Our Disneyland Anniversary Trip 9-21-07

We all had a great time in Disneyland!

Michelle, Darel and Seth had left on Saturday and stayed the night in Williams. Andrea, Will and Ian hooked up with them on Sunday morning, had breakfast and then headed south on I-5. We hooked up with them at Santa Nella on I-5 and then we caravanned on down. At one of the rest areas Seth asked if he could ride with us so we had both of the boys the rest of the way down. Michelle had borrowed a friend’s dual DVD player for the car and that entertained the kids. Long car trips are the ideal place for movies for the kids, it is sooo boring for them, I wish we had that when I was a kid and for my own kids on our family trips! The screens mounted to the back of the front headrests, wonderful inventions!!!

It was Sunday so we didn’t have to deal with commute traffic in L.A. at 5 in the afternoon, but we still had a lot of traffic. When Lar went to check in they tried to give us rooms scattered all over the place, trying to tell him they didn’t know we were all together, until Will made a point of asking to see the paperwork the guy was looking at and then low and behold there it was…traveling all together. So the kids got two rooms with a connecting door and our room was just two doors down ( I asked Larry if he slipped the guy some money for that room between ours and theirs…tee hee). We were on the ground floor, which I don’t usually like, but with the boys it was safer…didn’t have to worry about one of them swinging from the railing. We stayed at the Tropicana Inn and Suites on Harbor Blvd. across the street from Disneyland. Perfect location. We had a not so good dinner down the street at Captain Kidds, it was good when we were there a few years ago…not now.

On Monday we got ourselves going but we didn’t have to rush because during the week in the fall the hours for Disneyland were 10 to 8 and California Adventure’s hours were 10 to 6.

Will bought Ian a glow in the dark Buzz Lightyear cap which made his day and it was just getting started! So off to Fantasyland we went to get the kids started. The first ride I think we took the kids on was Pinnochio and Seth was a little freaked out and then didn’t want to ride anything for awhile, and we were worried that he wasn’t going to have any fun. But after awhile he got into it and realized no monsters were going to hurt him so he soon started finding his favorites. He is 3 and had a blast. Ian is a little over 4.5 and he rode everything that he was tall enough for. He would get a little scared, but nothing kept him from going again.

I can’t remember all the details from each day, but everyone had a great time. We would hang together for awhile and then we would all go our separate ways for awhile and sometimes Larry and I would take the boys so the big kids could go play. Strollers for both of the boys were musts! It really saved Ian too, they never really took naps, but they could get some rest.

Now on Wednesday Will had made secret arrangements (secret to Andrea) with Disneyland to propose to Andrea. He knew there were going to be some perks but he didn’t really know what they were going to be. We all arranged to meet in front of the Castle at noon. We kind of dawdled around and then Will told Andrea he wanted a picture with her in front of the castle which they posed for and then Will turned and went down on one knee and popped the question. A Disneyland photographer was there to record the event and then an event coordinator came up and presented Will with a top hat with Mickey ears and Andrea with white sequined Mickey ears with a white veil attached. Well, the perks were that this lovely lady would lead them and the rest of our group all through Fantasyland while ringing a bell and announcing their names and their engagement and because it was our 30th anniversary we got a mention or three also….jeez. It was very funny and cute. AND we all got to get VIP treatment on every single ride in Fantasyland. So in an hour we rode every single ride in Fantasyland, it was way cool!! On It’s a Small World, Andrea and Will got their own boat and the rest of our group got our own boat. We had lots of fun and laughs.

I was wearing a Happy Anniversary button that Andrea had picked up earlier and later when we were ordering our lunch, because Larry didn’t have one the Lady helping us stopped everything to go get Larry a button too. Then all day we had Disney Employees telling us Happy Anniversary, should have had that button from the first day.

After our VIP tour of Fantasyland the Coordinator gave Will a pile of special passes onto any ride in Disneyland, we just had to go through the exit. We all needed food after that so we split up for a bit and we all went our separate ways for lunch. Then we hooked back up and we took the boys while the big kids went on their favorite rides over in California Adventure…there isn’t really a lot over there for small kids. So we decided we would use some of the fast passes and take the boys on their favorite rides. Our first stop was the cars, and when we got to the attendant, because it was our Anniversary he didn’t take our pass and as we passed him he pressed an extra pass in Larry’s hand…Cool! And off we went for the next couple hours, the Jungle Cruise had been closed for awhile, but with our passes we slipped right in ahead of the crowd when the ride started back up. No one actually took any of our passes from us. Will gave them away because we weren’t using them. There wasn’t a line on the Pirates of the Caribbean so didn’t use our passes, but we did ride it THREE times in an hour because the boys kept wanting to ride it again. Our butts were tired of that bench in those boats! It was an exhaustingly fun day which was topped off by the parade which the boys barely stayed awake for. We all had a great time and it went by all too fast!

The weather was perfect the whole time, warm but not hot, the boys were good and so were their parents….smile! It was a wonderful Anniversary Celebration for us.

Will bought us all breakfast before we hit the road for home. We left just after eleven, so there was traffic as always but not the morning commute. We got home around a little after 5, Andrea got home after 10 and Michelle got home today just before six. They had spent the night in Red Bluff and took Seth to the doctor. He had been breaking out in sores, and he had one on his rear that was painful, but he still was so good and had fun when I think most of us would have been crying and complaining. Our boys are just amazing…what else can I say…smile.