Disneyland with Dad!

Kent surprised us with a stay-cation the day after natalie finished school and we went to disneyland! it was the last day before we were blocked out for the summer and it was such a fun, special way to start "the summer holidays" as the kids call them thanks to harry potter =o]

basically all we did all day was do things with kent that we couldn't do without him, which was cool, but unfortunately that also meant that we had to do every ride twice because the four of them couldn't fit. caleb and natalie had the time of their lives! jenna and seth had a rough time because they weren't used to being there for so long. but overall it was a great day! 

we headed to radiator springs first because kent had never been there and it is the kid's favorite place!   

these three were from kent's phone... cute =o] 

seth picked up his souvenir here- a toy guido and luigi from cars dressed up as C3PO and R2-D2  

(we didn't do THE ride with lightning mcqueen because the fast-passes were gone when we got there and the wait was 90 minutes, but the kids didn't even mention it- whew!) 

then we headed over to a bug's life land to do the bumper cars 

and jenna had a complete meltdown when we were told she was too short to go on the ride. she cried the ENTIRE time they were in line and while both caleb and natalie took turns riding it with kent. ...yeah...

we had been eating our lunch in spurts and decided it was time for a treat to lift the mood so we got ghirardelli ice cream! 

next stop was the little mermaid ride, which we have done before but there was almost no line so why not? =o] disney really does do a great job of trying to make each ride interesting and even keep the que area themed as shown here with the sea shell fragments in the concrete. i love that our family notices and appreciates things like that. why not live a richer life, right?

then we finally got to go on the toy story ride. this was by far our longest wait but the kids had their hearts set on it so it was worth it. we played games and kept positive in line and really it wasn't so bad. 

seth definitely had a few DONE moments though since he hadn't slept yet and had been in the pack for hours at this point. 

check out those eyes though. WOW we make good looking babies if i do say so myself ;o]

natalie picked up her souvenir here- this jessie hat! no idea why, but she loves it and it was within our set price range so go for it i say =o] 

this picture pretty much sums up the next experience. kent convinced the kids to go on tower of terror. natalie said it was scary but fun and caleb said he hated it and would never go on it again. lol

we made a special stop and jenna got her much anticipated Princess Sophia t-shirt (which we probably could have purchased at target for $4, but she stayed within the mackay-bucks-earned range as well so whatever) she literally could not have been happier!

then jenna, seth, and i went over to the redwoods playground to nurse seth and let jenna do her thing for a bit. seth was grateful for the change too, not to mention my poor back!

then we met back up and made the trek into disneyland from CA adventure and got some much needed dinner at pizza planet! 

kent then took jenna and seth while natalie, caleb and i went on star tours! i hadn't been on it since i was a little kid and it was much improved!! 

then caleb finally settled on his souvenir (he had been far above the price range several times previously lol) a darth maul car, since he already had a darth mater car, and "now they can be bad guy friends" =o]

we ended the day on our family favorite "it's a small world" which was finally reopened for the first time since christmas! the last room where all the little people from around the world are dressed in white and singing and dancing together gets me every time! =o]

hooray for disneyland! HOORAY FOR FAMILY! 

i posted this on the way home:
As we spent this wonderful day together I couldn't help but think of our past two years and how truly blessed I am to have all my family with me. My heart is full of gratitude for the atonement of Jesus Christ, that we can repent and forgive and live with our families forever!! We were at one of our happy places today, but for me the happiest place on earth is wherever covenant keepers build their homes. Let's all live our dreams happily ever after together!!

until next time...