Disneyland 2014

Sean and I are lucky! We both come from Disney families that like to go to Disneyland. We just got home from our 6th trip in our 5 year marriage.

We had a Peterson family reunion in the happiest place on earth last week. All of Sean’s brothers with their families and Mom and Dad P came. I was a little nervous about taking care of 2 kids under 3 in a theme park for 5 days. I was nervous for a reason, it was kinda hard and I was so so so tired every night. Did you know that you still have to do dishes and laundry on vacation when you are a mom? And you still have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed the baby and you can’t sleep in because the kids wake up at their normal time no matter how late they go to sleep. Also, did you know that self-flushing toilets are horrifying to a newly potty trained little boy and all the toilets in the park are self-flushing which resulted in 2 poopy accidents to clean up in a public restroom!? Most importantly, did you know that all the work and tiredness is totally worth it when you get to take your Mickey Mouse Clubhouse obsessed kids to meet Mickey and see his live Disney Jr show. Its all worth it when you get to eat Ghiradelli hot fudge sundaes and ride dumbo and the carousel. It’s especially worth it when you see cousins playing together and get to spend precious time with family! It was a truly great trip!!

Since I knew I would have my hands really full with kids at Disneyland, we opted to leave the nice camera at the hotel and take the more compact less breakable one. The photos aren’t nearly as good, but they are still fun to share =)

Here are my cute little helpers as I packed:

Cute kiddos sleeping in the car on the way to Anaheim, they both did a great job on both legs of the journey!:

After we arrived in Anaheim we walked over to Denny’s. Brett and Brielle became quick friends:

Alana collapsed in church on Sunday between her grandparents:

After church we took a walk to around the Disneyland hotel grounds (we did not stay there) and found these cool plants. Goofy also came wandering by and Brett was thrilled, although mildly distressed that he didn’t talk.

Eric and Natalie finally arrived after the worlds worst experience with a car rental, Alana was excited to meet them:

It was Jill birthday on Sunday and Kaden’s on Monday so we had cupcakes and pizza to celebrate:

Neil read Dr. Ted:

Brandon took this funny picture of all the Petersons. We took some serious ones too but this is the one he posted online =)

Alana always seems to end up in our bed every morning:

Riding the bus to the park, Brett was really tired and wasn’t quite sure what was going on most of the morning. He had a lot of fun though:

Alana was doing the hotdog dance on the bus:

Having a snack:

Brett’s first and favorite ride:

Alana and I rode the rocket ships, Brett got scared at the last minute and bailed:

We met Minnie, she even gave me a kiss!

Lounging in Minnie’s house:

We met Mickey!

Brett took a nap in the stroller because I told him if he didn’t we were going back to the hotel and he really wanted to stay at Disneyland:

I found some cool cars for the kids by Splash Mountain:

Morning #2 we went to California Adventure:

Breakfast on the go:

Luigi’s flying tires:

We met Mater:

We played in Bugsland:

Brett got soaked in Bugs Land:

We played in the wilderness camp with slides, tunnels, and rope bridges:

Alana got her minnie ears which are way too big!

We rode a fun ride in bugs land. Alana spent much of our vacation like this: I enjoyed getting to hold her so much!

Brett and Sean were daring:

Yum!!!

Alana and Brett had their first bath together and they loved it! It is now standard practice at our house =)

On Wednesday we went back to Disneyland and Jill took care of Alana while we rode Big Thunder Mountain. Alana liked sleeping on Jill! Jill shared a room with our family and we were not very quiet in the mornings when Jill was trying to sleep, sorry! It was so fun to get to spend lots of time with our new sister-in-law though!

We played some of the midway mania games and Brett and Lana both went fishing:

We ate a restaurant called the Earl of Sandwich and the cousins enjoyed playing with each other.

Beads at Fillmore’s in Carsland, Brielle and Brett were leaving poor Lily out:

We took a little trip to the beach on Thursday and Brett loved the water and sand!

On Friday morning Sean and the kids had breakfast in bed while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:

Group shot:

We spent a good 2 hours in Toon Town on Friday and I finally understood why my parents didn’t enjoy it so much, there is NO shade.