Dan and I have been talking about going to Disneyland for a little while now. The kids have developed an unhealthy fascination with the over-commercialized cartoon characters - with Little H's love of the princesses (despite my best efforts to push her in the opposite direction), and Buster knowing all the names of Mickey and his friends
and preferring the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song to any traditional lullaby at bedtime. So really, what better way to exhibit excellent parenting skills than to feed their obsessions, right? And on a more selfish note, I've never been before, either.
Dan had a conference in Las Vegas at the beginning of the week, so the kids and I tagged along. It made the perfect cover in surprising the kids with a trip to the Magic Kingdom. It really is quite the place. Each day seemed like a whirlwind, and each night we all passed out in our filthy clothes, too tired to move. (Sleeping in our clothes actually worked in our favor, since the hotel turned out to be lacking a laundry room.)
On the first day, we accidentally put Little H on a roller coaster. How were we supposed to know that Thunder Mountain might be a little scary? It looked like a train ride, and she met the height requirements, plus Dan went with her. It kind of set the tone for the rest of the trip as far as what rides she was willing to go on. Not too high, and not to fast... It seemed that meeting the characters was her favorite part, anyway.
There was so much to do there. I don't think it can be covered in three days. Plus it was super-crowded on Friday and Saturday. At one point, when I was holding Little H's hand in a huge crowd of people, I looked down to see her wiping her face on my shirt. I said, "Gross, are you wiping your nose on my shirt?" She motioned me closer to her and seriously whispered, "I'm not wiping my nose. It's just that my face accidentally ran into that lady's butt." I'm so glad I don't have to worry about that. What an unfortunate height.
As an added bonus, we got to spend some time with the kids' California cousins and Washington grandparents, and I think they enjoyed that even more than Disneyland. On Saturday morning, John and Kelsi took us out to Balboa where we bought overpriced taffy made in SLC and found the home of the 'original' Frozen Banana. Arrested Development doesn't do the area justice. It was a very nice place.
Overall, my favorite part of Disneyland was dinner in Goofy's kitchen. Little H got to meet a couple princesses, Buster fell in love with Pluto, and Dan and I got to sit down. The trip was great, and we hope to go again sometime, like when we won't need to bring a stroller and the kids are tall enough to go on the bigger rides. That will probably give us just enough time to recover.