Disneyland 2014 - The Happiest Place on Earth

The long awaited day finally arrived!!! Hip Hip Hooray!  I have been dying to take the kids (mostly Lyvie) to Disneyland to see the princesses and experience the magic!  Shawn and I had a long hard battle over whether to make this trip right now.  First, the kids' ages - do they really appreciate it at this age? Is it worth dragging a 22 month old around Disneyland? I would have to say yes and then no.  Although the kids are still hard to take places like Disney because of strollers, height restrictions, constant bathroom breaks, etc.  there is a short window in each kids life where they still believe in the Magic.  That age for me is somewhere between the ages 4-9.  I just couldn't pass up seeing Olyvia in complete awe at the beauty of the princesses and the wonder of Mickey Mouse, the castle, the whole experience.  So we did it!  and it was so worth it.  (Plus our amazing friends the Tobloe's came with us which made it even more awesome!)

Max was like a baby bird and as long as we threw treats at him he was happy.  He was able to do quite a few rides so that was a positive. His favorite part of Disney was the candy and pop he had at hand all day!

It just so happened that our trip fell on Jack's 6th birthday!  Not exactly what he thought he would get - but he was happy that we went.  He is so funny about rides though.  He doesn't like anything fast or with drops, he flat out refused to do Splash Mountain even though it was super hot that day.  But he loved Pirates of the Caribbean and its a Small World.  He didn't want to have anyone recognize his birthday, so he wouldn't let me get him a birthday pin.  But I did round up some cast members to sing Happy Birthday, which he rolled his eyes at!

Lyvie's highlight came when she met Elsa and Anna from Frozen!  This is THE experience this year at Disney and we had to run to a line at park opening just to get a ticket for a reservation to see them.  Then we had to stand in line for about 35 minutes during our allotted time to see them.  Lyv was a good sport, and it was well worth it to see her face!

She just stared at Elsa and didn't really realize that Anna was there too:) Poor Anna kinda gets the short end of the stick.  It was so adorable!

We managed to catch the parade and finally saw Mickey Mouse and friends - so Max was happy! It was during the parade that Shawn get the final score for the BYU game (they won) so he was happy too!

Sam loved the Jedi Training - he fought Darth Mahl - and he got to score 2 awesome rides on the Indiana Jones Ride!  My personal favorite!

Jack's favorite part of the day was kicking Darth Vader's trash in the Jedi Training Academy.  He had some pretty wicked light saber skills!

Sam's favorite ride of the day was Splash Mountain - it might of have been because it was so hot and humid that day - but he went on it about 5 times (thanks to the stroller passes).

I love Disneyland - even the smells - candy, sugar coated, carmel popcorn, frozen lemonade.  I love all the costumed characters and the fact that the cast members kind of have to be nice to you:)  I love how excited the kids got as they approached a really fun ride or saw a favorite character up close.  It really is such a great day.

All the kiddos on Dumbo and Casey Jr. Train Ride

Lyvie rounded out her princess experience with a visit to Merida, Aurora, Snow White, & Ariel

Because we only had 1 day at each park we hit the parks hard - running back and forth, using fast passes and stroller passes as much as possible to get on as many rides as we could manage. By the end of the day the kids were pretty pooped so we didn't stay for the fireworks, but we were able to watch them from our shuttle, feeling the Magic all the way to bed:)