Disneyland - Day 1

I know you have all been anxiously awaiting Disneyland pictures. Sorry - this isn't going to be it, but it will be pictures of us driving there. We left on a Thursday morning after packing and cleaning for a good 3 or 4 days. Luckily we have a wonderful house sitter that stays with our animals and waters our plants. So we left around 7:15 with a packed mini-van (oh yeah, if you didn't know, we bought a van in December). Once we leave the house for any vacation my mind wanders for hours to think what I forgot. So around 8:45 I sat straight up and frantically said, "Did anyone get the stroller??" No, people, we forgot the stroller for a 3 day vacation to Disneyland. See, Jared, that's why I'm so dependent on my lists!! Not saying it's his fault, just defending my lists that I make for two weeks and he makes fun of me for. Of course I didn't write stroller because I just thought it was something too obvious to forget. We started scrambling thinking what to do. There are plenty of Walmarts along the way, and we remembered there is a Target down the street from our hotel. But we decided to stick it out and see how it went without one, and if it didn't go well, then we would rent (which actually was only $12 for 3 days). We didn't buy or rent and it went really well not to lug around a stroller and park it, only to find that while we were in line they moved it somewhere far away. Anyway, so here are a couple of pictures of our drive there. All the time Halle said (every 5 minutes), "Time to go to Disneyland!" Which made me feel real guilty that 1. we had a good 11 hours until we even got to Anaheim, and 2. once we got there we were not going to Disneyland until the next day.

Halle read for the first, oh, 15 minutes.Then she colored for the next 15 minutes or so. After that it's all a blur, but mostly it involved, mommy do this, mommy do that, mommy hold my hand, mommy hold me. So I ended up replacing my dad and sitting next to Halle the whole rest of the trip (and coming back).Dad read Eragon and I think made it at least half way through the second book in the series.Mom read, did crosswords and sudoku, and slept in the back where she could lay down. She tried to give me a turn there, but Halle wouldn't allow it.To compensate for not going to Disneyland we allowed Halle to swim in the freezing pool. Luckily the kiddie pool was much warmer than the big pool, but still not warm enough for Jared and I. It actually wasn't really warm enough for Halle either, but she didn't care. After about 15 minutes I started caring though. It was quite cold outside, and Halle was just sitting with just her head out of water shivvering. Just kept insisting she didn't want to get out, but we finally made her. We walked to downtown Disney and went to the big store, which seemed to quelch Halle's Disneyland needs for that day. By that time it was way past bed time. So we headed for our terribly uncomfortable beds (which doesn't bode well after 12 hours walking around for 3 days). Next morning we headed for the park, so hopefully you'll more about that sooner rather than later.

On a side note. Last night Jared went upstairs to find Halle sitting on the landing with an open bottle of cream and cream all over herself. I came upstairs to Jared rubbing the cream in, and Halle said, "Mommy, what are you doing here?" Not as funny when you read it, but it was hilarious to us! Then Jared noticed something on Halle's face and asked her if she brushed her teeth. We went in the bathroom to find her toothbrush smothered in blue toothpaste. I cleaned that up and headed downstairs to feed the gliders. As I started down the stairs Halle said, "Mommy!" I asked, "What?" She said, "mommy and daddy sleep here!" and pointed to our bed. Anyway, it was just really cute.