Happiest Place on Earth!

We went to Disneyland! Finally!!! The picture above sums up the whole trip! Fun for dad, fun for Ruby, scared to death, fun for mom.
We have been wanting to take the kids to Disneyland for years now. There were always things holding us back, like Lew's school, Zane is only a month old, it's far and costs more than 5 bucks... The last time Lew and I went there was for our honeymoon. They didn't even have California Adventures yet! Yea, that's a long time ago. But Disneyland was always in my heart...
Dewie tried coming with us. She is named after a Disney character.

We were able to fly there. Lew was only able to have 5 days off so we had to make good use of our time. He worked graveyards and got home around 7:30 am. He slept for about 2 hours and we were off to the airport. I thought the kids would be scared to fly. After the initial excitement of the take off, they were just excited to watch their own tv on the back of the seat!
We flew into Long Beach. This was great for two reasons. A. It save us $200 to fly there instead of Orange County or LAX. B. The airport is tiny! We walked off the plane to the outdoors of 74 degrees. It was awesome!!!


We got to Disneyland in the afternoon. I had told Ruby before hand that we would check into the hotel and then get to Disneyland as fast as we could. I was excited! In Ruby's classic, older-than-seven-year-old-mind, stated, "Maybe we shouldn't go to the park that day. We should look around the hotel and make sure we know where everything is, like bathrooms." My reply- "Dude. It's Disneyland".
So the first thing we decided to do once we got into the park was ride the train around the park to give the kids a feel of the size and what everything looked like. The train was so slow!!! I was so excited and it just took forever. The next ride we took was Pirates of the Caribbean. Yipppeee! Lew loves that ride just for the smell. Zane was a little nervous because of the dark. I thought he would love it. But going in the dark, plunging into more dark, in water, with crazy sounds just was not his favorite thing. He usually loves pirates? So we walked around more and talked and laughed at stuff. Zane was so excited to see the Sword in the Stone. He just knew that he was going to pull it out of the stone... And it just didn't happen. Even with Dad's help. After a few more rides, and going through a few tame things like Sleeping Beauty's castle and Tarzan we went to Autopia. This was Zane's most favorite ride! Don't they have this ride in Lagoon? But he was happy so by the end of the trip we rode on it a few times. The picture below is of Ruby driving with me in a car. She looks so grown up!


Ruby is a great person to go to amusement parks with. She loved every ride that she went on! "Hey Rub, wanna go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad? It's really fast!" Sure! And she loved it and wanted to go on it again and again! She is very adventurous and fun. I was worried that one of the kids would get motion sickness like Lew and I, but both of them was able to stomach the rides really well. This is a picture of Ruby as the Mad Hatter. The color of her hair is almost the same as the fake stuff.



That night we watched the parade. The kids really liked this part. What kid doesn't love a parade? Especially at night! Every float/performer was welcomed with a look of awe from Ruby and Zane. Ruby took a bunch of pictures with her camera. It was very magical and one of our favorite parts of the trip.
This was Ruby's face as she was watching the dancers.The next morning we got to eat breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen! My mom's friends had told her that we needed to go to this. And since I have such a nice momma she said she would pay for us to go. How nice! It was in the Disneyland Hotel. As soon as you arrive they take your picture with Goofy and then you get to go into the dinning area. It was a buffet style breakfast with a ton of great food. I love food. My favorite item was banana creme crepes. They had hot caramel melted on the top. Oh, yummy. There was a ton of fruit, mickey pancakes, waffles, eggs with holindaise sauce and some weird thing with peas that only adults like Lew eat, cupcakes, pizza with mac and cheese, pizza with peanut butter and jelly, and cereal. It was really good. The other great part was that some of the Disney characters would be walking around the room talking to the kids and signing the autograph books. Chip and Pluto was their favorite characters at the breakfast. Zane passed on getting Cinderella's autograph. She was very pretty and talked very proper to the children.

Ruby's mouth was bright blue from the cupcake frosting. Only in Disneyland would I let her eat a cupcake for breakfast!
The food at Disneyland is very expensive so we had tried to get the kids to get their tummies full. About 10 minutes after eating breakfast there Zane had said, "Mom. I'm hungry." What!?

We really liked the Downtown Disney area. And as long as I'm talking about food, let me mention another highlight of the trip. WETZEL'S PRETZELS!!!! Oh my heck! This is good stuff. Momma was happy. They have these soft, chewie sugar and cinnamon pretzels. I thought pretzels were way too 80's. Nope. These babies are so good. I ate two on the whole trip. And I nibbled on the kids pretzels too. Oh wow. It's good we don't have one of these places in Utah. (The nearest one is in Boise. I checked.) I also liked the mangoes in Disneyland. They have this packet of tajin that comes with it. You can sprinkle it on the mango. Heaven. I found it at walmart for $1.78 for a bottle and you can use it on all fruit. yum. We also ate at Rainforest Cafe. That was pretty good too. It reminded me of The Mayan in Utah (closed now) minus the cliff divers busting their heads open on rocks. Zane fell asleep on the table. It was good. Another delicious portion of our trip was spent at Bubba Gumps. If you have not eaten here, Nelly you are missing out. I don't like seafood, but they have other stuff as well. When we went to Hawaii ages ago we ate there twice. They have this sauce that is not made for fries, but they were meant to be together. Ever since we ate there in Hawaii, we have wanted to go back. So on the drive to our hotel, we spotted it and walked there a few days later. I found the sauce. It is called remoulade sauce. At Bubba Gumps it is also called Louisiana special sauce. I could have drank the stuff. I found a recipe on-line and I'm going to give it a try. I had the pear and berry salad there. It was really, really good and healthy. Zane fell asleep on the table.
And here is Chip.
We ventured into California Adventures. Lew and I had never been here before because it was not built the last time we were in California! I really liked the woodsie part of the park. This was a little area that they designed from the Up movie. It was a place where there were 6 different challenges and you could pass them off to get a badge like Russel from the movie. Here the kids are getting a squeeze from Dug. He was really cute with them.
We went on Soarin' over California. Ruby loved it. Zane was scared. Lew loved it. I was closing my eyes so I wouldn't barf. It was fun and Ruby screamed at the part with the fireworks. We then went to Bug's Life. Zane was in a cranky mood so Lew went on the bugs bumper cars with Ruby. They sure are cute.

Meeting Mickey. We also stopped at Bug's Life in 3D. It was a hot day so we thought this would help cool the kids down by being in a theater. It was all fun and games until the lights are dim and monstrous spiders hang from the ceiling. If poor Zane wasn't scared before, this did it! He ended up sitting on my lap and hiding his face while crying from getting sprayed with bug acid. Good thing he didn't feel the weevils crawling across my butt. Ruby loved it. (it was fun)
We went on the Toy Story ride, it broke and we were in line for 2 hours, found cousin It, Lew left our bag on the ride and luckily we got it back.
These were the benches in the Bug's Life area. Look, they are big Popsicle sticks. So cute!
The next day we rode on the big pirate ship. This was another one of Zane's favorites. I had always wanted to go on it when I was little, so I'm glad we tried it. The captains quarters were pretty cool too.
Ruby wore her Minnie outfit. Lew's sister Mary is always so generous. She gave Ruby this Minnie costume and Ruby had to go show it to Minnie. She wore it all day and pretty much wore the Minnie ears the whole trip. She looks adorable in it. Thanks again Aunt Mary!

One night we went to World of Color. This was Awesome! One of my very favorites. It really is just amazing and magical! We all just loved this part. We got a fast pass for this attraction. We were on the docks right by the water. The wind was not blowing so we didn't get wet, so our spots were perfect. We were right under a light post. During some of the songs the light post had bubbles blowing out, or strobe lights. I love the little details that Disneyland does to make things so fun. The kids were so amazed by World of Color.
Zane on his favorite ride. He also liked Star Wars.
This is a picture of Ruby and Lew going on Splash Mountain. I think Ruby went on it about 4 times. Crazy girl.
He really is happy in this picture.
I have to mention a few 'incidents' that happened. While we were in line for Monsters Inc. a lady ran out of line clutching her baby. The baby wasn't crying, and the mom wasn't in a panic, it was just a hurried run. About 1 minute later we could smell something... Ruby looked down and there were pieces of POOP on the ground! Poop was scattered on the ground! Throughout the line! The lady that ran out had a kid with an exploding diaper and everyone was stepping in it.

Later while exiting the Autopia Ruby noticed a little boy in front of us. He was urinating while walking. He just pulled down the front of his pants and gave it a go. And go he did.

Zane and I was visiting a bathroom. Since my little man is too little to go in a bathroom by himself (you never know who is in there) I was in the stall with him. Another little man was in the stall next to us and his aim was off. It missed the toilet and got my shoe instead. His mom was oblivious to this. I hope they don't own guns.
We were in Disneyland for 4 days. So we had plenty of time to check out all the stuff. Ya know that big building in Tomorrowland? It is turning in a circle. I think it gets overlooked a lot. We checked it out because it has cool science stuff in it. Well there is this robot show that Lew really wanted to see. He built a robot in school so he could really appreciate how much work was put into building that robot. After we watched the show we saw these computers. You could get your picture taken and then it would generate a picture of you when you are really old. It had options to change the picture depending if you were heavier, a smoker and sun damage. The picture above is of Lew. See, he is still going to be handsome!
We cracked up at Zane's picture. Elderly Zane looks a little like a chubby President Monson?
I don't even think this looks close to Ruby?!


And Lew still loves me... What happened to my lips?
My sweet Grandpa Olsen gave each of the kids a wad of cash to spend in Disneyland. Zane went for the Lego store.
Ruby went to Build a Bear. She named her monkey Bananas. We had such a wonderful time. I love spending time with my family. They are so funny and so cute and creative. Even riding the bus to Disneyland was fun. "Please remember to take all your stuff. Please remember to take all your stuff. Thank you for riding the bus, thank you for riding the bus."
We have been wanting to take the kids here for so long. It has been such a big goal for us. I was so happy that were were able to enjoy seeing their faces light up. On the last night in Disneyland I had a little moment and I could not stop crying. I was happy, but I was sad to see the trip over. I had realized that this was such a fleeting moment. I read a quote the other day that for moms the days are long, but the years are short. For this trip Ruby loves to be around me and hold my hand. She wants to show me things and share things with me. I am a big part of her world. What will it be like the next time I am here with her. Will she be with a friend? Will she be dreaming of boys? Will she want to ditch the mom? It was thoughts that made me sad, but also gave me a stronger resolve to enjoy her and Zane as much as I can. It just flys by way too fast. They are so precious and I hope I can do my best, and give them all the love and support they need. I am so very blessed that I was able to go there with my little family.