Disneyland! A Play by Play.

I'm not kidding about this being a play by play.

I will always take five pictures when only one is necessary and then I will post them all.

It's just how I do things.

 We're on our way! Walking through Downtown Disney to get to the park entrances!

Cousins holding hands!
This was one of my favorite things to see during this trip and I got pictures of it whenever possible.

You'll see.

 Cute and patient kiddos, waiting for Mark to pick up Grandmas Electronic Convenience Vehicle.

 Oh look, there he is!

We were pretty amused by this, I must say.

I must also say that Mark is a good sport:)

Almost time! 

We were waiting for the rest of our group to arrive, there were 18 of us, and ten of those were kids!

We made it!
The whole fam damily, as Rand would say;)

 

Goofy!

 

Walking through the castle for the first time!

 

Snow Whites Evil Stepmother.

She was good.

 

 Dumbo, our very first ride!

Ruesie and Hali were ride buddies most of the time, which I think just made the trip all the more fun for LaRue.

Tillie, my ride buddy, all set for some flying!

 I see some people we know in those elephants!

King Arthur's Carousel!

Is this not the cutest picture ever? 

One of my favorite from the whole trip.

 

 

  

 Trying to pull the sword out of the stone.

Tillie couldn't quite manage it.

 

 Ruesie didn't get it either, even though Sage was giving her some helpful tips.

 

We just couldn't get the darned thing out. Drat!

 Autopia!

Tillie had some sweet driving skills, but mom kept stalling the car. Oops.

 Finding Nemo submarine ride, so cute!

I thought the Disney cast members were pretty considerate and usually did a really good job of accommodating our big ol crazy group:)

 Cousins holding hands!

In line for Space Mountain, I think?

Cutie Patooties looking cute in goofy glasses for Star Tours!

 

Oh Adelaide.

Dear Sweet Adelaide.

In the middle of this ride, she started to fall apart.

She's so tall, and she started out so game that we brought her on everything, she handled space mountain like a champ. But during Star Tours she decided she had had enough of the thrill rides

 

 Not long after this she COMPLETELY lost it during the Jungle Cruise. I thought it would be mild enough but she was convinced we were going to tip, and she fuh-reaked. out.

 So while the rest of the group went on Splash Mountain, Adelaide and I hung out with Pooh Bear.

And Tigger too.

 The group had some fast passes left so Tillie, Hallie and Ruesie agreed to ride again so that I could have a go.

I don't know why I would bother to post this picture, but I'm doing it.

 Can I take a moment to say that I am a big fan of the fast pass? They always seemed like such a mystery to me, but Ridemax and Jerilee using them like a pro helped me to finally understand how they work. It feels really awesome to just skip right past sometimes craaaaaazy long lines and only have to wait a few minutes before getting your turn- big fan.

Can I also take a moment to say that I am a big fan of the Ridemax? You subscribe to their service and when you log onto their website, you enter what rides you'd like to do, and they schedule your day so that you can get the most rides in with minimal line time, even telling you when to send people where to get which fast passes you're going to need. I thought it was super helpful, and I didn't think any of our waits in line were too bad.

Can I also also take a moment to say that I am a big fan of the Jerilee? She was great about figuring things out and keeping our crazy group on the go, whilst remaining flexible, and also whilst being asked by ten different kids every two minutes, "What's next? What's next?" That's right, our kids were asking Jerilee what's next too, but she was really nice about it:) She ALSO was most often the one to take everyone's tickets and run around for the fast passes, which I thought was super nice, especially considering how hot it was.

This group started to play some fun music across the street from where we had sprawled out to eat lunch and rest up a bit.

I was quite impressed that they could wear these suits in that heat!

Did I not mention? It was pretty hot.

I'm pretty sure I was sweating nonstop the entire week.

Lisa smells good.

I was also impressed that these mugs had the energy to dance along, it was HOT I tell you!

I sat in the shade and took pictures.

Jessie!

Mr. Toads Wild Ride!

Teacups!

It's a Small World!

It might be a small world, but it can take a while to get through it when your boats just stop moving about halfway through:)

I think that pretty much wraps up day one.

A couple of things I learned that day:

Water, water, WATER! Bring more water bottles than you think you will need and refill them every time you pass a water fountain. Possibly this is only as necessary during summer.

Halfway through the day it became apparent that we should have asked Mom if we could have borrowed her stroller. It would have fit in our car so easily and saved a lot of trouble. But see, we don't even have our own stroller anymore, that's why I completely thought that we wouldn't need one, I did not foresee that Adelaide would end up melting, (she also ended up getting sick so she was having a rougher time than she normally might have) so we sent Jordan back to the gate to rent a stroller, the total cost of which for the four days we were there was sixty dollars. TOTALLY worth it, but if I'd been thinking beforehand we could have at least picked up a pretty good umbrella stroller from the nearby Target or something for probably less than that, which would have come with the added bonus of being able to take it out of the park at the end of the night when tired kids didn't want to walk back to the motel. Or you know, the whole just bring one with us and save that money altogether thing.

I think that's the end of my stroller tangent, you live you learn, and next time we go to Disney we're at least going to have a stroller at the motel ready to go just in case. Even if our youngest is five years old by then- it will at least come in handy for hauling all that water around:)

Okay, okay, ONE more thing to add to this endless post, just something I want to remember for next time, I loved ridemax and will totally use it again next time, but there is also an app called Disney Mobile Magic which I literally didn't put on my phone until the last day we were there, dang it. But it has little maps of the parks  and shows you where you are, which was so handy because even on the last day there, there were still parts of both parks where I just could not get my bearings. And you can also tap on the attractions and it tells you what the wait time for that ride is. It also has a schedule of shows and parades for the day, and I think you can even use it to create a schedule for how you want to take your day, I'm definitely using that one next time too, and NOT just on the last day.

Oh, I lied. This is seriously just a note to self, but next time copy Jerilees autograph book idea. It is perfection.

We brought along a mini spiral notebook (a CHEAP mini spiral notebook). The autographs will make it into the scrapbook, but it did NOT hold up well. Index is definitely the way to go.

The End.

Of Day One.