Disneyland

Two years ago Blake's family decided to take a trip to Oregon this year.  Everyone was suppose to start saving their money.  Well, I am a freak that way so I began saving money.  Deep down we had a feeling that we wouldn't be going and told our kids that if we didn't go then we would take them to Disneyland.  Around the first of February we found out that Oregon wasn't happening so we immediately began planning for Disneyland.  Our kids were SO excited. 

I found some great deals on tickets and a hotel.  Because there are 6 members in our family we had to get a suite.  Radisson had a 48 hour sale on their suites and I got a room with 2 queen beds and a sofa bed for $81/night.  Our room had a fridge and a microwave, a free shuttle to Disneyland, and a free cook-to-order breakfast.  Then I found a guy from Kaysville to split 6-day park hopper passes so we only paid $95.50 for adults and $85.50 for the kids tickets.  We decided to go Monday, February 21-26th.  We drove there and decided to make the long drive in one day.  On Monday we went to leave at 6 am.  However, when Blake went to start the van, it wouldn't start.  The battery was dead.  Our garage is SO jam packed with stuff that we had to move a bunch of stuff to get the truck out so the jumper cables would work.  We jumped the van and went on our way.  In Provo/Orem we stopped at Autozone to have our battery checked and it was good.  I left the DVD players plugged in all night and so we are guessing that is what drained our battery. 

Since the kids got up earlier than normal (except for Gerrit) most of them fell asleep for at least a little bit on the way down.  We decided to stop for lunch in Vegas at Circus Circus.  We have stopped there a ton for their yummy, cheap buffet when I was growing up.  However, when we got there the lunch buffet was $14/person.  I couldn't believe it.  I remember when it was $5.  I guess even the casinos have felt the impact of this economy.  The slot machines looked quite busy, but we weren't not going to spend over $60 for lunch.  The casino had a McDonalds in it and we decided to eat there instead.  Once we left Vegas we got caught in horrible traffic that was headed back to California.  According to our GPS (so glad we had it.  I have no idea how we would have made it there otherwise) it should have taken us a little over 11 hours.  With the bumper stop and go traffic it took us a little over 14.  We should have arrived at our hotel at 5pm, but we got there but we ended up getting there at 8pm.  Our room was really nice.  We were so excited to finally reach our destination, but we were exhausted.  Besides we had a busy week ahead of us. 

The next 3 days we went to Disneyland. We made Kameni ride all of the rides even though we knew she would be freaked out, but I wanted her to try anyway.  Deilen loved all of the rides especially the scary ones.  Gerrit had a ball riding the rides and I think he will be like Deilen as he grows up. 

Kaymin's favorite ride was Pirates of the Caribbean.  Deilen's was California Screamin', Kameni's was Soarin' Over California, and Gerrit's was the Buzz Lightyear ride.  As a parent it is so fun to see the magic in your kids' eyes. 

The parks (Disneyland and California Adventure) were packed.  I am talking about 45 minute wait in line or more.  You even had to wait in line pretty much to walk down the sidewalk.  Come to find out, California's education department had a budget cut and so the kids had the week of school out.  The state of Washington had the week of school as well.  So everyone we met was from California or Washington.  Here we pulled our kids out of school thinking, hoping that it will be slow and it was crazy busy.  The weather held out for us.  It was high 50's to low 60's.  We needed jackets during the day, but had to put on another jacket at night.  We still had a blast.  We would get there when the park would open around 9 and return back to the hotel at 9:3opm.  I packed sandwiches and snacks into the park and then we would eat when we got back to our hotel. 

On Friday, we took the kids to the beach.  It was cold and windy, but that didn't stop our kids getting in the ocean.  We had lunch and collected sea shells.  We lasted about 1 1/2 hours and that is all that we could take.  Our poor kids were ice cubes. 

Every night we got in the hot tub and pool.  The pool was heated and comfortable to swim in.  Friday night we were debating on going home early.  A big snow storm was coming on Saturday and should hit while we were driving home.  We decided to take our chances and stay one more night.  I made the mistake of trying out the sleep number beds and that was a huge mistake.  All they are is a big air mattress.  I felt like I was camping all week.  Our backs hurt so bad by the end of the week I could hardly wait for my own bed.  On Saturday we left right after breakfast about 9am.  We were meeting the guy from Kaysville in Saint George.  He told us the roads were fine, wet from running but no snow so far.  Well, we all know how fast the weather can change in Utah. 

It began snowing once we hit Cedar City.  By the time we get just before Beaver the roads were terrible.  The plows hadn't been out and there was about 6-8 inches of snow on the roads and the bottom 2-3 inches were ice.  It was snowing so hard we were only going around 20 miles/hour and it was easier to have our lights off to see than to have them on.  The snow was covering all of the signs so we couldn't see how much further to the next city.  Finally we decided to get off at the last Beaver exit and spend the night.  It was so scary being 14 degrees and all of the ice and snow on the roads. 

We found a cheap room for $40/night and the kids were so excited to "still" be on vacation.  I cried.  All I wanted was my own bed.  Lucky for us, our room had a fridge and a microwave and I still had more food.  After breakfast the next morning, we headed home around 9am.  The temperature was 19 degrees, but the plows had been out.  They scraped the roads the best they could but there was still ice on them.  We had to pull over every so often and scrape the ice off of the windshield wipers so we could see.  It was a long ride home, but once we hit Nephi the roads were finally cleared and the temperatures increased. 

Once we got home the kids ran outside to see the bunnies.  They had doubled in size and are big furballs now.  We had so much fun and I can't wait to do it again.  I just can't believe it took us 7 years before we went back.  I don't want to wait that long for next time.  I think our kids will always remember this trip, especially since we had to stay over another night.  It was a blast!