the mid 80's. This splash park was a welcome treat for all of us. It was a great way to cool down a little. I can't imagine going to DL in the middle of the summer - My children and I don't do well in the heat. I was glad that someone told us to bring our swimming suits for this. It was nice to not have to have them be wet the rest of the day - except for their shoes - the people made them keep their shoes on. I still don't get that one. It pretty much ruined their shoes, Lindsey's shoes smelled so bad at the end of the day. They are in my garage because they still stink.

Disneyland - Character Craze

The first thing we saw when we got to Disneyland was Mickey and Minnie together. It was a great way to start out. We stood in line to go into Pixie Hollow and meet Tinkerbell. We were going to stand in the line to meet the Princesses, but it was just Snow White at the time - she wasn't worth waiting in a long line for. We happened to run into Cinderella later, so it worked out great. I was surprised at how many characters that we did see. We saw a lot more that I didn't take pictures of.

Disneyland - The Airplane

This was our kids first airplane ride. (OK, Whitney did fly on an airplane when she was a baby.) I think I was most stressed about getting to and from the airplane. We had a couple of family nights dedicated to airport security and airplane etiquette. We created a mock security gate and let them walk through several times what was going to happen. This really helped us when we got to the airport because the kids knew exactly what they were to do, and they weren't scared by everything going on. The girls did really well on the airplane. Grant - well, he wasn't horrible, but he wasn't great either. Just wiggly, and only a little screaming here and there. Signing Time on the iPod was a life saver. The flight home was packed with kids - I think anyone flying from Anaheim to Salt Lake would expect it to be full of kids.