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Mar. 11, 2007
Disneyland!
One of the many awesome things about homeschooling is being able to take vacations while most children are in school. I don't know about you, but I cannot stand crowds. I'd rather not go somewhere at all if there are a ton of people there. February is supposed to be a great time to go to Disneyland, crowd-wise. We were pretty surprised about how many people were there! I asked someone that worked there about it & he said that it was "special assistance week", although the "week" has turned into a 4 week deal now. They send out free tickets to disabled people. He said the week before was even busier than that. He also said they had several schools there from Utah and Colorado. Maybe they're on year-round school? Field trip? Oh well. We didn't have to wait too long at all to get on the rides. I think the longest we waited was 30 minutes. I'd say we waited an average of 15 minutes per ride while we were there. Not bad. And just FYI, he said September is usually a good month to go and also the first week in December.
Did I already mention that I took my video camera on this trip and never once took it out? It was just so busy and jam-packed I didn't even think about it. I brought my camera to Disneyland every day but we were so busy racing from one ride to the next that there wasn't much time for photographs either. It seemed like the only time I took pics was during "down time." Waiting. Waiting in line or waiting for someone that needed to use the restroom or waiting for Kenton to get off the ride with the older children so I could go on it with them. Or when instead of going on a ride, they were playing in a play area. I think I got enough so they'll be able to look back and remember it- I hope. :)
Before we left on this trip, I had ordered a free vacation planning DVD from Disneyland. It was a really cool, well put together DVD that got us all really excited about going. There are little video clips of the Dumbo ride on the DVD & Josiah just loved that. He'd yell, "Land! (short for Disneyland! LOL!) Dumbo!" He was so excited about that ride. And then guess what? He was ASLEEP when he finally got to go on it! You can barely see Kenton holding him in the elephant behind Alek & Gracie. I was in the elephant in front of them, with Millie. It was probably best. When he saw it in person, he didn't really want to go on it anyway. He's always been a bit of a chicken-boy. He does not like to swing (at all!), slide or anything else that moves. Luckily on most of the rides he was able to sit on one of our laps. He's fine if he's with us. He even went on the Matterhorn! Three times! I won't say he liked it, but he didn't cry. His favorite ride was the Winnie the Pooh ride. :)
Emilia's favorite ride, the little daredevil, is Soarin' Over California. It really is a cool ride, but not one you'd expect to be the favorite of a 4 year old. It makes you feel like you're hang-gliding over various part of California- a golf course, the ocean, orange groves, a river, Yosemite, Golden Gate bridge, etc. You're set in front of a HUGE movie screen and wind blows in your face & even scented air (pine, orange). But Millie liked this ride because of the last part of it- you soar over Disneyland & get to see Tinkerbell and fireworks. She loved that. In fact, she called it the "fireworks" ride. She went on every ride she was tall enough to go on, and that included Hollywood Tower of Terror, which is an elevator ride that drops you 13 stories! However, she only went on that once. ;)
Gabriel's also a bit of a chicken-boy. Last time we went to our county fair, we bought wristbands for everyone, so we could go on unlimited rides. Know what Gabe chose to do? Sit in the van with Grandma. Party pooper. But, the more he tried, the more he found he liked the rides and had fun. Even HE went on the Tower of Terror. Once. He says his favorite ride was Space Mountain and even ASKED to go on Pirates of Caribbean on the last day. Amazing.
(Gabe & Gracie sitting in the stroller, waiting for Alek to finish using the bathroom)
Gracie is also a little daredevil and wanted to try everything she could. Gracie doesn't even have a favorite ride because she liked them all. We had fun going on California Screamin' together (an awesome roller coaster ride.)
(Gracie, waiting to get into Playhouse Disney):
Now Alek hasn't always been a daredevil. I remember having to climb up those tube thingys when he was 2 in Chuck E. Cheese and having to rescue him. He used to freak out at things like that. Rides were okay if they weren't fast, but now, he's like his mom. :) I have to tell you a secret about my husband. We were teenagers when we first started dating. We were in Santa Cruz at the Boardwalk one time & I LITERALLY had to drag him onto the boring roller coaster rides there. He was terrified of them! (he would tell you he just didn't like them- ha, he was SCARED!) But I got him on them and he ended up liking them and now he'll go on just about anything. Except the Maliboomer. I had to go on that with Alek. Twice. (LOL! I just read the description on Wikipedia & it says those shields are "scream shields"- I swear, I thought they were in case someone puked! check out the two hyperlinks to see what I'm talking about) I thought Alek was going to be like his dad, but he's proven me wrong. He's my only child that went on Tower of Terror more than once (3 times, actually.) His favorite ride was California Screamin', and I think I'd call that mine too, but I'm also a little like Gracie; I liked 'em all!
(Alek in the 'A' of California)
Our weather was awesome. It rained once while we were there, and we were sleeping when it happened. We slept so good at night because we stayed in the park from opening till closing. Here are some more pics from Disneyland.
A silhouetted Josiah crawling through the tubes in the Redwood Creek play area:
My very strong boys saving the road from a rock slide:
Josiah climbing:
Millie waiting while her "tall enough" older 3 siblings get to go on a rope swing:
Gracie & Millie playing on a watermelon in Toon Town:
Gabe waiting for his turn to climb on the rock climbing wall (I love his dimples!):
Millie, having a blast on King Triton's Carousel:
Next is Mexico! |
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Posted by
Mar. 12, 2007 - This was fun to read...
I noticed your kids' color-coordinated outfits, too. I did that when we went to Disney also- all red shirts one day, all yellow another-- makes it a lot easier to keep track of the kids!