Disneyland 2017

We were super excited to head back to Disneyland!!! We planned with my parents and they were going to be there part of our trip as well. We also added extra days on to our trip. We decided we wanted more time in California and five days at the parks. So we had the trip go from Saturday to Saturday. Also we had learned that taking the boys our of school didn't work for us. This year Alpine District was letting out the Friday before Memorial Day so we thought it would be our best chance at not having total summer crowds yet.

Day One - Saturday, May 27th

We got a later start than we wanted but it ended up being fine since Saturday traffic was really good!

Landon packed food to give to the homeless

Dave took a pic to remember how to get it all back in!

Our one and only stop in Vegas. I was approached by a questionable guy that kept trying to get me to come with him.

Guardians ride opening day wait time is insane!

We made it!

           After we got checked into the hotel and unpacked the car we headed to Mimi's for dinner. Then the kids and I walked across the street to Disney to get our tickets and walk downtown disney. Dave took the van back to the hotel and walked to meet us. we were all super excited to experience 'Summer of Heroes'!

                  Grayson didn't waste any time picking out his souvenir. He actually went on the trip saying he wanted Mickey ears! Since we knew he wanted some we figured we should get them right away.

Day two - Sunday, May 28th

          Sunday was set to be our beach day! Last time we were in Cali we didn't have time to go to the beach so I wanted to make sure we fit it in this time. That morning Dave suggested adding something else to the day as well. He found this Harbor Tour in Long Beach and we decided to book it and head there. It was fun to be trying something new to all of us!

           We walked around Long Beach while we waited for our tour time. The tour was fun! We could go on top of the boat to see out or there were some seats on the main level. We got to see some sea lions.

After the harbor tour we grabbed some McDonald's drive thru and headed to Seal Beach. The weather was a little cool so we decided not to get into swimsuits which was a bad idea. Of course the kids got in the water and got all sandy and wet. Lesson learned.

   After the beach we met up with  my parents for dinner. They picked Buca di Beppo to take me out for my birthday. It was a yummy fun time!

Day three - Monday, May 29th

Day one at Disneyland

              Woohoo we are at Disneyland! Seriously we are all giddy and excited since we love this place! We met up with my parents right away and started hitting rides like crazy! We spent most of the day in Disneyland but headed to California Adventure later in the afternoon to find it super busy!

       We did animation academy for the first time. Grayson slept on Mom the whole time but check out these artists! After that we watched the Cars 3 preview in the Bugs Land theater.

Day Four - Tuesday, May 30th

              The main goal of today was getting on Guardians of the Galaxy. We refused to do 5 hour lines for it. We got to the park super early! The plan was for the boys to get in the ride line and Dave to get fast passes. Our mission was a success! The boys were on the ride by 15 minutes after park opening...Dave was even able to join them. Also Dave got fast passes so they could ride it a second time and the girls could join. 

The line for guardians

Maddie hated it! Her favorite ride had been Tower of Terror and she was not happy with this retheming!

While everyone else did Guardians Grayson and Mom rode Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters a bunch! We were the first to ride it for the day and rode it alone! With no one else there I didn't feel bad asking the crew member to take a picture :)

Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to take Grayson for a walk so we could ride Radiator Springs Racers! First time having the car to ourselves!

Hannah ditched us whenever Grandma was around! She rode with her and was always holding her hand.

                                            We quickly learned that Grayson couldn't handle much when his blood sugar was high. Mater was not a ride to go when he was having a high!

                        We met my parents for dinner again. This time to the Mexican place in Downtown Disney, Taqueria at Tortilla Jo's. It was delish! My parents were super nice to treat us to dinner again! There was a balloon artist that talked us into balloons for all of the kids. They each got one to match their interests!

Day Five - Wednesday, May 31st

Mom's Birthday!

                I was soooo excited to get to spend my birthday in Disneyland! We booked the trip in February so I had been counting down for awhile! I mean I even ordered a special shirt for the occasion. Well let's just say the day started out rough. I woke up at 5:30(yes I get up that early on vacation) to discover the water wasn't working in our hotel room..so no flushing the toilet or taking a shower! Fortunately we were able to go to the hotel next door to shower. It slowed us down a bit but we still made it to the park on time.

     Ready to have the 'Best Day Ever'. Okay so the plan was to hit my favorite Indiana Jones first. We headed straight there to have it closed :(  So we went to Thunder Mountain and rode that instead. We then hit a bunch of rides that way and eventually got on Indiana Jones.

    Dave and the younger two hit fantyasyland while we were riding the bigger rides.

Splash Mountain!

                                   We fit the whole gang on Winnie the Pooh!

After that we went and tried Mickey beignets with Grandma and Grandpa. Captain Jack stopped in there while we were there. Tanner was excited to get a picture with him!

It was time to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa! They had been gone from home for a long time since they went to Virginia before this trip.

We were able to get Landon and Maddie in Jedi Training! This was on their to do list!

After battling in Jedi Training we headed to get some pictures with Star Wars characters.

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       After that we decided to head to California  Adventure. I was wanting my birthday dinner from Flo's and well the kids can't stay away from that park. The highlight today had to be Grayson and Hannah dancing in the streets of Cars land with Dj's Dance and Drive. Dave got some super cute video.

We grabbed a spot and watched Pixar Play Parade.

Lots' of rides on Luigi's ...new family favorite!

Mickey Ears!!!

Dinner at Flo's

We went out for ice cream at Clarabelle's to celebrate my birthday. Okay this will be something the kids will never forget. After we all sat down and were starting on our treats Dave got the great idea to announce to the whole place it was my birthday and try to get them to sing to me. Now they may have been up for singing but I ran out of there mid speech because I was embarrassed and well if you know me you would know I hate that kind of attention. The kids caught up to me outside and we ended up laughing hysterically about it.

So we went back to the hotel in hopes of the water being fixed. They told us at the front desk that it was fixed in most rooms. Well lucky us we weren't in one of those rooms so we had to pack up and switch rooms! I guess on the bright side they had another room for us to switch to.

 

Day Six - Thursday, June 1st

              We hit Disneyland to start the day again. We had magic morning passes to use! We hit most of Fantasyland and rode Nemo.

Pictures with some Pooh characters! Pretty sure this is our first time seeing Rabbit. Why is our family looking small? Tanner and Maddie used our two extra fast passes for Splash Mountain.

Mickey pretzel!

We headed to California Adventure with the goal of seeing Buzz! Tanner went and rode Grizzly while we waited in line and made it back for the picture with seconds to spare!

While playing in the redwood forest area we came across Chip or Dale not sure which?! Grayson hugged him and wouldn't let go! I tried to get him to let go but the character waved me off and let him hug him.

We didn't stay too late since we were planning a super long day the next day. So we headed out and took the kids to the hotel pool.

Day Seven - Friday, June 2nd

            The last day at Disney is always bittersweet. We got there super early, guess the taking it easy the day before paid off. We were almost the front people at the gate! Today we planned to get Guardian fast passes right away and then hand them over to Tanner after Landon went once. Tanner ended up being able to ride it five times in a row!

Grayson's favorite ride of the trip...Toy Story Mania as he calls it!

We hadn't met any princesses so we started with Elena of Avalor. We also rode Luigi's a few more times before heading to Disneyland for the rest of the day.

While Grayson and Mom saved a spot for the parade the rest of the crew hit Splash Mountain one last time!

The Electrical Parade was awesome!

After the parade we went and rode Buzz Lightyear and missed the whole firework show which made Maddie happy!

We hit some Main Street stores on the way out and the two youngest were so tired they fell asleep before we were all the way out of the park.

Day Eight - Saturday, June 3rd

Driving Home

We got off at a pretty decent time. The kids slept a lot on the way home, we had worn them out for sure!

Home

           It was a GREAT family vacation full of memories! I wish we could go for this amount of time every time we go because it was just perfect. It didn't hurt that the weather was mild.