Swimming and a Big Blur

Too bad there is a big huge fingerprint on the lens of my camera!  Otherwise, these pics would be awesome!  Eh, I'll share anyway.

 The kids have already gone swimming a handful of times already, but this was the first time I went swimming with them-woohoo!  I didn't get all the way in, and Jackson went in for a nap since I knew he wouldn't do super well with the cooler water, but it was certainly a sign of the impending heat that summer is already starting to usher in!

 Super excited to have a table and chairs in the backyard now-we are already looking forward to barbecue dinner and just jumping in the pool for night swims.

A Smart Cookie

It took us a while to find Jackson today.  We finally found him in Jared's closet, with the curtain pulled shut.  He was digging into a basket of candy that I had forgotten to put back on the shelf-smart boy!

In Lieu of Science Camp: The Grand Plans for Disneyland!

**Well, this is going to be a long story.  I will break it up into 3 sections, just to make it easier.  Remember, I warned you!

About 4 months ago, Jared and I had a serious conversation.  We were both feeling major reservations about sending Karianna to 5th grade science camp.  We had put my name down a long time ago as a chaperone-literally the only way I felt comfortable sending Karianna.  We had talked to several other parents.  We had read all the info that was sent home to understand the travel and safety protocols involved.  Regardless, we could never quiet the uneasiness: we both felt like she shouldn't go, for multiple reasons.  The biggest issue was doing an overnighter.  The more I thought about it, the more I disagreed with sending a 10 year old on her first overnighter, for 2 nights, with a school group that was doing science camp, as a 3 day excursion, for the first time in a long time.  After many long talks as a family and with Karianna's teacher, we decided to keep her home.  With that decision, we also decided we would take Karianna on a special outing, just Jared, myself, and her.  We knew we were asking her to miss out on something fun, and we didn't want her to just sit at home or in a 4th grade classroom doing nothing.

Thus, the idea of going to Disneyland was born.

Once we decided it was doable, we started to make plans.  We scheduled my mom to babysit the other kids.  We arranged for time off from both of our jobs.  We booked a hotel, researched Disney tickets, and made travel plans.  We knew it would be a whirlwind of a trip, but we also knew it would be filled with amazing memories for Karianna, especially since it was just her and us.

With this planning also came an extremely high degree of secrecy.

We told no one all of our plans, except my mom.  3 others knew generally where we were going, but not all of the specifics, and those people were sworn to secrecy.  We told Karianna we were going to do something that day, all day, but not what.  We did a really good job keeping this secret:  she had no idea.  Her best guess was going to the Grand Canyon for the day.  We started speaking in code: we told her we were going to Yuma to feed the homeless.  Now, don't get me wrong, that would be a great project, but she knew that really wasn't it, it was just our way of building up the anticipation without actually giving it away.  We slipped a few times....thankfully, Karianna never noticed, and the secret was safe.

We cleaned a lot the two weeks before the impending trip. I systematically gutted out all the rooms, closets, toys, etc to make things easier for my mom to babysit.  I quietly packed items without Karianna noticing-she had no idea we were planning to be gone more than a day, much less cross state lines.  The night before, Karianna went to bed around 10pm, knowing we would likely leave early the next morning.  She packed her rainbow loom stuff in a bag, just so she would have something to do in the car.

Little did she know we would wake her up at 1:15AM on Monday morning to get dressed, grab a pillow and blanket, and climb in the car to start driving.

It played in our favor that she was so tired that she slept most of the way-she never saw the signs when we crossed the border into California, she never saw the license plates, or the freeway signs announcing we were heading towards Los Angeles.  She woke up when we got stuck in major traffic for an hour and a half (oh, that was annoying!), but we gave her the Fire Kindle we have been holding onto for her Christmas present (long story), and she was overly engaged/excited about that to notice our hooded conversations about changing our breakfast plans to head straight to Disney.

After a few wrong turns, we saw our first signs of Disney on the street signs directing us towards the parking lot.  We admit-we were excited!  We told Karianna to close her eyes, and eventually, to hide under her blanket.  We were afraid the parking garage attendant would welcome us to Disneyland, so we had her cover her ears as we paid our parking fee.  We got all the way to the main, uncovered lot before having Karianna open her eyes and get out of the car.  With the video camera on, we asked her to look around and see if she could find any clues for where we were.  She noticed the Pinocchio parking signs, but she told us flat out, she still had no idea where we were.

Jared and I were so stoked!  She still had no idea whatsoever that we were even out of AZ, and we had long since told her and the kids Disney was just not going to be possible as a family vacation, as it is so expensive.  Her mind would have never considered Disney!  It still makes me smile to think of the excitement that was in the air!

I handed her one last clue: a gift bag with a custom made shirt that said, alongside a picture of Minnie Mouse:  "I'm going to Disney!"  Karianna read it, looked up at us with an astonished expression on her face, and freaked out!

She could not believe we were at Disneyland!  She could not believe we were in California!  She could not believe we were staying in a hotel and going to the ocean the next day! She could not believe I had packed without her knowing!  Needless to say-she was shocked, and those looks on her face are completely precious to me.  Karianna is growing up way too fast-I fear I am missing out on moments with her, especially when I get wrapped up with the other, younger kids....I forget she needs me and Jared just as much as ever.  I think we were heroes in her eyes, in that moment.  I knew at that point, our planning and scheming had been worth it, and we were so excited to get out mini-vacation underway!

In Lieu of Science Camp: Disneyland!

This post contains 59 pictures, and that is wheedling it way down from what I have on my SD card!  So I'll just annotate this reel, which starts when we stood in line waiting to purchase tickets.

 Since we had to skip breakfast due to traffic, we had plans of getting our tickets, running to the bathroom real quick, jumping on one big ride before lines kicked in, and then grabbing breakfast somewhere on Disney Main Street.  We hopped on the tram, pointing out some of the sites to Karianna-she totally reverted to a part of her younger self, exclaiming over all the Disney logos and characters that we saw in store fronts on the way.  Just riding the tram makes me seriously excited!

 We waited in line for maybe 3 minutes to buy tickets, and then for about 15 minutes to actually get through the gates into the park.

 We were really excited to get on a ride, but we took a few quick pics of the traditional Mickey face in flowers before diving onto Main Street.

 We meant to find a restroom, but we just couldn't find one fast enough, so we ended up in line for Star Tours right off the bat-not a bad way to start!  They totally redid this ride, and the 3D quality of it was AMAZING!  I don't remember this ride being one of my favorites, but man, it shot right up there!  Karianna was beyond excited-this was a great way to start our visit! And since you are wondering, no one peed their pants, although there was a really high likelihood of that happening.

 We started playing the Fast Pass game and grabbed passed at Space Mountain.  While waiting for those to activate, we did the Toy Story ride-Jared creamed Karianna and I at the laser tag game!  We finally found a restroom after that, took some shots of Walt, Mickey, and the castle, and then found some breakfast.  We had the absolute yummiest grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup I have ever had in my life.  Totally unconventional as a breakfast, but Karianna and I were in love.

 The matterhorn unfortunately was closed, along with Peter Pan and Indiana Jones.  That made us sad, but there was so much to do, we didn't really notice.

 With breakfast out of the way and our bladders empty, we bounced from ride to ride, maximizing our fast passes and running across the park multiple times until we had to stop to eat something again.  We got 2 hours into it before the adrenaline wore off and both Jared and I started to get really, really tired.  I literally got no sleep the night before, and while Jared got a few hours, he was just as sleepy.  When the weariness hit, we went on Pirates or Small World to rest a bit-jumping on a rollar coaster right after was usually enough to give us a second, third, fourth, etc. wind!  I'll let the pics speak for themselves with a few annotations:

Space Mountain-Karianna's first ever roller coaster! She said she closed her eyes the entire time, but loves whipping through the air with the wind in her face!  She sat next to me, and I held on to her for dear life-the girl is so thin, I was afraid that bar wouldn't protect her as much as it should!

 Love Jared's face, I just looked excited, and Karianna looks like she is hanging on for dear life-and enjoying it!

 We honestly did not search for Disney characters.  We saw maybe 6 or 7 of them, but we didn't attempt any pictures with them as there were usually lines of kids waiting for pics, and we just wanted to go on rides.  So the few pics you see in this reel are literally the only ones we bothered to take.

 Waiting in line for Thunder Mountain-this turned out to be Karianna's absolute favorite ride and roller coaster. She says she liked seeing where she was going, and feeling like she was about to die, but not really ever getting close.  I"m not sure what to think of the latter assessment, but she loved this ride, and thanks to fast passes, we never waited for more than 15 minutes.

 We attempted splash mountain three times-the first time, we were in line when they announced the ride was closing for repairs. The second time, the ride has reopened, but was closing again-thankfully, we didn't get in line, though we had fast passes and were annoyed we couldn't use them.  Thankfully, the workers said we could ignore the time frame and use them whenever the ride reopened-which we did about an hour after.

 I can't recall if this is in Pirates, or the Haunted Mansion, but I'll jump in to say the Haunted Mansion scared me and Karianna for the first few minutes, after which is just became fun and cool to see all the details.  The ride stopped a few times, once at the end with the mirrors that project a ghost's face into your car with you-karianna refused to look at that, as she doesn't like the combo of ghosts and mirrors....neither do I!

 Taking a break to listen to "It's a Small World" over and over :) I actually really enjoy this ride-I like its relaxing nature, and I love the scenes-I am always so impressed with the detail!  Karianna and I spent the ride finding all the Disney characters in the various scenes-I never realized they were hidden in there!

 Love the castle!  Karianna was in awe, she said she had no idea it was actually that big!

 We stopped for a quick lunch and bathroom break, grabbing sandwiches and burgers.  I lined up four chairs in a row and laid down for about 10 minutes while the other two ate. As weird as that might sound, it gave me a great boost of energy that served me well for the rest of the afternoon!  karianna was super excited we let her get a soda-that is a rare occurence!

 I always love the Jungle Cruise, and our tour guide was really funny (though I think some of the humor was lost on Karianna).  Another fairly relaxing ride, and the animal scenes are always great!

 At some point, I got really good at taking pictures while riding Thunder Mountain-I love these next few shots for the pure exciting on everyone's faces-and especially, Karianna's various reactions!

 A peek at the scenery in Pirates-Karianna really loved this ride!

Woohoo, karianna got brave enough to raise a hand in the air!!!!

 My absolute favorite shot of the day-going down a Thunder Mountain drop!

 Thunder Mountain was redone to include a dynamite explosion at the top of the last  big climb-pretty awesome!

 We saw the riverboat and the pirate ship go by, which was great!

 We finally got on splash mountain-Karianna was the most nervous about this ride, as she was scared of the big drop and getting wet.  Jared was close to wearing a garbage sack we brought, as he HATES getting wet, but at the end of the day, he declined and we just put my shoulder bag in the garbage sack.  I sat in the back, and while I thought i would get soaked, I barely got wet, thank heavens! the lady in the very front of the car got completely soaked-it was so crazy!!!!  While Karianna barely got wet as well, she did not like the huge drop and with the force of it, she felt like she was falling out of the car (I literally had my hands on her waist to make sure that did not happen by some odd, freak occurrence!). She liked the parts of the ride that just had you floating, but she did not like that fall, and as such, didn't want to go on it again. No worries-we had plenty of other things to see!

 That guy in front of Jared is crazy!!!!  If you look close, I think everyone looks like they are having fun!

 We went on this quick astro-blaster a few times-Jared declined originally, thinking it was just a little kid ride, but I convinced him to go on it the second time-and he loved it!  It goes higher than you think, and it is nice to see the whole view of the park from that height without speeding through a roller coaster!

 Second favorite picture of the day!

 Scenery from the Astro Blaster!

 We had a goal of doing 20 rides/attractions during our stay.  We hit 20, on the button!  We went on space mountain one final time after fast passes ended, and waited for about 30 minutes....bleh.  Didn't like that wait, it was the longest wait of the day and we were just plain old tired.  For me, doing Space Mountain that last time was a great finale to the big rides.  Jared and Karianna both felt it was a little too rough, and felt a little sick afterwards, which is why we decided to not wait in the thunder Mountain ride for one final time-plus, it got way busier with CA Adventure closing an hour before disney.  Instead, we hiked up through Tarzan's treehouse for our final attraction-I have never done that before!  It was neat to see the details, and that got a lot higher than I was expecting as well!

Once we left the treehouse, we decided to call it quits with about 20 minutes left until the park officially closed.  We climbed on the tram and found our car in a quickly-emptying parking lot.  We zipped over to our hotel to check in real quick, and then climbed back in the car for breakfast-dinner at Cocos.  We will never, ever go to that restaurant again.  It was terrible.  Granted we were tired and ready to go to bed, but even on my best day, dinner was miserable.  We waited 40 minutes for our food, with no one checking in on us or refilling our drinks which we quickly emptied.  Only about a fourth/third of the tables were filled.  our water disappeared after he put in our order-just disappeared.  Once someone else finally brought our food out, I couldn't even eat most of mine:  my cold eggs had a rubberly film over them, my waffle was burnt to a golden brown crisp (no softness inside whatsoever), Jared's pancakes were dark brown, Karianna's sausage was light grey and only just barely warm, and the toast was completely dry-no butter or anything.  Even though everything in me screamed to complain, we just wanted to go to sleep-plus, no one was in the dining area to even complain to!  So we choked down what we could, paid our ridiculous bill, and got out of there as fast as we could.  So again, we will never eat at Cocos again.

That was the only downside to the day!  The bed in our hotel room was blissful.  Karianna has her own room, but opted to sleep on the couch in ours.  The room itself was not the best-old, and the water came out in little bubbles rather than actual liquid-it was weird.  But it was right across the street from Disney, and given the status of the amazing bed, it was a good way to end the day.

20 rides, 2 meals, 1 snack, 2 bathroom breaks in 12 hours, a 7 1/2 hour drive (thanks, CA freeways) a 45 minute nap for Rachel in the car, a 3 hour on-and-off nap for Jared in the car, a 40 minute wait for dinner, and a 30 dollar dinner bill  LATER-and we were done with our Disneyland excursion.  Whew!  I can't believe we squeezed all that in on such little sleep!  It was magical though, mostly because of karianna's reactions and excitement. These bonding experiences are so irreplaceable-i feel so blessed.