The Happiest Place on Earth--Day 1

We had so much fun on our vacation to Southern California during mid-winter break. The boys had fun playing video games and watching their Zune on the plane. Sophie was excited to ride in the clouds. She kept telling everyone in the airport, "I go to Disneyland to see princesses!" The excitement started with our roller coaster flight. Thank goodness we had the kids with us to say "woo hoo" as the plane went up and down during the last 45 minutes of the flight, or I would have been a little more scared. They were excited! Sophie was starting to look a little "green" as we were landing. I'm glad we landed when we did!

After renting a van, we drove straight to our hotel in Anaheim. We stayed at the Carousel Inn & Suites right across the street from Disneyland. We had to get a suite because we had too many people to stay in one room. We were put in a view suite that looked right into Disneyland! There had been a huge storm that came in that day, so when we went in the gates at 5:00 p.m., they told us they would close at 9:00 p.m. instead of 11:00 and that there weren't going to be any fireworks. Because it was in the 60's and partly sunny, I said, "Oh, come on! It's nice outside!" After all, 60 degrees and partly sunny is June/July weather in Washington!

But it was actually great that the weather wasn't super because we were able to quickly go through the shorter lines! We came prepared with ponchos this year. Last time we went, we got so wet, we had to buy an expensive Disneyland outfit for Rachel (which Sophie wore this time!) We did have to go out and buy leather shoes for Rachel at a nearby store Monday morning because her shoes got soaked! We didn't even think about bringing rain boots!

We separated and I went on the little kiddie rides with Sophie, while Steve explored the more adventuresome rides with the older kids. Sophie loved the Dumbo ride!

The older kids loved riding on the Matterhorn which was my favorite ride as a kid!Rachel was excited to try her racing skills at Autopia! She was a pretty crazy driver. :)

The kids LOVED standing in line. . .Ben even saw one of his classmates in line one day! (Not in this picture.)
Sophie's favorite part that night was the Nemo submarine ride. Since coming home, she has been fascinated with Nemo! It was too dark to take a picture of her in the ride, so here's a picture of her entertaining herself standing in line to get in! She kept climbing up on the poles--one time she almost did a face plant--luckily the lady standing in line behind us caught her before she fell!