Disneyland!!!

A few months ago, our dear friends from Texas, the Byers family, let us know that they were heading to Disneyland in the middle of June and asked if we'd like to join them.  We didn't have to think twice about saying "YES!" and we are so glad that our first experience at Disneyland was shared with such amazing friends!  

We told the kids just a week or so prior to going and they were so excited for it.  The night before we checked out the website to figure out which rides Joseph and Ella would be able to ride and Joseph was thrilled to find out that he could ride some of the bigger ones-Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and even Indiana Jones!!  He was a little hesitant after watching the video of Indiana Jones on the website but still wanted to test it out.    

On Sunday morning we started our day with some Mickey Mouse pancakes to get everyone excited for the following day!  

We then headed over to the RB Community Park to get some exercise in before driving up that afternoon.  

We left the house around 1:30 and were all checked in to the hotel by 3:30 so it was a fast and easy trip.  We made plans to meet the Byers for dinner at 6:00 at Downtown Disney so we had time to hit up the pool before.  We stayed at the Hilton which was less than a mile from Disney so it was perfect.  

Downtown Disney was crowded but really neat!  We attempted to have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe but when we found out that it was going to be at least a 90 minute wait we opted for the sandwich cafe close by.  The kids (despite their crazy faces!) loved the Lego store and the Lego exhibits outside of the story-pretty amazing!  

Lots and lots of Lego people!  

The girls were so excited to be reunited with Sam!

And, everyone was super excited just to be together again!!  

We enjoyed some kettle korn after dinner together while people watching and just hanging out together. 

The kids fell asleep pretty quickly that night despite their excitement for the next day and slept well but were definitely up and ready to go the next morning!  Our first stop at Disney was breakfast with the characters which was a great event!  There was a ton to eat and we were able to see a lot of characters without standing in line, which really was the only other option to see them throughout the day.  

The boys loved Captain Hook, Sam not so much!  

The fairy godmother was much more of a hit with the girls! 

Lots of love from everyone for Chip!

Mickey didn't make an appearance at the breakfast (nor did we see him for the the remainder of the day) but Minnie was a big hit!

Getting ready to walk through the castle!

The first ride that the big boys wanted to ride was Splash Mountain so after getting the Fast Passes, riding on the carousel, and walking through the upstairs of Sleeping Beauty's castle (which totally freaked Ella out!) we made our way to the ride.  We double checked Ella's height to see if she could ride it but she was definitely too short-she was upset for a few moments but nothing that a cookie couldn't fix!  The girls and I hung out together while everyone else got wet and had a blast!  

 I'm not sure who had more fun...Joseph and Will or the adults!  

Hanging with the girls!

We spent the rest of the day hitting up the big rides that the big kids and adults wanted to go on and finding the smaller rides/attractions for the girls.  Joseph loved Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain and definitely came off of Indian Jones shooken up, but if you ask him today he'll tell you that Indiana Jones was his favorite!  It was definitely crowded but with the fast pass it didn't seem bad at all.  Val and I spent some time at Mickey's Toon Town with the girls while the boys and dads went to ride Thunder Mountain and they had a blast playing in the houses there.

This picture is classic Ella!  

Getting ready to ride Thunder Mountain!  

Dumbo was a hit for everyone!  

We had a late afternoon lunch at one of the restaurants there which was a great way to take a little break and get through the afternoon.

These boys were definitely excited to see one another.  Rich and I love seeing Joseph interact with Will.  He truly seems to understand that Will is an extra special kind of friend and treats him so well and is really so kind to him.  He barely left his side the entire day.  Our first hope, of course, is for Will to be healed, but our second hope is that Joseph, along with our other children, always treat Will (and any other people who they encounter with disabilities) with respect, friendship and kindness.  

While waiting for our time for the Nemo submarine ride we roamed through the Star Wars exhibit which was a great way to escape the afternoon heat and to check something new out.  Joseph was pretty pumped about it!  I have to laugh because for never seeing the movie and really not knowing anything about it other than reading a few books, he really does love Star Wars!  

Dads and their boys

It was such a special day to be reunited with the Byers family and to share this awesome experience with them!!  We couldn't have asked for a better day!  

 

We left the park around 6:00 and walked back through Downtown Disney to get to our car.  We stopped for ice cream on the walk back which pretty much was our dinner!  Life doesn't get much better than this-breakfast with the characters, fun all afternoon and then finishing the day with ice cream for dinner!  Pretty awesome!

Almost back to the car!  We drove home from here and all three kids were asleep within 15 minutes of the car ride-I'm pretty sure they were all asleep before we even got on the freeway!  We were home by 8:30 which worked out perfectly and everyone transferred right in to bed.  

We are so thankful that we were able to share  our first experience at Disney with the Byers family!