Two months ago we went to Disneyland (Days 1 and 2)

I've really gotten out of the habit of blogging lately.  Instagram is just so much quicker and easier!  But this trip needs to be documented.  It was a big deal.  We worked really hard last year to pay off our $25k of debt in 8 months.  This was a big reward for reaching a big goal! 

Day One

We left on a Wednesday, which is early out day at school for the kids.  Jason and I got ready and packed, and then picked the kids up around 11:15.  They were soooo excited to be leaving!  And so were we.  :)

Getting gas before we left.  We didn't realize until too late that the date stamp was on on our camera.  I still need to go in and crop the date and time out of all our pictures, but there are almost 2,000 so it's gonna take a while.  Grrrr.

We drove to Las Vegas and checked into our hotel.  We stayed at the Circus Circus, mostly because we got the best deal.  We were on the highest floor and the kids LOVE the view!  

After checking in, we met my brother and his girlfriend and her son for dinner.  Somehow I managed to not take a single picture at dinner.  I was so camera happy the entire trip, that I have no clue how that happened.  :/  We love these guys and wish they lived closer.  Jack and Matix are the bestest little buds and I adore Ashley.  She might just be at the very top of my list of favorite brothers' girlfriends.  :)

After dinner we headed to their place to visit with Devin and Ashley and Matix for a while and then headed back to the hotel to crash!

Payson and Jack slept great!  Lucas was another story.  Jason and I were up with him a lot of the night. It was frustrating.  He usually sleeps in a room with a closed door, so having all of us in one room was too stimulating for him.  We tried the pack n play, our bed, rocking him, everything.  That first night had us really nervous about staying in a hotel room for the next week and a half!  Were we going to get any sleep at all???

Day 2

The next morning we slept in and had breakfast at the ridiculously over priced buffet.  The kids thought it was amazing.  All you can eat and all of those choices?  They were in heaven.  It was really nice to not be in a rush and take our time getting going in the morning, especially after having such a rough night before!  But eventually we packed up and got on the road.

Everyone was sick of the car, but it was a much shorter driving day than the one before, thankfully.  Around 3pm we finally pulled onto Disneyland Drive!!  The kids got SO excited!  (And by the kids, I mean me.)  We parked the car and walked to the shuttle which we rode to Downtown Disney.  

The kids were really excited by every fountain we passed, especially Lucas.  He would have climbed right in if we had let him.

We wandered around the shops for a while.  Payson loved the Build-A-Bear store, while Jack's favorite was the Lego store.  Lucas was just fascinated by everything!

This was my favorite lego display.  It is so amazing to me what these guys can do with those little blocks!  We saw the Hulk, Buzz and Woody, Aladdin and Jasmine flying on the magic carpet, and Prince Phillip fighting Maleficent.  So cool!

Outside the Lego Store we killed some time letting the kids build lego cars and racing them down tracks.  They could have done this for hours.

By the way, we bought a new camera right before we left on our trip.  We hadn't quite figured out all the settings yet, so our pictures are horrible at first.  Neither of us are photographers anyway, but not understanding how the thing worked didn't help.

We had been killing some time at the shops at Downtown Disney because we had a reservation at 5:15 for Goofy's Kitchen!  This was the absolute best way to kick off our trip!  It may be ridiculously expensive (as is most everything at Disneyland) but it was completely worth every single penny.

Payson and Jack posing with Mickey and Minnie bushes at the Disneyland Hotel on our way to Goofy's Kitchen

First thing we did after checking in was pose with Goofy for a quick photo!  The kids were so excited to meet him!  We asked him how his son, Max, was doing and he informed us that Max was here and we would get to meet him inside!  Payson has never been one to like characters too much, but she had no problem with any of them.  And it was fun to see Lucas's first reaction to Goofy.  He was in awe!

After we were seated, Pluto was the first to make his way to our table.  He snuck up quietly and crouched behind Lucas, just waiting to be noticed.  When Lucas finally realized he was there it freaked him out!  He burst into tears and we all laughed.  We're mean like that.  Pluto felt pretty bad and tread carefully around our table the rest of the night.  It was cute.

The kids loved the all you can eat buffet again.  But the best part of the night was waiting to see who would visit us next!  After Goofy and Pluto, we met Minnie...

...Aladdin...

...Aurora...

...Alice...

...and we caught Max on our way out!  (Again, horrible pictures before we figured out our camera settings.)

Each character spent time chatting with the kids, signing autograph books, and posing for pictures.  They never rushed.  Again, totally worth every single penny.

After dinner, we headed to our hotel and got checked in.  We stayed near the parks, but not in a Disney hotel.  We had a special "kids room" at the Holiday Inn (where Jason is a rewards member, so we saved some serious cash!) so there was a queen bed and then a sectioned off part of the room with bunk beds, a tv, and an x-box (which we never played).  The kids thought that was pretty cool!

So we unloaded, settled in, and crashed!