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| Riggs' Disneyland Family Vacation 2012 |
Seriously... it might have been the happiest place on earth. The days before the trip were a little rough in the parenting department... Caitlyn and I weren't seeing eye to eye and Ashton spent a ton of time either crying or whining... so each night before the trip I lay awake anxious and wondering 1.) Am I going to be the Mom whose children are acting out because they don't get a churro or because the lines are too long? 2.) After such bad behavior during the day... is a Disneyland vacation really what my children deserve? and 3.) Am I a strong enough person/Mom to handle taking two very young children to one of the busiest places on earth?!?! I was super anxious to say the least.
Turns out... that little extra attention from Ashley and I is just what they needed.
The trip really was perfect!
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| They were posing just like Mickey and Minnie. |
We spent 8 days and 7 nights at the Happiest Place on Earth and it was Magical!
The flight down was super fast, the kids each helped me pack special travel bags which they loved. I packed a lunch for when we arrived filled with apples, carrots, mickey mouse shaped PB&J sandwiches and some sugary sweets... the sandwiches and sweets were a hit.... the carrots and apples made there way into our hotel fridge where they stayed until we went home.
The rooms were recently redone and were AMAZING! Everyone's favorite part about the rooms were the large dark wooden headboards that spanned across an entire wall of the room with the Disney castle carved into it and at night with just a flip of the switch music played, the castle and fireworks lit up and twinkled while we slept.
Speaking of sleeping. I think that was one of my faves of the vacation. Disneyland wore my children out... whether we were at the park or just played at the water park at the hotel, my kids were ready for a nap. We all (even Gram, Pappy, and Aunt Scarlet) would head up to the room around 1ish and take a nap that lasted anywhere from 3 to 4 hours. We would then wake up play some more and the kids went to bed like little angels each night. One of the days we skipped a nap, so we went out for an early dinner. Ashton was getting a rambunctious in our booth and I whispered (sternly) in his ear that he had better mind his manners at the restaurant. Next thing I know he's quiet as can be (I was super proud cause my whispers in his ears were clearly effective), then I looked down at him and he was passed out sitting up at the dinner table. We all got a good laugh.
The parks were fantastic and thanks to my work we saved a ton of money on the passes. The kids were great. They had no breakdowns over churros and no melt downs in the lines. As a matter of fact we hardly hit any long lines. We used the fast pass on the bigger rides and the others weren't that long of a wait. The kids favorite rides were The Buzz LightYear ride, The Pirates of the Carribean, and Caitlyn liked Splash Mountain (the 2nd and 3rd time, but not the 1st).
We really lucked out with all the characters they got to meet. Thanks to Disney's Mobile Magic Ap on our phones we were able to see which characters were where and what the wait times were for each ride... If you are going to Disneyland soon... You NEED this app.
On our last day, we had breakfast at Ariel's Grotto with all the princesses. This was a fun thing for our last day there. We ate family style while each princess came to our table for pictures. The kids' favorite was Bell (Ashley's too).
Aunt Scarlet brought her super cool new camera that was able to take pics under water. We enjoyed a few days just lounging by the pool. We had a blast taking as many pictures as possible under water and going down the water slides.
All in all this was a great family vacation!
It was wonderful watching my kids get swept away by everything magical.
Thanks Aunt Scarlet for being the photographer (she took just under a thousand pics) and thanks Gram and Pap for joining in on all the fun and memories.
The Riggs Family ♥s Disneyland!
