Phelps Family Adventures at Disneyland

And now for the pictures you have all been waiting for..(drum roll please) our Disneyland vacation pictures! (Warning there are a lot!)

So in order to cut costs we decided to drive the 14 hrs to Anaheim. I know we must be crazy, but it actually went very well. We left at 3 am on Saturday, March 22. This way we got some of the drive out of the way before the kids woke up. The kids did really well considering. I think the excitement of going to Disneyland kept them from complaining or fighting too much with each other. Just so you know we went through northern Nevada and there was nothing exciting about that drive. We think maybe when we do this again and if we have to drive we'll go through Utah. At least there's more cities and stops along the way that direction.

We stopped outside Sacramento for lunch and found a county park to play at. We did have to pay a $5 day use charge but it was worth it to let the kids stretch their legs and get the wiggles out.

When we planned our vacation we chose the dates because it fell on Mason's spring break from school. Only a few weeks after we had booked and paid for the trip did we realize it also fell on Easter weekend. The Easter Bunny still managed to find us in California and hid eggs and baskets for the kids.

Our first day we spent in the Magic Kingdom with just our family. The kids were star struck in meeting the characters they have seen so many times on TV. They loved playing and riding on the fun kid rides. One of their favorite places was Tarzan's Tree House. It used to be The Swiss Family Robinson Tree House when I was growing up but they changed it several years back.

Here we are on the Disneyland Railroad. This way the kids could see all of the park and decide where we should go.




Pooh and his friends have a tendency to hide out in Critter Country. Well, we ran into them and got their autographs and pictures.

In ToonTown the kids explored all of their favorite characters' homes. They drove Donald's boathouse and sat on Goofy's chair.






Of course while in ToonTown we couldn't forget to stop and see Mickey. We wandered through his home and film barn until we finally met up with him. The kids were very much in awe and didn't say much around him. Makai loved pulling on Mickey's ears! (Man that picture makes me look fat. I'm really not that big!)

Monday, Thad's parents joined us for some Disney fun with their grandkids. We enjoyed exploring both parks with them. It was also nice to have them along so we could go on some grown-up rides like the Tower of Terror, Screamin', The River Rapids, and Soarin'. We were also able to take Mason on Splash Mountain for the first time and he loved it. He's so reserved and careful we didn't know if he would be too scared by it but he really loved it and even drew a picture about it when we got home. Between Splash Mountain and Autopia, he was in heaven.

Mason on the Jungle Cruise

Makai with Max-Goofy's son

Tuesday at the park presented a bit of a challenge as the crowds hit-it was Spring Break afterall. So we did a lot of playing in the playgrounds and watching of parades and shows. Here the kids are playing on Tom Sawyer Island in search of Captain Jack Sparrow and the pirates' lair.

Looks like Malia found their treasure!

The kids enjoyed the "A Bug's Land" area in California Adventure. It's filled with kiddie rides. And yes even though the train was only going 3 mph I still managed to lose my sunglasses on it.

Heimlich's "Chew Chew" Train.

Bumper cars-the slowest bumper cars in the world I might add!

Flik's Flyers

The splash park-Mason was running from the water but Malia was trying so hard to catch it and get wet.

King Arthur's Carousel in the Magic Kingdom was closed for remodeling but King Triton's Carousel in California Adventure was up and running.

On our last day (1/2 day really) we had a Character Breakfast with Minnie and her friends. If while you're looking at these pictures start to wonder where Mason is, he is still very reserved and shy and didn't get too close to the characters. Malia and Makai on the other hand loved them!

Malia and Rafiki

Malia and Rabbit

Rabbit and Malia rubbing noses
Makai and Rabbit

Malia's favorite next to Cinderella, Minnie Mouse.

Makai loved pinching Minnie's nose!

While waiting to ride Splash Mountain we stopped off for some pictures near Pooh's Hunny Pots Look happy don't they?


Malia is pretending to eat the honey

That concludes our vacation pictures. We have some pictures of Malia with Cinderella and others that Thad's parents captured for us. We are still waiting to get those from them. But as you can see we had a lot of fun and it went by way too fast!