I apologize if this post gets a little wordy, it's not to turn away those few people who actually look at this blog - it's more for me. I am terrible (can you really be terrible at something you've never done?) at writing in a journal or writing stuff down. So here it goes...our trip to DISNEYLAND ---
The trip was a Christmas present from mom and dad (THANKS!) and we decided to keep it a secret from Hailey. Well, one part of me wanted to tell her because I knew the anticipation of it all would be fun for HER - I think I was saving the rest of us from the torturous assignment of counting down the days. Come on, we just got done doing that with Christmas. So we had decided we would tell her the day of but we weren't quite sure how we were going to do it.
The day came to leave and we really hadn't devised much of a plan. We decided to wing it. I had the pleasure of packing in secret the week before which was really a treat. I wanted to take some of the girls' new Christmas clothes but it was really hard to take new clothes out of Hailey's drawer without noticing so that was an accomplishment in itself. We headed off to the airport but we told Hailey we were dropping daddy off at the fire station. As we pulled into the airport we still didn't know exactly how we were going to tell her and just decided to see how far we could get without her catching on.
So we get there and she asks why we're at the airport. We tell her that daddy is going to a fire station far away and he has to fly there (that's why we were driving him, duh!). Okay - first white lie went off without a hitch. So we pulled up to the sky cab and checked "daddy's" luggage. We asked Hailey if she just wanted to drop daddy off at the curb or if she wanted to park the car and go inside with him until his plane left. Luckily she wanted to go inside (otherwise this story -keep reading- wouldn't have been as fun). We told her that we could wait inside at the gate - she had no clue that you can't go through security without a boarding pass. Aftering playing around for a while waiting at the gate it was time to board. Here's the fun part:
{Playing around at the gate}
She gave daddy kisses and hugs goodbye and then daddy suddenly asked "Do you want to help find me a seat on the plane?" She was super excited but understood that after we found daddy a seat and we waited for all the people to board the plane, we would have to get off. We 'pretended' to put on our seat belts as if we were really going to go with daddy and without warning, the doors shut. Hailey looked sick like someone was going to haul her off to jail. Her eyes got all big and she was really nervous. She asked if the lady was going to kick us off the plane. I told her that if we stayed really quiet that she might not notice. She couldn't believe that we actually were going to fly on a plane. Just then, the flight attendant came our way and I told Hailey she was probably coming to make us get off before the plane backed away from the airport (I think I about broke her heart) - but she kept on walking. Before long we were in the air and the story continues...
Yeah, we pulled a fast one on her up to the point but she's not dumb. Where are we going to stay? What are we going to wear? We decided that we'd have to find a hotel and maybe buy some clothes and toothpaste. But how fun would it be if daddy could spend some time with us on our little adventure. Too bad he had to work. But maybe he didn't. I told Hailey to ask daddy if we would go somewhere different. He said he could call his boss and get permission to miss work. Well, if daddy didn't have to work couldn't the pilot fly us somewhere fun? "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?", said mommy, "Disneyland", said Hailey. When the flight attendant brought our drinks we WINK-WINK asked her if she could ask the pilot to Disneyland. She said she's ask him. Later, with another WINK-WINK the flight attendant told Hailey to listen extra careful upon final descent to hear a special message from the pilot. He came on overhead and said "The little girl who's going to Disneyland, have fun!" Up until that time Hailey still wasn't sure if we got to go or not. It was official, we were off to Disneyland.
But wait, there was a 2nd secret. We got to the hotel and took the elevator to our floor. We walked around the corner and Tata, Papo, Ashley and Kevin were waiting for us. Hailey was very surprised. They had all flown in the day before.
The first two days were mostly Disneyland with a little time spent at California Adventure. The kids played in A Bug's Life while the big kids went on The Tower of Terror. This was probably the best/scariest ride EVER! Holy crud! DEFINITELY not a Hailey ride. We thought it would traumatize her for life. We did sneak her on to Splash Mountain and she loved it. The drop didn't scare her a bit. Dumbo, tea-cups, and the carousel were Miley's favorite. Most days we went to the park first thing and headed back to the hotel early afternoon for some lunch and naps. We'd head back to the park about 5 ish. The rest of the crew had to leave a day before us so we spent our 3rd day at California Adventure.
After Hailey did so well with Splash Mountain we asked her if she wanted to go on a really scary ride that she might cry on. She really wanted to go. So, Austin took her on Tower of Terror. Miley and I waited very impatiently for them to come out because I was so frightened that she would hate us for life. I saw her and Austin come running around the corner with huge SMILES. She insisted that she go on again and...again. It was a Tuesday and there were NO lines so we walked right on. She went two times with Austin and once with me. Brave kid!
It was time to head home. Bummer! But we had so much fun! We'll remember this trip for a long time.
{Buggin' Out!}
{Miley on our first day at Disneyland - it was still mid morning and we didn't even need jackets. It was 75-80 each day...I love California}
{Flicker's ride in Bug's Life}
{Finally! No fear when it comes to characters. This is a milestone!}
{Waiting for our afternoon shuttle}
{All wiped out! Meet 'Tink' - she's a new part of our family}
{Take a second look, how many straws can 1 baby possible force into that cup?}
{Breakfast fun!}
{Disneyland Fire Dept.}
{Ash & Vuvvy - or Puppy or Kevin}
