Disney Vacation Day Two

The second day of our vacation began with us arriving in Seattle around 3am. Hardly anyone slept during the drive. Millie slept the most, Matt did a little bit, but the girls hardly closed their eyes. This did not bode well for our trip. We thought we'd try to sleep in the van until it was time to go into the airport, but everyone was awake and it's impossible to be comfortable in the van. We started grabbing our things to take in: our carefully packed one-piece-of-luggage each, our carry-ons, Millie's car seat, and my wallet complete with picture ID.

Oh, wait, I didn't have my picture ID. My ID was thirteen hours away at Hastings in Great Falls where I had rented the books on cd. What ensued was one of the most stressful hours of my life. We hurried into the airport to find out if I had a chance to board the plane only to discover that the counter would not be staffed for another hour. I had made the mistake of eating Burger King for dinner, so the stress of the situation combined with disgusting greasy cow made my stomach so upset that I was eyeing the nearest receptacles to hurl into. The only good thing about the Seattle airport was the pity of the employees. With the tears in our eyes and our four children in tow, we tried to figure out what our alternatives were: cancelling the trip, Josh flying with the three big kids and me driving down, all of us driving down. But, since it was 3:30am and we were the first people in line for everything (including security) they let us go through without any problems. I was so mad at myself. I had planned everything so perfectly, and this was the last problem I expected to face.

So, we then waited four hours for our plane to take off.

When we got to the hotel, our room wasn't ready yet because we arrived before check in time, but the front desk took pity on us as well and gave us a different room that was cleaned. We had some lunch at the Red Robin next door and then headed over to Disneyland.




The first thing we did was get Ear Hats. Did you know that you create your own hat now? It's kind of cool. The only bad part is that the ears just snap on, they aren't permanent.



We went to the Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise and then met up with my cousin Josh and his wife Melanie and their daughter Simone. It was quite a funny coincidence that Josh was there while we were. We just visited with his brother Jon a week before. To see the two of them in such differing circumstances so close together after nearly six years apart was pretty cool. The kids loved meeting Simone and they all played on Tarzan's Treehouse together and then we all took the Train around the park. We had to separate there because we had reservations at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel.

We met Pluto

and Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

and Minnie Mouse

and Goofy

(Abby had been in the potty for the first picture)

and Chip and Dale (but we didn't get a pic with Dale).

After dinner, I took Matt and Millie to the hotel to go to bed and Josh and the girls closed down the park by riding the Matterhorn, Star Tours, Astro Blasters, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Splash Mountain.

Emma's favorite of the day was Splash Mountain. Abby's was Big Thunder RR (which surprises me that she said that since Josh reported it as a ride neither would probably want to do again). Matt's favorite of the day was the Jungle Cruise (which also surprises me since all he talked about was the Tiki Room).