Disneyland and Halloween together in one blog!

I am going to try something I haven't tried before.  Combining pictures with my blog!  OOOOHHHHH!  So, let's start with Halloween.

Since JJ is still out of a job, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would be making the kids' costumes again this year.  However, the kids did not like this idea.  Then, one day, while getting the oil changed on the car at Wal-Mart, I let them look through the costumes to get some ideas. And guess what?  Wal-Mart is cheap!  All of their costumes were under 20 bucks!  So, I let them pick something out.  Melanie and I both went as Cleopatra (she picked out my costume), Patrick went as a Night Fury and Gregory went as a Monstrous Nightmare!  JJ went as Goofy, getting most of his costume at Disneyland.  Okay, here is the picture part.

Earlier we carved pumpkins and cooked the pumpkin seeds.  I made three types this year.  The kids liked the parmesan ones the best.  It rained a bit while we trick or treated, but we had a lot of fun.  One of my favorite parts is going to JJ's Uncles house for hot dogs and hot chocolate.

Okay, let's attempt Disneyland now.

 Day one: very nice, stopped at St. George for dinner and hotel. Hotel was wonderful, we swam for a very long time and had a blast! Dinner, we did not like. The theme was cute and fun, pirates, but the service and food was horrible. Everything was soggy and overspicy.  It took about an hour to get our appetizer and over an hour and a half for our meals to arrive. Patrick fell asleep while waiting for his food. No silverware, had to ask repeatedly for that. I got up and got everyone refills on drinks and napkins and things like that because our waitress never did.

Day two: arrived in Anaheim three hours early before we could check into our hotels, so we spent a long time at a McDonalds. Just rested and prepared Sunday night, had a little Home church with the family.

Day Three: Disneyland! Though it rained a little, we had a blast! Went on Haunted Mansion, PIrates of the Caribbean (Gregory 5 times), Splash Mountain (which Gregory insisted on being in front both times and in the photo, had such a stoic... face while the rest of us were screaming!), Winnie the Pooh, Indiana Jones (Patrick went on twice because he closed his eyes the whole time the first time), Jungle Cruise, Tarzan's Treehouse, Autopia, Buzz Lightyear (a really good one, JJ got 89,000 points! Darn army training), Finding Nemo, It's a Small World, Peter Pan, Pinnochio, Snow White, and Space Mountain (all the kids hated this one). Melanie got to meet Rapunzel. Gregory fell asleep twice that day, once before noon.

 

Day Four: California Adventure! Not as good as our first day. ALmost non-stop raining today. We still insisted on going on as many rides as possible. Monsters, INc. (3 times), Tower of Terror (only Ben and JJ), Playhouse Disney, Muppets... 3D, It's Tough to be a Bug 3D (a must see), Flik's Flyers, Francis' Ladybugs, Heimlich's CHew Chew Train, Tuck and Roll's Buggies (a disappointment), California Screamin' (Ben, Becky, JJ, and me only), Carousel, Soarin' Over California (a must do, twice). We were going to do World of COlor, but most of us were cold, wet, and tired. Melanie's lunch fell in the water, and some rides were not open because of the rain. We have a day off today because of the rain again and we will finish up Disneyland/California Adventure on Friday (when it will be drier), and we will do SeaWorld tomorrow. Oh yeah, we also got to see many characters. So far, a good vacation. Well worth it, despite the rain. But would be better without it. Happy to make everyone jealous!

Day 5: Our day of rest.  It rained so much the day before, that we slept in and kind of rested this day.  Original beach day.  Instead, in the afternoon we went to Downtown Disney.  Which was pretty fun.  We ate at the Rainforest Cafe.  They had pretty good food, but kind of pricey.

Day 6: SeaWorld.  I absolutely love SeaWorld!  I love the animals and the shows, and guess what?  They have rides!  I didn't know that.  There is a Sesame Street are with some rides and some more adult rides too.  I think my absolute favorite ride was the Journey to Atlantis.  If you ever go to SeaWorld and you like rollercoaster rides and getting wet.  Go on this one!  You will not be disappointed.  We saw the Shamu show and fed the bat rays.  We saw polar bears and manatees and Beluga Whales!  It was great!

Day 7: JJ and our little family only spent half a day at Disneyland the last day because we were going to keep going up north to visit JJ's family for the weekend.  But, it was bright and sunny and we rode all of our favorite rides again.  Plus, we got to see some Jedi's training little kids and having them fight against Darth Vader and Darth Maul, it was really cute! 

I am including a picture here of Gregory's ride face that he had on for every single ride.  He got smiley and excited before and after the ride, but during the ride, this was his face.

The rest of the weekend was spent in Northern California with JJ's family.  We had a great time, despite the rain.  I am proud of my kids for how well they behaved spending so long in the car all the time.  On Monday, they endured 11 hours in the car!  I am glad that I gave each of them a bucket in case they got carsick though.  Those sure came in handy around Donner's Pass.  I think the kids did much pretty on a road trip than I thought they would.  I hope we can do it again sometime!