Vaction Day #1: Disneyland!

For our vacation this year we went to California! We were so excited to get to see some friends from Law School! They live in Pasadena. So on Sunday we went to our 8 o'clock church, came home, ate lunch and jumped in the car. The drive over there was really not bad at all. It went really well for having 3 kids in the car. We stayed with our wonderful friends that night. We let the girls stay up and play for a while. And then we stayed up way too late reminiscing about Ohio and Law School.
Then we got up Monday morning and traveled to the chaos of Disneyland! We spotted Goofy right away and Savannah went running after him. I followed her and Jon had to come and find us with the stroller. Savannah was so excited to see Goofy, but Melanie was so scared. I tried to get a picture of the two of them with him, but Melanie wouldn't stand next to him. So I ended up in the picture too. We set off and found Sleeping Beauty's castle. The girls loved going inside and seeing the storybook pictures. We took our time looking in shops at everything. Then we headed off for Dumbo! The wait for that ride is always long. The girls seemed to really enjoy it though, and Spencer loved every ride. I love how he's peeking over the top of Dumbo. We then set off to find some lunch and came across Chip and Dale. Savannah was again very excited to see the characters, but Melanie and Spencer were not so thrilled. Notice how Spencer is crying and trying to get away...yeah, he didn't like it so much. After finishing up with the chipmunks, we look up and see Jesse. Savannah really wanted to see her, so we made our way over there. And then we saw Woody too. So we went and got a picture with him. It wasn't until later that we figured out that we had gone in the back entrance to an outdoor BBQ restaurant. We decided to stay and have lunch there and enjoy the little show that they were doing. This is the only family picture that we got during our whole vacation. Outside BBQ with a show was a great idea for lunch. Spencer was so enthralled with the show! It was fantastic that he was so entertained! Here's Jesse and Bullseye doing a little act. I tried to keep the sun off of Spencer while we were eating by putting Jon's hat on him, but that didn't last for long. Here's Woody and Bullseye doing a little performance too. We stayed at the BBQ place for quite some time. Savannah really wanted to pose with this post. I thought that she was cute. Here is the fantastic dessert that they brought to us. It was cupcakes in ice cream cones. They were really good. This was Jon's. Mine was chocolate, of course. After lunch we went and rode Winnie the Pooh. As you can see, Spencer loved it. Then we made a stop at Tarzan's tree house. Only Savannah and Jon went up. Jon said that the leopard growled at Savannah right when he took the picture and it scared her. Spencer finally fell asleep! It took forever, but he was so tired and finally crashed! So we took a little break and went in the Tiki Room. We then headed over to Tomorrowland and went into Innoventions. Off course there's no bathrooms in there and we had a potty emergency, so we made a quick exit. After all the bathroom breaks, we headed over to It's a Small World. I couldn't get Melanie to move her hand out of the way! But everyone really liked this ride. Then we headed over to Toon Town and got to see Minnie's house! Jon stayed outside with Spencer, who was hanging out in the stroller. The girls really liked getting to see Minnie's house. Savannah just asked me today: But how does Minnie get that stuff out of her fridge? She truly thought that everything was real. She was quite upset that none of the characters would talk to her. She kept asking: But why can't you talk? It's just so great to see the excitement in their eyes when they get to see something so fantastic! Jon took Spencer and Melanie over to Goofy's house and Melanie played on the little playground outback. Jon said that she really loved going down the slide. I took Savannah on the little Gadget Coaster. She totally loved it! Hopefully she'll take after her mommy and like roller coasters. We tried to make our way back to Main Street, which was terribly crowded. I did manage to find us a little spot to watch the parade. After Melanie went to the bathroom again and got a little food in her, she totally crashed! Savannah was so excited for the parade! She stood on the stroller seat so she could see. She loved pointing out all of the characters and just had a great time. Spencer was so tired though and so he hated the parade. I ended up taking him in the store behind us until the parade was over. He claimed a little Mickey doll while we were in the store. After the parade we let Savannah do a little bit of shopping. She picked out a very tiny Pooh doll. It was really cute. She also picked out a large Minnie doll for Melanie, who was still asleep. After a very long and tiring trip back to the car, the kids all crashed. Spencer snuggled right up with Mickey and was quickly asleep. Melanie woke up long enough to see her Minnie doll and then promptly fell back to sleep. After getting the girls in their jammies, Melanie was so cute and rolled over and snuggled right up to Savannah. They were just so tired! They all slept so good! *Thank you Allison for letting us stay at your house, helping us get to Disneyland and buy our tickets, and especially for letting me swipe one of your slings! It truly saved the day!*