Our Summer Road Trip, Part 3

We left the Grand Canyon and told Spence and Allie we were heading to Utah to spend the night and then on to Grandma and Grandpa's the next day.  But that wasn't really the plan!  Brian had decided that since we were only about 8 hours away, we would surprise them with Disneyland!  We told Coleman a few months ago because he doesn't really like surprises, and he did a great job of keeping the secret.

We couldn't decide when we'd tell Spence and Allie about our big surprise, but we knew we'd hear an endless chorus of "Are We There Yets???" if we spilled the beans too soon.  It's a good thing 5 and 7 year olds are pretty oblivious and don't look at road signs.  We were able to make it to Victorville, CA which is about an hour from Anaheim, before we stopped for dinner. They had no clue we weren't in Utah.  Brian pulled out our map that we had been charting our journey on each night.  He told them that he couldn't find Victorville in Utah, and after a few prompts and a little help from Coleman, they spotted it on the map in California.  Brian pulled out our tickets to Disneyland, and after a few moments of confusion (So we're not in Utah???) Allie began doing her happy dance right there in Wendy's!

I have to suggest that when planning a trip to Disney, you buy a program that helps you plan out each day.  Brian and I watched youtube videos of most of the rides to figure out what the kids would want to ride and which ones we could skip (Thanks Pirates of the Caribbean, but we'll pass on the nightmares...).  Then Brian plugged in the rides we wanted to do, and the program told us the best time to go and when to pick up fast passes to miss long lines.  I admit I was nervous that Disney would be one long line after another, but we hardly stood in line at all.  It was amazing!!!  We rode everything we wanted to, and had time to do even more!  Of course we were there before the gates opened and didn't head back to the hotel until after 11. Total exhaustion, but since we only had one day at Disneyland and one at California Adventure we wanted to get in as much as possible.  It was a super fun family trip and I think the kids will be talking about it for years to come!

Spence and Allie really have no fear when it comes to rides.  If they are tall enough, they will ride!  Coleman doesn't like rides that have really steep drops where you come out of your seat, but other than that he's pretty adventurous also.  I missed the first ride on the Matterhorn, but I was able to catch them as they were finishing the ride and get a great picture.

In Toontown, you could visit some of the characters' houses.  We got to sit on Minnie Mouse's couch, and then we actually met her in her garden!  

Allie, Spence, and I played around in Goofy's house while Brian and Coleman went to get our fast passes for Splash Mountain.

 Since I don't spin, I was the photographer for several rides like the tea cups.

There are lots of great places to get family pictures at Disney.  This one is in front of It's a Small World, and in the next one you can see the princess castle behind us.

 Coleman loved that there was so much Star Wars stuff at Disney, but he made sure we knew when they didn't get all the facts straight.  The first picture was taken right before we went into the 3D simulator called Star Tours.  It was pretty amazing, but I left feeling quite queasy!  The next few pictures were at Jedi Training.  The boys don't like to be on stage, so they didn't want to go through the training, but you know Allie did!  She even got to fight Darth Vader!  Meanwhile Coleman let us know that Mace Windu died before Anakin became Darth Vader, so I don't know how they could have properly trained the little padawans.

Disneyland: where 7 year olds can drive cars!  I might have felt a little queasy after this ride too!

 I knew we couldn't miss the parade, and you can see that Allie felt the same way!  She's not overly into the princesses, but she thought it was pretty cool to see them and wave at them.

After a few more rides and the fireworks, the boys stayed to go on the Indiana Jones ride while Allie and I headed back to the hotel to rest up for day 2 and California Adventure!