Disneyland Adventure 2012

The whole Michael Family (minus our nephew Jason) enjoyed an eventful Disney adventure over Spring Break!  It had been almost 10 years since our last family trip to Disneyland, which was well before Kevin & I were married.  We started planning this trip over a year ago and originally planned to go around Thanksgiving, but with Grandpa Murray's health troubles, we bumped it out.  He made it very clear before he passed away it was important to him that we all took this trip together and so Carol, with planning help from Kevin, Amy & Sherri, made it happen.  With kids as so many ages and so many activities to plan around, there was never going to be an ideal time, but we are so glad to have made so many more happy memories together. 

Ten years ago, Disney was completely different experience.  We went during the holiday season and the child to adult ratio was a little more even.  Back then, Hailey was Janie's age then and doesn't remember the trip, where this time she made up for it trying to do everything, characters with the younger kids and all the scary rides with the older ones.  Then Taylor & Ashley were into similar things as Clara is now (meeting characters and baby rides), things teens wouldn't ever want to be caught doing.  It was fun to see Disney bring out the kid in them a time of two during the trip!

Last time, Kevin & I hit all the rides, stayed out late and still managed to get some sleep every night.  This trip, as parents, we spent most of our time waiting in line to meet characters, on the carousels (with very little wait time) and attempting to maintain some amount of schedule consistency for our girls, especially for our lil' sleep-challenged Janie Bug!  There were many magical moments for our family including watching the parade, meeting THE PRINCESSES, and going on Ariel's ride.  Seeing both of their faces light up with excitement and all the sweet shrieks of delight are forever burned in my heart.  

By the end of the week our girls were pretty overwhelmed, especially Clara and we wondered if the last few days were even worth it for her.  We were pleasantly surprised in coming home to hear her go on and on (and on, and on...) about all of the things she loved, where at times we were not sure she was even paying attention!  She mentions going back at least several times a day.  And Janie is obsessed with her Ariel baby and Mickey Mouse book from Disneyland.

At times it was pretty hard being there without Murray, but as a way of keeping him alive in Clara's mind, we made a photo book with silly photos of him and let her take it on rides and look at it in the long lines.  She is holding it above.  It was nice to feel like there was a piece of him along with us in a tangible way, Clara could appreciate. 

I took a ridiculous amount of photos on the trip and feel a little overwhelmed going through them now that I am so behind on the blog so I am going to make a few posts from the trip and keep the photos limited, at least compared to what I'd really like to share.