The Happiest Place on Earth

Finally our countdown has ended and it is time to go on our trip. Every day Katherine was excited to remove a piece of the chain as we counted down the days to see Sophia.

This past weekend we met my family in Southern California for a little trip to Disneyland. It was a great time to go. The weather was perfect and it was not too crowded. I don't know that we waited longer than 10-15 minutes for anything except to meet the princesses. Of course we were not riding the big roller coasters but some of the kiddie ride lines can get pretty long.

Our flight was at noon but somehow we were still in a rush to get to the airport. We pulled into remote parking and they gave us a coupon for valet parking at the terminal for only $10/day. What a deal! So, we went to the valet parking but still checked in right at 30 minutes before our flight was scheduled to take off. So, our luggage was tagged to go on the flight after ours. You would think that after paying $15 per bag the least they could do was try to rush it onto our plane.

This was Caroline's first flight. Katherine has been on at least 15 round trips but the last one was a year ago so she did not remember it so it was effectively her first flight as well. They did pretty well at the beginning. Too bad our plane did not even pull away from the gate for over an hour due to a warning light being out and having to wait for maintenance. Add the windy weather that closed one runway and we left 90 minutes late. Caroline took a long nap, Katherine played and watched movies. Then on the descent her ears started to hurt, she started to scream and she would not stay buckled in her seat belt. The flight attendant actually came and told us that she could just sit in my lap. While I was appreciative at the time, it caused problems later on the return flight.

When we arrived, Nana and Pops were waiting for us. They flew on another airline but into the same airport. After about an hour Will and Sophia arrived. Then we had to wait on our luggage and take the Disneyland Express shuttle to our hotel.
We stayed at the Residence Inn Marriott. I found a great deal using trip advisor. I really like that travel website. It has a ton of reviews and then in one click brings up the prices for what you want on all of the travel sites. We had one penthouse suite and one standard suite next door to one another. Nana and Pops stayed in our suite which was helpful with the kids. The hotel had already delivered our groceries to our kitchen and it was right on the shuttle route. Thursday night we decided to just eat in our room as Katherine had not napped and was exhausted.

After the kids were in bed Sam and I walked across the street to the Garden Walk (outdoor mall) and we were able to see the fireworks from Disneyland.