When I was little, my family went to Disneyland and I don't remember much about the trip. One of the few things I do remember was wearing matching shirts! Yep, we're that family! The shirts were numbered from oldest to youngest, making me #6! As soon as we all found out we were going to Disneyland this time, my sisters and I all started planning the shirts we would make. All the poor in-laws were trying to find a way out of that! There was no way they were getting out of it though! Kristi, Stacy and I spent many many hours on these babies, and they were going to be worn dang it!
Each family had a different color. My family was light blue. Every Lyman child was numbered on the back, 1-7. Making me #6 again. Our spouses were numbered our number 1/2, making Trent 6 1/2. And our children were all 6.1, 6.2, etc. And the 3 preggers even had numbers on our bellies (6.3 for me). My parents shirts were die dyed with all the different colors of the families. We had characters on our shirts representing everyone in our family, then my parents had every single character (all 29). Here was my little family.
Me and my pregnant self, Trent on his motorcycle, Maxon on his bike and Scout just being cute.
I know, I know, so cheesy! But totally worth it. And I gotta say, so convenient! When you were looking for someone in the family, you could spot them a mile away! Mission accomplished!
We woke up bright and early Friday morning ready to hit the parks! I think Trent and I were probably more excited than the kids at this point because they didn't really know what to expect. But they were pretty dang excited too. We finally made it to the park and hit the rides! First up... Buzz Lightyear!
The kids loved Buzz Lightyear, especially Maxon! Next up was Space Mountain. Scout was not tall enough for it, and I was too pregnant for it, so her and I had our first break while we waited for dad and Maxon.
Maxon was not a big fan of Space Mountain. Trent said the whole time he kept saying, "get me off of here!" He was a trooper though. After that we met up with the rest of the crew. The rest of the day we pretty much stuck together, and when there was a ride that some of the smaller kids couldn't go on, that probably meant Stacy and I (the preggers) also couldn't go on it, so we took them on a kid friendly ride. When it came time for Tower of Terror, Scout was the only kid who couldn't go, so Stacy and I headed to Bugs Life (Jensen may have tagged along too because she isn't a fan of Tower of Terror). We went into the Bug's Life cave to watch the 3d movie thing. It started out with a big hairy spider crawling towards you, and Scout lost it. Needless to say she didn't love the other effects like getting sprayed with "acid" when another bug was defending himself, being sprayed with fog from the stink bug, etc. We left with her in tears saying, "I don't like that ride!".
Another ride Scout couldn't go on was Soarin' over California. My dad offered to stay with her so that I could go with the rest of the group. It was awesome! Maxon loved it!
There was pretty much only one ride that Maxon couldn't go on and that was Screamin'. There were 7 of the little ones that weren't tall enough for that one so me and Stacy had our hands full!
They all wanted to do the Bug's Life thing, so I was mean and made Scout go again. I wouldn't have actually made her, she told me she would just close her eyes during the scary parts, which she did.
The kids were exhausted by then so it was back to the hotel for a power nap, and then back that evening for round 2.
How cute are 6 1/2 and 6.2?! So cute! When we came back that evening, we just did our own thing and took it easy. We rode the train around Disneyland and stopped at a couple different places for a few rides. We went to Toontown and went through Mickey's House.
At the end we waited to meet Mickey. The kids were super excited! That was right up until they actually saw him, then they freaked out! Would not go near him! I had to pick them both up and go by him just to get a picture, and as you can tell, they were clinging to me and wouldn't even look at him!
Then we posed for a picture in Goofy's jeep.
Trent found out about a place called Ride Makerz a while ago and has been dying to take Maxon there. It's kinda like a Build a Bear for boys, only they build a Car. You get to go through the line and choose the rims, tires, body, etc. It's right there in Downtown Disney so Trent was determined to take Maxon there while we were there. They decided to go that night. So while they took off to find Ride Makerz, me and Scout hung out and watched the fireworks. Scout loved it, especially the part where Tinkerbell flew around above the castle. When that was over we made our way through the crowd and back to the shuttle. Scout was out cold! And I was pretty dang tired myself. Eventually Trent and Maxon made it back to the hotel with their new cars and we all hit the hay.
Saturday! We got up and off to the parks again bright and early. We hung out with Jeremy and Heather most of the day and just did all the kids rides. While waiting in line for the Finding Nemo ride, our submarine pulled up and the name on the boat said "Scout", so we had to get a picture before we boarded.
The kids loved that ride. We tried to get a family picture later in front of the castle while waiting for the Peter Pan ride, but Maxon was acting camera shy, so this was our best effort.
After waiting in line for Peter Pan for 40 minutes, we were literally like 5 people from the front of the line when a guy inside running the ride announced over the speaker, "the ride is having some technical difficulties, it will be about 20 minutes before it will be operating again!" Ugh, not what you want to hear! Luckily it was probably more like 7 minutes and they had it going again.
That afternoon, Heather and I had made reservations at Ariel's Grotto to take the little girls to have lunch with the princesses. Scout was super excited! I wondered how she'd actually react when we saw the princesses, especially after seeing her reaction to Mickey. I had high hopes though, and though with Livvy and Addi there she would hopefully be OK.
Before they seated us they got to meet and take pictures with Ariel. Scout was so excited when we actually saw here and was jumping up and down clapping. She handed her her little princess book to get her autograph, and I thought we were in the clear for any melt downs. But when I told her to go by her for a picture, Scout was not having it. Somehow I got her to go over for a hug and hurry and snapped a picture.
The rest of the lunch went pretty smooth. We got to meet Cinderella, Snow White....
Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), and Belle!
Scout was so cute! Every time they would announce a new princess coming out she would get so excited, and when they would come to our table she would have her book all ready for them to sign and point to the picture and say "this is you!" She would stand in front of them for the picture, but no hugs or touching! The food was actually not as bad as I was expecting. I had been told by multiple people that it was terrible, so I was expecting to pay $40 for terrible food and then have to go find lunch elsewhere. So I was pleasantly surprised with the food.
I told her to give me a pretty princess smile, and that's what I got.
Me and my princess!
After hitting one more ride, Toy Story Mania (one of our favorites), we headed back to the hotel for a little rest. Most of my family drove to St. George that night, so they left that afternoon. Marilyn's family and us was all that stayed. That night we went back to Disneyland, and Maxon really wanted to go on Soarin' again, so him and Trent went over to California Adventure to go once more. I hung with Marilyn's fam, but Scout fell asleep before we made it to the first ride. I held her and she slept all the way through Haunted Mansion.
We went to It's a Small World next, and she woke up not happy right before we got on. Luckily it's the happiest place you can take a grouchy kid and as soon as we got inside her eyes lit up and she got the biggest smile ever! After that, we met up with Trent for one last ride. Pirates of the Carribean. We were all totally exhausted by then and went back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
Sunday morning we got up and said goodbye to the happiest place on earth, and the sunshine, and loaded up the car for the long trek home. The week was seriously so much fun! It sounds cliche, but that place really is magical. Every ride we went on, I found myself just watching my kids faces light up and it just made my heart smile! It was also Trent's first time at Disneyland and I gotta say, I think he enjoyed himself as much or more than the kids. I gotta send a huge shout out to my parents for arranging it all and making it all happen. It was the best gift ever! We love you guys, thank you so much! I can't wait to go back!
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