September part 2: Disneyland: part 1

Day 1: Driving. I drove most of the way. I told my mom I didn't want to drive in crazy big-city traffic, and she assured me that all would be well. Which it was—until we hit Vegas at rush hour and it took us a good 30 minutes to go 5 miles. Yuck. We stopped in Vegas for dinner at In-n-Out, because that is the best place to get hamburgers. I won't allow any arguments on that matter.

Pre-trip selfie of the car.

The children were really well behaved and there was minimal whining/complaining. Jude took a very short nap, and probably would have slept longer if we didn't have to stop to take care of Kate's bloody nose. Jude screamed for like an hour after the kids went to sleep. I finally pulled out the Kindle and that made him happy for the last 30 minutes until we arrived at our hotel.

We had a king suite at the LaQuinta in Anaheim. My mom had her own room/bathroom, there was a common room with a fridge and pull-out couch, and the kids and I had our own room/bathroom. It was hard for me to sleep with the sounds of 4 other humans in the room, but we did okay. There were at least 2 kids on the floor every night, with 1-2 people in the beds. Jude slept with me the first night, which means that I didn't sleep much. Such is the life of a mother.

Everyone was excited to be wearing their "exercise clothes."

I didn't want to wait in line to get a good picture of the Mickey pumpkin, so I just snapped some while we were walking by. That's how I roll.

The Queen of Hearts was a hoot. She wouldn't stop walking, so you had to follow her. She would just gesture for where she wanted the kids. She would toss autograph books behind her. I loved it. The kids were entertained too. Gray wouldn't go near her. Jude was in the stroller.

We headed straight for ToonTown so we could see Mickey without having to wait forever.

Mickey's house.

Me trying to take a picture of Jude watching Mickey while holding Jude.

I really should have had Colin take his hat off.

Next, Minnie's house.

I love that the kids were so happy about everything. This is the way every family vacation should be.

We went on Gadget's Go-Coaster. Colin was a good sport to try it once, but he didn't care for it. Gray and Kate rode it again with me and loved it.

I took a video of Gray and I on our second trip on the coaster, but somehow it has been deleted. I'm very upset.

Hi fives from Goofy walking by.

Star Tours is my favorite. I took the big kids while Nana played with Jude.

We went on Buzz Lightyear too. I was the big winner. Take that small children!

A picture of a poster. Because I love Flynn Rider.

Kate went with my mom on Thunder Mountain while I waited with the boys. It was so hot. Like 100 degrees hot. I amused myself by taking pictures in front of the ride. The boys thought I was nuts.

Kate loved Thunder Mountain. A girl after my own heart. Next we went to the Big Thunder Ranch to see the animals. But it was so hot (see above) that the animals pretty much just laid there in the shade.

We also took a ride on the Mark Twain riverboat.

I think our last stop of the day was the Enchanted Tiki Room. By this time it was so hot (see above) and everyone was wiped out and just wanted to go swimming. So we called it a day at like 3 or 4 pm. I have no regrets. We got a Dole Pineapple Whip and watched the show. It's still a little unreal to me how much kids like the Tiki room.

We went back to the hotel (did I mention that we walked over a mile to and from our hotel each way? Yeah, it was a lot of walking.) and took the kids swimming. Jude took a rest. We watched a show. Everyone went to bed early. I can hear the murmuring of Disney Diehards telling me that we wasted so much time at the park by doing this, but I stand by my choices. It was more important to me to not have overtired whiny obnoxious children to deal with. And it worked like a charm. Everyone was happy, and we had a great time the next day. So there.