Sunday, January 19, 2014

2013 Disney Vacation

In October, after all the busyness of the Clearwater summer season, we finally drove away and 3 days later we were in Utah.  We moved into our house (by the way, we bought a house in Morgan, Utah--it is my parents old house and we are very happy that we won't be moving out in the spring and will be coming back to the same house after the next summer in Minnesota).  I finally talked Adam into using our sky miles rather than driving to California after having just driven to Utah, so we headed off on vacation to meet up with most of Adam's family this time.  We decided not to tell the kids where we were going.  We did a pretty good job of not telling the kids, and most everyone else did too.  A couple close calls, but I don't think they picked up on anything.
Here is the video of how the surprise went.  I guess we thought they would react a little more, but at least they were happy.   At least until we actually went to Disneyland Brock was happy, then he decided after just one ride that he wanted to go back to the hotel.  I guess we should get a less appealing motel next time, because the whole time all Brock wanted to do was go home or back to the hotel to play legos and swim in the pool.  He even liked some rides and would say so, but when asked if he wanted to go again he would just say no.  I hope it is just a phase he gets over since this family is pretty keen on Disney trips.

Ady, on the other hand, made our vacation planning and saving for feel much more worth it.  She loved going on rides, waving at all the characters in the parades, and wearing her Rapunzel dress pretty much everyday so that she could be called a Princess wherever she went.  We went to a Character Breakfast with the Princesses. "It was always my dream to meet a real princess" she says.   Here are a few pictures from our trip:
Character meets:  Brock was pretty shy, but he was mostly shy of the pretty girls.  Ady just loved meeting all her favorite Movie Stars!
 Grandma's Wild Ride was with Ady, not Toad.
Here is Grandpa with all the grandkids on Jungle Cruise.

 We had Breakfast with the Princesses.  We are glad we did, it was one of Ady's favorite things and Brock was pretty funny too with so many pretty princesses.  And the food was pretty good too.

 Ady was selected to Jedi Training with her cousin Tyson.  She did awesome fighting Darth Maul!

 The new Cars Town was awesome and the new Cars ride was probably our favorite (along with toy story mania), too bad it had such long lines, we only went a couple times.   The other rides are fun too.  Even Mater and Lighting McQueen made special appearances.

 This is Adam and me right before sunset at the California Adventure Park.   We are really glad that we could go with family and that they even let us go on some rides without the kids.
Brock did love the Iron Man Exhibit.  He was pretty serious about trying on Iron Man's suit and shooting with his hands.  Did I mention he wore his Iron Man Costume pretty much the whole time.  We couldn't pry the kids Costumes off them.  Oh well, we were on vacation doing what we want, right?

Ady loved the parades and seeing all the characters, good thing Aunt Whitney was there to wave and be excited with her and Oakley since Adam and I, well, let's just say that we don't mind watching college kids in costumes wave at us, we just really like the rides more.

 Here's Brock in his usual face!  He probably had just told us for the hundredth time he wanted to go back to the hotel!  I really hope next time we go that he will like Disney enough to want to stay there.