Disneyland 2010!

Whew! We are back from the epic Disneyland 2010 trip! It was AWESOME! We were gone for 5 days spending 3 days in the Happiest Place on Earth.

3:30 AM Sunday Morning we pulled out of our driveway with a 4-car caravan. The caravan, however, wouldn't last long as certain individuals had to stop to go to the bathroom.

Sunday afternoon we checked into our hotel (we had an adjoining room with Chelsea's family) and we got Dan and Erin checked into their hotel as well.

Here are some of the highlights from the trip:

Shyla found this Goofy sculpture, in the lobby of Grandma and Grandpa's hotel, to be fascinating. Even as he was eating her head!
Lilly got a phone call from Micky and Minnie Mouse on Sunday evening! All she could tell them was that she was eating pizza. Classic.
We all got welcome gifts from Micky Mouse (thanks Dan and Erin)!

And we spent the rest of Sunday evening just playing in the hotel room! Boy were we hyper!

Monday morning we entered the park!

Shyla was overwhelmed, but she was a very good traveler and had a lot of fun!

Toon Town with God-Parents Dan and Erin!

For the first 2 days at the parks, Shyla was stuck to me. She didn't want to be in her stroller and she didn't want to be held by anyone else and she didn't want to be in the Ergo-Carrier. Just me. I love that. But my back hurt and my arms were tired.

In Minnie's house she made herself comfortable by sitting in all her furniture and playing her piano.
Then, while posing for a picture with Minnie, she hit her. Yep, that's right. My sweet, innocent, loving 16 month old baby hit Minnie Mouse straight across the nose. I was mortified. Minnie took it in stride though.

In retrospect, I realize that I didn't prepare Shyla for the trip. I never showed her pictures of the characters or TV shows or stuffed animals. So, I guess I don't blame her for striking out against the giant mouse wearing clothes. Who could blame her? I blame me.

Often, after doing something bad, Shyla will give this I'm-so-cute pose. I think we are in trouble as she gets older.

On Monday evening my parents took Shyla and Zac back to the hotel to bathe them, let them play, and put them to bed. This meant that Stevie, Dan, Erin, and I had about 1.5 hours to do whatever we wanted.

It led to Captain EO and Splash Mountain....
three times in a row! We were drenched!

On Tuesday my mom bought Mouse Ears for all the kids. I wore Shyla's for this picture and had to beg Lilly to take a picture with me.

Lilly met Chip and Dale! Notice, she didn't hit either of them!

Also on Tuesday, while I was in the hotel room with a napping Shyla, a particularly funny thing happened. Stevie, Dan, and Erin got stuck on Mulholland's Mayheim. For a long time. They eventually had to be escorted off the ride. Oh yea, and it was raining the whole time! So you'll notice in the picture above Erin is wearing some dry clothes of mine. But, they got a pass for 6 to the front of any line and used it at The Tower of Terror with Jeremy, Chelsea, and my dad.

While my mom and I waited for them, it poured. And poured. And poured. We ended up racing through the rain with the 3 kids (mine in my arms) to her hotel to put the babies in a warm bath to warm them up.

Tuesday evening we had to say goodbye to Dan and Erin. We SO appreciate them making the trip with us and for being so patient with the little babies and the big babies.

Wednesday morning arrived and it poured. And poured. And poured.

We debated skipping Wednesday at the park and extending our trip by one day (which is what Chelsea's family decided to do) but instead we took my parents up on their offer to babysit Shyla while we braved the weather. We were really happy with our decision: For a few hours Stevie and I enjoyed both parks together in our ponchos, there were no lines, and we did every attraction we could have wanted to do.

Around 2:00 the skies cleared resulting in a beautiful day! My parents brought Shyla to us and we spent the rest of the afternoon with them all! It was SO MUCH FUN!

By this point, Shyla was feeling very comfortable with this Disneyland thing. She and Grandpa walked Main Street together, hand-in-hand.
And she found the balloon lady! She thought this balloon lady was the bee's knees! My mom bought her a giant Minnie Balloon. When it deflates we will put it up on her wall and hopefully avoid another Minnie fiasco in future years.

Shyla loved It's a Small World! We did it twice in a row!

She really loved the carousel. She did it four times! And she laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
And F for Forgacs (don't ask Stevie what it stands for). Shyla loved these giant letters. She would run in circles around them and play peek-a-boo.

In every aspect this trip was an A+ Success!

In addition to Small World and the Carousel, Shyla also did a lot of other rides:

• Buzz Lightyear
• The Train
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Alice in Wonderland
• Dumbo
• Heimlicks
• Flick's Flyers
• Bug's Life

We took 132 good pictures so this is just a sampling. Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible!