As promised, we came through on Disneyland for Max & Tatum's birthdays. The Pearl Harbor event in Hawaii this past December was a HUGE success for Chris's company so he still has a job and we celebrated by making awesome memories at the "happiest place on earth."
We headed out late this past Wednesday night--after piano, Activity Day night at church, AND a basketball game--with our two youngest and their best friends (Ricky & Hailey). We rented a condo near Disneyland with 3 bedrooms and arrived about 1:30 am. We slept a couple of hours, got up and hit California Adventure for our first day. We tried our hardest to give our kids all the space they could want/need--like everyone having their own bedrooms at the condo--and yet, the 4 kiddos stuck together the ENTIRE time. Truth be told, Max was extremely worried about his little sister being out on her own (his worst nightmares always include a kidnapping) and wanted to keep an eye on her but all 4 of these guys just got along great and made the trip even more fun being together. Chris & I sure loved that they all stayed together--warmed my momma heart:). So we just made sure that Chris & I stayed out of the way and just met up at mealtimes with them--they did allow us on a few of the bigger rides with them:).
Day One: California Adventure
We chose the "one park per day" option because it saved about $50 per ticket. But I actually REALLY liked having to stay in California Adventure for an entire day. In the past, we'd run over to this park to hit a few rides but then head right back over to Disneyland. But by not having that option, we hit so many rides that I had NEVER been on before so it was great!
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| My personal favorite ride photo! Ricky's face!!!😂 |
We stayed until the park closed at 8 pm then we headed over to Rosco's Chicken & Waffles for Tatum's birthday dinner. We had THE BEST Waitress ever!!! My kids just LOVED her! They didn't have any "birthday freebies/treats" but the waitress brought Tatum some "Birthday Mac n' Cheese" just because. She also made sure the boys were stuffed before we left--she brought out extra chicken for them. Just great service and AMAZING food. We walked out of there stuffed and happy!
Day Two: Disneyland
We chose Disneyland as our day two because #1-it stayed open until 11 pm on Fridays and #2-(and the more important reason) the Haunted Mansion re-opened today!!! We hit the ground running again on day two! We went the World of Disney shop the night before and all the kids got matching shirts--by their OWN choice go figure. SOO dang cute these kiddos!!!
Honestly, the crowds were not terrible and the weather was just PERFECT our two days here. Chris and I managed to hit 13 rides in 10 hours (all of our favorites at least twice)--so averaged less than an hour per ride. (I've been there during a peak time and only averaged a ride every two hours so this was heaven!). We were told that we HAD to hit the new Star Wars ride--"The Rise of the Resistance." This was the one ride we bought "lightning passes" for just to be sure we would hit it. It was $20 per ticket for this and was completely worth it as we literally walked onto the ride--the wait was never under 75 minutes the entire rest of the day. It was AWESOME just as promised!
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| The boys with their Hitchhiker Ghost:) |
