Disney, or bust

I've decided that I actually hate keeping a journal... I have great things to say in my head, and then when I finish it sounds so terribly written and utterly boring. I apologize to my "fans" for my uninteresting blogs and shallow entries... it's not meant to be that way. LOL...

Speaking of blogs, I thought I'd give a recap of our Disneyland trip, which BTW, I had a great time! Pictures will have to come later, as our stupid, lazy, no good computer isn't working well with our pictures.

Day 1 - here we come:
We left the house at 8:10 to get gas and Starbucks. I got a few SB cards for Christmas and thought what a better time to use them than on a road trip. We stopped at Safeway for gas and coffee, and by 8:40 we were leaving. Yes, 8:40. They were so freaking slow at SB that I thought I'd go crazy. Then, they kept the water on the whole time.. running water... running water... running water.

By 9:04 were already stopping for a potty break for Zoe. She had to p**p!! Then, two more stops after that and then we arrived about 1:30 their time (2:30 ours). Not bad! And the kids were great. We were early for check in, but Jonathan sweet talked the clerk and we had a room... not only a room, but a "suite". It had an extra couch.

We headed off to Downtown Disney and "shopped" and ate at Rainforest Cafe, of all places. Jonathan and I also had a little disagreement about what constitutes snacks and lunches on vacation at Disney... apparently PB&J sandwiches were not on his list. Hmm...

Day 2:
After sleeping in a bit, we finally made it to the park by 10am. Now if you're like me, 10am is terrible when the park opens at 8am. My kind of vacation is GO, GO, GO... it's not like we're here every day. Jonathan's is ... let's relax, sleep in, take our time. Arrg! But, we made it together ... at least the first day.

Our first ride was Jungle Cruise and Zoe loved it. Hayden had is camera... the only time... and started taking pictures of plastic elephants and fake people, but whatever. Next was Tarzan's tree house.. formerly Swiss Family Robinson's.... remember? Then Tom Sawyer's Island, now Pirate's Lair. And some other ones... it was fun though, and hardly any waits. After lunch, Zoe and I went back for a nap while Jonathan and Hayden stayed and hung out and took in some more rides. Zoe slept forever... just when I thought she'd wake up, the boys came back and then wanted to rest. REST?! What?? I'd been sitting there for almost 3 hours and they want to rest? Ha...!

I talked them into going and we ended up in California Adventure. Zoe was too short to ride some rides, so we watched Jonathan and Hayden, then found some fireman truck for the kids to play on. After, we rode some rocket ships a couple times since there was no wait. We headed back to the hotel around 8:00ish... I think.

Day 3 - New Year's Eve:
Zoe and I were at the park by 7:55 and cheered with everyone when the let us in. The boys? Yes, they were still sleeping. The plan was to meet them in the parking lot at 10 to go to the CVS minute clinic. Zoe's asthma was acting up, and mom of the year here forgot to bring her breathing treatment stuff. Anyway, Zoe and I rode almost all the rides in Fantasy Land, while all the while looking for some princesses... never saw them though. I had a blast! It was so much fun seeing Zoe's face while seeing those rides for the first time. She even loved Snow White and Pinocchio, even though they were "scary". Her favorite was the flying elephants... aka Dumbo.

We met the boys and headed to CVS. We were there by 10:10, 10 min. after they opened and the incompetent nurse wasn't there... she was taking a break. ?!@#@!?$@ We waited, and she finally showed up and proved she was of no use because she couldn't do anything. We called Zoe's doctor, and after some running around and driving everywhere, we finally acquired a Nebulizer and some albuterol. Victory! Jonathan volunteered to take Zoe back to do her treatment, and Hayden and I were off to Disney again.

We rode the giant pirate ship, the Storybook Land boat ride, Haunted Mansion (which, btw it was the first time we'd seen it in the holidays and it was awesome!), saw part of a gun show, and rode Autopia. Fun! Jonathan and Zoe met up with us and we once again ate dinner at Rainforest Cafe, then headed for some more fun at Disney. The boys rode Autopia again and then ... my mom showed up. ha ha... what fun. She said she couldn't miss Disney with the kids and drove by herself. And since Jonathan did a little flirting, we had that extra couch. The kids and I walked back since both of them were dead tired. Jonathan stayed (and admitted he was having fun) and hung out in CA by himself and rode the Tower Of Terror... which I have yet to ride!

Day 4 - New Year's Day:
Mom and I were the only ones up so we headed over to Disney and walked on with no waiting to Matterhorn, Nemo, Pirate's, Splash Mountain, ate some lunch, then the rest of them showed up about 11:45. Wow!! I guess the kids didn't want to go.. .and Zoe had started running a fever the day before so on the way there she'd fallen asleep in the stroller. While Jonathan and Hayden rode some rides (one of them being the canoes where he actually stood up with his paddle and got yelled at), Mom and I walked around with Zoe... until she woke up at 3:00! No kidding.

Then we went back to do her breathing treatment, and met up with the boys at 4:00... We dragged Zoe to the Princess Faire (another thing I had no idea about) and got her to see the princesses, finally! We saw Sleeping Beauty, Mulan (really?), and Cinderella. Zoe only really sat next to Sleeping Beauty so Jonathan and I were in more of the pictures than her. Then Grandma got Zoe's face painted with Tinkerbell, one of her favorites! The boys were off riding rides.

Even though Zoe was so tired, we dragged her onto It's a Small World... poor thing, I know, but seriously! She loved it! And so did we. Another one of those rides that changes with the holidays and we had never seen it before. We headed over to Toon Town and met the boys, then toured Mickey and Minnie's houses. Afterwards, Jonathan took the kids back to the hotel. Zoe was so tired and still running a low fever. Hayden actually rode the train back to Main Street with Mom and I before going with Jonathan... we got to see the Grand Canyon and the Dinosaurs... I had no idea they existed!

Mom and I had the great idea to go to CA since she got a hopper and we didn't want to waste her ticket. We got there at 9:01.... It closed at 9:00!! How sad! The other times it was open to 10:00 and 1:00am for New Year's... Ugg... We were going to ride Soaring and maybe the Tower, but no go. Instead we walked back to the hotel and got some hot chocolate at 7-11. I know... totally lame. We so should have stayed at Disney, but I was so tired.

We got back and Zoe's temp had risen to 103... luckily about midnight it broke.

Day 5 - on our way home:
After sleeping in and getting packed up. OMG... there was seriously way more stuff to pack up than what we brought. I'm not sure how though. We had some breakfast then left town around 12:00ish... We got home about 7 and at In N Out. Yum!

I'm so glad to be home, although I had a great time there. I can't wait to go back again! Thanks to the Tibbetts for watching our house while we were away... and thanks for the visit! Thanks mom for crashing our vacation... it was tons of fun. Thanks to Jonathan for not complaining one time about how Disney is not your favorite... even though you made fun of many people... :) and Thanks to Walt Disney, for coming up with such an extravagant idea for the American family to spend varying money amounts on random things. We had fun!