Cousins Visit + Disneyland

I guess it's about time I import photos to my computer from my phone or camera... I just don't feel like doing that now... so it's just another random blog entry for me today.

The kiddies have been sick this week. I can't complain though, they got sick from their cousins visiting... which was worth every wiped nose and rough times falling asleep (only Sylvie just can't fall asleep now).

The weekend of June 22nd, my brother, Ryan, and his family came to visit us. They were going to an LA beach for Becca's family vacation and decided to come out a little early to visit us. I was THRILLED to say the least. They stayed at our house just one night. Luckily, our bedroom is quite large so their whole family had a room to sleep in. I heard their kids up quite a few times that night, I think they didn't get much sleep on their vacation. Traveling with kids and a 7 month old baby is rough stuff! Anyway, I'm glad they fit us in.

We spent Saturday night with the cousins at John's Incredible Pizza, it's way cooler than Chuck E Cheese, but is the same idea. It's got a buffet, tons of arcade games and some neat rides, like a train that Dylan loves to ride.

Sunday, we went to church, ate sloppy joe's, and played in the backyard until it was time for them to go home.

Three days later, all three of our kids came down with the cold their kids had. Yay for us.

Friday, the 28th, we took Dylan on a very special day to DISNEYLAND! It was his FIRST time there, but he has actually been to DisneyWorld when he was just 16 months old... but, he definitely did get it then.

Dylan turns 3 in a couple weeks, so he's at the age where he can be aware of what cool trips are coming up and then he can remember them afterward. I went on a Disney craze the month before going and let Dylan watch tons of Disney movies so that he would recognize the characters.

The funny thing is, he already knew who Mickey and Friends were from watching it in Laramie (back when we had cable) and from a few of his Mickey books, and he already knew Winnie the Pooh (also from books we have)... and those are the characters he met! He loved it. Absolutely loved it. When he saw Mickey, he says, "Meeska, mooska, mickey mouse!" from the cartoon. So cute.

I still am glad I showed him Dumbo, since we rode flying Dumbo. He loved the parade and I was glad I showed him clips from Lion King and a few princesses so he recognized most of the parade. I failed on the Mary Poppins part though... he didn't care about that float. I showed him Finding Nemo for the first time, so he loved the submarine ride. He loved driving his own car on Autopia. Oh, and flying on Peter Pan's ride he loved knowing Captain Hook.

I think Toon Town was his favorite. That was my favorite when I went forever ago. He went on his first rollercoaster there and was so sad to get off. He just sat there and said, "Noooo, again!" Luckily, he was a good boy and got off nicely after that little whine.

He and his cousin, Annie, walked around holding hands everywhere. It was adorable. They are only 3 weeks apart in age, even though she's like a head shorter, haha.

We got to Disneyland right at 8AM, that means we were up at 4AM to shower and got out the door with all snacks loaded by 5AM. We dropped the girls off at Gma Terry's the night before (I was there until 9:30pm helping them fall asleep). Dylan slept a little on the drive down... I probably shouldn't have told him where we were going so he could have slept.

First thing when we got to Disneyland was run and get on some good rides before the lines got long. It was a success, and it wasn't such a stressful day because we knew we got some of those main ones in. I could keep going, but it was just a wonderful day. I love my family. I love that Bryce's mom took the girls so Dylan could have his special day. I love that we got to do it with cousins. I loved watching Dylan all day just trying to take it all in. He even loved a simple paddling in the canoe.

With a short nap in the afternoon, I'm amazed how well Dylan did. Even to the fireworks at 9:30pm, he wanted to watch them. We watched a few before leaving and if you ask him what he did at Disneyland, his answer is, "I just saw fireworking, biuhhh (fireworks noise with hand motion of explosion), fireworking just shoot  castle, biuhhhh." Lol. We have to remind him of everything else.

Disneyland is just such a magical place and I don't think there's anything better we could have spent our money on for those kind of memories. I love memories and sometimes I think I spend way too much on things that I just have to have... but when I look back over my life, it's the vacations and events that I remember the most and have the fondest memories of.

Dylan still talks about Disneyland. We gave him a little Buzz Lightyear toy there, which he just adores and tells us how it's his "Best toy foreber and eber." We got it from Target before going, then gave it to him there, so it was his special Disneyland gift.

We really don't watch movies, so I had to cram quite a few in beforehand that I knew had rides. He didn't complain... but, now he doesn't get why I don't let him just watch movies. lol. oops.

The day at Disneyland was magical... until... it was time to go home.

Dylan was perfect, he climbed in the stroller and fell asleep.

We, however, missed the tram somehow... the crowds led us through Downtown Disney and we were just walking and talking... ugh...

So, we had to walk to our car instead of ride the tram.

45 minutes later, we have no idea where our lot is.

Luckily, we saw a guy and asked him... we were totally going the wrong direction. It added about 15 minutes of walking to our already hour walk. It doesn't sound like much, but we were dead tired and worn out... and that ended our happy day of Disneyland there. hahaha. We eventually made it to our car around 11pm. We were not happy campers.

It took over an hour to get to our car. An extra hour of walking seriously was not what we needed.

As I'm driving home, I am so tired, I start hallucinating. We probably should have gotten a hotel, or I could have kept Bryce awake to keep me awake. All the lights looked like lit-up Disney characters. haha. I'd start to daze out, then I'd jerk back up when I realized the lights were car lights. Ya... don't do drugs. I just felt like Bryce needed the sleep... especially so that I could sleep in the morning and he could get up with babies. :)

After the 2.5 hr drive home, I found a huge blister on my toe... no wonder my toe was killing me on that long walk. I even brought bandaids to prevent that... I just didn't think at all.

It was worth a magical day for Dylan to go through all that stress and tiredness.

I just don't think we'll be providing a similar magical experience for him or the girls for at least another 3 years.