The Happiest Place On Earth?

Our Disneyland trip was November 6-11th. I want to document it for my children, but I hate to be negative.

Caver had been twice before with her boys, and they really like it there. She invited us this time. We met up with my sisters-in-law and nephew and niece one day, and that was SO nice. We don't see enough of them. Caver's extended family came. It was a fun group.

l to r - Cousins: Alex, Ashe, Giulia, Finn (Aunt Megan's pretending to be a dorky tourist in the background)


Ashe and Cade

My children didn't like it that much. They were just not that into it. They asked things like "Can we go back to the room?" "Do we HAVE to ride on another ride?". Astounding. My friend Yvette said: "Your kids like hotels too much. They think the hotel IS the vacation." She's right.

It was great to be together as a family. Dennis and I have a great time together. I think we had more fun at the actual theme parks than the boys. The boys definitely had their moments. Random observations :

1. Ashe said Splash Mountain was his favorite ride.
2. Finn's were Hollywood Tower of Terror and Space Mountain (Below - boys waiting for the Twilight Zone-themed Tower of Terror. This ride was set up like an abandoned, haunted hotel and you rode in an elevator that dropped several stories at a time.)

3. The boys were not the least bit scared of anything, including big roller coasters (California Screaming at California Adventure and it's loopty-loop did not even phase them).
4. They were both obsessed with getting characters' autographs - especially Ashe. They got VERY lucky. They got the "prize" ones - like Mickey and Minnie. Finn got Donald, which we understand is hard to get.
Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean was the most interesting. He had attitude like in the movie. We followed him for a long time, practically begging him for an autograph. He then spit on Finn's pen. He signed Finn's book on top of Finn's head. It was entertaining.

5. There was a Jedi Training Academy that was every boys dream. On the first day we were there, Ashe, Cade and Tucker got chosen to be in the Academy and Finn did not. The rest of our trip we tried to get Finn chosen, and he never did. It was so cute, though, because Finn was just so taken with the (truly cool) Darth Vader, he almost didn't care that he didn't become a Jedi. This is Ashe training to become a Jedi.

Dennis wasn't that into the characters, but he was a bit smitten with Elastigirl and wanted his picture taken with her.

On Friday, Nov 7th, we went to Goofy's Kitchen for a birthday celebration for Cade and Tucker. There were a few characters there and the boys were able to get some autographs. The first picture below is Goofy signing on Tucker's head. Ashe is dancing with his cousins and Goofy, when Goofy messed up his kitchen.

The kids definitely had moments of enjoyment, and they love to be with their cousins. Overall, though, they wanted to be swimming and/or eating at the hotel.

Boys waiting for Jedi Training.

Riding on California Screaming




l to r - dennis, megan, finn, ashe - finn wished he would never die.