Disneyland; Day One

We drove to SoCal on Saturday, May 19th.  I was skeptical about how the girls would do in the car for so long, but they actually did incredibly well.  We crammed our family of four, along with my parents in our car (yay for an SUV!).  I went earlier in the week to Marin to buy a nice big Thule to put on top of our Highlander.  It was the only way we could all travel together.  Sydney and Rob sat in the third row, I sat in the middle with Scarlett, and Mom and Dad sat up front.  For the second half of the trip, I drove and Dad took my seat.  Poor Rob was smooshed in the back the whole way down.  We made one stop for lunch at a Subway, let the girls stretch a bit, and then another stop for a potty break.  We made the drive in under 7 hours.

When we arrived at the Hyatt Regency, two hours after check-in, our room wasn't ready.  About 15 minutes later, when we went to take Sydney out of her car seat, we saw she had a major blowout, so we went back to the front desk and basically said, you will give us a key to some room so we can go clean up our baby.  Miraculously, our room became ready, and Rob asked what they were going to do to make up for causing us to sit in the lobby- so they gave us a $50 credit. 

Poor Syd in all her poopy glory.

We got the VIP Family Suite at the Hyatt, and it was actually really great.  You walked in to the living room, and off to one side was a bedroom with a king bed and bathroom, and off the other direction was another bedroom, the "kids room", with a full bed, and twin bunk on top, and another bathroom.  The living room also had a pull out bed.  My parents took the king bedroom, Rob took the sofa-sleeper, Sydney had a pack-n-play in the living room, and Scarlett and I slept on the full bed.  I actually started on the sofa-sleeper, Sydney wanted Mommy to cuddle her to sleep, but Rob eventually came out and traded with me.  That bed was evil.  Horribly uncomfortable.  We requested a roll-away the next night.

Sunday Morning, Dad went to pick Ashley up from Huntington (she was there for a conference) and when they got back, we headed off to Disneyland.

We got there just as the characters were doing a little song and dance in front of Cinderella's castle.  Scarlett was thrilled to be at Disneyland.

 Our first ride was Peter Pan (notice Scarlett will not look at or smile at the camera- she "not like to take pictures").

 She was very apprehensive about how dark it was- and ultimately didn't care for the ride.

 She did, however, love the carousel.  She wanted to ride again, and again.

 Rob strolled Sydney over to some of the "big kid" rides to gather fast passes and switch passes (a-ma-zing), while we took a ride on the Storybook Land Canal boat.

And then Scarlett, Ashley and Granddad hit the tea cups.

 After lunch, Buzz Lightyear, and Star Tours (nausea...), we set sail for Toon Town where Scarlett, very nervously, met Mickey Mouse. 

 When we asked her if she wanted to hug Mickey, she really thought about it, with a furrowed brow and everything, and eventually leaned in.

 We played at Goofy's Play House for a while. 

 And all Scarlett asked for all day was a lollipop.  We somehow got the idea that she was calling cotton candy a lollipop, so my sweet parents bought it for her, and she looked at it like "are you crazy?" and said "that not a lollipop!".  By the end of the day, she had six little Mickey's to enjoy.

We headed out of the park and to downtown Disney for some dinner.  We ate at a Mexican place that none of us were too impressed with.  One thing that was fun, and I somehow did not get a picture of, was the guy going from table to table making balloon characters.  He made the girl at the table next to us Ariel- it was amazing.  Scarlett loved it, so we had him make her one.  And for some reason, only a few minutes after having her, Scarlett bit one part of the balloon, popped her head, an arm maybe?  But her perky little bikini breasts stayed right where the guy put them.  It was funny.  And the beginning of a bit of a fit from my oldest.  We headed back to the hotel around 7:30 to put the kids to bed.  My parents and Ashley went back to the park for the fireworks, and they rode Space Mountain a few times, and Thunder Mountain.  Oh, what it will be like to one day NOT need to put tired babies to bed.  Sigh.

We had a great first day and went to bed exhausted.  In fact, Rob fell asleep with Scarlett at 9pm...