Disney Land

Disneyland was the highlight of our California vacation.  Vance and I have not been there since high school and this was Austin and Kaleb’s first time.  Kids have to be at least 40 inches tall to ride most of the rides and Austin was exactly 40 inches.  The first ride we went on was the roller coaster, Space Mountain.  Since Austin was tall enough we decided to test the waters and take him on his first roller coaster.  I was so nervous the whole ride because it was fast and had lots of dips.  I was so scared that I had traumatized my child.  When we got off the ride he kept saying, “so fun, we went whooosh!”  Vance and I were shocked because Austin is not know for being up for new things.  We were so excited that he liked it!  We thought, if he can handle Space Mountain, he can handle anything.  WRONG!!!  The next ride we took him on was Pirates of the Caribbean and he had a complete melt down.  He screamed and cried the whole ride.  I was surprised because you just sit in a boat and float around in the water and see all the pirates.  When we got off he kept saying, “no more scary, okay!”  After coaxing him on a couple more rides we realized that if it went fast or spun around, he was fine.  If the ride was loud and dark with talking characters, then he freaked out.  He is kind of a crazy kid.

Once we figured out the rides Austin would like and dislike, we had lots of fun.  It was really hot, and really crowed, but we got to see most of the attractions we wanted to see.  We didn’t get to see many Disney and Pixar Characters because there were huge lines to take pictures with them.  We did see Winnie the Pooh, Woody and Buzz Lightyear.  They are building a new Cars 2 attraction in California Adventure but it won’t be open until next year.  However, there was a big Cars 2 sign in front of the construction area and every time we walked past Austin had to stop and chant over and over, “Cars 2!!!”  It was probably one of his favorite parts of the entire vacation.  We will definitely need to take him back when the attraction opens. 

The saddest part of our vacation was that we couldn’t find our camera before we left.  We borrowed a camera from family members when we could, but we didn’t end up getting very many pictures at all.  SO SAD!!!

Austin was pretty excited to see Winnie the Pooh and gang.

When Austin first saw Buzz Lightyear he squirmed through the mile long line and ran right up to Buzz before we could stop him.  He was not happy when we told him he had to stand at the end of the line and wait his turn. So we stood in line for half an hour to see Buzz Lightyear.  There were only three kids in front of us and they switched out characters and Woody took Buzz’s place.  I was so frusterated!  Austin still got see Buzz but we were able to get a picture.

Lightning McQueen and Mater were in front of the new Cars attraction and we just happened to walk by at the right time and get a picture. We didn’t get to see Mickey Mouse, but Austin saw McQueen and Buzz and that was all he cared about.

Grandma and Grandpa get the “Grandparents of the Year” award for watching all the grandkids while the adults rode rides.

California Screamin’ was one of our favorite rides.

The whole King clan finally together again after two years.  Elaine was so sweet and bought matching American flag shirts for all of us to wear so we would be matching in our family picture.  As you can see, it wasn’t worth the hassle of getting everyone in their shirts so we just snapped a picture fast before all the kids started screaming.

I love this picture of the dads pushing their baby strollers.