Disney Day 6 & Travels

Thursday morning we were ready for a long, fun day in the park. Olivia and Makenzie really wanted to go through Aurora's castle to get inside, which is always a hit. We forgot to do the little walk through that they have, but that will be on the list for next time. The pictures are a little out of order, but here we are after we walked in...

Super Grandpa! There are so many pictures of Alex and I not carrying anything or pushing anything, it's really amazing. We had so much help throughout the entire trip and are so grateful for it!

This was actually the first picture of the day, I made everyone take a classic Disney group shot in our Beaver gear...Beavs in Disneyland!

I just love this quote...and it perfectly describes walking under the bridge and coming up into the world of disney and magic.

The first ride of the day was Finding Nemo. This ride will be on the skip list for next time, it was our super long line ride, and I'm not sure it lived up to it. The kids were entertained in line with tops and I spy, which worked the entire trip.

At one point Alex hopped out of line to change a diaper, and ran into some storm troopers!

Makenzie was our queue holder this time. I remember last time we were here (when Olivia was 3) that we couldn't get her to stop running her hands on every chain and barrier as we walked by. This time it was totally Makenzie, but our relaxing attitude towards parenting and germs made me not so paranoid about everything she was touching. We tried to remember to sanitize or wash before every meal, but I can't even guarantee we were 100% successful on that one...everyone survived though!

I'm not actually sure where these guys were during this picture, we had split up. I think maybe Alice in Wonderland? Our family skipped most of those Fantasyland rides after Mr. Toad's Wild Ride the first day, which was a little creepy for all of the kids. Next time we will hit Peter Pan for sure, but I'm good with skipping Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, and Dumbo :).

I'm pretty sure we were walking over to Frontierland when we saw a cute family of ducks. The mom had jumped up into the grass, but I'm pretty sure that was too high for the babies, so they were just walking around amongst the kids. Such cute little guys!

When we had a sleeper and reclined the top seat in one stroller, we had to get creative with the seating for long walks :) I'm just happy that the kids were happy with this arrangement!

Makenzie wasn't super happy about meeting Woody. I don't regret the picture at all though, and would take it again :) At some point in her childhood she will look at this picture and brag about how she met Woody ... so it was worth putting her down and running to take the picture. We will call it a good mom moment!

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Olivia's favorite ride from last time, and my favorite roller coaster. This time it may have been trumped by Space Mountain, but it's a great ride, and she rode it at least twice. Another benefit of rider switch passes is that the kids can always go again with the adults that had to sit out the first time ;).

Snack time! We tried to do healthy, energy-giving snacks most of the time, but this time I took Makenzie with me to pick out the snacks, so we came back with a Mickey Rice Krispy for each kid and a cream cheese stuffed pretzel for me. Definitely a win!

We went through a ton of water on this trip, and a lot of sunscreen. We managed to make it through the week without sunburns or other medical issues though!

We snuck over to The Jungle Cruise one more time, and Hunter loved it even more the second time :)

Olivia was just as concerned as she was before, but I love the faces she is making as she tries to prepare for whatever is coming next :) The kids still can talk their way through this entire ride, putting the animals (and some of the bad jokes) in order from start to finish.

We had a lunch date at Aladdin's Oasis to get seating for the parade that night, and the food here was great. I also appreciated the shade and quiet to eat, it was a great break for everyone.

Next we rode Winnie the Pooh and Splash Mountain (another that I gladly sit out on) Olivia was thrilled with this water ride as well, but she is just too short for all of these pictures :)

I'm pretty sure this is the point that we went back to the hotel for a break in the afternoon. Looking back, I'm not entirely sure, but we did go back this time so we could cool the kids down and get ready for a long night out. When we came back, the big kids went on Star Tours and Grandma and I took the littles on the Tomorrowland Dumbo ride. I'm not actually sure what the name of this ride is, but it was motion sickness to the 10th degree. Even before the ride started I was struggling with the tilt of the rocket, but Makenzie totally enjoyed it :) Hunter...not so much.

Tyler served as a high chair for dinner, and I'm not sure he fully knew what he was getting into :) Actually, he was so helpful with the kids as well, and didn't complain at all about the ketchup wipes and dropped fries all over him :)

After dinner we rode It's a Small World again, and maybe another ride, but I can't really remember. After a while we met for the parade, and had great spots to see the entire thing. The kids were beyond excited about the lighted necklaces, and we tried to take some fun pictures, but they didn't fully understand the concept of not moving their heads :)

Our last official group shot...what a wonderful trip!

Majorly tired kiddos...

The parade was so fun! I love that it is all of the original characters, and nothing recent added in. The kids asked why some of their favorites weren't there, and it was fun to explain that Cinderella and Snow White were the 'original' princesses, and all of the other characters used to be famous back when dinosaurs and their grandparents were young :).

I spent a good chunk of the night trying to fit everything (plus some souvenirs) back into the suitcases, and separate my stuff out for my girls' weekend. By the morning, we had everything settled and were ready to go! I will say that the length of time was perfect for us. The kids were much slower to wake and find their happy on the last day than on the first, and we did everything that we wanted to. Each of us had a wonderful time, and all of the kids ask constantly when we are going back (Makenzie especially is quite certain - in her two year old way - that we will be going back when she is three. We tell her every day that it will be more like when she is six :)).

Grandma and the kids...with at least the boys cooperating! I love Makenzie's face though, and Olivia was trying to obey when I said smile!

Which one is the real Mickey? We will never know...

Two beautiful girls.

And next we have a series of pictures that represents every photo attempt with four kids. First we say 'Everyone Smile! Who had fun?' We quickly realize that asking a question was a mistake, because we have one kid raising their hand ...

'Kenz, put your hand down, everyone look here!'
Still didn't work...what is Olivia doing?

Thinking...maybe we should go vertical and get the hotel behind us!
Nope...Patting on the head and still a crazy Olivia face.

We are starting to lose them, but the little ones are smiling now, so we keep clicking!

Yup, now we call it. That's as good as we are going to get :) Grandma and Grandpa can pick which one to frame, they are memories, after all.

At the airport, I left shortly before everyone boarded the flight back to Seattle to cross the airport for my flight to Sacramento. It was so weird to say goodbye to all the kids and just leave. I did a short trip when I was 9 months pregnant with Makenzie, but since I can't really count that as kid-free, this is the first trip I've ever taken with no kids and no Alex. I won't say I wasn't excited about it, but it was still hard to say goodbye, I just kept telling Alex all about where things were and what I had done to organize things, and about 100 things there is no way he remembered, and no reason for him to. The little ones crashed almost immediately upon takeoff, so I got this picture from Alex to show that they were all good.

They all stayed in Seattle overnight before traveling back, and Olivia was already writing songs about her happy trip :)

I flew up to Sacramento, and met my grandparents and parents for a dance weekend with Emily! I love these weekends, and love watching her dance. It's a skill I greatly admire...from a distance (I have absolutely no grace or ability to move in a lovely fashion). This year Emily was part of 3 super fun dances, and we got to watch all 3 shows that she was in.

This is the picture of Alex getting home safely with the kids, on Saturday afternoon, just about 24 hours before I would get there :). They survived totally fine without me, and I think they all had fun taking things a little more relaxed for a day.

That afternoon I was spending some amazing time at the Davis Farmer's Market, seeing pictures and hearing stories from the trip to Italy that my parents just got back from, and watching dance. As an extra bonus, I got to do it with my best friend Allison, who drove up from Concord to spend the day with us! I'm so glad she did, it was wonderful to hang out, and we've never done anything without kids before. This lady and her family are the single reason that I miss living in California :)

On Sunday morning I went to the airport for my two-part flight home, and I sadly had to pass this plane without getting on :( I have flown on the Duck plane, and the Husky one, but I've never gotten to ride on the Beaver plane...it's on my bucket list :).

This is one of the 5 beautiful faces that were greeting me at the airport when I got back to Pullman that afternoon. She was enjoying the Disneyland sucker that we got before coming home :)

Man. I just can't explain how amazing this trip was. All the memories with family and magic for the kids that they will remember always. Makenzie still hasn't stopped telling random people that she met Belle and Anna and Elsa, and Olivia plans our next trip quite regularly. Carter is so proud that he got to talk to Spiderman, We are just about a month post-trip at this point, and looking forward to our summer travel plans with both sides of the family. Black Butte and Twin Lakes, here we come!