Beating a dead horse

This is my last blog about Disneyland and I even considered not doing it but I couldn't resist. In the words of Curtis, "You are doing this Blog for yourself, so don't worry if anyone else is bored." So here goes

The top ten reason we loved Disneyland:

10. Ridemax. I would highly recommend this program. They have done so much research. It really does minimize your waiting in lines. You can pack like 20 things into a day. You'll be exhausted afterward, but it's worth it. Having a pre-planned itinerary for each day made it so there were no disagreements about what to do next and no wasting time trying to figure out what we want to do next. Everybody got to choose their top 5 things they wanted to do each day and we guaranteed them that we would fit in their first two.

9. Soarin' over California. This was Curtis' favorite. It is such a cool ride. You really feel like you are in a plane flying over California. I loved the smells. You can smell oranges, the ocean, a river, and more.

8. California Screamin' (or as my kids call it, The Mickey Mouse roller coaster). I got all of us fast passes. I was thinking this ride isn't that bad. I bet I can talk them all into it. James and I went first. This is a really fast ride and you go upside down. It completely freaked him out. In the middle of the ride he yelled, "Mom, save me!" When our picture came out, James was not in it. He was squashed so far down in his seat that you couldn't see him. He told the girls it was really scary and they decided not to go. So I went again with Curtis while the kids went with Camilla on King Triton's Carousel.

7. Fantasyland - What a great place for little ones. We arrived early on Friday morning (I highly recommend getting there 30 minutes before the gates open when it's not an early-entry day) We rode Peter Pan, Matterhorn, Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, the Casey Jr. Circus Train, and the Carousel then headed over and got on Pirates all within the first hour.

6. Surprisingly fun older rides. We all had fun on the Jungle Cruise, and even Camilla loved Pirates of the Caribbean, although she hugged Curtis tight and told him it was "scary" when the boat dropped in dark. On the Jungle Cruise, the animals looked remarkably real. Having visited a real jungle in January, I can also say the foliage looked just right. Pirates of the Caribbean was a real favorite of James. What boy doesn't like Pirates. I was amazed at the real look of the characters and Camilla's eyes were as wide as could be. I didn't remember so many dogs, cats and birds, but Camilla pointed out quite a few. The Matterhorn was surprisingly fun as well. We rode this multiple times. It is one ride they continued to want to ride. It's fast enough to be exciting, but isn't too scary. Too bad Camilla is too short. It think even she would have liked it. Like most of the lines at Disneyland, the wait isn't too bad in the morning but later in the day it gets bad.

5. Indiana Jones. James loved this. He was too little to ride this last time we went to Disneyland and he was so disappointed. This ride is right up his alley.

5. Space Mountain. This was a first time for the kids. Alayna loved it. James said, "I don't want to ride that again! It makes my stomach sting."

4. Splash Mountain. This is one of my favorites. I love the music. It certainly lures you in and then...drop, you fall straight down. It was hard for Allison to enjoy the first part because she was so worried about that drop. But then, after, she wanted to do it again.

4. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was Allison's favorite (she rode it 5 times). It was much better that I remembered. It was the first rid of the day on Thursday and we only waited 4 minutes (It would have been less if we had remembered exactly where to go and had hurried a little more).

3. Shopping. They have some of the cutest things in the stores at Disneyland. And if you ask James, the Star Trader store is one of the coolest toy stores ever.

2. Exercise. I wore my pedometer the whole time. The steps really add up after a while. Over 27,000 steps the first day and over 26,000 on day two. That's well over 10 miles a day of walking.

1. Family Unity. Our children never got along better. The only negative moments involved the carousel. Camilla didn't want to get off (I'm sure you can imagine how a 20 month old child expresses her desire to stay on the "neigh ride") and the others didn't want to get on.

What a great trip. With the help of a few pictures, the memories will last a lifetime. Notice I may have miscounted but who can limit it into ten things right?