Our Disneyland vacation

Seeing Disneyland through the eyes of our children was priceless. It made getting through security, hauling all of the car seats in order to buckle them into our rental car, driving through LA traffic, spraying our kiddos with water to keep them cool, trying to get everyone asleep in one hotel room, having them all wake up early no matter how late we went to bed, taking turns on rides so Casey could sleep in the stroller, barely making it home on stand-by... all worth it. When you get home, all of that craziness melts away and all you are left with is those precious, unforgettable memories.

As I mentioned before, we weren't planning on going to Disneyland... but I couldn't be more grateful that we went. The fact that Gavin was exactly Jacob's age and Casey was exactly Gavin's age when we went last really made it special. I had all of these memories of what Jacob was like at age 3 in Disneyland, so it was fun to see how Gavin reacted to everything in comparison.

We loved staying at the Howard Johnson last time and when we found out they had a new pirate-themed waterpark, we were sold. They boys anxiously pulled on their swimsuits as soon as we got there to try it out. It had an area for Casey to crawl around in, a shallow pool for Gavin and Jacob to swim in, and a variety of different waterslides. Just like in Legoland, once the giant bucket on top filled with water, it poured on top of everybody.







One of the things I learned is to never, ever take your 3 year-old on Pirates of the Caribbean. ;) Jacob was frightened and crying through the entire ride two years ago, as was Gavin this time. Thankfully, there were some really friendly teenagers in front of us who encouraged him through the entire ride. They kept telling him how brave he was and pointed out all of the sparkling treasures and cute dogs in order to distract him.

After that, we decided to head to Fantasyland for some non-scary, fun little kid rides. It was dark by this time and we could virtually walk onto any ride. Gavin got his first taste of the Dumbo ride, which was Jacob's favorite at his age. I also took the boys on the Casey Jr. train, which is such a cute ride and has always been one of my favorites.


Then Adam spun them around on the tea cups.

One of my favorite memories was running into Mickey Mouse on our way back to the hotel. The boys couldn't be more excited to run into the star of their favorite show. The only thing Jacob couldn't figure out was why he didn't talk! Gavin was completely starstruck and after giving him a hug and taking a picture, he seemed to freeze in time. We called his name and he slowly walked backwards, not taking his eyes away from Mickey for a second. It was adorable.