10 Year Anniversary: Disneyland!

I have been thinking of this anniversary and how we would celebrate it for a long time. It's kinda funny because the number of years doesn't really matter, but for some reason it just seems epic to have spent 10 years married to the best man in the world! At one point my plan was that we would wait a year after residency and then buy a house as a 10 year anniversary gift. Heavenly Father has better plans and I am very very grateful we bought our house last Spring. I thought going on a fun trip as a family would be great and kept researching tons of options we could do. Then one day when I was feeling particularly spent with our three kids I started looking at weekend getaway locations. I thought Park City would be fun since we went there on our Honeymoon. I was also researching Disney Vacations and it was fun to see the difference in price between 2 people and 5. Sean expressed a great deal of excitement at the idea of going to Disneyland with just me. We have been to Disneyland 6 times (I think) and Disney World once in our marriage and Sean has never really been that jazzed about it. I mean he gets excited and wants to go, but he doesn't get excited like I do. So when he got so enthused about it, I decided to just take the plunge and order the vacation package so I wouldn't back out. That was clear back in December. I booked a family trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in July in December as well to ease my guilt of not taking the kids with us.
As things progressed with my parents building a new house and selling their old one sooner than we expected and the strong promptings we felt to finish our basement, I felt so grateful to have already booked and payed for our hotel and tickets as well as airfare. We never would have felt that it was okay to be so extravagant when we were putting thousands of dollars into our basement. We told the kids pretty early on that we were going on this trip to celebrate our anniversary and that they would get to play with Grandma and Grandpa and Papa and Mimi.
May came and Sean was seriously more excited than I have ever seen him! We talked about the things we wanted to do and eat, but mostly we just wanted to wander around and have fun without organizing 6 or more people and stopping for snacks, potty breaks, and stroller switches. Sunday night it hit the kids that we were leaving and there were lots of tears and they had a really hard time going to sleep. My momma heart was breaking!
Our flight left early Monday morning. My dad took us to the airport and we made it through security very quickly since they were using the Canine's to inspect people. The flight was smooth and we landed in Long Beach at like 9:30 or 10. We took an Uber to the hotel and couldn't check in yet, but stored our bags till later in the day. We stayed at a new Holiday Inn that was really nice and a lot closer to the parks than the Best Western. We walked right over to Disneyland. We went and got fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain and then went to Pirates while we waited for our fast passes to be ready. As we stood in line we decided to spring the extra $30 a day to get the Max Pass. It was so so worth it! We could get fast passes from Sean's phone while waiting in line for other rides. And the app kept track of all the fast passes we had. Here are some pictures from that first day:

at the airport

first ride (did you know they took out the "We wants the Red Head" part? Now they say we want the rum.

Went and saw Mickey and the Magic Map, such a great show!

Small World =)

above the clouds

We went in every shop and it was blissful! In our 7 ish Disney trips over the last decade we either had kids who couldn't stand to be in the shop or not enough money to even look, or both, ha ha! 

We could stay late and eat whenever and whatever! It was so fun! 

I laughed so hard on the Jungle cruise but seriously no one else on the boat was even smiling and some of them looked at me a little weird, it made it all the more funny! 

We love the Hungry Bear! Churro Funnel Cake for the win! We also used mobile ordering a lot! You just order and pay for your food on an app on your phone and then pick it up at a little window.

We found the entrance to Galaxy's Edge! 

Again with the shops! 

I was trying to catch these cool bushes to show Alana

We ate at the Plaza Inn for dinner and we were too full to have any ice cream, but we decided to stop in to Starbucks and share a hot chocolate and blueberry scone. Loved the Party Line phones.

The thing I wanted most was a characature of Sean and I. This is the back of Joel who did it for us =)

The next day we started with the hotel breakfast (Holiday Inn Express never disappoints!) Then we had a bit of time before the park opened so we read some New Testament and then headed over. It was really nice to feel so relaxed and not rushed. We went to California Adventure and went to Soarin first. The line was 75 min which was ridiculous considering we walked up to the ride at 9:03 and the park opened at 9! We made our way back to the Toy Story ride and got Max Pass set up again so that we could start making fastpass plans. We rode all kinds of things that day and enjoyed it all. We ate at the Pacific Wharf for lunch and enjoyed some really amazing bread pudding. We had an Elote for a snack (corn on the cob with mayo and chili and lime) and then had the Chinese place for dinner. We rounded off the evening with an amazing ghiradelli creation.

Sean was sad to never get an "angry dog" the menu even offered "slightly annoyed dogs" too

We also never tried these cookies, theres always a next time...

The construction zone of the new Marvel land

We enjoyed looking at all the art!

They did the story on this coaster so so well!

My hair in this picture is THE BEST!

I loved the recreation of this ride. It was not nearly so creepy! Dropping suddenly to rock and roll is way more fun!

One of my favorite moments was seeing these little ducklings. Out of the entire magnificent man-made creation of Disneyland Resort, Heavenly Father's creations are still better!

Luigis was very fun at night with the lights on!

The third day we were there we went to Disneyland again! The park was so so empty in the morning! I have never seen it like that before! We were the very first riders on Haunted Mansion! It started to fill up about 30 min later, but the crowds were really mild while we were there. 

The best view of Galaxy's edge is from Big Thunder Mountain

We went to Tom Sawyer Island and loved it! Neither of us have been there before and we can't wait to take our kids there to play!

Lunch was mix of French Market beef stew and Bengal BBQ Kebobs. 

more Tom Sawyer Island

Dinner at the Red Rose Cafe.

We tried the Grey Stuff! It was delicious =)

We finished up our shopping, got some hot cocoa, and beignets, and watched the fun fireworks. It was such an amazing trip! I loved being able to be the kid again and it was especially fun to be kids with Sean. We work pretty hard in this life we've created and it was nice to go on an ultra mega date and just be together!

We flew back home early Thursday morning and got back to our sweet little kiddos! I sure missed them, but I think they had just as much fun as us! Boondocks on Monday, Noodles and Company on Tuesday and then sleeping in the basement with Grandma and Grandpa, then Pizza Pie Cafe on Wednesday with another basement sleepover. They got to make bath salts with grandma to give to me for mothers day and watch tons of movies!