DISNEYLAND!

Everyone in my family had been wanting to take Hannah to Disneyland, but I didn't think it would be possible with Jack's schedule this year. So when Jack's amazingly cool psych attending told him to take last Friday off everyone scrambled to get work off and get things ready to make this trip happen. Hannah had no idea what was going on, we wanted to surprise her. On Thursday night we drove to Vegas and then Friday morning we drove to California. When we arrived at our hotel the kids were asleep in the car. We woke them and jumped on the shuttle bus and headed to Disney without even stopping off in our room - this was a short trip and we had to make the most of every minute, plus we couldn't wait to see Hannah's reaction to her surprise.

We met Jack's mission friend, Phiep, who works at the park and was able to let us in for free! When we walked in the park Hannah still wasn't sure what was going on. We stopped off at the nearest bathroom since we'd been in the car for 5 hours without taking a break and then headed onto Main Street. Groggy Hannah still didn't have much to say until she saw the famous castle at the end of Main Street. Then we got the reaction we'd all been waiting for:

All she wanted to do was see the princesses, but there were none in sight so we took her on a few rides. The lines weren't long since it was a weekday in January, but Hannah didn't understand why she had to wait at all to go on the rides. I explained to her, "This is what we do at Disneyland, we have to wait in line for our turn." She responded excitedly, "This is Disneyland?!" It finally sunk in that we were there. After she got a hang of the waiting in line thing and realized the rides weren't scary she had a blast. Jackson enjoyed the rides more than I expected. And he especially liked the "woof woof"'s (the characters walking around). We rode rides until the kids were too tired to go on and then we took them back to our hotel for some much needed sleep.

I love Disneyland!

Dumbo!

The Carousel

Waiting to go on the Tea Cups - this turned out to be Hannah's favorite ride.

Small World rocked his world.

The next morning we headed back to the park. Hannah really wanted to see some princesses, but I didn't know where we were going to find them. We walked under the castle and there was Sleeping Beauty! Hannah was in heaven.

Sleeping Beauty

Jack, being the kind father that he is, waited in line for over an hour at the princess fair where he was told that three princesses would be waiting to meet the kids and take pictures. While he waited I took the kids on some other rides. I brought Hannah back to where Jack was waiting and she was squealing with excitement. We walked behind a wall and the first princess waiting there was Ariel, Hannah's favorite! Tiana and Belle were there too.

Where dreams come true indeed.

Tiana

Belle

To Hannah, these princesses were the real thing. They were so cute and took time to talk to her for awhile. She was just beaming the whole time.

We had a great time exploring the park and enjoying the amazing weather (80+ degrees in January!)

It was too bright to get the kids to look at the camera.

On this trip we also had the chance to visit the Cambodian ward where Jack served his mission in Long Beach. Jack also stopped by and saw his missionary brother, Steven, who is currently serving in Long Beach. And we went to Newport Beach and enjoyed the sunshine before making the long drive home.

Jackson just wanted to dig.

And eat sand.

Hannah ran straight into the freezing water with her clothes on.  She didn't want to wear a wet dress so she spent the rest of the day naked on the beach (of course).

What a great trip!