The Most Awesome Trip We Have Taken post 1

About a week before Christmas we got a call from Scott's FAVORITE uncle :), Guy, asking if we wanted to go to Disneyland with them. We had yet to take the kids to Disneyland and were hoping to finally get to in 2011 so we were super excited to be able to go with them.

Monday January 3rd, after a very long and late night packing up the van, we got up at 4am-ish and loaded half asleep children in to the van. All except baby Brycey. Scott's parents were nice enough to have him spend the week with them. The poor baby was spoiled rotten and I missed him like crazy. That said it was SO NICE not to have him there and I think he would have been miserable having to spend long days in the stroller while everyone else had fun. Plus, he had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa.

In all, it took just over 12 hours to get from our home to the hotel in Anaheim. During that time, we stopped off at Sue and Justin's to pick up Guy, Kristin, and Adam. We experienced temperatures of -5 all the way up to over 50 degrees. We got a little In-N-Out Burger in Vegas and made several bathroom stops.

The original plan was to get to Anaheim and the go to Disneyland bright and early the next morning, BUT when we got there we realized it was the last night for all the Christmas stuff in Disneyland. SO we just bundled up the kids and went straight to Disneyland after 12 hours in the car. IT WAS AWESOME.

The kids excitedly riding the shuttle to Disneyland after a full day in the van.

I think there is something magical about Disneyland, especially the first time and lit up with Christmas.

We started out with Alice in Wonderland then the tea cups.

After a few "little kid" rides we tried out the Matterhorn. Last time I was at Disneyland (I was 17) the Matterhorn was the ride that freaked my sister Aimee (13 at the time) out so bad that she would not ride any of the big rides for the rest of the trip.

So I was a little nervous to take my 3 year old on it in the dark. The very nice Disney worker gave Logan her flashlight so he could light the way for us through the dark tunnels. Logan was freaked out a little, but we made it up to him with It's a Small World. It was really important to me that the kids at least try each ride once. I knew they would be fine and I didn't want them missing out on anything fun because they were scared.

Check out Alan's face.

Small World was the favorite for all the kids. It was still all Christmasy and it was so fun to see their little faces SO excited and happy. It was also really nice to be able to sit next to my little Logan and share that happy moment with him.

After that we made our way to Downtown Disney. The kids were so hungry and tired, but still so cute and excited. After some super yummy Cafe Rio-esque burritos and soft pretzels they were at least not hungry anymore.

And of course we had to stop off at the Lego store before heading back you our hotel.

By the time we got back it was LATE and the kids quickly PASSED OUT.