The first day started off with us all in the new van ready to go and then me realizing that the folder I had put in the car with some of Gwen's favorite movies was missing. It had been in the van the night before but was missing that morning. Now after a whole week of looking for it everywhere I really think that it was probably stolen out of the van - which had been left unlocked - oops. That makes me sad because there were about 10 of her favorite movies in there and it's going to take us a couple years of searching for deals on the internet to replace them. Well, luckily we had some dvds with kid shows on them courtesy of Aunt Heidi and that kept them very busy. That first day we drove down to Las Vegas where we stayed in a 4 star hotel. We got there at 3:00 and checked in and then found our room. Vegas is not very fun with little kids. Our hotel was on the strip but about 8 miles south of the major part of it. It was really big and had a movie theater and bowling alley in it and a bunch of restaraunts and a big pool. We let Daddy rest his eyes - he had done all the driving - and the girls and I went swimming. It was warm but very windy. They had a little heated poll that was circular and had 2 levels one that was only a foot deep and one that was 3 feet deep for the little kids. Emily and Gwen had a great time there. After swimming we ate at the casino's buffet which I thought was about par for a buffet but Jonathan of all people didn't like it. He actually found that he doesn't like seafood gumbo and it was the first time I've seen him push something away after one bite. The girls liked their dinner, though. I love buffets because Gwen can have macaroni, mashed potatoes, and olives for dinner, and Emily can have noodles and spaghetti sauce--and ice cream for dessert for both. After dinner, we headed back to the room. It was 6:30 Vegas time, so 7:30 home time, and the girls were ready for bed. We had to be the only people in Las Vegas going to bed at 6:30.
Since we had gone to bed so early, we woke up nice and early, got ready, and drove the rest of the way where we met Grandma and Grandpa Rail for lunch. We got there a little early, and since there was no play yard, Emily entertained herself by climbing on anything she could find. We had planned to get the key to Grandma and Grandpa's house so we could stay there on our last night while they were on vacation. But as we found out the next morning, our bad luck spread: Grandma had slipped on the stairs while vacuuming and broken her wrist. More on that later.
That evening, we finished our ride to Disneyland and checked in at our motel, which was about a 20-minute walk from the front entrance of Disneyland, which wasn't all that bad considering it was only five minutes further than the parking strucure. We had dinner--just barely beating the dinner rush--at the Rainforest Cafe where Jonathan and I first met. The fake rainstorms terrified the kids, but it was fun to be there and see where it all began.
That night, I gave Gwen her last dose of antibiotics for the Strep Throat I had given her the previous week, and about 20 minutes later, she had started to break out in hives. Luckily, I had packed some Benadryl, so I gave her a dose and she fell asleep, even sleeping through the incredibly loud fireworks. The next morning, the hives were back, so before heading to Disneyland, I snuck off to a local grocery store to stock up on Zyrtec and more Benadryl.
We got off to Disneyland just fine, with Gwen a little bit sleepy and grumpy from the medications and the hives. I got a bit teary-eyed as we walked through the front gates together. I have always loved Disneyland because it has always been a fun place that I have been able to share with my family throughout the years. Jonathan and I spent the three days before our wedding there with our family and friends. It's always been a special place for me and I have always dreamed of being there with my own kids. It was a dream come true for me and I really appreciated all the things that had made that moment possible.
Gwen really liked the Snow White wishing well. Each day we had to return so that she could sing along with Snow White and make a wish.
Gwen was not the bravest little soldier - probably had something to do with being doped up on all her meds - she was even a little scared of the carousel at first. We rode it another 10 times so I think she got over it. Every ride we wanted to go on got deemed "too scary" while we were waiting in line resulting in her being extra clingy and whiney, then the moment the ride was over she would loudly declare how fun it was.
Emily was much braver than her big sister, maybe because she's too little to get all worked up about it. The faster and crazier the ride the more she would squeal and love it. She's such a little dare devil.
Gwen had been talking about going on the teacups for months before our trip. We had done a lot of research to get her ready for the trip. We had watched videos of other people going on rides and she thought the teacups would be especially fun I guess because she would talk about it every day. When we finally got in line to ride them she declared them too scary. We forced her on them and after the ride started she decided it was her favorite ride and it was the ride we went on the most. Luckily, the line for it moves really fast because as the day went on the girls became less tolerant of waiting.
We tried to wait in the line to meet the princesses. We lasted about 45 minutes and moved only about 20 feet. We decided that since we had plans to eat lunch with the princesses we would just wait for that instead.
Gwen loved meeting the characters and was never scared of them. She knew who most of them were and loved that they wrote their names in her autograph book. Emily liked them too which was surprising because I remember Gwen being scared of mascots at Emily's age. We really liked playing in toon town, but it was getting really crowded and Emily was tired so we didn't spend too much time there.
We did get to meet The Mouse which they have worked really hard to make the wait for it easier on the kids. They have things to look at and do while you wait and it didn't feel like we had to wait long at all. If only they could do something similar for the lines you have to wait in to meet the Fairies or the Princesses. Those lines are ridiculous.
Daddy wanted a picture of Goofy's car being crashed into the mailbox because it was a good reminder that he's not the only one who has bad luck with driving.
Cheesy Gwen smiles on the Jungle Cruise which was by far the cheesiest ride in the park. I'm glad some of the jokes never change because it's what makes it really fun and familiar.
Okay, Emily did really well on the pirate ride, she loved the jungle cruise, she had a blast on the carousel but she hated the Whinnie the Pooh ride. It was terrifying. Gwen felt the same way. It's a really tame ride but it's dark and the car sways from side to side and it's really loud.
Although his ride is terrifying, it was really fun to meet Pooh and get some hugs while Mommy took Emily somewhere quiet for lunch.
I can't believe that Eeyore could even get down on his knees but he did just to give her a good hug.
Gwen loved that Tigger held her book on his nose to sign it and he signed it really messy. That was fun to look at all the autographs and see how they try to make it just like the character would really sign it. I love that Disneyland tries to get it all right even those little details.
This was at the end of that first day in Disneyland. Look closely at Gwen's feet. They had swollen so badly that she couldn't wear her shoes and it was hurting her to walk. All day we had been giving her Benadryl every 3-4 hours but it would wear off in about 2 hours and her joints started to swell and she complained of her whole body hurting. I called my doctor friends from the clinic to see if there was anything else we should be doing but they said we were doing it all.
Jonathan in the A-hole. No further comment.
The Pixar Play parade with all the Pixar characters in California Adventure was fun. The girls loved the parades. The one in Disneyland was really fun and Gwen got to dance and interact with the dancers and she loved that. That night Gwen woke up for 3 hours during the night with bad itchies and body aches. She started to run a fever so I called our insurance and got names of clinics down there where I should be able to take her. Then I called those clinics and no one took our insurance. We could have taken her to an ER but would have to pay $400 as a co-pay and up to 80% of the visit. We could only afford that as a last effort so I called one last doctor friend and begged him to call in a steroid to try. That afternoon we gave it to her and by the evening she was 50% better and the next morning nearly back to normal. Yay for that. I hate to think of what we would have done if it hadn't worked. It would have been cheaper to fly me and the girls home to go to our local hospital than to pay for a visit there.
Waiting in line for the fairies. Waiting in line is hard for adults. It's really hard for a one-year-old. That morning it was overcast and a little cold but by lunch time it was sunny and warm again. We had awesome weather while we were there.
Gwen sort-of knew the other fairies, but she was very excited to meet Tinker Bell. She even wore her Tinker Bell shirt to show her. Luckily we talked her out of showing off her Tinker Bell panties. I'd hate to be thrown out of Disneyland for indecent exposure.
Back on the horsies. By this time we figured out how to do the line ride. We would have Jonathan wait in line while we went on the teacups or the carousel, then when he got near the front we'd go tell the Cast Members that we had a "potty emergency", they'd let us go in through the exit and presto--No waiting in line for the little ones!
Lunch with Ariel in Ariel's Grotto was fun, even though it was just before we found out that Gwen's prescription was approved. It was expensive - the lunch, but very worth it and probably the fanciest meal I'v had in a year or more. The restaurant was much fancier than you would expect from a kid-friendly restaurant, and grown-ups so inclined could even order alcoholic drinks with dinner for an extra charge. Even the kids' menu was pretty fancy, with fancy pasta (rather than mac'n'cheese) and a "meatball lollipop", so the presentation was a bit intimidating.
Aside from the picture with Ariel at the entrance, they also had other princesses wandering through the restaurant, stopping at each table for more signatures and pictures. Emily LOVED the Princesses, and kept touching the soft costumes. Unfortunately, our still camera and been acting up lately, so it just shut off before we could get pictures with Belle, Cinderella, and Gwen's personal favorite: Mary Poppins, justified as "the princess of the chimney sweeps". Fortunately, we were able to record Belle spending more time on ornate curlicues than her actual name, Emily dumping her plate for Cinderella (Where are Gus and Jaq when you need them?), and Mary Poppins making sure that Gwen doesn't slouch and smiles for her mummy.
That night, after a long nap back in the motel and getting Gwen her miracle medicine, we watched the fireworks show. Gwen loved seeing Tinker Bell fly above the castle, but she got frightened when they started playing clips from the Haunted Mansion. Emily started falling apart soon after, but we were packed in pretty tight with the rest of the crowd on Main Street, so we couldn't go anywhere. Thankfully, we were able to pacify Emily with suckers, and Gwen just snuggled in during the rest of the fireworks. It's a good thing I've been working out so much recently because for most of the 25 minute firework show I had a daughter on each hip. 45 pounds of Gwen and 22 pounds of Emily gets REALLY heavy after a few minutes.
Jonathan's niece Kat came up and hung out with us on Friday. It was nice to have another set of hands to help wrangle the girls. It's kind of interesting to think that Gwen has a cousin who's about the same age as her Aunt Megan.
We had been trying to get Gwen interested in Dumbo's Flying Circus from day one, but each time we mentioned it she would get very adamant about not going. With Kat to help, we were finally able to get her to go on it, and as with all the other Fantasyland rides, she declared it to be fun a few seconds into the ride.
Back in California Adventure, we went to A Bug's Land, which had kiddie rides geared to even younger kids than Fantasyland. Emily fell asleep on the way over, which was nice. Situations like these were the only naps she got while we were at Disneyland, so she'd only nap for 15-20 minutes at a time twice a day, compared to her usual hour-and-a-half naps twice a day.
Jonathan and Gwen rode in the ladybugs. It was a lot like the teacups, except you couldn't turn the wheel in the middle to make your ladybug spin faster. Gwen was okay with that.
Heimlich's Chew-Chew Train. As the caterpillar-shaped train passed by the oversized-food scenery, they'd spray out scents of the represented food. The ride is very tame only going in a circle very slowly so it wasn't scary at all claimed Gwen.
Flik's Flyers involved food boxes on the arms of a centrifuge. It was fun for the girls to look out at the scenery and see how high up they were. This is a very MySpace-ish picture.Like I mentioned above, Grandma Rail had broken her wrist earlier in the week, so that put a damper on their vacation plans and they were home when we went to their house Friday night. We got to talk with them a little bit Friday night, and Jonathan found some storybooks that he grew up with that Grandpa was nice enough to let us take home. We had pancakes for breakfast, and they spent the morning watching Disney VHS tapes while Jonathan and I loaded up the car.
We left Grandma and Grandpa Rail's house around 11:00, and after filling up and grabbing some gas-station sandwiches for lunch, we were on our way. We were down to half a tank in Mesquite, so we filled up again there, then stopped at a Village Inn in St. George for dinner. Pushing onward, we made it to Springville before we had to fill up again, where we changed the girls into their PJs so we could take them straight from the van to their beds when we finally got home close to midnight. After all that vacation and the all-day drive, Sunday truly was a day of rest, but not enough before we had to go back to school and work on Monday.
We really could have used a vacation after our vacation.
