Our Trip to the Happiest Place on Earth

On April 29th we decided to take the family to Disneyland!  I hadn't been in over 6 years, which means I'd never been with Russell.  We wanted to take the girls before they turned 3 so that we didn't have to pay for them because we are cheap smart like that.  Their birthday was 3 days later so we really waited to the very last minute and made it a birthday trip. We had fun- but it wasn't what I expected.  I remember feeling the same way about our trips to Sea World last year- we had fun, but I expected my kids to be over-the-moon excited about everything and just run around with smiles on their faces.  I'm learning that my kids just aren't that way.  They are pretty subdued when there are lots of people around (don't have any idea where they got that from ; )  and they just don't have the huge overblown reactions that Russell and I would love to see when we do something really exciting. Combine that with the fact that they are HORRIBLE about taking pictures (although Morgan is getting MUCH better) and I was just slightly disappointed when I got home and looked through our pictures. I just wanted to have a bunch of pictures of the happiest children on the planet just crazy with excitement.  Oh well . . .

We started on the carousel and then the Dumbo ride and the girls liked those just fine.  

We stopped in the Mad Hatter to try on some hats.  We were hoping to get them each one with their names on them to wear around, but of course they would NOT wear them for more than a few seconds (Madylin wouldn't even look at the camera or smile) so we had to scratch that idea.

(By the way in all the pictures Morgan is in the green shirt and Madylin in the blue)

Then we went and waited 45 minutes in the "meet the princesses" line which I didn't think was going to be worth it because I figured the girls wouldn't even talk to or take pictures with the princesses.  I was wrong, Russell was right (yes I said it).  The girls loved it and talked to the princesses and even sorta smiled for pictures!

We then took Nathan on his first ride- It's a Small World.  We have no pictures of it because it was the perfect opportunity for me to nurse him!  The ride is nice and long and dark so I just enjoyed it with Nathan nursing under a cover!

We headed over to Toon Town and Russell and I took the girls on a really fun roller coaster.  It was kinda fast and loud and we were nervous they would scream and cry, but they just grimaced the whole time and then told us afterwards that they didn't want to do it again.  I'll take that over wailing!

Here we are in front of the roller coaster. (can't remember what it's called)

In Toon Town we also got to meet Mickey Mouse!

Before leaving we decided to go on the carousel again with Nathan and my mom, too.

Nathan almost fell asleep on this ride.

We also decided to go on the teacups one last time.  I'm SOO glad we did because it made the trip worth it.  The first time we didn't spin it at all, but the second time Russell decided he could handle the spinning and he helped the girls spin the teacups really fast and they LOVED it.  They were laughing and screaming- all the things I wanted them to be doing all day!

All in all a great day and I'm so glad my mom could come with us and help with Nathan while we took the girls on some rides. (and help take the girls on some rides while I fed Nathan as well!)

Here's our little family trying to take a good picture.

Here's one with the girls actually looking at the camera

I wonder where they get the fake smiles from- I mean Russell and I look totally natural!

(and yes those are braces on my husband's teeth- he got them on the day before we went)