We have been counting down to this vacation since December and life was a little crazy before we left. Just trying to get ahead on homework, make sure the kids had summery clothes, finding a place for the dog, etc. was a lot of work. Duffy had been saving up change for a few months too and any money he found immediately went into his money jar. Eventually we had to move it into a second jar and even that ended up overflowing into a ziplock bag. We had decided it would be his souvenir money for our Disneyland vacation. The day before we left we went to the bank to cash it in. I truly thought it would be like $50, so when it added up to $204 I was shocked, it's amazing how change can add up! He thought he was awesome! Later that night Duffy got into his Mickey jammies and Maisy into her princess castle jammies, the kids went to bed as usual, they didn't really understand the big week ahead of us. I, on the other hand, slept like it was Christmas Eve-which means didn't really sleep much!
Our flight was at 7:05 am so we figured we needed to leave by 5, meaning I woke up for the last time at about 4 and we got the kids out of bed at about 4:45. We met at my parents' house and rode down together. The ride was an adventure already, they drive an Expedition which has 8 seats, exactly the amount of people going, leaving us little room for luggage (we really didn't want to pay for parking for 2 vehicles!). We went Beverly Hillbilly's style and strapped some up on the roof. The little ones got jammed in every empty crevice of the car! Aimee had to basically sit sideways with the stroller standing up at her feet. We finally left my parents' house about 5:15, running late already. Since Duffy was still half asleep when we left, he hadn't gone to the bathroom and decided around Centerville that he really needed to go, which meant we had to stop right then! Finally we made it to the airport pretty much right at 6, but thought it would be pretty calm in there since it was so early-it wasn't!!! Everyone in Utah was heading to Disneyland for spring break, and the airport was a mad house. We literally RAN through the airport to make it to the gate, it was not pleasant to say the least.
Finally on the plane things calmed down. Duffy was super excited and watched out the window as everything was loaded up and while we took off. He really thought the whole thing was cool. Luckily it was a short flight because Maisy is not a sitting still type of girl and got really restless and grumpy toward the end. This is also when Joey started to get sick, making the flight even more interesting. All of our ears really took a hit on this flight and Duffy was crying that his hurt, it made me feel so bad!
Once we landed we rode a shuttle to Anaheim, Joey was sick the whole time. The first shuttle stop was the Disneyland Hotel and we wanted to get out right then! All the lampposts on the Disney property have the head of Mickey Mouse on them (just in the same metal as the post so they look kind of like silhouettes) and Maisy kept looking at them saying something we just couldn't understand. Finally we figured out she was saying "Toodles" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it was so cute!
We got to the hotel and basically just got changed to go to Disneyland. We were so excited but I felt terrible because Joey was REALLY sick and had been throwing up pretty much non-stop since during our flight. There was no way he could leave the hotel and had to miss the first day at Disneyland. He felt bad too and I think both of us had a little cry about it. By the time we got there Disneyland was CRAZY packed, it was a Saturday after all. We forgot the sunscreen and had to stop for that, then we were so hungry since all we had were airline pretzels up until that point, so we stopped for lunch in Tomorrowland, it was actually pretty good. Finally we got to go on a ride! About a month ago I had asked what ride Duffy wanted to go on first and he thought carefully and finally asked "Is there a Buzz Lightyear?" I told him yes, but didn't give it another thought. Guess what we actually went on first? Buzz Lightyear! I found that pretty funny, it just happened to have a decent line. I think total we only hit 4 rides that day because the lines were so long but it was fun. We did hit Pirates of the Caribbean that day, not Duffy's favorite because of the drops in the dark, but toward the end he was ok and Maisy just rode along like nothing was even happening, she was so good on everything! We went into Tarzan's Treehouse (the first of a few times) and poor Duffy tripped and cut his knee pretty bad. It had gravel and sand all over in it and all I had was a water bottle and wet wipes, and a bandaid that was too small. So we took a trip to first aid. Let me tell you, if you are going to get hurt somewhere, Disneyland is the place to do it! They have regular old doctor's offices in there and the nicest nurses ever! They cleaned it out really well and hooked him up with a bigger bandaid. Bad for Duffy but definitely memorable for our first day!
Ok, that post is long enough, more tomorrow maybe :)
