Disneyland

What do you do when you finish July recruiting? YOU GO TO DISNEYLAND!

My family and extended family including my niece and nephew, sister, and Nana and Papa planned the day to a tee. Todd and my sister organized the day with the "must rides"  list. They used a company called ride a max to map the day out for what times to go to certain rides so we didn't have to stand in lines all day. However, when we got through the doors at 8:32am instead of 8:00am we threw that sheet away.

It didn't matter because the first thing we saw was GOOFY! Brooklyn was so mad that we didn't just hang out with him the rest of the day.

Brooklyn's first ride was Astro Boy, or something like that, a space ship while the others went on Space Mountain. Once we got buckled in she started pulling on the yoke saying "it's broken."

Finding Nemo-AWESOME for all ages. Would have been a better first ride for Justin as he thought he was going to fall out on the Space Mountain ride.

Walking & Waiting. Grabbing and holding, making sure we don't lose anyone. The names and numbers we wrote on the kid's arms that morning had already smeared off. Great idea in theory.

Eating ONLY for nutritional value as food is not Disneyland's strength. Ironically Brooklyn ate very well.

Pirates of the Caribbean was the longest line but worth standing. Isn't it funny that you lose all sense of sanitary thinking when you get tired? We sat on the ground, leaned on anything stationary, and who knows what we touched. Once on the ride though Brooklyn realized it was more intense than Astro as we dropped like a roller coaster and she screamed. As a concerned mother I leaned over thinking she would be scared and she said, "mommy, we dropped and I said awww!" she loved it.

Finally for Justin, only asking the seventh time of the day when we get to go on the Indiana Jones ride, we at got to go in the store. He was now in costume, Brooklyn had her Princess Hat with Micky Mouse Ears on, and the group was ready to go find the Lost Ark. Mainly because Brooklyn fell asleep in the stroller.

Nana and Papa hung out with their grandchild and the rest of us sprinted over through the "fast pass" lane to see Harrison Ford. It was exciting, entertaining, and frightening as my sister ducked when she thought the boulder was going to actually hit her. Justin was so excited that he......didn't want to go on the ride again. I guess it was scarier than we initially thought.

For a 2 year old and a 7 year old, the day could have easily been done around late afternoon, but being the frugile parents that Todd and I are, we decided to get our money's worth. So we fed them cotton candy and that second wind caught right up to our 12 and 17 year old niece and nephew.

We raced to Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear, Toon Town, saw Micky's family in the parade.  I found out that my sister is actually a secret spy after her ride on Star Tours which explains a lot.

As our feet got tired, we waited it out for one final push down Splash Mountain, and then had two children crash on me for the fireworks. I lost count of how much money was spent because when you go to Disneyland, it really is the land where dreams come true.

So I didn't really spend $10 on a cup of macaroni for my kid.

Coach Bin