Vacation!! (Day 1 & 2)

We're back! We had so much fun, but I am exhausted!!! Flying with a TON of luggage, two car seats, a stroller, and three children is not my idea of fun, but what was in between was definitely worth it! I am posting pictures from day one and two of our trip in this post. I took over 400 pictures!! (yikes!) No, I am not going to actually post all of them...but there are so many, it was hard to choose, so please bare with me while I show off my adorable kids and the fun they had.

We started off Thursday, April 30th, leaving for the airport at 4 in the morning! That was early!!! But, the kids were wide awake and ready to go! Here they are waiting to check our luggage.

The kids were pretty good while flying for one and a half hours and then switching planes to fly another three and a half hours. I was really worried about how Lily would take it, but she did pretty good. Zach on the other hand decided he did not like to fly. Riley thought it was fun and loved being up in the clouds! When we got to the LA airport and got our luggage, and then got our rental car, I think Riley was worn out. Here he is hitching a ride on the luggage Jeff was pulling.

After driving about half an hour, we finally got to Disneyland!! The boys got these cool buttons that said it was their first visit.

A nice man took our picture in front of the Mickey Mouse head made of flowers.

Here are the kids in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

The first ride we went on was the boat ride into Storyland where you could see miniature villages based on different Disney movies.

This whale mouth with teeth that the boat goes into was the entire reason Riley wanted to go on this ride. =)

We made sure we got the kids Mickey Mouse ears with their names stitched on the back.

Riley's favorite ride was Astro Blasters where you blast things with a laser gun. It is based on the Buzz Lightyear character from Toy Story. Here are the boys with Buzz.

We didn't stay too long the first day. We got there in the afternoon and the kids had been up since four and they were not used to the two hour difference in time yet, so we were all pretty tired by 6:00 California time. But the kids were up and ready to go at 5:45 the next morning! Too bad the park didn't open until 9:00.

We started out the second day taking pictures with their ears on in front of this statue and the castle.

Then it was on to the rides! In the morning, (especially since it was a weekday) it was really not crowded at all! We got on a lot of the "big" rides fast! One of Zach's favorite rides was the Pirates of the Caribbean. Here are the guys with these pirate hats they found in the store conveniently located at the ride's exit. We settled on some pirate gold and silver instead of the hats.

After several more rides, we found Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too! Riley ran right up to him and gave him a big hug. I thought it was so cute!!!

Lily LOVED Pooh and Tigger!!

I actually have a better picture of Zach with Winnie the Pooh, but this one cracks me up, because it looks like he is thinking, "I am WAY too old for this!"

Tigger!

After touring Minnie and Mickey's houses, we got to meet Mickey! All three kids liked meeting him.

While Jeff and the boys were riding rides that Lily couldn't go on, I decided to stand in the hour long line to get Lily's picture taken with princesses. She loves girly stuff, so I thought that this would be fun for her. I could not have been more wrong! Here she is with Sleeping Beauty. She was not very happy about sitting next to her.

Seriously, look at her face while she is sitting next to Cinderlla:

And here she is trying to get away from Cinderella!

I just had to laugh because it was so funny how much she just did not like them!!

Here is something Lily did like though; It's a Small World. It was her favorite ride.

I love the look on her face!

We had missed the parade the day before, so Jeff and Lily saved seats on the curb while the boys and I went to look for souvenirs. Here are their favorites. Riley picked out this gun that lights up and makes noise. I did inform him that it had to be in the checked luggage on the flight home.....

Zach found these ears that are from the Nightmare Before Christmas. The ears glow in the dark!

I found these Minnie Mouse ears and thought they would look cute on Lily.

And here she is saying, "Seriously, no more pictures mom!!!"

In order to get a good seat for the parade, you have to save your seat for at least a half an hour in advance. We decided that it was a good time for an ice cream break!

The theme of the parade was celebration and it was like a dance party. At one point, they invited the kids closest to the street to get out and dance. The boys took full advantage of this.

Somehow I (instead of Jeff) got dragged out into this conga line with the boys and the characters.

The boys thought it was a great parade!! Here are some pictures from it.

We did stay for the fireworks, but we unknowingly sat behind a tree that blocked a lot of the fireworks, so I don't have any good pictures of those. We got back to the hotel about 10:30, so it had been a long day. The kids fell right asleep and were ready to go again the next day.

Come back tomorrow if you would like to see more pictures of our trip!