Saturday, December 27, 2008

Still Alive...

Well, I'm still alive.

I know I didn't post any updates while in Disneyland... or after we got home in fact.


So, here it is.


Disneyland at Christmas time is magical. Let me tell you. I love Christmas period... but you know what, seeing Disneyland decorated from top to bottom with Christmas stuff is something to see. Speaking of seeing, you can see Cinderella's castle right here... its covered in snow and icicle lights... Its amazing to see in person...


Speaking of decorations... Here is one that I took a picture of in California Adventure park. There were wreaths, balls, lights, etc everywhere! I loved it.


You all know how worried I was about the weather... well, in the end, we didn't have to deal with too much bad stuff.





Sunday when we got down there, it wasn't too bad... but we weren't going into the park either, so it didn't really matter much.


Monday, we woke up to rain. It was a light spitting of rain... so it wasn't too bad. We wore our ponchos and hats... and dealt with it for the two hours that it really rained good. For the rest of the day, it was a hit and miss of sprinkles.


I was glad I shelled out $5 for each of us to be covered... not to mention $15 for a plastic stroller cover so Zach rode in style around the park... that got us a bunch of looks - mostly from other parents who didn't have the cool cover to keep their kids from getting wet! lol Actually, both Derek and I were a bit worried we'd find out stroller missing it at some point... but we were all good.


Tuesday was a beautiful day in the OC. The picture of the decoration above was taken on Tuesday... there were the beautiful fluffy white clouds and blue skies... no rain at all. It was even a bit warm after walking around for a while.





Tuesday night after spending the day in California Adventure park, we went back into Disneyland. Right when we walked in, we ran into Minnie coming out to visit people. We were so lucky with all the characters we just happened to see... literally. Zach actually got to meet Buzz Lightyear by chance. Let me tell you, he was estatic!!


I'm so glad that we covered both parks in the first two days there... and did almost all the rides (Rowan is such a dare devil!!) and attractions possible... because Wednesday, we woke up to some HORRIBLE weather.

The rain was coming down in buckets... and the wind. Gah, the wind was horrible. Something like 30 mph gusts!! It was a struggle to walk from our hotel, across a parking lot... to the other hotel for breakfast.

The rain wouldn't have been too bad if it hadn't been so windy... we would have stuck it out... but in the end, we just hung out in our hotel room for a few hours. We eventually did leave... to do some shopping in Downtown Disney and made our way into Disneyland park.

We had dinner at "The Blue Bayou" restaurant there... which was interesting in itself... the service happened to be horrible... but the food was okay. The idea of eating inside the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride was cool though...

Thursday was the day we headed home... and as we were getting ready, D's brother called him to say that the Grapevine - the hills between Disneyland and home - main connector for Southern and Central Cali, was closed due to snow. I ended up calling one of the trucking companies we deal with at work to get the low down... and sure enough it was closed and wasn't expected to open until around 12pm!

This was at 9am.

So, instead of waiting around for 4 hours... to see if it was really going to open or not... we decided to go ahead and take the long route home... hit up 101 and went through Santa Barbara, Pismo, San Luis Obispo and onward home.

It took us 8.5 hours... instead of the normal 5.5-6 hours.

Thankfully, our kids were amazing. We stopped about every two hours and stretched our legs and used the restroom... they both napped once and also watched a movie. I was amazed they didn't complain until the very end...

It was a wonderful time...

I'm extremely happy we went... even with the unfavorable weather.

Disneyland is STILL my favorite place ever... and I can't wait to go back. Whenever that will be... LOL

6 comments:

Bridgett said...

I knew some of the details of your trip, but not the super specifics, so I'm happy to read this.

It really sounds like an incredible time. I hope to go there one day. I've been to Disney World, but it was such a long time ago.

One of these days my family will go. :)

Maybe we can all go together!!!!

XOXO

Remo said...

I'm glad you had a good time. They certainly do Christmas right, eh?

Kaileigh said...

I LOVE Disneyland at Christmas! I haven't been (at Christmas) since I was a kid, so I'd love to see it again. Truly a magical place!

- said...

I'm glad you had a great time! I have tons of photos from DisneyWorld.
I'll be posting them later or tomorrow. I didn't bring my camera to work.

The castle lighting ceremony is similar...our was a little different though.

Theresa said...

I mam not sure the difference between Disneyland and Disney World but I know it was a blast for us! I would loove to spend Christmas in Disney, atleast the day after Christmas or something, I heard it is just beautiful there. Glad you had a wonderful time but sorry to hear ofr the long route home, that always sucks!

Heather said...

That is awesome. I have been at Christmas time, but it never gets old. It is just gorgeous. I am glad the weather sort-of cooperated.