DisneyLand!

While on our drive home we stopped for a few days at Disneyland.  It was so fun!  Last time our kids were younger and so we had to deal with a lot more meltdowns, mostly from our 1-year-old, but this time we didn't really have that problem.  We had a few difficult moments here and there, but overall it was great!

I did a few things different this time around.  The biggest change was that we stayed three days.  It cost more money, but one day just wasn't enough and I think it was worth it.  We also got a great hotel across the street from Disneyland.  It was the closest hotel to the park, had a great breakfast, a pool (we didn't use it) and was reasonably priced.  One day I had to run back to the hotel after we got to the park and it only took me a few minutes.  It was nice.

I also splurged and got mouse ears for us to wear.  I bought them on amazon a couple days beforehand so they were much cheaper then if bought at disneyland.  Tucker said he didn't want any so I only got four pairs.  But after the first day he said he would wear them.  We ended up sharing the ears.

I took this picture while waiting in line.  We waited in lots of lines but the kids were pretty good about it.  

Our first day we spend most of the time in the Star Wars area.  I'll post all about star wars tomorrow.  We did and saw lot of other fun things too.  Like spiderman, Leon was to scared to get up close to some of the characters.

I knew the kids would love the  Buzz Lightyear ride and we ended up doing it quite a few times.  The line always goes quickly and it is near other rides for taller people.  So Bob would take the kids on Star tours and Leon and I would go on this ride.  Then Bob would come out and do it with Leon and I went on the ride with whomever wanted to do that again.  It was a pretty good system.  We also did it for Hyperspace Mountain.

For those who don't know Hyperspace Mountian is a fast roller coaster that is in complete darkness.  It was one of our favorites!  This was one of our first rides and because they were in a rush no one checked Leon's height.  This was the only 42" ride he made it on.  He is really too short but the line was long and we didn't want to deal with a parent swap, so we tried to sneak him on.  Anways, after the ride the kids were scared to go on more rides.  It was a little fast for them.  They were troopers though, especially Leon.  I sat next to him and he didn't cry or anything.  We had to do a lot of convincing to get the kids to go on some of the rides.  I didn't want to force them onto anything, but I also didn't want them to miss out because they were scared.
Another traumatizing ride was the haunted mansion.  It really wasn't that bad, and all ages can ride on it. But Tucker is in a stage where he scares quite easily.  I was a little embarrassed because for this ride you go in with a whole group and when Tucker found out it was a little creepy he started to freak out.  I should have saved this ride for the end because he really mellowed out by the third day and became more adventurous.

Here we played on Tarzan's Treehouse.  The kids played while we took turns on Indiana Jones.  I think that was one of the jerkiest rides but because we did it at the end of the day Tucker wanted to go and liked it.  Everyone else wanted to play in the tree house more.

We did so much and I wish I took more pictures, but I also wanted to just enjoy my time there without messing with the camera the whole time.  The kids also enjoyed splashmountian and the Winnie the Pooh ride.  I think they rode the Winnie the Pooh ride 6 times.  We went there at night and there was absolutely no line so we let them just ride it again and again.  It was pretty hilarious because Leon doesn't know about Winnie the Pooh and kept calling him Winnie the Poop.

Lastly we did the parade and fireworks.

It was crowded but we got a pretty decent spot.  We got there about 20 minutes early and found a spot where everyone could see so I count that as a success.  By this time the kids were all very tired and were happy for the 20 minutes to just sit down.

I originally wanted to stop and eat lunch and dinner at restaurants in the park but that didn't really happen.  We were always so busy with things to do and see that we never wanted to take the time to stop and eat.  Instead we had a big breakfast at the hotel and packed tons of snacks that we randomly ate throughout the day while waiting in lines. Our staples were gogurts, bagels, apples, carrots, granola bars, and crackers.  Then after the firework show we headed back.  The kids and Bob went into the hotel and I ran over to McDonalds and picked up a late dinner for everyone.  We were exhausted every night and even though we were all in the same room everyone went right to sleep.