Disneyland!

It feels like so long ago that we were at Disneyland...we had so much fun taking the kids and can't wait to return someday!

We convinced my entire family to join us and had an amazing time. I easily have a thousand photos so I'll just share some highlights. :)

Walt's favorite rides were the Buzz Lightyear ride in Disneyland and the Toy Story ride in California Adventure. Both have controls and allow you to interact with the ride like a video game. Coincidence? Yeah, not.

Zuzu loved all things princess (they were the only characters she wasn't afraid of) and came home obsessed with Cinderella.

To help the kids get hyped up for the trip, we told Walt all about the "Jedi Academy" and how he could be trained in the ways of the force. We even showed him a video online of other kids doing it. He was SO excited. Little did we know, this experience is only given to a limited number of kids each day. It is so popular that you must be at the very front of the line the SECOND the park opens, run to the Launch Bay, and cross your fingers that you get in. I think there are something like 300 spots open each day (out of tens of thousands of kids). You can only sign up the day you plan to participate - you can't do it ahead of time. Also, your child must be present when you sign up at the crack of dawn. Well, dumb us - we had already promised Walt he could do it. So on the third day of our vacation we found ourselves up so very early in the morning, standing at the gate to Tomorrowland with hundreds of other parents all wearing Star Wars shirts.

I told Landon he had to bolt for the sign up as soon as they dropped the rope. He laughed at me and said, I'm not actually going to run... But sure enough, the second the park opened, the crowd surged towards the Launch Bay. I was laughing so hard while we ran with a stroller, 3 kids and 2 babies (my nieces wanted to do it too). We happened to follow another family through a shortcut and were 5th in line to sign up. It was insane, hilarious, slightly embarrassing and seriously worth all of the craziness.

Walt had the time of his life and literally thinks he can use the Force now. He was a little scared of Kylo Ren but had no problem taking on Darth Vader.

So yeah, we did that. And I'm glad.

Walt surprised us with his willingness to try every single ride. Even though it was clear on the first day that he was not loving rollercoasters - he went on every ride he was tall enough for. He would go once, declare if he liked the ride or not, and then would not go again if he didn't want to.

Even when we knew he wouldn't like something and tried to talk him out of going, he would insist on trying it out. Including Tower of Terror. He definitely didn't like THAT one!! We were so so proud of him for going on everything though. What a brave kid!

We maximized our time from dawn till dusk daily for 5 whole days and were still so sad when it was time to go home. Luckily my family all loves Disney and our next trip is already being talked about. I can't wait!