Disneyland with Grandpa and Grandma

Yesterday we went to Disneyland with my parents. A while back Kya was having difficulties achieving a certain goal, so my mom told her that if she could achieve this goal for one month that she would treat her to something special. Never in my mom's wildest dreams did she think Kya would say DISNEYLAND! Well it took a while for this goal to be achieved and by the time it was, Seth had achieved the same goal and kept saying he was going to Disneyland too. So, alas, we all went! I felt bad, because I knew it was going to cost my parents a few hundred dollars to take us all, but Wayne was able to ask a friends daughter who works there to sign 3 of us in, my dad is an annual pass holder and then he had some complimentary tickets leftover from when he worked there for my mom and Kya. So in the end, it only cost my parents dinner for 7 of us. Pretty good deal!

The first thing Kya wanted to do was ride the train from Main Street to Fantasyland to see the Princesses. The line to see the 3 princesses was one hour! But thankfully, every line after that was 5 minutes or less thanks to the freezing weather and my mom's wheelchair that allowed us to use the exit for many rides.


Snow White, who was super sweet and took the time to hug each child, ask their names and have a small conversation.

The kids really wanted to see Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Cinderella. Never did see Cindy, but since Aurora was the main princess they wanted to see, I decided to have all of us take a picture with her. She was also very sweet and good with the kids.

Jasmine on the other hand acted like she had no desire to be there and was quite stand offish. Shame on her! Luckily, even though the kids noticed, they didn't let it bother them and we were off to Toontown.

Where Elsie rode her very 1st roller coaster! She LOVED it as I knew she would.

Seth and Elsie came back all smiles! Kya didn't want to ride, so she stayed back with me and watched everyone else.

It's A Small World was a huge hit with all the kids. Oh, the girl in the blue sweatshirt is Vicki and she is the one who signed us in for free. She didn't have to be at work until 1:30, so she hung out with us for the morning.

Elsie wanted to ride with Grandpa

and she just about jumped out of the boat with all of her excitement! She was pointing at everything and kept squealing out all that she saw. Watching her have so much fun was pure joy for the rest of us. This is really the first time that she has understood the whole Disney thing and recognized most of the characters.

DUMBO! My dad and I don't do rides that go around in circles, so we just stayed back and watched all the fun.

Seth enjoyed making his elephant go Up and DOWN over and over again.

I really didn't think we would see Woody this visit, so imagine my surprise when we saw both Woody and Jessie! Seth was in heaven!!!

A cute picture with Grandma and Grandpa and Pooh's hunny pots. I am hoping that someday we can all come back with my brother's family. How fun would that be!!! (hint, hint ;-)

Time to actually meet Winnie the Pooh!

and Tigger too! Elsie stood in line with us and kept calling out Tigger's name. He came over to her quite a few times, only to have her cling to us and basically tell him "No, go away" Such a tease that girl is! But Kya and Seth were all over him and loved getting a big 'ol hug.

Seth reached two big milestones yesterday too! He must have had a huge growth spurt recently (I have noticed some pants getting to be too short), because he was just barely tall enough to ride both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder. He could ride Space Mountain too, but I was afraid the dark would freak him out, so we will wait until he is older. He LOVED, LOVED, LOVED these rides. Oh, I wish you could see the smile on his face while on the rides. Priceless! In fact, he rode them both twice and kept asking to go on Splash Mountain again, despite the fact that it was freezing cold and he got wet on the ride. And yes, I did take a picture of the picture!

I had to post this picture to prove that my kids DO love each other. Because not even 10 minutes later they got into a fight. Oy!

Tea Cups! I love the expression on Kya's face here. Just enjoying the moment and thrill of the ride. For those who don't Kya well, she is our more serious child and she is also a bit of a scaredy cat, so that is why I love this picture so much.

Seth is too cute here. Looking at the map to decide where he wanted to go next. Unfortunately, it was starting to rain some, we were cold and the kids were exhausted. So we took one last train ride and headed on home. Of course, the kids did not want to leave and were already asking to come back in the morning!