Disneyland 2014

We picked the boys up from school wearing our Halloween Disney Ears. Maysen looked horrified! We told them we weren't leaving until after daddy got off work.

After embarrassing my non-confrontational family, we ended up at the hotel across the street in Redding, CA because the one I made reservations at had their pool "covered already". Yeah, at 7pm. After a 5hr drive these kids (and parents!) were looking forward to that water. The hotel across the street was only 6 months old and had a beautiful pool area .. and no one to invade our pool time! Actually, there was an older lady in the hot tub but I'm sure our shrills is what drove her out of there within 10 minutes!

The drive from Redding, CA to Anaheim is pretty brutal. It didn't seem that bad when we would drive from Creswell clear through to Anaheim. I think the problem is that we hit the Grapevine around 5:00pm so this year we hit Los Angeles traffic at rush hour. Our GPS was saying we were 5 miles from our hotel, but destination time was an hour away. I thought there was something wrong. Nope! Just traffic. At one point it took us off I-5 and we ended up in the slums of the backroads of LA. I swear we were the Griswolds and if we stopped long enough at a stop sign our wheels might get jacked. It took us 25min to get back ONTO I-5, but not before Maysen about peed his pants. I was NOT stopping anywhere to let him pee, so he peed in an apple juice bottle. Parent of the year right here! Our hotel was amazing. The boys had their own little room off of the main room with bunk beds, their own TV, and where their windows overlooked the lobby which was an open atrium-type of area.

The Scovil Family 2014! Football player, Loofa, Soap, and Transformer Dragon!

Haunted Mansion was super fun on Halloween,

Griffin wanted so bad to be pulled from the audience to be in the Jedi Academy. The first try he wasn't picked, so we went to the Future World gift shop and got a light up spinning R2D2 and when they were asking for volunteers, he was right up front, so he held that hummer up and spun it around and around. Needless to say ... HE WAS PICKED! He had a blast fighting Darth Maul.

Nathan and I being goofies on the ship that takes you around the lagoon (forgetting the name!) The kids can't be the only ones having fun, and we did our fair share of embarrassing the kids! 

California Screamer turned out to be the highlight of the day in California Adventure! It was work getting Maysen convinced that if he were to go upside down, he would not fall out. But once he went on it with Nate, Griffin decided he had enough manhood to go on it too. The 3 of them came back to me in the following conditions: Mase, full of glee. Griffin: full of excitement. Nate: sorta green-faced. The boys asked if they could go ride it again. Nate and I sat and had coffee while they rode and re-rode that ride about 6 times.

The green theme with Nate continued on the Mickey Ferris Wheel. There were "cabs" that sat still, like a normal Ferris wheel,while other cabins were on a track and would swing as they went around. it sounded great so we went with the swinging one. Well, I gotta tell you it is pretty intense when it is swinging you almost fully around. Mase kept making fun of his poor daddy. 

Fantastic soft serve at the Coney Cone. Nice pit stop (get it ... hehe)

This is Mikey's Ferris Wheel at night. This was a night show and it was amazing. The water is blown up into the air while projectors are shown on the spray. It creates a magical awesome experience. They went through all the disney characters/movies over the last 30 years in about 6 minutes. At the end, coincidentally enough, the nightly fireworks from Disneyland Castle were going off. So, two finales at once. It was pretty emotional.

The boys had been saving their money for 3 months to get to buy whatever they wanted at Disneyland. All week they kept passing things up until the last day because they wanted to build their own racecar (which all in all are about $100/each). The last night of Disneyland came and they got to build them!

While daddy was watching the University of Oregon vs. Stanford game at the bar, I took a book up to the hotels roof and read by their fireplace. The boys took their new racecars and ran them around the tennis courts. Until they ran them through a small puddle. Guess what didn't work so great. The people back at The Car Factory exchanged out the cabins of the cars and we were back in action. I guess these are only summer racecars!

Being silly on Big Thunder Mountain.

We, too, silly. Shameful parents, we are! :)

The Blue Bayou is the restaurant located inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Its dark and cozy and fun to hear the people about to have fun on the ride (they are in their boats going by the restaurant). We eat here at least once on our Disneyland trips, by reservation. The best thing on the menu is the Le Special de Monte Cristo Sandwhich. Ham. Cheese. Battered. Jelly to dip. YUM. 

This was a long Disneyland day. We wrapped it up at Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. It took us awhile to be seated and we were seated right where the waiters/waitresses come out singing happy birthday. This place is getting to be a bit obnoxious to me. So we'd be yelling over the table to try adn talk over the elephant that goes off every 5 minutes and just then "SO - DID YOU WANT TO G--" ...... "HHHHAAAAPPPPPYYYY HAAAAAAAPPPPPPY BIIIIIRTTTH....." with the loudest claps you ever heard. It kept making Griffin jump since his back was turned. But this wrapped up the trip.

Every year we say we're going to take a break and save money. But then the time comes and I've got to tell you. The memories we make on vacation, the experiences we get to go through together as a family are things you can't pass up if you have a way to go. I asked Maysen one day what he loved best about his life on Earth. He said "getting to go and see new things with my family." Priceless.