Tricks, Treats, and a Disboutique meet, A WHOLE ENTIRE TR all at once!

[jham]

October 15-20 (just got back!)

Here are the cast of characters:

DH 39:, Mike, aka GRUMPY-er than ever this trip.
Me 39:, Jeanne,(NOT pronounced Gee-anne, pronounced like Genie) I love all things Disney, especially trip planning and custom outfit making (aka Disboutiqing)
DD11: Jayden, Recently diagnosed with Grave’s disease, started meds a week ago to control heart rate, switched meds the night before our trip. This led to the poor girl not feeling really great in general most of the trip and led to mom’s constantly monitoring her heart rate.
DS 9: Seth, Not on his best behavior this trip
DS 5/6: The Birthday Boy! Luke turned 6 on this trip and was great and had lots of fun, could not get enough of Splash Mountain.
DD 3: Lily, a real trooper, LOVES Disney as much as mom. Never complains, and took lots of stroller naps!

Day 1:

It was a loooooong drive. It pretty much took all day, of course with 4 kids there were lots of stops.

(no, I do not let DH watch movies while he drives, I flip that screen off!)

A buffet in Las Vegas! Jayden requested it.

We checked into our hotel (The Disneyland Hotel) somewhere around 10pm. Check-in was easy and bell-service was great.

 

[jham]

Day 2: Happy Birthday Luke!

My little boy is growing up too fast!

We got dressed and walked through Downtown Disney to Magic Kingdom (well, that’s what we call it anyway).

At the Hotel: (Thanks Denise/Mytwotinks for Jayden's cutest skirt!)

In front of the pool and Captain Hook’s ship:

DTD: (this picture is for the Disboutiquers, I thought the pink/blue Aurora dress was kind of cool)

We’re here!

Going through the “tunnel”:

Luke and Mike on the Jungle Cruise:

Tarzan’s Tree House:

We thought POC was supposed to be closed, but it wasn't it's my favorite ride! It was my dad's favorite ride also. He would sing along.

Not big enough for Splash Mountain:

Happy Birthday Cookie! (when Lily was little she couldn’t say “Lukey” it came out “Cookie”

What we do while Mike and Seth use the rider swap pass to go on Splash Mountain:

Winnie The Pooh ride (almost never has a line at DL):

 

[jham]

And just for my food-loving fellow DISers, my favorite shop in DL:

The famous Tigger Tail is on the left:

Seth is a HUGE Walt fan and wanted a picture of this flag and plaque at the entrance to Frontierland:

And this picture which he requested include the Jack Skellington Jack o’ Lantern, the Walt statue, and the Astro Orbiter or whatever that thing is called.

A little pin-trading:

We kind of took things slowly on this trip since Jayden is supposed to be on “no physical activity” until her heart rate is under control. (I conferred with 3 separate Dr.s about taking her on rides, one—our neighbor—was in the parks as well, a phone call away).

Now Lily must spend too much time sitting on my lap while I read TRs because somehow she got the idea that she was supposed to try on lots of hats while I took photos, so that is what we did while we waited for the rest of the family to ride Space Mountain.

Playing Peek-a-Boo (just because it’s cute):

A not-so-great picture I took of the Matterhorn for my friends that have never been to DL:

The YOAMD monorail, just so I can talk about how much I hated this promo. In four separate trips during the “Year” (meaning 2 years) I not only never got a “dream” but never actually even WITNESSED anyone else get one either! I did witness the dream squad once or twice—NOT in action, and I did see people with dream fastpasses and hats, but that’s about it. Thank you, rant over.

 

[jham]

We had reservations for Luke’s birthday dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen. We had never eaten here! It was fun and the food was pretty good. DH said it was the best mac’n’cheese he’d ever had and he filled up on mac’n’cheese which is completely rare for him! The pineapple upside down cake was pretty good too.

Everyone but Seth, Lily and I took off to get food and Goofy sat down at our table and hung out for quite a while until the rest of them came back. I was running out of conversation topics for a mute pooch!

Kissing Pluto:

We were pleasantly surprised to see a princess at Goofy’s Kitchen! Mulan was also there but did not make it to our table.

Luke’s Birthday Bucket:

We did not see Mickey or Minnie so we asked and they said Minnie was up front taking photos before they seat people (it was Pluto when we were up there) so we ran up there and they were kind enough to let us but in for a photo. I’m sure the girls’ outfits didn’t hurt:

After dinner I took the kids swimming while DH…ummm…moved us to our new room. Let’s just say that there was a little creepy issue with the room. I’m just sayin’ some photos may have been taken. I tried to call someone to take care of it and only the front desk would pick up. They said they’d call someone. No one showed up right away, so on the way down to the pool I stopped off at the front desk to politely inquire if the issue had been taken care of because my kids were askeered to go back in the room. Oh, and would anyone care to see a photo? The front desk enjoyed the photo and one by one CMs came up to see. Higher and higher level CMs. I really didn’t complain, we all just had a good laugh at the creepiness of it all. Next thing you know, I had a new room (I’m certain I’d have been given an upgrade if one was available. We did get a better view though) and a few other nice bonuses thrown in. The moral of the story is if you have a problem, take photos, be very nice about it, and take that camera to the front desk. Since we were treated so kindly I will not post the photos or details on what they “gave” us. It was nothing too extreme or horrible. Not really anyway. So all was moved, the kids got to swim and we had a peaceful night’s sleep. The beds in the new room were actually much better than the ones in the old room.

 

[jham]

Day 3: Mickey’s Trick or Treat!

We went to California Adventures today. We love the Halloween décor! We headed for Soarin’ and did the “baby swap”. I’ll be glad when Lily can go on this one. She would love it!

The weather was GORGEOUS and has been every minute of every day we have gone to Disneyland in October. Well, it may have been a little warmish in the day, but considering it snowed at our house last week, we weren’t complaining! We love the misters outside of Soarin’

This “twirling” picture of Lily with her daddy is one of my favorite pictures of the trip:

Jayden picking up a bag of “Sugar Salt & Fat” or maybe a “Bag O Calories” from the Monstropolis vending machine.

I didn’t see any signs about no flash photography…and there was no one else in our car to be disturbed or distressed by it…I swear!

We were waiting for the big kids and DH to get off of Tower of Terror (I am just now realizing I DID NOT GET TO GO ON THAT RIDE!) and look who we found at Candy Corn Acres!

Candy Corn Cactus!

Chip and Dale LOVED Luke’s hair!

Lily loved It’s Tough to be a Bug. She kept begging to see it again.

Can you find the petti? That’s right, this photo proves you are never too old to wear a petti at Disney (that’s for you disboutiquers! Okay, so you’re probably the only ones reading this, but a girl can pretend…)

Mmmmm…Mickey Bar!

I’m keeping these photos in the order I took them, no matter how irrelevant it may seem. The kids loved the Tinkerbell wallpaper border. The pixie dust went alllllll the way around the room!

We went back to our room and went swimming again. Somehow DH did not pack a swimsuit so he sat on a lounge chair with his laptop while I tried to keep 4 kids from drowning in the pool. Luke and Lily wanted to go on the “baby waterslide” continuously so I was catching them and lifting them out of the pool the whole time. It was exhausting! Somehow, I was unable to get photos! We showered, dressed, and walked over to Rainforest Café in DTD for dinner. They said it would be a 35 minute wait. It was a lot more like 5 minutes. We had a nice dinner.

 

[jham]

We then returned to the hotel to change into costumes for Mickey’s Trick or Treat party!

Jayden's Elphaba costume is still without buttons down the front (and her glasses and messenger bag for the "one short day" ensemble) and I need to find better green makeup. Luke's Indiana Jones costume is missing the jacket which is on the backorder from %^&%* I left Lily's hook and sheep at home figuring she'd break or lose them.

Lily Bo Sleep (okay, we got home around midnight, I’m sleep deprived!)

I saw the CUTEST Mary Poppinses (that's right, the plural of Poppins) with a Bert (mom was nanny poppins, dad was Bert, and the little girl was Jolly Holiday). Later I met the mom in line. She made her little girl's costume and it was the first thing she sewed! She should totally be a disboutiquer! I was way impressed and told her so.

We scooped Lily out of the stroller to go on Toy Story MM again. She woke up just as we got to the 3D glasses and was as happy as could be. She loves that ride and scored higher than some other members of the family, and I'm not talkin' about me

…and Indiana Jones and Little Bo Peep rode off into the sunset…on fish.

 

[jham]

Day 4: More magic!

Our morning walk through DTD

The boys LOVED their Jedi Mickey shirts made by fellow DISer Jessica! They got TONS of compliments! Sadly we never made it to Jedi Training Academy. We kept just missing it.
It’s kind of a dorky picture, but it’s the only one I have of both boys together in their shirts.

The Matterhorn! For some reason the height requirement is 35” or 36” so this ride is usually my kids’ first “real” big-kid ride. Lily is in the car with me so not in the picture.

Due to a special magical little yellow piece of paper I had, we got to go to the front of the 1-hour-long Nemo submarine ride line! But we did still have to wait about 5 minutes, unfortunately behind this guy:

A little (edited) photo for your “inappropriate attire for Disney” file:

A little cuteness to recover from the last photo:

Lily BEGGED to go on Autopia. I don’t really like this ride. Kind of smelly and loud and boring, and if a 3-year-old is steering, it can get kinda bumpy. She was THRILLED!

A little Jack photo never hurts…poor guy was chased by hordes of grown women

We met up with some friends/neighbors of ours who were there with some other friends of theirs. I think they had a group of 16 on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Luke’s second favorite ride). I sat out with Lily then they didn’t see me when they got off the ride and ran on to Indiana Jones without me. I finally reached DH on the phone.

Dance Woody, Dance!

Lily REALLY wanted a baby Simba. I made her wait a day. She still REALLY wanted it. I’m glad I got it for her because she was sooooo cute with it for the rest of the trip! Here she is snuggling with it and putting it to sleep. She kept pulling her stroller canopy down and I kept lifting it up to take pictures. She was shushing me because I was waking Simba.

Look! We’re in epcot! Or maybe just at the Disneyland Hotel…

We went back to the hotel, then to Tortilla Jo’s in DTD for dinner. We went back to MK after that to go on a few more rides.

Teacups:

 

[jham]

DAY 4: Jack day!

Our walk to the park:

Dancing with baby Simba:

Aurora’s castle:

We headed for Toon Town but the girls and I decided to stop at Princess Fantasy Faire since the line wasn’t TOO bad.

We saw Snow White:

Cinderella (she said something funny to Lily like “is that your gown for the ball” or something)

Mulan was great:

One of the CMs working there really LOVED Lily’s outfit. When we finished with the princesses she came up to us and gave us this: (and said it was because she LOVED Lily’s outfit)

A private meet with Aurora!

Lily got A LOT of attention in that outfit. We had people stopping us left and right. I knew Jack was popular, but people are crazy about him! And I'm talking Skellington, not Sparrow! The funny thing was she got a lot of attention from dads--grown men usually don't notice or comment on such things unless they are CMs, but a ton of dads were commenting. It made my day!

We had about 40 minutes to wait before our Aurora meet, so we went to Toon Town with the boys.

Goofy’s backyard:

Goofy’s house:

Back to Princess Fantasy Faire to catch the maypole dance, can you spot Lily?

And meeting Aurora. She was so sweet and spent lots of time chatting with the girls. The boys sat on the floor and put stickers on their crowns. It was a magic moment! And apparently she is even friends with Jack Skellington. Who knew? She said they are “new friends”

So then we went over to the Haunted Mansion. Mulan and Aurora had both told us to go there because we might meet Jack and Sally, but no luck.

We have a lot of “waiting in line” photos on this one.

DH giving me one of a million dirty looks. He was on penny pincher patrol the entire trip. Hey, I’m standing in line! How could I possibly be spending money? SHEESH!

We all had to take turns:

Finally we got on the ride. Lily has been on HM many times, as has Luke and you never know if they will like it or hate it. It changes every time. This time they both loved it. I think the NBC version is not as scary.

 

[jham]

We ran into Goofy:

More hat models and another favorite picture (hey, they are near each other and smiling!!!):

And back to CA for another spin on King Triton’s Carousel:

And one more time on Toy Story Midway Madness or whatever it is called. We loved that ride! My arm is still sore.

More waiting in line photos: (I think my kids look alike from behind)

Everyone loves Lily

We then started to head out of the park. DH and I were arguing about, well, spending money. Then he said he wanted to go to dinner somewhere outside the parks and DTD. It was a bit of a walk, but I said fine. Then I said I would be just as happy grabbing CS at Taste Pilot’s Grill. He ignored me and it turned out to be a good thing! And in another twist of fate, Grumpy was marching out of the park and left me way behind. I called on the cell and said “the Pixar parade is about to start, I have never seen it, let’s just stay and watch it” so he pouted and came back and we watched the parade. It was fun. The kids loved it. They laughed and their faces lit up and Luke kept screaming “get me wet! Get me wet!” to the characters squirting water. It was fun.

We got wet. THEN and only then did we take that long walk to dinner. DH and the kids wanted Mimi’s. I said fine, we all like Mimi’s. We had a nice dinner and the kids were pretty well behaved! That’s always a bonus.

Now at Mimi’s I thought I’d better keep my eye out for my DIS friend Jessica. We have never met in person but “talk” just about every day online. I knew she was in town, and I knew from her last TR that they ate at Mimi’s a lot. So, I kept my eye out for her, her DH and their son Dallas who is Luke’s age. I really wanted to meet her! She is the talented Disboutiquer that made the boys’ Jedi Mickey shirts. Since the kids were well-behaved we kind of lingered at dinner, the kids played a long game of I spy. Finally we wandered out. I glanced around checking just to make sure I didn’t miss Jessica and what do you know, she was sitting right there in the lobby waiting for take-out!

Dallas and Luke hit it off and chatted away, well, maybe Luke chatted Dallas’ ear off, not sure, but it was cute.

It was so fun to meet Jessica. We could have talked for hours! But her poor DH took Dallas, and their food, back to the hotel and we chatted while her dinner got cold. Thanks Jessica!

We then went back to the hotel and to bed.

Day 6:

We slept in a little, took our time packing (Jayden did not feel well) and then made the loooooooong drive home. We made it home around midnight—as in today.

 

[sugarbees]

You are INSANE! You just got back 5 minutes ago and here's your TR... (I've missed the !!)
You rock, girl...and you're my hero!
Looks like a super fun trip with your super cute family...and beyond gorgeous customs!

 

[10stime]

I am loving your report, you have a beautiful family! Did you make some of those dresses/skirts, they are ADORABLE!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

YIPPEE!!!! Looks like I found something to do when I'm bored at work today

 

[revrob]

LOVED the report! It looks like you had a great time - loved all of the outfits, too! It's SO COOL that you met Jessica. Glad you had a great trip and made it home safely.

 

[longaberger_lara]

Great trip report! Hopefully one day my family can make it to Disneyland too!

 

[reynmagsmom]

great report but i wanna see the creepy pic...lol i must admit i am a bit curious!!!! glad you had such a great trip and what cute kiddies you have!!!

 

[jessica52877]

Wow! A whole trip report done already! I just spent all morning reading it here while looking at the Matterhorn!

I am SO glad we ran into each other! It made for a super fun trip! Dallas said Luke and him were playing I spy! They sure would get along well if we lived closer!

I am going to go back a bit later and look again at the pictures, I was trying to hurry a bit!

 

[PrincessLeighsDaddy]

Great TR Jeanne! I can't believe you completed it all in one day!
Loved all the customs you did!
I can see why everyone liked the NBC outfit. Very striking!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Great report! Makes me want to go back to Disneyland!!! And wear a pettiskirt since CLEARLY adults can pull them off

 

[disneymommieof2]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Jeanne!! I think I'm gonna have to read/look at it a few times!! I love all the pictures, especially with the kids huggin'. You'll have to pull those out on a crabby day just to remind them that they do like each other! I am living vicariously through your TR seeing as how we are not going to make it to DL this fall like I had wanted Ahhh someday we will!!

 

[minnie2]

Great TR! I love all the pictures you kids are so cute!
I can't wait to one day go to DL!
How is Jayden feeling?