Disney Dream 2011

Where to begin?! We just took, what I would consider to be, our first family vacation. And it was absolutely perfect. We went to Anaheim to spend a week in Disneyland and invited my parents along to help herd children and just for the general enjoyment of having them along. They really helped keep us sane.We left on Saturday and spent the night in Vegas. Our kids did amazingly well, and not to brag, but I did have some fun things for them to do in the car that majorly helped. We stayed in a nice hotel that we pricelined in Vegas and spent the evening walking a little bit on the strip and eating dinner. Then it was one sleepless night. Our kids were not going to sleep so we decided to divide and conquer. I slept with Andi and Jefferson slept with Carter. To say that both of those two children are restless sleepers is a major understatement. I think the longest Andi held still for in bed was maybe 10 minutes. Both Taytum and Bentley slept great in their prospective pack-and-plays.
The next day we drove into Anaheim and got there in the early afternoon, so we decided to upgrade our tickets for an extra day and meet my parents in the parks for the afternoon. The traditional first ride for our family is Pirates of the Caribbean. Going on that ride with kids seems a lot scarier than I remember, but they all did well on it, minus Taytum, who proceeded to hate pretty much every ride in Disneyland.We spent 4 1/2 days in Disneyland and my kids were troopers! Four days would have been just fine, but the extra half day was a nice bonus. It was a great amount of time with the ages of our kids. We didn't feel rushed, we could take breaks in the middle of the day to do something a bit slower and not feel like we were wasting time. One of our favorite slower afternoon events was the Aladdin show. It is really quite the production and pretty magical, especially for our kids' ages. We also love Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. This show had us all laughing, and again, unbeknown to probably the majority of the people at the show, they are really a talented group of guys.I gave Taytum a blue ring pop to keep her entertained during the show, which proved to be a very bad move. Hers was the only one that had super staining ability. Carter had a green one and Andi pink, neither of which caused any color changing of even their tongues. These pictures of Taytum don't even begin to do the mess justice. Her lips seriously looked black by the end, her tongue and teeth were dark blue and her whole chin was blue from where she sleepily drooled while sucking the ring pop during the show.
The train was a nice leisurely activity.We also enjoyed sitting down to ice cream on Main Street Disney.
While enjoying our ice cream, Andi was pulled up to a game of musical chairs by Alice and the Mad Hatter. She is so not shy. It just made me laugh. Every round of musical chairs was a new theme. One round they had to spin in circles like ballerinas, and another round they had to be pirates with an "eye patch" and hook. When you became an "un-winner" you had to tell a joke, and since Andi is only three, Alice helped her with her joke: What do you call a bear with no teeth? A Gummi Bear!
Both of the kids participated in a little street show done by some of the army men from Toy Story. There were some great drummers and the kids got to go up and march and whatnot. They thought they were pretty cool.Carter and Andi would try any ride once, even though I tried to talk them out of a couple of them, like Tower of Terror. But they persisted and wanted to try everything. They would always love the ride after it was over, but you could tell which rides they really didn't like, because they wouldn't go on them again.Carter's favorite rides were Pirates of the Caribbean and Thunder Mountain. He went on both probably 5 or 6 times. Andi's favorite was the ferris wheel over in California Adventure, but it had to be a swinging "gondola", not a stationary one. I wish I had a picture of her face when the gondola would slide. She giggled so much!Taytum was a whole different story. She was not a fan of the ride experience. She would be all happy go lucky in line, smiling, laughing, running around, but the second we started to get close to the front of the line, or it would start to get dark, her eyebrows would start to furrow, and then she would start to scowl, followed by the lip quivering, and then full on crying. It was hilarious to watch every time, like she didn't know what was coming. The crying usually didn't last long and we could talk her out of it, but it was still funny. I will say that the last day to day and a half, she got much better and actually made it through a number of rides with no crying, namely It's a Small World, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster, and Finding Nemo.
Finding Nemo:
Dumbo:It's a Small World:Astro Blaster:
Heimlich's Train:
Tay was a trooper being stuck in the stroller for a lot of time and having to catch only quick cat naps here and there.Bentley was also such a trooper. She slept pretty horribly at night, but did cause for her to do some sweet slumbering during the day which made her a whole lot easier to deal with. She just hung out snoozing in the stroller, went on quite a few rides snuggled up in her sling, nursed in line, on benches, while I ate, without skipping a beat.
Taytum provided us with a number of highlights during the trip. We ate outside of the park one night, very late, at IHOP and Taytum was beyond tired. She feel asleep in her highchair and so I told everybody to look at her, and just when we look she pops her head up with these super tired eyes and big cheesy grin. I am sure you had to be there, but it had us all in hysterics and I want to remember that moment, because it surely was funny.

Another "funny moments with Taytum" was when we went to Ariel's Grotto for dinner. It's a nice, three course meal, restaurant, set on the Pier in California Adventure. We are having a lovely time in the beautiful weather and after dinner we get reserved tickets to see "World of Color" water show on the pier. Well, I am enjoying my tri-tip when my dad, who is sitting next to me, says, "Oh boy..." And I look up and Taytum is just spewing throw up non stop all over her plate and front and floor. It was so disgusting and hilarious all at the same time. She was A. OK after that and we proceeded to dress her in some new Mini Mouse sweats and head to the "World of Color."The World of Color is a must see if you go to visit. Amazing doesn't even begin to describe it. I loved watching my kids' faces during all of it.
And one last "funny moments with Taytum" happened the last day we were in the park. We decided to eat at the Minnie and Friends breakfast on Main Street Disney where a bunch of characters come out while you eat a delicious, huge breakfast. We were able to see quite a few characters, but Taytum's ultimate favorite was Chip or Dale (I'm not sure which was which because they were both there). We'll just call him Chip. When he came up to the table Taytum was squealing and bouncing around in her high chair. Chip then proceeded to sit at our table for about 10 minutes while Taytum laughed at him, poked his eyes, game him about 10 hugs, squeezed his nose and shook with enjoyment. We were all laughing hysterically and I am pretty sure that Chip walked a little taller that day. :)We saw a number of other characters at the breakfast, all of which my kids loved.Minnie was obviously the favorite, and when she came in to our section of the restaurant they played music and had a dance party with all the kids in there. It was a great way to start our last day in Disneyland.And a few other characters we chanced upon.
On our vacation hump day we lounged around in our hotel in the morning. Jefferson took the older two kids swimming and then all the kids got a much needed nap. After naps we went to Downtown Disney and hit up the movie Rio. It was a cute movie with some great music. Kind of an abrupt ending, but a great show.
Then we did our shopping.
The kids have been saving their money for about six months and saved about $75. I was so proud of them. We let them each pick a couple of things out. Andi of course went for a princess dress and landed on the Tiana one with a glove and purse set.Carter opted for a pose-able Bullseye to complete his Toy Story toys set and an Astro Blaster. Each of the kids picked out a stuffed animal; Andi a ballerina Minnie, Carter a pirate Mickey, and Taytum a classic Minnie.We also ended up with some Mickey Ears. The kids love them and continue to wear them every day.The whole princess experience for Andi was so fun to watch. She loved looking at the castle the first time we walked down Main Street.Plus walking through it.And for Mother of the Year award, I waited for 45 minutes to take Andi to see the Princesses, which ended up being, by far, the longest line we waited in the entire trip! It was worth it (I think) when she saw the "real" princesses.Toontown was dumb. Need I say more? We went in once for about a half hour and were done with it for the duration. There was an enclosed playplace, so Taytum could run wild, which she enjoyed.
There was lots of delicious food to be had; churros, popcorn, cotton candy, kettle corn...(I wish I had a picture of the ginormous turkey legs we ate)
And much Diet Coke drinking.
My parents were great at taking our kids on rides so that Jefferson and I could enjoy some rides together. Consequently they ended up on the carousal more than once, I managed to escape ever having to go on one. We could not have done the trip without my parents. There would have been far more melt downs for both children and parents. Jefferson and I were able to enjoy some time together. The kids loved pretty much every minute of every day and we filled every day to the max. We all crashed on the way home and we are already starting to save our pennies for another trip back. It truly was a magical vacation.

Whew.... did I miss anything?