We got to have the most AMAZING vacation of our lives this month. My parents treated us all to a DISNEY CRUISE. It was to honor and remember my Grandpa
Madsen who passed away 2 years ago. After his death we began to plan this trip. Since he loved to travel and loved even more to take people on cruises, my parents thought that it would be great to take us all on a cruise. Over the last 2 years, I have saved and prayed to make it on this trip. Everything worked out and all of my sisters and all our kids and my parents were able to make it. Our family's trip started on Wednesday, October 12
th. I'm glad that we were able to fly down to California. Our voyage started at 4:00 in the morning when we woke up our girls and my nephew, who doesn't travel well by car, and lugged their tired little bodies to the van. My dad dropped us off at the airport and we had lots of fun playing with new princess toys while waiting for our flight.
Emily and Gwen love to have "plays" and "parades" with their toys.
Gwen loved being on an airplane. For months before our trip she'd make me tell her a story about what our trip would be like. We had to go over every detail step-by-step and if I started anywhere in the story except at the airport, she'd make me go back and start over.
Emily and Andrew holding hands across the aisle. So, how was the notoriously bad traveler, Andrew? Perfect for the flight, of course. The big stinker was Emily who screamed for the last entire 30 minutes of our flight. She's so 2 sometimes. The moment they told her she couldn't stand up and run around the plane and had to sit with her
seat belt on she freaked out. Even though she'd been sitting quietly playing for the entire hour prior to that.
My kids LOVE meeting the characters. We got each of them an autograph book and had fun running into different mean guys all over Disneyland. This is the Queen of Hearts.
Foul Fellow. Better known to our family as Honest John from
Pinocchio.
The girls dog-pile on Andrew. He's loving it and has the biggest grin on his face. At the end of the trip we had him for another day while his family made the trip home by car. Gwen asked if we could steal him and keep him for our brother. I guess she liked having him around.
We had lunch with Ariel and her princess friends at Ariel's Grotto. One of our favorite Disneyland traditions. Beats having to wait a couple hours in line to meet them plus the food is actually pretty yummy, not that the kids ever touch it.
Meeting Cinderella.
Snow White. Emily's favorite princess, can't you tell by that great grin? Try seeing if she smiled in any of our vacation pictures.
Princess Aurora
Princess Belle who actually kissed Emily straight full on the lips. Right after Emily hacked and coughed for a couple minutes - she was getting over a cold at the time. You could see this look of terror in Belle's eyes as she thought, "What have I done?".
Jessie the cowgirl. Emily wanted to know where her
Bulls Eye was. Apparently, 104 degrees is too hot for some of the Disney characters. Yes, over 100 degrees for Wednesday and Thursday at Disneyland. We all look a little like we're melting in our pictures. Jonathan's trying to give her a kiss on the cheek but he just looks a little bit creepy instead.
At the Playhouse Disney. Emily took her shoes and socks off and stunk up the place. My kids have the stinkiest feet. At least it was inside and cool for a moment.
Thursday morning we tried to wake up and get ready and be there early. We managed to make it there 5 minutes before the park opened. At least that meant that the line to meet the fairies was short. We only got to meet Tinkerbell which was a let down because usually you get to meet at least 3. Later on Thursday we met up with Jonathan's sister, Lisa and her daughter Kat. You'd think I would have thought to get a picture of or with them, but I guess not. We went to dinner with them that night at
Rainforest Cafe who have greatly improved their menu. We stayed late and watched
Fantasmic which Gwen deemed "mostly scary and a little not scary when the princesses and big boat came out".
Emily having a tantrum outside Mickey's house. You'd think by the second day she'd by more used to waiting in lines. She wasn't. Plus, in true 2-year-old fashion she didn't believe that things like fenced or barriers meant that she couldn't just climb over them and enjoy them from the other side.
Mickey Mouse. Somehow, I remember him being taller.
Minnie Mouse.
Waiting in line for Rapunzel was the longest line we did - about 40 minutes in mostly sunlight. We're trying to keep the kids from melting by having them sit in my shadow and eat frozen yogurt. We also bought a fan/squirt bottle that was a life saver that day.
Gwen wanted to tell Rapunzel all about how she's going to be in a play about her. Rapunzel asked her to come back and tell her how it went. Anyone up for another Disneyland trip in a couple months?
The Haunted Mansion all decked out for the Holidays. Jack and his friend's from Nightmare Before Christmas have taken over the mansion and made it a whole lot less scary for the kids.
Made me realize how close we really are to Christmas. YIKES! That was the scariest thing of all.
Marry Poppins. The girls got to wear their princess dresses I brought from home on our last day. I got them out the night before and let them see them - they were a surprise. Both the girls slept with them that night.
Going down Main Street toward the castle. We bought a stroller for Emily to use since the first day there she made me carry her instead of doing any walking by herself.
Ran into Aladdin after watching the
Tiki Room show.
Gwen's before picture at the
Bippity Boppity Boutique. It was worth the money to watch her have so much fun listening to her Fairy Godmother-in-Training and sit still to get her hair done.
She didn't even look like my little girl when it was over. She loved it and the hair-do lasted for 4 days until I got grossed out and made her wash it.
Tigger. We had to choose between getting Pooh to sign or
Tigger and
Eyeore. You can see who my kids and husband chose.
Eyeore. Jonathan's very favorite character.
I dragged, quite literally, Gwen onto Splash Mountain. She was so scared and made me hold her tight but after she declared that it was the funnest ride in Disneyland but she didn't want to go on it again with her daddy.
We went to the
Phenius and
Ferb dance party and I even got to be a part of it by
hoola-hooping it up for all the grown-ups out there. The kids got to learn all kinds of dances.
Jonathan's favorite thing to do was to leave me with the kids doing the little-kid rides while he ran off to ride the grown-up rides by himself. He got to ride all the ones he wanted to and the kids didn't have to wait around while he did. I guess I'll just have to wait a few more years until the girls are both big enough to go on all the big rides with me.
Emily and Gwen love to have "plays" and "parades" with their toys.
Gwen loved being on an airplane. For months before our trip she'd make me tell her a story about what our trip would be like. We had to go over every detail step-by-step and if I started anywhere in the story except at the airport, she'd make me go back and start over.
Emily and Andrew holding hands across the aisle. So, how was the notoriously bad traveler, Andrew? Perfect for the flight, of course. The big stinker was Emily who screamed for the last entire 30 minutes of our flight. She's so 2 sometimes. The moment they told her she couldn't stand up and run around the plane and had to sit with her seat belt on she freaked out. Even though she'd been sitting quietly playing for the entire hour prior to that.
My kids LOVE meeting the characters. We got each of them an autograph book and had fun running into different mean guys all over Disneyland. This is the Queen of Hearts.
Foul Fellow. Better known to our family as Honest John from Pinocchio.
The girls dog-pile on Andrew. He's loving it and has the biggest grin on his face. At the end of the trip we had him for another day while his family made the trip home by car. Gwen asked if we could steal him and keep him for our brother. I guess she liked having him around.
We had lunch with Ariel and her princess friends at Ariel's Grotto. One of our favorite Disneyland traditions. Beats having to wait a couple hours in line to meet them plus the food is actually pretty yummy, not that the kids ever touch it.
Meeting Cinderella.
Snow White. Emily's favorite princess, can't you tell by that great grin? Try seeing if she smiled in any of our vacation pictures.
Princess Aurora
Princess Belle who actually kissed Emily straight full on the lips. Right after Emily hacked and coughed for a couple minutes - she was getting over a cold at the time. You could see this look of terror in Belle's eyes as she thought, "What have I done?".
Jessie the cowgirl. Emily wanted to know where her Bulls Eye was. Apparently, 104 degrees is too hot for some of the Disney characters. Yes, over 100 degrees for Wednesday and Thursday at Disneyland. We all look a little like we're melting in our pictures. Jonathan's trying to give her a kiss on the cheek but he just looks a little bit creepy instead.
At the Playhouse Disney. Emily took her shoes and socks off and stunk up the place. My kids have the stinkiest feet. At least it was inside and cool for a moment.
Thursday morning we tried to wake up and get ready and be there early. We managed to make it there 5 minutes before the park opened. At least that meant that the line to meet the fairies was short. We only got to meet Tinkerbell which was a let down because usually you get to meet at least 3. Later on Thursday we met up with Jonathan's sister, Lisa and her daughter Kat. You'd think I would have thought to get a picture of or with them, but I guess not. We went to dinner with them that night at Rainforest Cafe who have greatly improved their menu. We stayed late and watched Fantasmic which Gwen deemed "mostly scary and a little not scary when the princesses and big boat came out".
Emily having a tantrum outside Mickey's house. You'd think by the second day she'd by more used to waiting in lines. She wasn't. Plus, in true 2-year-old fashion she didn't believe that things like fenced or barriers meant that she couldn't just climb over them and enjoy them from the other side.
Mickey Mouse. Somehow, I remember him being taller.
Minnie Mouse.
Waiting in line for Rapunzel was the longest line we did - about 40 minutes in mostly sunlight. We're trying to keep the kids from melting by having them sit in my shadow and eat frozen yogurt. We also bought a fan/squirt bottle that was a life saver that day.
Gwen wanted to tell Rapunzel all about how she's going to be in a play about her. Rapunzel asked her to come back and tell her how it went. Anyone up for another Disneyland trip in a couple months?
The Haunted Mansion all decked out for the Holidays. Jack and his friend's from Nightmare Before Christmas have taken over the mansion and made it a whole lot less scary for the kids.
Made me realize how close we really are to Christmas. YIKES! That was the scariest thing of all.
Marry Poppins. The girls got to wear their princess dresses I brought from home on our last day. I got them out the night before and let them see them - they were a surprise. Both the girls slept with them that night.
Going down Main Street toward the castle. We bought a stroller for Emily to use since the first day there she made me carry her instead of doing any walking by herself.
Ran into Aladdin after watching the Tiki Room show.
Gwen's before picture at the Bippity Boppity Boutique. It was worth the money to watch her have so much fun listening to her Fairy Godmother-in-Training and sit still to get her hair done.
She didn't even look like my little girl when it was over. She loved it and the hair-do lasted for 4 days until I got grossed out and made her wash it.
Tigger. We had to choose between getting Pooh to sign or Tigger and Eyeore. You can see who my kids and husband chose.
Eyeore. Jonathan's very favorite character.
I dragged, quite literally, Gwen onto Splash Mountain. She was so scared and made me hold her tight but after she declared that it was the funnest ride in Disneyland but she didn't want to go on it again with her daddy.
We went to the Phenius and Ferb dance party and I even got to be a part of it by hoola-hooping it up for all the grown-ups out there. The kids got to learn all kinds of dances.
Jonathan's favorite thing to do was to leave me with the kids doing the little-kid rides while he ran off to ride the grown-up rides by himself. He got to ride all the ones he wanted to and the kids didn't have to wait around while he did. I guess I'll just have to wait a few more years until the girls are both big enough to go on all the big rides with me.
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