Since we were going to be in Vegas for my niece's baby blessing that weekend anyway, we thought we would hit Disneyland since we would be more than half way there already.
Our day at Disneyland was fun-filled and totally worth all the work we did back in the Spring to get us here. It just wasn't long enough...as usual. We didn't have the $$$ to go any more days than than our free day, but we did get Grandpa Hyte, Heather, Heidi, and Suzi to go with us. YAY! It wouldn't have been the same without them.
We did a little something different this year in that we decided to stay in Anaheim overnight after our Disney day. That way, the drivers could get a least a little sleep before hitting the road for the trip back. It was much better in that sense, but we still found ourselves wishing we could just go to Disneyland again the next day. We still have never been able to spend more than one day there, as it is very cost prohibitive. Someday...maybe.
Also, we did not see many of the Disney characters that day...as is always the case. I guess we've never had the luxury of time to walk around the park looking for them. We see them from afar. But we did see the two most important...Mickey & Minnie...and we were able to get some fun family photos with them. (Although the camera lens got foggy...I don't know what it is with "Mickey" pics, but several of the photos of Darin and I on our Disneyland honeymoon got completely ruined, our picture with Mickey included.) Go figure! And the Small World ride was closed down. Darn! I wanted Oakley to experience that very one!
One thing that was in our favor was the weather. It was absolutely PERFECT!!! We wore shorts and t-shirts during the day and put on light jackets (and some of us in jeans) when it started cooling off. We couldn't have asked for better circumstances. We even brought in our own food from the "outside" so that we didn't have to use our life savings on lunch and dinner. (Little Ceasar's just down the street was a life saver, even though it took some time getting it.)
The girls were old enough to really appreciate Disneyland. It was fun to watch them experience it as "older" kids. Oakley was tall enough to go on almost all of the rides, except for "Indiana Jones", and was willing try everything, even the scarier roller coasters. The three younger girls, actually, were all brave enough to go on all the rides, except for Brooklyn. She is still a "wimp" when it comes to anything remotely speedy. Space Mountain proved not to be a favorite amongst the girls. I think Makenna was o.k. with it; Dakota rode it a couple of times to appease us, but the other two refused a second ride. Thunder Mountain (my personal favorite) became a new favorite of all the girls...except for Brooklyn, of course. We actually got her to stand in line with us, but when we got on the train, she stepped right through it and got off on the other side, refusing to ride it. I, unfortunately had to get off with her and wait while the rest of the fam had a grand ol' time on the ride without. I gave her a really hard time about it. However, the most memorable ride experience came on Splash Mountain. We had Brooklyn convinced that Splash Mountain was like "Small World", until we came around the corner in line and watched the current riders make the big drop splash into the water below. We tried everything to get her to commit to the ride. Darin reminded her of her agreement in the deal they had made earlier in that week in the game store. After much prodding and coaxing form customers and employees int he store, she promised to ride Splash Mountain once if he bought her that DS game. We were NOT going to let her out of that deal. I'm sure the other Disneyland guests that were standing in line with us thought we were the worst parents ever. They felt so bad for her and drew attention to her fear, tears, and SO SAD face. But...we did not give in. We made her follow through with her promise. The emotions we caught on camera of this whole ordeal are priceless (something SHE even laughs about now) and photos tell the whole story. The two pictures we took of the screens that show each "car" going over the drop are absolutely hilarious and provide so much more than we could ever explain in words...and that goes for all the girls. All the girls' facial expressions go without saying that we made some memories that will last a lifetime.
Another, not so planned adventure on this trip happened actually on our way back to the hotel. We all caught the parking lot tram that would take us closer to our cars. It was terribly crowded so some of the family ended up on a later tram. Some of the girls and I were already off of our tram, up the stairs and heading toward the car, before the others even came to their stop. We waited a while for them and they never came. Some passerby-ers informed us that some man with a child in his arms had taken a terrible fall after stepping off the tram. We went rushing back to find my dad on the ground in a daze, and Oakley whimpering but still very tired. She had been sleeping in Grandpa's arms on the tram ride back and he tried to step off the tram while still holding her, got a little top-heavy because he was leaning forward a little too much and couldn't stop himself. He tripped, landing on his side and face, trying to protect Oakley. His glasses gauged his skin just above his cheek, causing him to bleed and bruise. His face and arms were scratched up, too. My dad was afraid he had broken Oakley's leg, thinking he hadn't moved her out of the way enough. He was more worried about her than himself. We all said silent prayers as witnesses and family members recounted to park security and EMT's the circumstances. We all realized how much worse this could have been and were very grateful that both Grandpa and Oakley had been spared much more injury. We are thankful, still, to this day, for that blessing. (I don't have pictures of this...I wasn't in the picture taking mode at the time. However, some of my siblings got pics of it after they got back to the hotel. He looked pretty beat up.)
So many photos were taken of our grand Disneyland adventure, between me and my family members. Unfortunately, I don't have access to all of them at the time of this post, but maybe later I will add theirs to what I have here. I made several collages using some of my own favorite photos. My kids talk about Disneyland everyday, all the time. I'm so glad that was spent such a fun time with family on the happiest place on earth.
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