The Happiest Day on Earth!

We surprised the kids last Wednesday and took them to Disneyland. It was completely a last minute decision. With the new baby and the move (and already traveling so much for the holidays), we weren't sure we were going to go. But, we had free tickets that expired December 15th and so we pretty much decided the night before, what the heck? Let's do it! I'm so glad we did, too! It was a long, but really a magical day. We woke up at 5am and still didn't get into the gate until 11am! But, we started hopping on rides and kept moving for 10 hours straight!

Savanna has been several time but this was the boys' first trip and they completely flipped out! They were tall enough to ride everything. It was so fun to see the wonder and glee on their faces. The whole place was decked out for Christmas which made it even better. And going in the middle of the week was awesome. We walked onto practically every ride!

Emma was such a trooper. She was in and out of that stroller all day. She loved all the lights and didn't seem to mind the noise (except for once when she had just fallen asleep and the monorail when by and tooted its loud horn!). She didn't even notice the drops on Pirates! She didn't cry a peep all day, and slept 8 hours straight when we got home- we seriously have the best baby!

The Matterhorn was Bradley and Ben's first roller coaster experience. They went on with James first, then with me. To our surprise, Bradley loved the roller coasters, but Ben was a little scared. Bradley even rode Space Mountain (but Ben opted to go with Emma and I on the new Nemo submarine ride)! The Nemo ride was cute. Ben was absolutely enthralled and kept asking if it was real. He asked that pretty much all day. He thought every animal, character, or special effect was real- totally awesome!

We happened to be on Main Street when they lit up the tree. Everyone cheered and took pictures. Bradley's grin was from ear to ear, but Ben looked at the tree for about 2 seconds and declared, "Come on, it's just a tree! Let's go ride some rides!" He gets his sentimentality from me! ;) They decided to skip the holiday parade and ride more coasters. We walked onto every ride during the parade, some rides multiple times!

This picture is bad because it is a picture of a picture. When you get off the ride they have pictures on the wall by the exit of everyone in your car going down the big drop that you can purchase for some ridiculous amount of money. Here we are on Splash Mountain. The best part was while we were looking at our picture, Ben starts looking at the other pictures on the wall of the people who were riding in back of us. He starts pointing at this one picture of man who was very unfortunately looking. He starts pointing and yelling, "Mom, look at this guy!" I turn to look and not only see the picture, but the man in the picture standing right next to us! I wanted to crawl into a hole. I apologized to him, and he just said, "Yeah, I know I look terrible. I had water in my eyes!" So funny!

Bradley and Savanna said this was their favorite ride. They rode it three times in a row and were completely soaked! Ben was pretty scared as you can see, and wasn't very excited about getting wet. It's called Splash Mountain, what did he expect? Afterwards I took him and Emma to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride. Before we got on he went up to a Disneyland employee and asked, "Is there water on this ride?" The man replied that there wasn't any water on this ride. Ben looked over at me and said, "Alright, Mom. There is no water. We can go on this ride!"

Okay, well the absolute highlight of the day was when we went to one of their new attractions- The Jedi Training Academy. This is a Star Wars interactive show for kids. They begin by picking a bunch of kids out of the audience, and we were lucky enough to have both Bradley and Benjamin picked! They first picked Brad and then the Jedi Master said, "Okay, and your twin brother too." :)

They began by dressing them in robes and giving them lightsabers. They taught them a simple routine using their lightsabers, and then all of the sudden threatening music began to play and Stormtroopers, Darth Maul, AND Darth Vader came out! Darth Vader tried to convince the young Padawans to come over to the Dark Side. They all resisted and each of them got a chance to fight him. Totally priceless!

The actual training (this is Brad)...and the surprise!

Ben Vs. Vader

Ben didn't do too well following the routine, as you can see. He just started swinging wildly at Darth Vader!

The Jedi Master for this show was hilarious. In case you can't hear him, he tells Ben here: "Oh, you're a wild one." And then at the end, "Your style is unorthodox, but effective!"

Brad Vs. Vader

Here the Jedi Master tells Brad to activate his lightsaber. Brad can't do it on the first try and the Jedi Master tells him sarcastically, "Take your time. It's only the Lord of Darkness!" Then at the end Brad is supposed to attempt to cut off Darth Vader's head. He aims a little low and hits Vader in the "private" area. The Master replies: "Going for the cheap shot! Oh, I love it. We will save you for the advanced class."

At the end, they each received diplomas saying that they were now real Jedis! And Brad and Ben have taken this very seriously- they think they are real Jedi Knights! I have to agree! :)

Well, we pretty much rode every ride and saw everything we wanted to in our 10 hours. Oh, it was a very long day. The boys barely made it back to the tram, and we drove straight home. James and I didn't get to bed until 2:30 am! But, it was so worth it! Definitely a day we will never forget!

December 8, 2010