Disney Pictures

Here are a bunch of pictures from our Disney trip on Sept 23-25, 2010.

A few notes from this trip...Troy bought year passes for Christmas with the points we have racked up using the Disney Rewards card but with him starting a new business and insurance companies taking their own sweet time to pay Troy what they owe him, we have not been able to use the passes except for a quick trip right after Christmas last year. Just the gas up there, hotel price and food was more than we could spare. But for the last few months I have been telling the kids that if we could save enough money then we could go to Disneyland. Every time they wanted something I would ask, "Do you want this or Disneyland?" They always said Disneyland. So that has been a good lesson in choosing what you really want over what you want now.

I scheduled this trip back in March, hoping we would be able to go because a friend of ours has created what he calls The Disneyland Challenge (click here for more details) for the last Friday in September each year. It is sort of like a scavenger hunt through the park. So fun! We were able to get a great deal on a hotel with him if we signed up in March so I took a leap of faith.

So, I think you could say this was a super cheap trip to Disneyland. I took instant oatmeal for breakfast, we packed sandwiches for lunch and other snacks as well and split dinner with each other in the park. We did do one dinner splurge at Goofy's Kitchen, at least they had healthy food there to eat. I just couldn't let those passes go to waste so we made it work within our budget.Our family needed a vacation and the kids didn't care about the food (or lack of it) at all. They just wanted to have fun and that is exactly what happened!

 At Goofy's Kitchen

 Ben playing with Goofy

 Lizzy talking with Pocahontas. Troy kept saying, "I think that's her real hair! I think that's her real hair!" She was very uplifting with whatever it was she said to the children. I overheard a tiny bit but Lizzy can't remember anything else so I'm just going off of the look on her face that Pocahontas was wonderful to talk to.

 Ben kept hugging Buzz and even ran back to give him another hug as we were walking away.

 My favorite character photos are of when the children are walking up to the character and hugging them.

 Lizzy wants to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween this year which totally surprised me. We found her a costume before we went so that she could wear it in the park. Minnie acted very, very excited to see another little Minnie Mouse. It made Lizzy happy.

 Ben cannot say Pluto. So he just calls Pluto "Mickey Mouse's boy dog".

 I don't know what Lizzy loves more, Disneyland or the hotels we stay in. When we pulled up in the hotel parking lot she started wiggling around and saying, "Oh I can't wait to see the bedspreads!" "I am just gonna love sleeping in the hotel!" Once she was inside the hotel she ran back outside to where I was and said, "Mom, come smell the room! It is so nice!"  I think for our next "vacation" I'm just going to book a room at a local hotel and we'll go stay the night. :)

 We had to take a picture of our opportunity to be FIRST in line on Saturday morning.

 A very blurry picture of Lizzy's first ride on Splash Mountain! She is finally tall enough. She was nervous but as we finished the big drop in the ride I heard her laughing hysterically. She LOVED it!

 Dancing and playing the tambourine with Princess Tiana.

 I wish I could hear what Sleeping Beauty is saying.

 I don't ride the rides that spin in circles so I get to take pictures instead.

 Aladin loved Ben's Star Wars toys. Here is is making shooting noises with the storm trooper.

 Who wouldn't want a hug from the Fairy God Mother?

 I decided to bring some paper and pens to occupy Lizzy while we waited in lines for rides or while waiting for parades to start. She drew pictures of every ride and was perfectly content sitting in Disneyland drawing whatever she could think of. (Brilliant idea Mommy!)

We're so grateful to have gone and maybe, just maybe we will get to use our passes one more time before they expire at the beginning of January.  I think we'll take a break from Disneyland for a while after that. I have some other fun vacation opportunities brewing in my brain... :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that in the Disneyland Challenge participants form themselves into teams. Our family was a team with the name of "The Love Bugs". We made shirts that had Herbie on the front for each of us. Our team cheer was "Goooooooo Love Bugs! Beep! Beep!" (the kids loved that part. They are still saying it a few times a day which makes me smile.) I would show a family picture of the Love Bugs but none of them turned out. Oh well. We have the memories. :) (We didn't win but we had fun!)