Wes had the boys wear their Devils shirts for good luck for the first day of March Madness. Naturally there were a lot of Arizona folks at Disneyland, so Wes trained the boys to flash their "Go Devils" pitch fork sign every time they saw a Sun Devil or U of A Wildcat shirt. It made for some fun banter along the way.
The whole crew- Me, Sophie, Kelcee, Karla, DB, Jake, Kari, and Wes. (Don't ask me why I am standing like I am about to perform in a Rockettes show because I don't know.)
Just moments prior to Sophie's terrifying encounter with a 3-D Lion.
Soul mates: Wes' cousin Kelcee and Jake in front of the Matterhorn. Don't they look like siblings? It has come to my attention that there is not a very reliable correlation between money spent on entertainment for my kids and their level of excitement.
To illustrate my point, this Spring Break we took the kids to Disneyland for three days (Admission: $560- can't think about hotel, gas, and food right now), bought them each a colorful bouncy ball (25 cents each), and had Kacee's dog "Cookie" come over for a few days (free).
They were almost equally excited about all three of these things. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret the trip, especially since we got to spend lots of time with some of our favorite people - Karla, Kari, and Kelcee. (Thank you for your help!) We created a lot of great family memories and we will likely be talking about Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain for years to come. Our family was totally overdue to get out of town, so we are happy we did it. Just a word to the wise though, try the bouncy balls or the puppy first if you want to save some money and hassle. You never know.
Having said that, there were plenty of notable highlights of our trip. We learned a few new tricks, like that you should ride the Monorail and get off at the Disneyland Hotel stop to eat lunch or dinner in their plaza. The food is better and cheaper there and it is a welcome respite to the crowds. Also, the Anaheim Plaza Hotel is a relative bargain and a decent place to stay, but doesn't show up on hotel search sites for some reason. And finally, don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day at Disneyland. It is better to risk getting pinched than to have your kid wearing the same color as a hundred thousand other kids. {Tangent Alert..}I have to say though that Wes was pretty proud that he did not see a single duplicate all day of his "Irish you would kiss me" shirt. The down side - the guy at the admission gate was thinking about it.
I also learned some things about my kids. I can't tell how much is just her personality or her age, but Sophie has a very literal mind, which is not a good thing in a place so reliant on make believe. For example, her stress reaction was pretty much the same when we went through the giant whale's mouth on the Storybook Ride, as it would be for me if I was actually getting swallowed by a whale. And on the Jungle Cruise, she really thought the monkeys were shooting at us. The 3-D shows were a terrifying experience as well. I kept reassuring her as we would approach each ride, that this one wasn't scary, but inadvertently lied several times. She didn't like Buzz Lightyear, Pirates, and certainly not Matterhorn. It really worked to her disadvantage that she is so young, but so long-legged, leaving more ride options for her than she would have liked. She did finally decide that she likes the spinning rides that take place in broad sunlight and were easy on the characters. Dumbo was about the limit for her.
The boys on the other hand, are pretty much at their Disneyland peak. They love the roller coasters and fall for all the scary stunts in other rides- but not so much that they are permanently damaged, and they still dig the characters. Dylan was thrilled to be able to get on almost every ride this visit. He has grown about six inches since his first trip two years ago. He was still a hair shy of riding Indiana Jones and got a real stickler for a height checker, so give Karla and Kari points for ingenuity as they shoved a couple of granola bars in his shoes. He was reluctantly granted admittance the second time around. The melted chocolate that leaked all over his socks - totally worth it! That kid loves a thrill. Jake is all about the speed and claims Splash Mountain as his favorite. He was "totally glad" that he rode Tower of Terror, but made it clear that he never needs to again, only because the line is too long of course.
To illustrate my point, this Spring Break we took the kids to Disneyland for three days (Admission: $560- can't think about hotel, gas, and food right now), bought them each a colorful bouncy ball (25 cents each), and had Kacee's dog "Cookie" come over for a few days (free).
They were almost equally excited about all three of these things. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret the trip, especially since we got to spend lots of time with some of our favorite people - Karla, Kari, and Kelcee. (Thank you for your help!) We created a lot of great family memories and we will likely be talking about Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain for years to come. Our family was totally overdue to get out of town, so we are happy we did it. Just a word to the wise though, try the bouncy balls or the puppy first if you want to save some money and hassle. You never know.
Having said that, there were plenty of notable highlights of our trip. We learned a few new tricks, like that you should ride the Monorail and get off at the Disneyland Hotel stop to eat lunch or dinner in their plaza. The food is better and cheaper there and it is a welcome respite to the crowds. Also, the Anaheim Plaza Hotel is a relative bargain and a decent place to stay, but doesn't show up on hotel search sites for some reason. And finally, don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day at Disneyland. It is better to risk getting pinched than to have your kid wearing the same color as a hundred thousand other kids. {Tangent Alert..}I have to say though that Wes was pretty proud that he did not see a single duplicate all day of his "Irish you would kiss me" shirt. The down side - the guy at the admission gate was thinking about it.
I also learned some things about my kids. I can't tell how much is just her personality or her age, but Sophie has a very literal mind, which is not a good thing in a place so reliant on make believe. For example, her stress reaction was pretty much the same when we went through the giant whale's mouth on the Storybook Ride, as it would be for me if I was actually getting swallowed by a whale. And on the Jungle Cruise, she really thought the monkeys were shooting at us. The 3-D shows were a terrifying experience as well. I kept reassuring her as we would approach each ride, that this one wasn't scary, but inadvertently lied several times. She didn't like Buzz Lightyear, Pirates, and certainly not Matterhorn. It really worked to her disadvantage that she is so young, but so long-legged, leaving more ride options for her than she would have liked. She did finally decide that she likes the spinning rides that take place in broad sunlight and were easy on the characters. Dumbo was about the limit for her.
The boys on the other hand, are pretty much at their Disneyland peak. They love the roller coasters and fall for all the scary stunts in other rides- but not so much that they are permanently damaged, and they still dig the characters. Dylan was thrilled to be able to get on almost every ride this visit. He has grown about six inches since his first trip two years ago. He was still a hair shy of riding Indiana Jones and got a real stickler for a height checker, so give Karla and Kari points for ingenuity as they shoved a couple of granola bars in his shoes. He was reluctantly granted admittance the second time around. The melted chocolate that leaked all over his socks - totally worth it! That kid loves a thrill. Jake is all about the speed and claims Splash Mountain as his favorite. He was "totally glad" that he rode Tower of Terror, but made it clear that he never needs to again, only because the line is too long of course.
2 comments:
I'm glad you had a fun trip! You deserved it. If you need a more permanent solution for "puppy entertainment" I can have Powder on a one way flight within the hour. Only if you want though.
Every time I read your blog I am #1 totally entertained and reminded how much I love you and #2 shocked about how paralell our lives are! When we took Jack at age two he was tall enough to ride anything in the park. We therefore felt compelled to force him on every ride in an effort to get our money's worth. I honestly think he will be in therapy when he is twenty five and space mountain will be discussed at length. He got to where he wouldn't walk with us into the ice cream shops because he wasn't sure what we'd strap him to in there. He also one time puked so abundantly on Star Tours that the ride had to be closed down, and declared a biohazard until they could get a special team in to clean it. Jack got hauled to the crappy staff bathroom behind the scenes to finish puking and to this day all he remembers about the trip was "the REAL star wars potty" My final conclusion on Disneyland: skip it. The beach is free and the kids enjoy it a thousand times more.
Post a Comment