Sigh.... good ol DLand! DLand is one of the many reasons we miss being Southern Cali residents! When we lived in the High Desert we were only 40 minutes away from Anaheim! These days we are a good 6 1/2 hours away, which doesnt seem like all that long of a drive but with 4 kids it is needless to say ... interesting! The kids did very well though! We had the dual DVD players playing, Nintendo DS' charged and ready for hours of play, lots of snacks, coloring books, crayons, and fun music to sing/listen to! After visiting our friends, Sunday morning we headed down to Anaheim for Day 1 at DLand. Papa and Grandma at the last minute decided to make the long haul out for the day and meet up with us. The kids were very so shocked, surprised, and happy to see them! Sadly the excitement was short lived, since it became clear that the rest of the world had the same idea as me (go to DLand for spring break). It was ridiculously busy! We made it on only a handful of rides before calling it a day at an early 6pm. Papa and Grandma had to leave (they had to drive all the way back to AZ that same day) and the children were so overwhelmed by their new surroundings anyway. Monday morning we woke up and made it over to the park by 9:30AM. It was busy but not nearly as busy as the day before. Lines were still long so we were limited on how many we were able to go on. Our biggest challenge this day was getting Ava and Dillon to understand only 1 of them to go on a ride with myself or Marc. We tried to go on all the rides Garrison could go on, but then there was our daughter named Liliana who kept picking the rides that had height restrictions! It wouldn't have been a big deal except like a I said above... only 1 adult and 1 child could go on at a time! By the middle of the day they did start to understand the dilema and all worked out. I had planned two meals with the characters for the children, but didn't tell them ahead of time. I wanted it to be a surprise. Monday morning was the first meal... it was a breakfast/lunch buffet at Goofy's kitchen! It was so much fun and totally worth the price we paid for it. The children got to meet Goofy, Pluto, Chip, and Alice while they ate their meal. Needless to say they loved it! The rest of the afternoon we decided to spend in California Adventure (for those that aren't familiar with DLand, there is a Disneyland side and then California Adventure side). We made this decision so that around dinner time we could grab a table located in the front area of the the Pixar parade. After watching the parade, Marc took Ava back to our hotel room (she wasn't feeling too well she had a small cold) while I stayed and took Dillon, Liliana, and Garrison over to Disneyland. We were able to go on a few rides and walk through all the character homes in toontown before I called it a night. The next morning we all woke up early so we could take advantage of our early entrance pass. Too bad everyone else had that same plan as well!! The lines weren't as long but were still decent in length! We hopped into the Finding Nemo ride (a 45 minute wait) but was very neat, then headed over to Pixie Hollow (which isnt even a ride its just where you walk through where Tinkerbell lives and you get to meet 1 fairy and Tinkerbell). If your wondering how long we had to wait at Pixie Hollow... try a little over an hour long wait! Ava was in heaven though once we got to the fairies! The day went on similar to the day before, but we did notice it wasn't as busy as the two days earlier. I started thinking maybe I should have booked our trip at the middle/end of the week but oh well maybe next year! My last surprise for the day was a dinner at Ariel's Grotto with the princesses. Poor Dillon didn't really get anything out of this since he isn't into the princesses (he will regret his chance to take pictures with the pretty princesses one day in the future though) but he enjoyed his food! After eating with the princesses, we headed over to the only ride left that was newly added that the kids were dying to go on... Toy Story 4D. The wait was over an hour long and the park was closing in 2 hours. It was our last day in Anaheim and our last chance. So we braved all 4 kids in line as we waited! Too bad 30 minutes earlier the kids enjoyed a dessert platter that had all RICH CHOCOLATE items which the kids scarfed down! I kid you not, the kids were wired!! Dillon didn't stop moving and grooving the ENTIRE time in line! It was annoying and comical at the same time! Annoying because you could tell it was bothering some around us, but very funny because he has never had such a huge sugar high in his life! We finally reached the ride and enjoyed it very much! It was totally worth the wait. As we headed to exit the park Liliana had enough time to hop on the roller coaster 1 more time. Dillon decided he wanted to be measured and go on it if tall enough! Once again that chocolate was keeping his engine moving! Sure enough he was JUST tall enough. Keep in mind the last 2 days, we tried to get him on this roller coaster over 10 times. We walked up to the roller coaster, sat down, locked our bar and off we went. Its a roller coaster where it takes you on REALLY sharp turns and down 2 decent drops and then 1 small one. As we went down the 1 drop, Dillon wasn't too sure if he liked the ride, then we went down the second drop and he was giggling and screaming of enjoyment, the third drop he said "Oh man is it over?" As we approached the man letting people out of the cars, I asked if we had time to ride it one more time. He of course had to be a party pooper and say NO! Dillon's face was so upset! He was crushed. He finally built up enough courage to go on the dang ride and now couldn't go again because they were closing! Poor little guy!
We exited the park and headed over to the Disney side for the fireworks show and then back to the hotel. We had a long, tiring, exhausting, funfilled 3 days in Anaheim and even though the kids were trying at times, the smiles and excitement their facial expressions showed are PRICELESS memories I will NEVER forget! We took over 400 pictures so I will be sending out a link to shutterfly so you all can view them. I hope to get the email out sometime soon so look for it!
No comments:
Post a Comment