Disney Parks

We went to Disneyland last week and I think that is worth blogging about.  Here is the picture overload of all our smiles at the happiest place on earth. I will have to agree that is a true statement.

Our children thought they had been going to Disney each year when they attended the local and fabulous 2 hour show of Disney on Ice with grandma each year.  That got us by for 6 years until recently when Annelise wised up and noticed all the disney parks commercials on all our movies.  Annelise didn't know the name Disneyland, because she only heard it refered to as Disney Parks.  Katlyn asked tara "what's disney parks?"  We got Annelise all straight on the lingo, that we were headed to Disneyland.

We were lucky to have the Jorgensen's take us, because they have the perfect itinerary for Disney.  They have that place all figured out, and we had the best time.   We don't regret checking Annelise out of school because it was worth not fighting the crowds.   We rode everything we wanted 3 plus times.  It was awesome!

Finally Disney bound September 22nd

paper, rock, scissors while we wait.  

cutest travelers ever!

excited is an understatement according to Annelise's face in this pic

We did have a 40 minute wait on the tarmac because someone put 2000 gallons of gas in the wrong tank.  The kids did great and lucky for us we had enough snacks, because honestly that bag of pretzels wasn't making up for the extra time sitting.

Grandma Chrissy saved us buko bucks by providing cute crowns and face gems.  She also painted their nails that morning while we waited.  Tara painted Colin's cheek with a cute Mickey too.  We were still on Utah time,  let me clarify the kids were on Utah time, I was not.  The first couple of days they would wake up at 630am, so we had plenty of time to get dolled up before the park opened.

The girls wanted to meet all the princess.  We bought the autograph books and we got a whole lot of autographs. Colin slept with his book the night before, which is funny because he gave up on the book about 10 pages in, so he's not in all the pics.

Pixie Hallow was cute..

 We had breakfast with the characters on Tuesday.  It was a fun way to get lots of pics and the food was good, so was the coke.

Colin was gaga for Minnie

 Mike's favorite pic of Kade

While Me Tara and Chrissy were riding Indiana Jones the guys headed to this cool place by Thunder Mountain.  It had crafts and music.  It also had a petting zoo.  Here is the kids coloring with Donald.

They were able to dance with Mickey and Minnie.  The Halloween decorations were incredible.

random ride pics..

I think Kade rode this 7 times.  It was right by the California Screamer so this is where he waited.  Jeff took Liza, Colin and Annelise on the Ferris Wheel.  Good thing because that's the ride Annelise liked the most.

some sillies waiting to go on the toy story ride.  There was no fast pass :-(  That was our only real wait and it was 25min. 

It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all

It's a small, small world

are you singing it now?

Our kids played so good together.  Not sure what this game is called, but we were eating dinner and they were  content on the ground.

More characters we didn't see at the breakfast

If you ask Colin what his favorite part of Disney he would say when he fought Darth Vader.  The first day we were there we went to watch the show but colin didn't get chosen

-Exhibit A  He wasn't near the front so they couldn't see the little 41' fella.  We made a game plan to get him to accomplish his lifetime goal.  Mike took him to the show early, and sat with him on the front row.  Mike explained the best way to jump up and get noticed.  I must say Colin nailed it,  doing a perfect jumping jack while jumping up and down.

He was chosen to fight the dark side

this is what you hope your kids do while at disney, great big smile.  Mike and I were pretty stressed when the grand master came out to choose the kids.  

mikes favorite pic of Colin

Here's Colin in action.  He hates that we were talking in the video but he did awesome!

You know it's going to be a great day when you get to buy 2 swords.  He gave one to Jimmy.

Departure day:  We headed to Downtown Disney.  We purchase Mickey ears and other souvenirs.  We ate at Rainforest Cafe and got our picture with Ruby the parrot.

We raced lego cars we made.

If we each were asked our favorite thing:

Colin-fighting Darth Vader

Annelise-Ferris Wheel

Me-Cars & California Scream

Mike-Tower of Terror & Pineapple Whip

A GREAT BIG HUGE THANKS TO THE JORGENSEN'S 

for a fun week!

We have 2 days of beach pictures to follow.