How was your Thanksgiving? part I

How was your Thanksgiving?
Great!
What did you do?
We went to Disneyland.
Oh wow! Was it crowded?

This is the conversation I've had at least 8 times since coming home from our vacation. It seems so funny to me that people always want to know what the crowds were like, not if we had fun, if the girls were thrilled, how we managed to go three days in a row, what the weather was like, etc etc. All they want to know is about all the other people. I answer them "Wednesday and Thursday were ok, but Friday was packed," and then they nod all sage like, as if saying, "We thought it would be like that. Too bad you didn't ask me before you went." Just for the record, I'm not angry at these random people, I just think it's funny that they all say the same thing.

So, in case you need a recap:
We went to Disneyland over Thanksgiving break with my in-laws.
Yes, we drove there in one shot with the kids.
We stayed three days at the park.
It wasn't too bad on Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday was a little crazy.
Yes, the girls loved it.
Saturday we went to the beach.
Yes I did swim in the ocean.
No I am not crazy.
Yes it was cold.
Again, no I am not crazy.

There, that should cover the basics.
What, you need more? Ok ok.

We left Provo about noon on Tuesday and caravaned with my in-laws BJ and Kristen and Kristen's roommate Audry all the way down to our hotel in Anaheim that day, and it took us about 10 hours, which included a dinner stop in Vegas and a few other random potty stops. Not too bad all in all. The kids had been asleep for about an hour when we arrived at the hotel at 9:45, so it took a while to haul our stuff up, greet Grandma Sue and Papa, have the kids unwrap their outfits for the next day (Evelynn's Cinderella dress and Eloise's Snow White dress and Michael's Mickey Mouse shirt, respectively), then wind down and get to bed, say around 11. They all slept tolerably well, but I did NOT. I have the unfortunate condition where I cannot sleep at all in a new bed the first night. Like not at all. So even though I was exhausted from not sleeping the night before because of cleaning/packing/worrying about unpacked/cleaned stuff, I still went to sleep around 12 am and woke up at 2 am.... and didn't get back to sleep. I finally read my scriptures at 5 am and then got up with Michael at 5:45. By then we were all getting up to start out first Disneyland day anyway, so I just sucked it up and sucked down a few cokes in the park to tide me over.

For the park experience, I brought along B.O.B. and the umbrella stroller. This way I had the potential of three seats for all three kids, plus the luggage space for all our gear. B.O.B. was amazing. I could never have done the trip without him... I mean it. :) Michael was in B.O.B. most of the time, and Evelynn and Eloise switched off in B.O.B. frequently for naps and to rest their tired little feet. I saw a lot of other B.O.B. owners at the park, and I also saw a lot of non-B.O.B. owners there, and I think we all felt a little sorry for them. Anyway, day one of the park was fun. Disneyland was not quite what I was expecting. It's almost perfect, except for the floods of people. It's super clean ALL the time, there is no smoking allowed, very little alcohol, the staff is almost scary nice and helpful and HAPPY to be working there (no matter what their job is. Even the bathroom cleaners were happy) and 70% of the rides are entire family friendly. I was expecting a lot of trading off with Michael, which I thought would be fine since we had 7 adults with us, but Michael came on most of the rides with us. He did great on them too. He held very still and was fascinated by all the bright colors and movement and music. I was more worried that he would be a little freaked out, but he was best behaved on the rides, so we went on as many as we could with him. Eloise could also ride all the rides except like 5 or 6, and she and Evelynn loved the roller coasters. I had a talk with the girls before we left, explaining to them that Daddy and uncle BJ and aunt Kristen were so excited to take them on rides, and these rides wouldn't be scary, they would be fun, and they had to be brave and try them all. And they did. Every single one. Evelynn even wanted to go on the Indiana Jones ride, which I went on before her and didn't want her to go because it's pretty intense, but she went with Grandma Sue and Papa and did awesome. She didn't want to do it again, but she DID go, without crying, and said it was fun but scary. Both girls did splash mountain a few times, and we saw several princesses that day. My favorite moment of that day was randomly finding Snow White when it was just me, Doug and Eloise. She went right up to her in her  own Snow White dress, and Snow White took her in her arms and talked to her for quite a while. Then I got some pictures, but Eloise was just star struck. She kept saying "Mom, we have the same dress on! She's just like me!" It was very tender.

We spent the whole first day on the Disneyland side, which was a great thing since that side got more and more crowded as the days went on. Disneyland had all their Christmas lights and stuff up, and Small World was all Christmas-y too, and it was pretty spectacular. That night we watched the Christmas parade on Main Street. Evelynn actually watched it twice (once at 5 and once at 7:30) and was mesmerized by it both times. It had everything, all the princes and princesses, Mrs. Claus, Santa Claus, several other characters and lots of music and dancing. As far as parades go it was a very good one, and I do not like parades. While we were waiting for it to start, I went walking with the poor couped up Michael. It was so funny to walk with him in the park, because everywhere he went there was a wave of "Awww!" following him. He is so different from my girls. When I would take him out of the stroller, we would just walk away, never looking back, and he would not stop unless I came and stopped him. He's a rover... I better be careful. But he's a cute rover, and luckily he can't rove too far yet. After the parade, I called it a night with my kids and we took them back to the hotel to sleep. Luckily for me Doug's mom had a sleeping pill with her, so I put the kids to bed, took one of those myself, and was out by 9:30. Doug went out with his sibblings to enjoy some Disney night life, but I was so grateful just to get 8 hours of sleep (meaning Michael was up at 5:30 again) that I didn't care. It made day two of Disneyland so much happier for me, although since Doug got in around midnight that night, he was the one who was tired the next day when it started dark and early again. :)

P.S. More picture will be added later. I didn't take any pictures except these because I didn't have a good camera (obviously), and I am terrible at remembering to take pictures anyway, so that responsibility was given to all my in-laws. I'll collect their pictures soon to share.