Disneyland with the Dodges

Tara and Jeremy (my sis) brought their girls down to LA in May 2010 to do Disneyland, and I convinced Phae to buy SoCal Select pass, since I could have up to 8 passes on my address.  Since Jer's a pilot they fly free, and my car fits all of us so they don't need to rent a car, they stay with us etc, so really they could come again for "free"!  Well, that "free" trip to Disneyland finally happened in Feb 2011.
Their flight out of SLC was delayed a million hours so poor Lucy and Darci, not to mention the parents, were exhausted when they finally arrived at 1:30 AM PST.  Kind of awful. I couldn't tell Emily that Darci was coming to play since they fly stand by and I didn't want to risk disappointing her, but in the morning Emily pretty much got the surprise of her life and she was thrilled!
We got ready, packed lunches, and headed out to the happiest place on earth on Feb 17, 2011 . The Dodges had never been to CA Adventure before, so I convinced them that we needed to go to that park first.  We all forgot sunscreen, so Jeremy went into a store with Darc and Em to get some. $25 later he had sunscreen, silly bands and sunglasses for the girls. What an awesome Uncle!

We hit all the highlights of CA Adventure:

 Jer, Darci, Emily, Lightning, and Mater

Darci with her Toy Story Mania glasses

 hanging out in line

 Under the Sea Carousel

 Jer flexing (what a little Weasel!) with Phae's cheeser in the background

Other highlights included the tortilla factory, the baby care center, (a million times) the airplane swings that Emily refused to ride, yummy dinner at Pacific Wharf, and the Bug's Life showed that I told Tara the girls would hate, but she insisted, so we went, and Emily and Darci were literally in tears by the end. Awesome.

We saw Mickey and Pluto while Natalie and Lucy were sleeping. Emily, in true form, was scared to death, but Darci surprised us by being nervous too. She loved Mickey last year! 

Lucy and Natalie were so great the entire day, napping in the stroller as needed and generally just being peaches.

 Luc Luc playing with her sunshade

At one point during the day we had four sleeping children, so I told Jer and Tara they needed to go on a big kid ride together. They had never been on Soaring Over CA (WHAT?!) so I practically shoved them down the single rider line.  Turns out the ride broke down just before they were supposed to get on. Dang! I was totally bummed for them, because that is a great ride. Maybe next time.

In the evening the Disney workers brought out the flashing, light up toys, and Jer, being a true Carny, had to get Emily and Darci each a light up sword, to the tune of another $25.  Turns out this wasn't so much a "free" vacay after all? :)

We put the girls to bed in their strollers and stayed late to watch World of Color, which is my new favorite thing at Disneyland.  It meant for a really late night, but it was well worth it.  What a lovely, tiring day!