Disneyland With the Fam

As I am sure you all know from my last blog post, Jordan and I just spent a week in California, visiting family, friends and of course going to DISNEYLAND!!! My whole family (minus my sister Heather and her family) were able to come. We met at Disney's Grand California Hotel on Sunday afternoon where we had two suites so the whole family could stay together. My friend Kelsey came up from Corona to see me and we had a blast just sitting around the hotel talking. That night Disneyland was hosting Miley Cyrus' 16th Birthday party, so the hotel was crawling with celebrities. Steve Carell was there, Vanessa Williams was in the room next to ours, and my brother-in-law held the door open for Cindy Crawford. Kelsey and I sat in the lobby for a while trying to catch a glimpse of someone famous, but we weren't so lucky. The whole family had fun that night just being together and hanging out.

The next day, Monday, was our first day in the park. I was so excited to show Clara all the fun stuff to do at Disneyland. For the most part she couldn't care less where we were, but I know as she gets older she will grow to appreciate that magical place as much as I do! The first ride we went on was Pirates of the Carribean. I hadn't been on it since they changed it to add things from the movies. I really liked the changes! We spent the whole day running around the park as a family and enjoying our time together. There is a new Jedi training event at Disneyland that kids can be a part of. My nephews LOVE Star Wars, so we all went to watch them at that. Benjamin was the last kid to get picked to be a part of the show and it was so much fun watching him fight Darth Vader. He was in heaven! That night, the whole family went to dinner at The Blue Bayou, the restaurant inside Pirates and my dad's favorite part of Disneyland. It was Sorensen Party of 24! We had so much fun, and Jordan really enjoyed his surf and turf! Thank you dad!!

The next day was another full day at the park. We got to go into the park an hour early that day, so we got up bright and early and started the day off in Fantasyland and hit all those rides with Clara. Then we met up with some friends from Ogden, Dee and Julie Cox, and spent a couple of hours with them. It was so fun to see people from Ogden and hear about all our friends from there. While Julie and I were on Splash Mountain, Dee and Jordan took Clara on Winnie the Pooh. When they got off the ride, they were handed passes to stay in the park an hour extra. Sweet deal! We played the whole day, then sent Clara back to the hotel with my mom so she could have some grandma time, and we played in the park for an extra hour, with all the rides open and no lines on any of them! We were so tired when we got back to the hotel, but it was worth it! Thanks for babysitting mom!

On Wednesday, we had to pack all our stuff up and store it at the concierge desk of the hotel before going to California Adventures for the day. The first ride we went on in the park was Tower of Terror. I LOVE that ride. It is one of the only rides that still gives me that stomach lurching feeling. We had a great day hanging out with the family and going on tons of rides, but alas, all good things must come to an end! Our friends, Jeff and Ali came and picked us up. We got our beloved In n Out for dinner, then spent one last night in California before heading back to reality.

One very important lesson I learned on this trip is that I need to take more pictures! We were so wrapped up in playing that we didn't take very many photos to document it, so here is a selection from my meager Disneyland Collection!