Disneyland!

This has been a crazy year. If at the start of the year, you told me that I was going to go to Oregon, California, Hawaii, and Disneyland this year, I would've thought it was a joke. But here we are!

And as crazy as it sounds, I look back now and I'm glad we did it all! 

Since this trip was planned over three years ago (and rescheduled compliments of covid), we have definitely been waiting for it for quite a while. And now, the time finally came!

We drove there on Saturday and didn't go into the parks until Monday. On Sunday, we went to church (it ended up being all in Spanish, Oops!) and then to the Los Angeles Temple visitors center.

We ended up staying at the Desert Inn and Suites hotel which was perfect! The walk felt long by the end of the week, but the room set up was exactly what we needed and the complimentary breakfast was the best I have ever had from a hotel. No cream cheese packet on a plain bagel at this place. My favorite parts were the omelets and the yogurt and granola, although my kids loved the mini waffles (not the toaster kind!). Waking up to this in the mornings made the walk worth it and started out our day strong!

Going with my sisters' suggestion, we got the 5 day park-hopper pass. It was a long week, but here are some of the highlights according to each person in the family...

Zack 

Falling asleep on Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World more than half the time.

Getting so excited every time he went on the carrousel.

Soaking himself with water at the Toy Story Ball in California Adventure.

Eating so many fruit snacks he didn't want them anymore by the end of the week.

Favorite Ride: the carrousel

Aaron

First thing to list: bubble wand. Once Brooke pointed out the bubble wands everywhere, this was the only thing Aaron wanted from Disneyland. And on an early morning when Julia offered to keep Aaron and Zack with her for a bit, it was literally the only thing he wanted to do, so he finally got his bubble wand! Haha!

On another morning, I had Aaron and Zack on my own. Aaron insisted he didn't want to ride anything, but wanted to sit in the theater room. After doing that for a while, the three of us went on Jungle Cruise.

At one point, it was just John, Aaron, Zack, and I. Aaron wanted to go on Alice in Wonderland even though we already went on it and the line was 30 minutes long. Well, we waited and at the end, he said the ride was scary. I guess he didn't remember it the first time.

Aaron's first time riding It's A Small World, Julia leaned over and asked him how it was. His response? "That was weird." After another time riding it, I asked him what he thought and he said, "that was creepy." I'm still not sure if he actually liked that ride... Haha!

Another fun thing was how excited Aaron was to see Mickey! He was literally jumping up and down while he was waiting for his turn to take a picture!

Favorite Ride: Toy Story Mania and the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups

Brooke

Definitely seeing the princesses was a major highlight for her! I will never forget the sheer glee and cute run, skip, spin she did when we were told it was her turn. We waited in line for almost an hour and had no idea which princesses it would be so we were very surprised that her favorite princess, Cinderella, was the very first one she met!

Another thing to mention... the bubble wand! Just like Aaron, this was the one thing Brooke wanted all week! She got hers the same day Aaron did except she picked the Little Mermaid wand that also played music, to John's delight (deep sarcasm there. Haha!).

Other fun memories were me walking Brooke and David to meet Tinker Bell since they didn't want to go on Pirates again with everyone else. Afterwards, we got a veggie cup and some fruit and listened to the Dapper Dans.

Brooke actually loved the Spider Man ride and really got into shooting the webs. She did not, however, like roller coasters very much even though she was our "roller coaster gilly" last December.

When asked what her favorite thing we did was, her answer was swim in the hotel pool. Now, a week later, she has decided that seeing the princesses and going on It's a Small World were the best! Thank goodness.  

Favorite ride: Any chill ride in Fantasyland. But not Alice in Wonderland. That was the very first ride we went on and David and Brooke insisted it was scary. Brooke also loved the Swings ride with John.

David

Rope dropping the Rise of the Resistance. For future reference, go from the Frontier Land side. They have the line go out in that direction and basically considered everyone walking to the line still from Frontier Land to be "in line". 

He loved playing on Tom Sawyer's Pirate Island in all of the caves.

David spent all week trying to decide on what souvenir to get. On the last day, David and I went all over Star Wars land looking for the perfect thing in his price range. We got two Star Wars soft drinks and wandered through the stores. In the end, he decided on a fun card game.

Favorite Rides: The Haunted Mansion, Rise of the Resistance, and Smugglers Run. He also hated Indiana Jones but decided it was "alright" after finding out how many of his friends love that ride. Haha!

I have no idea if we'll ever go back (it is so expensive!), but it won't be until Zack is old enough to remember if we do. So, a long farewell, and a hopefully see you again!