"The worst day of my life," (says Reed) aka Disneyland

Since we were already going to be in California, we figured we'd take 2 days and go to Disneyland with our kids.  We had been talking about it for months, and we were all so excited!  Boy were we wrong.  

The first day was Magic Kingdom.  I knew it was going to be rough from the get-go for a few reasons: First off, our kids didn't get to bed until about 11pm the night before and we had to wake them up at 6am the next morning.  On the drive over, MJ puked all over herself.  Outfit change #1 happened before we even stepped into the park.  By the time we made it to stand in line for the first ride, I knew (again) that this was not a good start.  It was so crowded!  Remind us to never go to Dineyland during the summer ever, ever again!  I mean, I know that Disneyland is always crowded but, holy cow, it was insane!  I don't do well in crowds.  Even with Ride Max (software that helps you avoid lines), the waits were pretty bad.  And it was 95 degrees.  MJ did okay waiting in line for the first 10 minutes of the day.  We seriously only took MJ on rides we could walk right on; otherwise, we divided and conquered and tried to follow the toddler beast.  She is definitely our busiest, most defiant toddler.  We were banking on Taryn being really brave and adventurous and going on some of the bigger rides.  We were so utterly wrong about her.  She was terrified and once that happened, she wouldn't even ride the ferris wheel or meet Goofy (though she has an irrational fear of Goofy due to the Goofy Movie, which she has multiple nightmares about).  Then during lunch, MJ had a blowout.  Plus the kids barely ate anything.  And it was nearly impossible to find a place to eat that everyone would like enough.  Literally by 11am, both Reed and Taryn were asking to go back to the rental house.  By about 4pm, I was ready to throw in the towel as well.  At some point of the day, Reed exclaimed, "I've made a thousand bad memories today," and announcing that "This [was] the worst day of my life."  We stuck through it thinking that once the sun went down, their moods would improve.  Nope.  They just got more tired and unwilling to ride anything.  WE suffered all the way to see fireworks (though only 2 out of 4 kids were still awake).  Out of all of them, Corbin did the best.  However, he was still too little to be forced on any big rides and he usually was riding in the stroller eating treats.  

Luckily we had one day at the beach house before we were going back for Disneyland day #2.  I was ready to cut our losses and just stay home with MJ.  We officially banned her from any amusement park.  Annette offered to watch MJ while we took the other kids to California Adventure.  It ended up being a much better day (and a very expensive carnival).  We decided to let the kids decide exactly what they wanted to ride, we went to more shows to cool off, and not dealing with a crazy toddler was so helpful.  It may have saved our opinion of Disneyland (maybe).

The only ride that Reed and Taryn and Kevin and I loved was Radiator Racers.

Taryn liked running into Alice (even though she didn't really know who she was).

It's a Small World was probably the overall favorite ride.

Corbin was brave enough to meet Goofy.  Taryn literally ran away and I had to chase after her.  I had to reprimand her, because it looked like I was trying to kidnap her!

Space Mountain.  Reed still hates it.

There was a lot of this going on on Disneyland day #1.

Don't let those smiles fool you.

Poor Reed rode all alone.  Taryn wouldn't join him and I was too big.

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree ride was a hit.  Why do they only like all the rides that we think are lame?

Me and my boys

They all loved the bumper cars.

And the teacups until we wanted to barf.

And we thought we were past pushing the 2 older kids in a stroller.  Taryn was in heaven since MJ wasn't with us day #2.  And Reed eventually jumped in and we had a threesome.

Spent.

The heat still caught up with them on day #2.

We love "Talking with Crush."

And Taryn was thrilled to meet Elsa and Anna.  She's still trying to figure out the whole reality vs. fantasy thing.  And frankly, I still don't know what to tell her.  

After going through these pictures, it almost seemed like we had a good time (and we did- the second day).  To be honest, I think our kids had way more fun playing at the beach with their cousins.  It's so funny that we try to create all these memories from grandiose adventures when all they really want are the simple things.