The Vacation Begins

Bright and early Saturday morning, we loaded the kids (with some wicked bed head) into the van and started off on our trip.)

 

The drive was better than I expected, but long.  Really long.  Annie was an angel, happily coloring, reading, playing with magnetic paper dolls, playing on her Leapster, singing Disney songs.  Isaac did remarkably, only crying a few times, and usually just happily playing with his toes or some other toy while throwing Cheerios all around the van.

Ellie, on the other hand, wigged out regularly.  At one point we got to hear Ellie scream, "Mom!  Dad!  Let me out!  Right now!  Let me out!" for miles and miles.  She did calm down around Vegas, where she saw the Stratosphere and happily exclaimed, "It's Rapunzel's tower!"  We got to our hotel that night, it was a 'castle' theme, and the girls were thrilled.  Ellie happily ran around the hotel room, pointing and screaming, "Look, a bed!  Look, we have towels!  Look, a refrigerator!  Look, we have toilet paper!  Look, there's a TV!  Look, chairs!"  Then my sisters came to see our room, and she started all over.  During bedtime prayers, she excitedly said, "Thank you for our refrigerator!" Then sat up and pointed at it.  She was thrilled.

That morning we headed out to Disneyland.

 Ellie was a tad grumpy while waiting for the park to open. 

(With Aunt Lacy and an equally sad Aunt Star).

The kids loved all the rides -- the favorites were Buzz's Astro Blasters, The Storybook Boats (below), Tea Cups, Dumbo, the Carousel, and they both loved the Matterhorn.  Annie was a huge fan of the new rides she got to ride this year:  Tower of Terror (her VERY favorite ride this year), Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.

I'm usually not a huge fan of the Tea Cups, but oddly enough, this year I enjoyed them immensely.

The girls in front of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

The funny thing about our first day at Disneyland was as we were walking around, and standing in lines, we couldn't help notice being pretty much surrounded by a lot of gothic-dressed people.  I'd expect to see a few people dressed in fishnets and leather at Disneyland, but not every fifth or sixth group of people that you encounter.  Later on, we found out it was some kind of "Bat" day at Disneyland.  Basically a 'vampire lifestyle' gathering of thousands of like-minded people at Disneyland.  It was the Happiest Place on Earth and the Freakiest Place on Earth :-)  We walked past one 65 year old woman with a lace parasol and a black corset tell other Disney guests, "Expect all kinds of Gothic eye candy tonight!  We're coming out in full force!" 

Anyway, this brings me back to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  While standing in line, Ellie exclaimed, "How do we get past these party people!"  Standing in front of us was a man in a bright orange wild cat suit and bright orange hair, and his two friends in all black, one with a mohawk.  Ellie was growing weary of the line, and staring at the back of his orange head and just wanted to 'get past the party people!'  :-)

The girls loved the petting area . . . Ellie wandered from goat to goat, just touching each one.

During this time is when my Mom was on the phone with my baby brother, since it was Mother's Day and he was calling 'home' from his mission for the holiday.  We all got a chance to talk to him, and Ellie got on the phone with him and said, "Cody, when you coming home?"  After he answered she started to cry . . . it was sweet and sad all at once.  Fortunately, the goats cheered her up.

 

We called it a day kinda early (since the park was pretty much over run by Vampires, it was super busy), and went to the beach.  Actually, I stayed home with a very tired and grumpy Isaac (and we both napped, yay!)  But the girls had the time of their lives -- I think Ellie would rather be at the beach than any other place on earth.  

At the end of the day, we were all pretty wiped out.

But don't let these pictures fool you -- sleep was hard to come by this trip.

They'd stay up ridiculously late, then wake up at 5:30AM EVERY SINGLE MORNING.