DISNEYLAND!

We had a fabulous time on our “secret trip to Disneyland”. So many fun experiences and memories in such a quick trip. Here is a synopsis of what we learned and did during our two days at the park… (In no particular order...)

We've never been to Disneyland around Halloween... It was fun to see it all decked out!
UEA which most people refer to as “Utah Education Assoc.” Also stands for… “Utahn’s Envade Anaheim”! (I do realize that "envade" is actually spelled with an i... but it was too fitting of a word not to use...) There were SWARMS of us there! The ones sporting the BYU apparel were the most obvious, but random Utah and USU shirts were seen as well. There must have been some sort of an ad in the Provo paper, stating that Thursday was “wear your BYU paraphernalia to Disneyland Day.” We could hardly blink before we saw yet another BYU shirt or hat. Our favorite was entire families decked out. Or better yet, those die-hard guys competing for the “biggest fan honor”. I thought that the guy with the shirt, shorts, socks, lanyard and hat (all sporting the logo) surely deserved the prize. But then later I saw a guy with ALL of that PLUS a backpack with the logo… There must be a special place in heaven for a guy like that! I held back from asking the question…. "So where are you from?" Or better yet... "would you mind if I took your picture?" :)

Even though the whole BYU apparel drove me crazy… the opposite was far worse… how do girls (or ladies who should know better) get up in the morning… pick out a cami that is three sizes too small and hangs down to their navel… and a mini-skirt that barely covers their rump… and then look in the mirror and say to themselves… “This looks like a good outfit to wear to Disneyland.”… Check one more time sis-ters… because YOUR MIRROR IS LYING! I personally don’t want to watch as they (good-lookin' or POSITIVELY NOT good-lookin') climb off of a ride and have to readjust their clothing after bouncing around on “Space Mountain.” Shudder, shudder, shudder…

Speaking of Space Mountain... this was Kenna's favorite... but the look on her face tells a different story :)!


“Fast Passes” are the best. Walking past all of the people in the “regular” line somehow make one feel like a VIP…. and makes the ride even more enjoyable. Pair that with a “Baby swap” pass and the child who got to goes for the second time through the short line was all smiles! :) The only thing that could be better is a “Dream Fast Pass” lucky souls are randomly given “fast-passes” to 6 rides in Disneyland and 6 rides in California Adventure. We were lucky but not THAT lucky! Shane did score twice in one day with “front of the line passes” for our whole group. Once because Kenna waited in the Indiana Jones ride and was too short when she got there (that was nice of Disney… they only had 5 places throughout the line to check height and Shane never saw them. – Totally our fault). Plus once again Shane’s Chinese shocked and amazed the masses… at least one family behind us in line… I didn’t catch ANY of the conversation… but Shane came away with another "front-of-the-line-pass"… way to go Shane. Shane's favorite thing about Disneyland is finding people to speak Chinese with. ( My dad wrote a post on his blog about his experiences with Shane and his language skills in Australia. Check it out here.)

If I had to pick a Disney Character that Shane reminds me most of... it would definitely be the Cheshire Cat. What do you think!

By the way did I mention that a “park-hopper” ONE DAY TICKET is now $95 for adults and $85 for kids! HIGHWAY ROBBERY! Oh, and the best part about it is how they keep “lowering” the adult age! 10 and over are considered adults! WHAT EVER! (Obviously multi-day tickets are proportionately less… but OUCH!) I questioned why if Tayler was considered an adult at the gate… why she needed "an adult" with her to take Jadyn on the teapots??? INTERESTING... lucky me got to ride the teapots with them as "the adult"… not my favorite ride! It brings back too many memories of a few years ago when Shane spun us so fast that I truly could not breath... we were both sick for the rest of the day! I was NOT happy!


If you WANT to get wet on SPLASH MOUNTAIN – put three adults in the front and three small kids in the back. I think that is the ticket… I was definitely wet! The three “single rider” ladies in the front were more soaked than ANYONE else I saw get off all day (I was one of those ladies! All three of us were laughing so hard after ever hill… what a HOOT!)

The first day at Disneyland is always the “Happiest” everyone is well rested and excited to be there… we get there before the park opens and stay clear till 11 PM (or whenever it closes). We literally smiled all day, no one ever argued or were “bugged” (even Jadyn never fussed a wink all day.) (Shane did get a little testy about his girls looking for “penny smooshing machines” on “Main Street” at 11:15 PM :))

The 2nd day is still tons of fun… just not quite as “Happy”… we hear a few moans when it is time to get up… the lines seem longer (which they were!)… The weather is “always” hotter (which it was!). And we have to remind our kids that "we paid WAY TOO MUCH to be here so you BETTER be HAPPY!" After all this “is the happiest place on earth”… so we ought to act that way.

We only stayed two days… but if we decided to do “three Disney Days” a picture such as this "family" is all that would be necessary to explain our lack of energy! I can almost guarantee this guy is AT LEAST three days in….

We’ve actually done 5 days before… we saw EVERY show… got EVERY autograph… and went on rides like “Small world” lots of time – there is nothing better than that ride for a cool and relaxing 10 min. siesta! (Unfortunately it has been closed the last couple times we were there… very disappointing!) I think

My girls have a “Smooshed Penny Collection”. If you look you can find machines everywhere and although Shane thinks that this collection is a “little lame”… they love it and so do I (they are all on their 4th book). Disneyland has a treasure trove of machines – we had fun with our “baggie” of quarters and pennies. Disneyland is also full of “little wishing wells” (or basic fountains that people “make wishes in.”) Kenna didn’t get it… she was completely confused on why people would throw money away to “make a wish”… several times we caught her trying to fish it out. We even had to have her “throw the money back” that she had actually retrieved. Kenna can spot a penny a mile away… when we went with my parents on the Disney Cruise last January… Poppa would drop pennies along the way. She thought she was the luckiest girl around to find all those pennies… shiny pennies in those fountains were obviously calling her name!!


We went to “Rainforest Café” the first night… although it does have a fun atmosphere… Be warned that most two year olds don’t want to sit too close to the apes that wake up intermittently and pound their chest and yell, Jadyn spent the whole meal burrowed down in our chests… and the thunderstorm put her over the top. I had to hide out with her in the bathroom during that. (Actually although I personally love the atmosphere… Shane and I decided that there are better options considering the price ($7-8 is TOO MUCH for a kids meal!) and since we have never had anything there that we absolutely LOVED… it will be a while before we go back.) (Sorry Johnston family – I know it’s one of your favorites!)


Jadyn LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She watches it EVERYDAY - it is actually the only show that she wants to watch. And I had so wanted her to see all of the Mickey stuff. Of course she was a bit freaked out by Mickey and all of the other characters. But I have seen much worse! She loved seeing them at the "Playhouse Disney Show."

Resting on "Minnie's Bed"
A treasure trove of Mickey's!

We filled up in Bakersfield CA on the way there for $3.07/gallon… isn’t it sad that we did a happy dance about that?

Speaking of happy dances… here is Jadyn’s…



We had a great time hanging out with the Boyce’s at Disneyland Thursday. How ironic that we would be there at the same time as our “across the street neighbors.” (But then we did see about 8 other families that we knew too!)


(That is quite a bad "slouchy" picture of me... Stand up straight girl!)


Ahhhh Princesses. Kenna's favorite!

And a few more photos...

So I know that if you got to this point you are thinking... WOW! NO MORE PLEASE... so I will save our other California adventures for the next post... Prepare for more amazement!