Disneyland Days

Jamie wanted to do something special with the family before Ben leaves for 6 months (on Sept 7). She thought it would be fun to stay at a hotel near Disneyland for a night or two. . . and once she started checking prices and details, she scored at the Disneyland Hotel with an amazing military discount. We ended up staying three nights, so we were were there last Monday-Thursday. We had adjoining rooms so we could help watch the kids. One night Ben and Jamie went back to the park after dinner and went on the big kids rides and watched the fireworks.

The double stroller was heavy and bulky to fold up on the monorail and on the train( which we did at least 4 times a day), so we brilliantly decided to rent their nice light-weight strollers. The only drawback was no cup-holder. . .
The Disneyland Hotel couldn't have been a nicer place to stay. There is so much to do there even if you don't go to Disneyland! We walked to the Monorail station several times a day and that was lovely to avoid the craziness of entering the park at the ticket booths.

One of the fun things we did was have breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. They have a lovely buffet all day long and the characters mingle around the tables. It was so much fun for Kaylee, who is usually shy around the characters.
Jasmine was so dear and spent lots of time with her. Kaylee picked out her pink Minnie Mouse hat. And don't call it a Mickey Mouse hat either, or you will be corrected!
All our grandkids love Jessie, Woody and Buzz from toy story. This was a big milestone for Kaylee waiting in line and then actually taking her turn to take pictures with a character. Usually at this point she freaks out and changes her mind! While we were waiting in line Woody was waving and blowing kisses to her. It was adorable!

It was so wonderful to be able to return to the hotel in the afternoon for the kids to nap and the adults to recover! I wore my pedometer and we walked between 4-10 miles a day! We timed it perfectly when we made it back in time for the parade. Kaylee got to go in the conga line just like Paige did last spring. We were amazed she participated, and she loved it! 7 month old Blake was an angel the whole trip. He is such a mellow baby and he has the cutest smile and brightest eyes. People were commenting on how darling he was all week long. One night we ate at the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney. It was a fun place and the food was surprisingly good. I can't wait to go to the one in Ontario and have Sweet & Sour Stir Fry again.
All Kaylee wanted to do was go on the "pirate ride in the boats" . That was the first thing we did and she said it was "too scary for me". Kaylee had a blast and loved Small World, The Tiki Room and the Buzz ride, which we rode several times. The last time she went with Grampa so that's how she refers to that "go to Disneyland on the Buzz ride with Grampa". We walked clear across California Adventure to wait forever for Toy Story Mania. It was fun but probably not worth the walk or the wait for little ones. Let the record show I got the highest score!

There were no lines, except for Pixie Hollow and Toy Story. It was a great time of the year to be there. It's so nice that our season passes black-out- days are over. It didn't get hot until our last day. We got to see everything we wanted, and the 3 days were just right. The only change I would make is taking an extra day off from Disneyland to just veg during the day at the hotel and enjoy the adorable Neverland Pool, then go back to the park at night. When our ship comes in it would be fun to have a family reunion there and stay in the time suites or time shares. One of us will have to get the big bucks to do that, but it would be a blast. These pictures give you an idea how cute the pool was. There were 2 small water slides and a jacuzzi. At night the sails on the boat lit up and it was really magical. The sign on the boys bathroom said, "LOST BOYS".

Thanks Ben & Jamie for a great week! Jamie will update her blog soon with tons more pictures. I think we had about 175 between our 2 cameras, and Craig also took some cute video. I forgot to mention these beautiful waterfalls just outside our windows. They were beautiful and sounded heavenly.