Disneyland!

We were able to spend 3 wonderful days in Disneyland this week. This seems to be our tradition when Sam gets home from any long military related absence - not that you see any of us complaining about this part of it :)
We decided to drive, which went very well considering that it was an entire day in the car with little kids. And we were all very excited to finally arrive at the hotel. The Disneyland Hotel! Which had all these fun little touches like Mickey ears on the lamp base and Mickey gloves holding the sconces in the bathroom. Our room over looked Downtown Disney and we Kaitlyn was able to watch the fireworks before she went to sleep. They also had fun Princess Bedtime Stories on the TV, which Kaitlyn watched every night before bed. And the biggest benefit - no worries about parking and no having to walk for half and hour to get to and from the park.
We had SO much fun at Disneyland and California Adventure (despite the crowds - everyone must have been on Spring Break). We had wonderful weather (which made us even happier since it was snowing when we left home) though and the kids didn't mind standing in lines. Our first ride, at Kaitlyn's request was the Tea Cups, which we then had to ride at least once every day. The Carousel was Tyler's favorite and it, again, was ridden every day we were there. Kaitlyn was a bit wary of riding anything that looked "scary" but on the ones we knew she would like, we tried to talk her into it. Then she would say things like "that was so fun! I should have trusted you!" We also made sure to get photos and autographs with all the big characters - the Princesses, Mickey, Minnie, Tinkerbell, Lightning and Mater...
On our second day there, my friend Christina was able to join us, along with her god daughter Kayla. The two girls soon became friends and we all had so much fun with them there. Thanks again for coming, C!
Kaitlyn's favorite ride on the second day was Small World, which was recently redone. The look on her face during the whole ride was priceless. She loved it so much she talked Sam into going on it the next day (which in itself was a huge feat since Sam was dead set on hating that ride and not wanting to ever experience it).
The pool at the hotel was also a big hit and had to be visited every day. It was a really big one, set up with the theme of Peter Pan. Even though the water was cold (since we didn't get to the pool until almost sunset), the kids insisted on going on the little waterslide over and over again. I, on the other hand, tried to spend as much time as possible in the hot tub - which was also huge and set to look like a scene from the little Mermaid (with and Ariel statue and a big seashell backdrop/outdoor shower).

We had such full days every day we were all exhausted and happy to tumble into bed each night. Kaitlyn shared a bed with Tyler, which she thought was just one more fun thing about vacation.