Friday, April 17, 2009

Issue 47

The Happiest Place on Earth

It had been almost 6 years since we had gone to Disneyland. Mom decided that it was high time we went back.
But first we went to the beach. Our little beach baby Ellie had been begging for over a year. Unfortunately Daniel came down with the flu and he and mom spent the day in the car. He was very sick for two days, but mercifully, he was fine for our 3 days at Disneyland. Ellie came down with the flu the second half of our last day in the park and slept in the stroller, but didn't miss any rides she hadn't already been on. It was so fun for those first two and a half days to be able to go on most every ride as a whole family. Ellie wanted to do them all!

Coloring Easter Eggs at our camp ground. We camped near Disneyland for about a fourth of the cost of hotel rooms and it was a blast besides. Reminded us of our time spent traveling around New Zealand. We befriended an Italian family and Janey played soccer and baseball for a couple hours with their son and Ellie and their daughter were inseparable, although they couldn't understand a word each other was saying. Holding hands, playing dolls and coloring can be done in any language.

The best part of this Easter morning was that mom and dad got to stay in bed while watching the kids hunt for Easter candy eggs around the tent.

Whitney wanted her perfect Yatzee on the first roll recorded for her posterity.


We finally made it to the magic kingdom! We only decided to come three weeks ago, but it seemed to take an eternity to finally get here.


Mom and Janey.

All the kids wanted to ride the rides with Whitney. Ellie lucked out most often.

It truly is a "small world"! We ran into an old misson companion, a girl scout, a former co-worker and the Provo High madrigals. Half of Utah was at Disney land for spring break.



Nemo's sub-ride was a new ride to us, with a long line, but worth the wait.

We got to see the fireworks show six nights instead of just three. Our campground was so close we had ash fall on our tent from the show.

Splash Mountain was a favorite ride. The second morning we ran right onto the ride with no line. When we finished the ride attendant asked if we wanted to go again! Whitney was a great sport to go twice in a row as she took the brunt of the splash. Luckily we had a pair of jeans for the cooler nights that she could change into after being drenched twice.


The Jungle Cruise is always a blast. Stephen L. especially enjoyed the guide's bad jokes.

The New Toy Story 3D ride was lots of fun. It was the longest line we waited in (45 minutes), so we only went twice. We ran straight there at the park opening the 3rd day in hopes of a shorter line, but everyone else had the same idea and the line was even longer than the previous day. We decided to move on.

Big Thunder rail road was one of everyone's favorites. We went 4 times!




After 3 days of begging, Janey finally got to buy her bag of cotton candy. Should have just let her buy it the first morning and had it over with!


The boys lobbied hard for a stop at Legoland, but were satisfied with a trip to the Lego store in Downtown Disney.


Proof that Dad was actually on this trip, since he took all the other photos.


3 rides on Star Tours for these Star Wars fans!


We took two more rides on the Matterhorn at night to top off a super awesome trip. We finally stopped for our only family photo on our way out of the park the last night. I guess we were just too busy having fun!