Disneyland

This past Wednesday went to Disneyland using our free tickets from the Give a Day, Get a Day promotion. Boy did we have fun! We went on a Wed. because my kids have a min. day every Wed., so I figured they wouldn't be missing that much school. Tuesday night we drove down to my dad's and spent the night there (he's only 30 min. away, and we are 1 hour from his house). We got there right when the park opened and stayed until it closed. It was the PERFECT day to go. We walked on to almost every ride all day long. The longest we had to wait for anything was for the Matterhorn, and even that was only a 30 min. wait--that's nothing for Disneyland standards.

standing in line for Splash Mountain

The kids were so excited, that they wanted to do everything within the first 5 min. When we were here back in Nov., the kids really wanted to go on Star Tours, but the line was hideously long. So that was the very first thing they did. While they were on that, I went on the Rockets with Rainer. He absolutely loves that ride.

We kind of took the park by sections, so since we started off in Tomorrowland we did all the rides in that area first. Robert hadn't been on the newly renovated Space Mountain, so we made sure we went on that. Robert and the kids practically walked onto the ride

and sat in the very front car. Robert said it felt like they were flying because you can't see where you are going and you have no one in front of you to see when the turns are coming.

Of course, what is a trip to Disneyland without a ride on Autopia?

Mason rode by himself. Rainer went with Robert and Amanda wasn't quite tall enough to drive the car by herself, so I worked the gas and she steered.

Mason and Amanda ended up going on almost every ride twice because Robert and I used the Switch Pass. One parent would go on the ride with the older two, while the other parent would wait with Rainer (or take him on a ride) and then we would switch who watched Rainer. Depending on how long the wait time was for a ride, would determine whether we had time to take Rainer on a ride or

just play with the big marble.

It took three or four tries for us to ride Indiana Jones because it kept breaking down throughout the day. But finally, we were able to ride it, and then just before the park closed,

Robert and the kids rode it again. For those of you that know the ride, Mason was proud that he went on all three tracks in one day. The last two hours we were there I didn't go on any rides because

Rainer fell asleep in the Tiki Room. Poor guy. He was so exhausted. So I put him in the sling and carried him around while Robert and the other kids went on rides.

When the morning chill had worn off and the sun was nice and high in the sky Robert and the kids went on Splash Mountain. I took Rainer on the Winnie-the-Pooh ride while we waited for them and then when we were done, we went and saw

Tigger! He was so happy to see Tigger and Eeyore. Had I been thinking I would have video taped it instead of simply taking a picture. Rainer gave Tigger the biggest hug I have ever seen!

Robert was "The Chosen One" all day. If ever there was a ride that we could all go on together as a family, then Rainer wanted to be with his dad and sit with him. When we went in November, Rainer was about an 1/8 of an inch too short to ride the Matterhorn. But this time around he was more than tall enough. Of course, Rainer wanted to sit with his dad on the ride, and Robert, being the good father that he is, captured Rainer's first experience of ever going on a roller coaster on video.

Can you spot the moment when the horror sets in?

Now, just so you don't think we are horrible, awful parents, we asked him if he wanted to go on the ride and he said, "Yes." We also told him what he could expect (that it goes very fast, there's a snow monster, but he would be safe) and he still wanted to go on it.

At one point, Robert and Rainer broke off from the rest of us and went into Fantasyland, while the rest of us went on bigger kid type rides. I know they at least did Alice in Wonderland,

and Casey Jr.'s train.

We got there when it opened and left when it closed. We were all pretty tired at the end of the day, but in a good way. We had so much fun and it was something that the kids had really wanted to do. Even Rainer was excited to go because he remembered going back in November and would just out of the blue start talking about when we went to Disneyland. What an incredible opportunity to do something like this as a family.