We're Back!!

Well, we decided to get a couple hours of sleep before we left so we went to bed when Steve got home at 9pm, got up at 1am, and left by 2am. Kellenwas sick a couple times in the car that morning, which we chalked up to little sleep and much excitement. When we got there, the hotel gave Kellen a Happy Birthday button pin that cued every single cast member we saw to wish him a happy bithday (although the actual day wasn't until the 25th). We went on lots of rides and took lots of pictures. Our trip included one day at LegoLand and an evening at Medieval Times, too. At Disneyland, we had lunch at the Blue Bayou, dinner at Ariel's Grotto (visited by Cinderella, Belle, Jasmine, and Princess Minnie right at our table), a birthday party at the Plaza Inn (visited by Minnie and Mickey), and breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen (visited by Baloo, Goofy, Dale, and Cinderella). One of my favorite things was that Madison wasn't afraid of any of the characters we saw. She was so excited, she would run up and give any of them a big hug. On Thursday, we went to the Big Thunder Ranch (in Disneyland) to see Santa and his reindeer, decorate cookies, and watch a magic show. Pluto, Chip, and Dale sat just down the bench from us during the show and Madison spent the whole time playing with them and sitting on their laps. Our package included one early entry into the park and one early entry into Toontown, which was great. When we had our early entry into the park, we went straight to Finding Nemo (the old submarine ride, for those who remember that) and only had about a 20 min wait, which is great considering that it's been running between 2 and 4 hours to get on the ride. There were a lot of the rides that Madison just sat there taking it all in, but she loved Dumbo and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters (use a light gun to shoot various Zurg targets throughout the ride and it gives you a score at the end). Kellen had a great time going on Star Tours (I love seeing someone who is riding it for the first time!), Matterhorn, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates, and the Haunted Mansion. About a week before we left, Steve's parents gave us a book about the Hidden Mickeys all over Disneyland so we read the book and looked all over for the Mickeys. Some we found, some we didn't, and there were a few more we saw that weren't in the book at all.

We went into the park for the last time on Saturday morning after our breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen but went back to the hotel to pack the car before lunch. We had already packed up our bags and checked out of the room, but the bell service will hold your luggage until midnight of the day you check out so they brought out our bags so we could load them into the car, and we managed to leave by 1pm, so that we could drive through the night and get home early Sunday morning. But holiday traffic made the drive take a lot longer than it should have. The final straw was that around 430am fog and freezing temperatures made the road slick and there were several accidents that stopped us 45 miles from home for about 2 and a half hours. Still, we were very grateful that we weren't involved in any accidents. We got safely home by 8am. However, since we weren't expecting it to get so cold here, we had turned off the heat while we were gone so the house was only 43 degrees when we walked in. Brrr! The first thing we did was make some hot chocolate, and then snuggled under blankets until the house warmed a little. We unloaded the car before lunch and started laundry so that everyone would have clothes to wear :)

It was a great week, but we were so glad to be back in our own beds last night. And now that Thanksgiving has passed, it's time to start pulling out the Christmas decorations!