Disneyland!

We surprised our kids at the end of January and took them to Disneyland! We told them on Sunday morning that we were going and 30 minutes later we were headed to the airport! It was a truly magical week with them!

We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott right outside Disneyland which was amazing. It was a 7 minute walk to the parks and made it easy to come and go. We did four full days at Disney- alternating California Adventure and Disneyland! We were there every day at 8 am when the parks opened, and the boys and I were usually still there at closing around 7-8 pm!

Highlights of our trip:

Lila- Lila loved meeting characters! She was totally smitten with Winnie the Pooh, Lightning McQueen, Daisy and Pluto. It was completely darling! Her favorite rides were the Winnie the Pooh ride and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree (which she rode about 10 times because she was too little to ride a lot of the other rides her big brothers were on). Other than that, Lila was kind of a lot of work. We figured out she did better (as did Ben) if they both went back to the hotel for a nap mid-day. Also, one day as the big boys and I went on a ride she was too little for, Ben asked her what they should do. She confidently responded "shopping". Lila was the only kid who came home with a souvenir. She talked her dad into buying her a little Minnie Mouse purse and she was super proud of it!

Hudson:

No one Disney'd harder than Hudson! He was the last kid standing pretty much every day! He set little "goals" for himself- a number of times he wanted to ride each ride. I think he made it on the Incredicoaster 6 times, Millenium Falcon 7 times, Thunder Mountain 6 times, etc. He tried all the treats and loved them all. He was really nervous to ride Guardians of the Galaxy, but after sitting out the first time Ben and Chase went on it, he braved it the next time and ended up loving it and riding it again with just Chase. It was such a blast to be there with him, he was just so enthusiastic about everything! Who would know that Hudson would be such a roller coaster enthusiast!

Chase:

Chase was so fun to have at Disneyland! He was so thankful for the trip, he literally thanked us at least 10 times every day. "I really needed a vacation!" he said the first day as we walked up to the park! Chase isn't scared of everything and loved everything. He was a little too cool for meeting characters...but he was a good sport for the little kids. He was super into trying all the treats, especially loving the dole whips, churros, and macarons. 

Davis

Davis was the absolute BEST kid at Disneyland. He was at the perfect age- every part of it was magical. He loved the little kid rides, loved the big kid rides, loved meeting characters, loved riding in the stroller, loved being with mom and dad. He was just the best! He was especially into the Avengers Campus and the Spider-Man ride. When we'd ask what he wanted to do next he'd always respond "Spider-Man!" The Spider-Man ride uses 3D glasses and all kinds of cool technology so you can actually sling webs from your own hands, something Davis has been practicing for about a year now. Every minute of exhaustion and money spent was totally worth it to see his darling little face light up with joy!

Galaxy's Edge was truly amazing. I'm not even that into Star Wars and I was blown away by how cool it all was! The boys were in heaven. We got to ride Rise of the Resistance twice (one of those times was a total miracle that a sweet employee I made friends with gave us FREE passes to get in the fastpass line so the boys got to ride it again instead of waiting in the 150 minute wait!). They loved the Millennium Falcon ride, where you get to actually fly the plane and shoot bad guys and all that. We went again at night which was even cooler. Our favorite food (Ronto Wraps) were also there. It was just so cool and I was so happy for my little boys to be part of it! Magical!

(Lila was fairly unimpressed with the whole Star Wars thing)

It was all just so exhausting and so fun to be there together! We got really lucky with crowds and ended up going on so many rides, riding their favorites over and over again. We all went to bed completely exhausted every night!

Another fun part of the trip was getting to reconnect with the Caldwells! We hung out with Mike and Meghan all the time when we lived in Provo. They lived next door with them and for awhile there we literally ate dinner with them every night! It's crazy to look at this photo now and remember when our little group was just the four of us- now it's 12! We hadn't seen them in about 9 years and it was so good to be back together again! It was so sweet to see Chase and Ethan hit it off immediately and have the best time together. Really, all the kids did. Hudson and Hallie are the same age and had so much fun. Vivi and Lila are close in age and were pretty cute together too. It was just delightful and we are so excited they are moving to Utah in a few months!

So that's our big California trip! It was just amazing. I was so thankful for Ben for going along with my crazy plans. A whole week at Disneyland definitely wasn't his first choice as a family vacation, but he never complained and helped me wrangle all the kids and crazy all week long. It was one of those things that I'm just so glad we made it happen- time with just my kids and husband and no chores, piano, friends, school or other distractions was just what we needed!