Disneyland | Day 3 |

Keira's 5th Birthday! What kid wouldn't love love love to spend their birthday in Disneyland!!!

We started the day off with a very early breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. It was a 7:50 am sitting and we had a big walk ahead of us. Made for a very early morning, very hard at home, even harder on vacation. We had a little gift opening in the hotel room and then headed towards the Disneyland hotel.

They took our picture with Pluto before seating us.

Goofy's Kitchen is a buffet with lots of yummy foods. All sorts of breakfast foods. Mickey shaped waffles, peanut butter and jam pizza (sooo good), eggs benedict, made to order omletes, and of course tons of desserts!

The only challenge when eating here, is that the characters come to your table, so you are often too busy taking pictures to eat. So your breakfast gets cold. The characters that came to visit were Goofy (of course), Chip and Dale, Brier Bear, Pluto and Mulan.

They brought Keira and Sam birthday cupcakes and sang them Happy Birthday!

We also ordered a cake for Keira. It came in a pink treasure box with a magic mirror.

After breakfast we heading into the park via the Monorail. Keira was dying to ride on this and Kaylum got pretty excited about it too.

First ride of the day was the Autotopia. I had never been on this ride before and boy did we laugh. Keira was steering and I had my foot on the gas. She was bumping into the track and laughing so hard which made Sean and I laugh hard. It was fun. Kylie and Dad were riding in the car behind us.

We all went on Its A Small World. It has been re-done in the last year or so. Not too sure what they did to it. LOL! I think they added Disney characters to the diplays. The kids liked it. All I can say is, you either love it or hate it. Me: the latter.

Next stop, Toon Town.


The kids had some much fun in Toon Town. Lots of neat things to touch and wander through and sit on.

My birthday girl! I can't believe she is 5!

The fun thing about this trip was that I rode on thing that I hadn't ridden on before because I thought they were "kid rides". There was actually a lot that we hadn't ridden on. The Tea Cups was one. Not because of the kid factor, but the whole spinning factor. But we went on and made it with not barfing! I was focused on Keira's button the whole time and there was no extra spinning!

Lolipop break!

We left the park early that day, we were all getting cranky by 2. We were up so early and were feeling it. We also weren't planning on spending as much time after breakfast in the park so we weren't as prepared with snacks, etc. We had some lunch and went back to the room for a rest. Well Kaylum rested in the stroller, so he wasn't about to rest again. Thankfully Sean took him for a wander around the hotel grounds while the rest of us rested.

After our rest we headed back to the park for the Celebrate parade. Such a fun parade! Lots of characters and actors singing and dancing.

Sam got lots of attention because she had her birthday button on.

Keira enjoyed a bird's eye view of the parade!

We hit the Buzz Lightyear ride after the parade. The kids had a blast on this one. You hold laser guns and hit targets and earn points. Kaylum rode with us and he even managed a score!
We made it back to the room before the fireworks and could sort of see them from our room. But boy could you hear them! I think they were exploding right over the hotel and every time they banged Kaylum would say, UH OH!

Disneyland | Day 2 |

Its not my intentions to keep such a distance between blog posts. But life gets so busy, well you know the story.

So Day 2, the big day! We were all very excited to get to the park. But first we had to pack up. We were moving to our new adjoining room. So we had to pack everything back up and store it for the day until our rooms were ready. Kylie complained, this is taking up our Disneyland time. Yes, she was right. But once we got into our new room, it was soooo worth it!

We finally made our way to the park after having some lunch at the IHOP across the street. I think it was almost 11:30 am by the time we got there. The kids were excited and so were we. Oh, and it was my sister's 31st birthday! We all got badges saying "I'm Celebrating" and Keira and Sam got ones that said "Happy Birthday". Whenever we passes a Disney worker or random stranger they would wish them a Happy Birthday!

The first thing we did was ride the Disneyland Railroad. It took us full circle around the park and the kids got to see what Dinseyland was all about. Kaylum loved the train. Choo Choo! He would get very excited when he heard the train whistle and start dancing around.

(this is Sam's picture, I stole off facebook. It will have to do until I get her real files)
Minnie was the first character we met!

All Keira wanted to do was ride Splash Mountain and get a princess dress.. The girls had cashed in their piggie bank money they have been saving all their lives and Keira had some birthday money. So top of their list was princess dresses. After that purchase at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique we were off to the Carousel. This was our first ride and the kids loved it.


Our next task was Spalsh Mountain. I told the girls all about it beofre we left for our trip that they were really phyched for it. The line was really long so we fastpassed that one. With a couple hours to til our ride time we found the Pooh Bear ride. Ok that's not its real name. Kaylum went on this one and was a little scared. The girls were ahead with my Dad and Sam. While Sean and I and even my Mom took Kaylum. Depiste being scared Kaylum loved it and we went on a second time. Right by the ride we met up with Pooh and Tigger.


I was a little unsure how the kids were going to react to the Disney characters. Kylie doesn't like Chucky Cheese, Kaylum didn't like the Easter Bunny. But when we got our turn with Pooh Bear, they all walked right up to him and had him sign their books. Kaylum gave him five, a hug and then lifted his shirt to show Pooh that they have very similar tummies! It was so cute! It really made my trip. Kaylum was very eager to move onto Tigger and pose for pictures with him.

Kaylum has his "cheese" pose down pat. Can you tell his Mom is a photographer??

So while we were waiting for Splash Mountain we headed to Pirates of the Carribean. This is one of my favorite rides. And if you can believe it, Kaylum fell asleep on it! The girls really enjoyed it and we rode it 2 more times over the course of our stay. We also took the girls into the Haunted House! They were so scared but love it in the end. It was great!

There are so many great hats in Disney. We tried on many. Still think Dad should have got this one!

The time to return to Splash Mountain arrived and we were excited. We left Mom and Kaylum in a shady place and went to get in line! The fast pass worked so great with this ride. We waited 5 minutes when those without fass passes waited 90 minutes! Sam was in the very front and I was behind her, Kylie Dad Keira and Sean took up the rear or also known as, the driest spot on the ride. Sam has a great sequence of photos on this ride, you will have to come back and look.
So being that Sam and I were in the front, we got the wettest. And did Sam every get wet! She was also wearing a white skirt! It was great. We dried fairly quickly, but being soaked to your panites is rather uncomfortable. But it was a blast. The girls absolutley loved it!

Splash Mountain Results
We caught the train after and went back to the hotel for some rest and to refule. We napped and nibbled and made our way back into the park just in time for the fireworks. They are the most imazing display that I have ever seen. Gorgeous! The girls really love fireworks so they were really looking forward to them and Kaylum fell asleep in the middle of the show. I told the girls that Tinker Bell flies over at the end, but they must have changed that because she didn't. Oh well. It was still breath taking!


Our first Disney day ended with a little shopping. I found some treasures for Keira's birthday and all the kids got Mickey ear hats. They also gave me my Mother's Day gift a day early and that was my own set of Mickey ears!

They are something I will never wear again but will always treasure! The back is embroidered with my name, MOM.

Finally back in the room, it was close to 11pm.

Disneyland |Day 1|

So I promised Disney pictures. I think I am almost done mourning the end of our vacation but I did get another 600+ of Dad's pictures yesterday and made me miss the trip more. It was definalty a trip of a life time. I wanted to blog about it while we were gone, but we were so busy and so tired by the end of the day, it just didn't get to it.

So here are some from day 1. It was a very early start to the day. Our flight left Vancouver at 8:30 am so that made for a 4:30 wake up call for us. The kids did so well and I think the sheer excitement kept us all going (me on 4 hrs sleep!). We parked at the Park and Ride and made our way over the the airport. I have never traveled on a plane with 3 kids before, so it was a real adventure. We had 2 strollers, 7 suitcases, 4 carry-ons, a lap top, diaper bag and a camera bag. We also had my sister and parents, not all that gear was ours.

After passing through security we had some breakfast, little did we know that there was a Tim Hortons a little further down the way from here. We paid waaaaay to much for breakfast! Sean was crushed he missed his Timmy's.

Entertaining the kids on the plane. There was no movie or no napping.

Alright maybe a little napping. Emphasis on little.
All the kids were a dream on the plane, the flight was 3 hours and I wouldn't want it to be much longer. We played cards and scrabble on Dad's DS. Kaylum wandered a little but mostly jumped from lap to lap.

Kaylum was fasinated by looking out the window. On our decent into LA he sat looking for a good half hour if not more.

Finally on the shuttle to Anahiem. This was a long wait for the kids, they knew we were finally there but the wait for the shuttle was long and they were anxious. The poor people on the bus had to listen to Kaylum scream for most of the ride.

We got to the hotel around 2pm and our rooms weren't ready. So we went for lunch at Mimi's it was right across from our hotel and man were we hungry. The food was delicious and I totally recommend you eat there if you are ever at Disneyland. We did have a problem with our hotel rooms not being adjoining and backing onto the freeway, both things we had requested not to have and we did have to discuss things with the manager. But it worked out in the end.

We stayed at the Howard Johnson and despite our hiccup, I would stay there again. But I will pass on this advice, if you have special requests for your hotel, call them. I know our travel agent did and its not her fault at all, something got lost along the way. This hotel has an amazing water park for the kids. And a second pool for a quiter swim. The beds were comfy (in our adjoining rooms) and it was very close to Disney.


We spent the rest of the day swimming and relaxing. I think we were all asleep by 9, or just after. It was a long day and we were so excited to get into the park the next day!!