Disneyland Trip 2010

5 years ago in 2005 we went to Disneyland.  It was my first time, and I was 35 years old.  Joel had been about 3 times as a kid.  We took Coelton (13) Caden (10) Hailey (6).  Chloe was only a year old so we left her in St. George with Aunt Jan. 
5 years later Chloe is finally 48 inches tall and ready to go to Disneyland! Only this time it was Coelton who was left behind.  He couldn't take time off of his classes. I still don't think the kids realize how lucky they are!
  We get free hotels and free airfare (Daddy's gone all the time PERKS) so that part was easy.

  We did a 3 day "park hopper" to Disney and California Adventure.  We also did a day at Sea World in San Diego.  We rented a car to get us to and fro and we were set!
Nov. 3, we caught a plane to Orange County and flew into the John Wayne airport.  The kids didn't have school on the 4th or 5th.  We stayed a total of 7 days; flying home on the 9th.

~DAY 1~
We were up early and ate our free breakfast.  We saw the Simpson's at breakfast.  Bishop Simpson and his 6 children were there too! (along with lovely wife Lynette)   It was a HOT day...97 degrees!
We headed to Disneyland, parked the car and shuttled to the main gate.  We decided to do California Adventure first.  We headed straight to "Tower of Terror".  What a thrill! 

Our favorite California Adventure attractions are:
Tower of Terror
California Screamin'
Soarin over California
Toy Story Midway Mania (Joel had the high score for the day!)
Grizzly River Run
Aladdin the musical
It's Tough to be a Bug show
Muppet Vision 3D show
Mickey's Fun Wheel

There is so much more at DCA, but these are our favorites.
The girls loved filling their autograph books with characters autographs.  I think they have like 25!  It became a game to find ALL the princesses.  Caden enjoyed collecting smashed pennies, and everyone liked trading pins with the staff.

~Day 2~
Up and at em' early again.  The parks opened at 8am.  We arrived on time and was there for the rope drop.  We headed for Tower of Terror again.  We loved riding all the great rides in the mornings.  We could walk right on without crowds.  
This day it was a little cooler, only 85 degrees. 
We did Disneyland for the majority of the day.  Our favorite Disney Attractions are:
Splash Mountain
Indiana Jones
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Disney Princess Fantasy Fair
Space Mountain
Pirates of the Caribbean
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion Holiday
Pixie Hollow
Mad Tea Party
All the princess rides

This day was a Friday and it was more crowded.  We watched the night time show "Fantasmic" which was awesome.  We also watched the fireworks and saw Tinker flying in the air around the castle.  SO COOL!
By the end of this day it was 11:30pm.  We were SO tired.  Chloe slept through all the shows and had to be carried back to the shuttle.

~Day 3~
We drove to San Diego to Sea World on this day (Saturday).  We loved all the shows and were happy the only ride here is Atlantis.  We were "rided" out! This day had cooled down nicely to 75.  Our favorite shows here were:
Believe- the Shamu show
Blue Horizons- the dolphin show (we saw it 2 times)  They have 2 trained pilot WHALES.
Seal Lions Live- It's like Saturday Night Live...So funny!
Pet's Rule
Pirates in 4D show.
Shamu Rocks  

For the Shamu rocks show I really wanted to be front and center.  We arrived early and when they started to let people in; Joel started running to get us a spot.  They were yelling at Joel to "Stop running!" but it didn't stop him.  We got awesome seats and put on our rain gear and really enjoyed this show.  We were DRENCHED...but dry underneath : )
Another high light of sea world was petting the sting rays.  We also ate the most amazing food we had the entire trip!  We went to Pineapple Pete's Island Eats and got funnel cakes!   We shared 2 brownie and one strawberry, piled high with ice cream and whip cream and hot chocolate syrup!  Yummmm!!

~Day 4~

We slept in and went to church at 10:30. We had just set the clocks back due to daylight savings. The extra hour of sleep was perfect. We attended the Anaheim 4th ward which was just around the corner from our hotel at the Homewood Suites.
After church we went to see the Newport Temple. We also walked around the beach and enjoyed that alot.
We lounged around the hotel and enjoyed the swimming pool for the rest of the day.

~Day 5~
Jeff and Mel go to Disneyland every 3 years and it was time for another trip.  Our vacations overlapped this one day.  We met them and McKenna at the main gate early Monday morning.  We once again headed straight for Tower of Terror!  We had fun trying to keep serious or sleeping faces for the pictures. 
The weather was very nice on this day.  A jacket wearing day of 65. 
It was really neat to see all the Christmas decorations going up.  Each day there was a little more. 

Chloe was such a trooper the entire trip.  She did everything and never complained or was scared.  One time she cried on splash Mountain when she got drenched.  The only thing that scared her was the "Bugs Life" Show. 

We really enjoyed this day, being with Jeff's family.  Hailey especially loved being with McKenna.  We basically did all our favorites on this day and filled it in with the stuff we hadn't done yet.  Jeff brought his watch that tells you how many miles you have walked.  We did 12 miles that day, but aren't sure if it counted ride miles too. 

We went to the show World of Color at DCA before the park closed.  It was a really good show!!
 Joel's parents came this day.  They flew in late afternoon, so we went to their hotel to visit at like 9pm, before we went back to our hotel. 

~Day 6~
We were scheduled to fly out at 6:30 a.m.  This meant getting up at 4ish to get there on time.  I begged Joel to change our flights, so he did and we had a new departure time of 10:30. 
We got up at like 8 and packed everything, got ready, hurried downstairs for breakfast and then drove to the airport.  We arrived back in Boise at 4:00. 
It was a great trip.  I wouldn't say it's a great vacation, just because you are so tired by the end of it.  Disneyland is truly magical and amazing.  Chloe kept asking if it was real....the princesses, characters, shows...it all seemed so real!!  I loved seeing it through a child's eyes. 
Farewell Disneyland...until 2015.