Fort Collins Wheelers: Disneyland!

It's been awhile since we've been able to post, so here is the low-down about our D-land trip!

We have wanted to go to Disneyland for a couple years now and finally made it happen! Tim scouted out several online sources to determine the least busiest times at the park and we picked the middle of April. It was still fairly crowded, but we used fast passes and stroller passes with gusto and the weather was great. Liz's parents and two of her sisters also joined us to give us a hand with our crew. We flew out Sunday after church and arrived in time to meet up with Liz's family at our hotel for dinner. Our hotel was right across the street from the park, so we didn't even rent a car, but walked back and forth everyday. Our rooms were all in a row so it was a lot of fun for the kids to go in and out of them as they wished. Julie made us all matching shirts that said "Wheebells," a combination of our last names. The "W" and "B" were circled as well as the "S" for "sickies", just kidding. I actually forgot why it was circled, but it had something to do with Liz's dad being in the middle of chemotherapy for cancer during our trip, and Michael going through all he goes through, and we still went to Disneyland and had a great time! My parent's had a car so the first morning we were there, we stopped at a store and bought a whole bunch of food to make lunches and things to snack on. We ate breakfast at the hotel, then packed in our own lunch and usually ate dinner somewhere in the park. In between rides we kept the kids happy with lots of snacks.

We spent Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in Disneyland, and Tuesday and Thursday in California Adventure. The first day at Disneyland we spent most of the time on rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones. The younger kids enjoyed the Tiki Room and Big Thunder the best. That evening we all went on "It's a Small World" which the kids loved a ton. Michael and Brooke spent the entire ride dancing.

On Tuesday, we took all the girls to the Princess Breakfast. It was a fun experience, but pricey. Just before the first princess came to our table, one of my girls suddenly had a melt-down over something (I'm actually not sure what it was) and was in tears when Snow White arrived. Then she was too embarrassed to greet the princess and get a picture with her. I wanted to say, "I paid a lot of money for this, so put yourself together right now and throw your tantrum an hour from now!!" But of course, like a good mother, I just stroked my daughters hair as she sobbed in my lap and said, "there, there," while giving the princess an informative smile. And then, just like when Mary Poppins snaps her fingers, my daughter was done with her fit and was fine when the other 3 princesses arrived at our table.

To be honest, the rest of the trip was a blur, so I'm just going to list memories and highlights from the trip:

The girls' hands-down favorite ride became the big roller coaster at California Adventure. Spencer's favorite ride was Star Tours, although he hated any other ride that "moved fast." Brooklyn, who we were considering not bringing on the trip because of her reputation for being grumpy quite a lot and not sleeping well at night, was actually really good for the trip and even managed to sleep most nights. Liz never, ever throws up, but came pretty darn close on the Mickey Ferris Wheel in the rocking cart -we were so grateful they had doggy bags in the carts. Liz's parents took us to the Rainforest Cafe for Liz's birthday, which was a great atmosphere, but very slow service. We had time one night to get pizza and swim in the pool at the hotel. The kids decided for their souvenirs to buy small Lego sets from Downtown Disney. Tim ran all over the park to get fast passes and kept us going from ride to ride. My mom wore a pedometer which said we walked 7-9 miles everyday. Michael became Aunt Julie's buddy right away and loved being with her. Brooklyn became Aunt Carrie's buddy and enjoyed riding rides with her. Michael danced anytime the music got started, and especially when we had front-row seats to a parade in California Adventure. One time while we were walking to a ride, he heard music playing and stood up in his stroller to dance and fell out and hit his head. Brooklyn singing, "Let it dho" and showing some serious dance moves in the Tiki Room. Whitney loving the front seat on splash mountain and her big grin after she got super wet each time we rode it. Sarah not missing a detail of the park and asking to go on Big Thunder again, and again, and again. Sarah also loved having her own camera along and loved taking tons of pictures. My dad getting picked as the "spy" in his Star Tours ride, and my mom being the best artist among us in the drawing class we took together. Watching fireworks from the balcony of our hotel. Spencer constantly asking if a ride was "slow" because he was scared of anything that was fast.

It took coming home and thinking about it to decide it was a great trip. There were a lot of stressful moments, logistics, disasters, tears, bumps and bruises, but in the end, it all came out as great!