That Was NOT Part of the Plan! May/June 2017 TR *NEW* 12/1 *COMPLETE*

khertz

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 10, 2008
That Was NOT Part of the Plan! May/June 2017 TR

I'm walking right down the middle of Main Street U.S.A.
It's the heart of America, the heartbeat of a holiday
The place was made with a magical plan
And just around the corner is a Fantasyland.
I'm walking right down the middle of Main Street U.S.A.

Welcome, I’m so glad you’re all here for another trip report of mine! This time, we headed out west to Disneyland again, after a few days visiting my husband’s family in Washington. It was a long and wonderful trip, but I will admit, there were quite a few hiccups along the way, which explains why I chose that line, said by Rocket Raccoon during the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout pre-show, as my TR title. It seemed the most fitting, for sure!

First up is me, you’re narrator extraordinaire. I’m a wife & mom, first and foremost, and a pediatric oncology nurse to fund our lovely Disney habit. This was my 4th visit to Walt’s original park of Disneyland, but I have also made the journey to Walt Disney World a total of 18 times, Disneyland Paris once, and taken an amazing Adventures by Disney trip to Italy. I love Dole Whips, Mickey Bars, all things Tangled and Rapunzel, and Splash Mountain.


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Up next is my husband, the man behind the camera that takes such beautiful photos for me to share in my reports. This was his 5th time to Disneyland, with 17 WDW trips, one Disneyland Paris trip, and he was my travel partner on the Italy ABD. He loves Dole Whip floats, Big Thunder Mountain, and all things Marvel.


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DS is 6.5 years old, and although he loves Pokemon more than much else these days, he is still a Disney fan at heart. He loves Cars, Marvel, Star Wars, and the Mad Tea Party. This was his 3rd trip to Disneyland, and he has also been to WDW 8 times.


Finally, there’s DD, who was 22 months old at the time of this trip. She is still pretty well traveled when it comes to Disney trips with 5 trips to WDW so far, but this was her very first trip to Disneyland if you don’t count her being there inside my belly when we went 2 years ago. Right now, she is pretty crazy about Moana (as you can see by this photo from her Moana birthday party), Minnie Mouse, and Daisy Duck.



This trip was a long one! Our trip dates were 5/24-6/5. We spent 4 days in Washington visiting DH’s family for his grandmother’s 80th birthday, then a week in Disneyland staying at the Worldmark by Wyndham in a 1 bedroom unit. It was our first time staying there, as in the past we have stayed at a different and older Wyndham property, so we were excited to try somewhere new. We had 4 day park hopper tickets.

Now that the facts are out of the way, let’s get to the fun!
 
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Chapter Links

Camano Island, Washington
Wednesday May 24th-Sunday May 28th

Part 1: The Flight From Hell & Kangaroos
Part 2: Boat Building & Family Fun


Disneyland
Monday May 29th
Day 6: California Here We Come

Tuesday May 30th

Day 7 Part 1: Early Morning Magic
Day 7 Part 2: Welcome to Storybook Land
Day 7 Part 3: It's a World of Laughter
Day 7 Part 4: Toontown Fun
Day 7 Part 5: Conquering the Matterhorn
Day 7 Part 6: There's Just No Telling How Far I'll Go
Day 7 Part 7: Summer of Heroes
Day 7 Part 8: Mambo Italiano


Wednesday May 31st

Day 8 Part 1: Celebrity Sighting!
Day 8 Part 2: Mickey's Fun Wheel

Day 8 Part 3: Pixie Dust & Mission: Breakout!
Day 8 Part 4: Soarin Around the World

Day 8 Part 5: Thanks Rocket You're the Best!
Day 8 Part 6: Racing Through Radiator Springs
Day 8 Part 7: Remember Dreams Come True


Thursday June 1st

Day 9 Part 1: A Not So Magical Morning
Day 9 Part 2: More Cars and More Bugs
Day 9 Part 3: Walking Right Down the Middle of Main Street USA
Day 9 Part 4: The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers


Friday June 2nd

Day 10 Part 1: Jungle Cruise Jokester
Day 10 Part 2: 999 Happy Haunts
Day 10 Part 3: Perfectly Pretty Princesses
Day 10 Part 4: It's Officer Toot-toot!
Day 10 Part 5: Mickey and the Magical Map
Day 10 Part 6: Life Could Be a Dream
Day 10 Part 7: The Wonderful World of Color

Saturday June 3rd
Day 11 Part 1: Goofy's Kitchen
Day 11 Part 2: A Much Needed Rest

Sunday June 4th

Day 12 Part 1: I am Groot!
Day 12 Part 2: Kitty!
Day 12 Part 3: A Royal Retelling of Tangled
Day 12 Part 4: It's Soundsational!

 
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Day 0: Wednesday May 24th

If you’ve read any of my trip reports in the past, then this will probably come as no shock to you…the month leading up to our trip was a doozy!! First DD came down with roseola, so I thought that was our pre-trip drama. But then she fell at daycare on the playground, and ended up with a broken arm! Luckily, it was not a bad break, or we might have had to rethink taking this trip. She was actually using the arm, and it wasn’t swollen at all, so if she hadn’t kept pointing to her arm and saying “bo-bo” I might have never known it was anything more serious. She ended up in a cast that the doc said she’d be sporting for 4 weeks, but he said no restrictions for our trip.


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Okay, great, another pre-trip issue that didn’t end up being too bad, right?! WRONG! She then came down with impetigo on her scalp, diagnosed the day before we were ready to leave. So we got her started on antibiotics asap and luckily, by the time we left, she would no longer be contagious. I swear, this child is trying to give me gray hair!

On the day we were set to leave, DH and I finished up our packing and loading the car, then we all went to watch DS perform in his end-of-the-year program as a pilot on his last day of Kindergarten.

After a stop at home to change clothes and pick up DH’s wedding ring he had forgotten, we hit the road and drove to my mom’s house near New Orleans to kill a little time until we needed to get to the airport. We picked up dinner on the way to the airport, and my mom dropped us off in plenty of time for our flight out at 7:22 pm.

I had told myself this flight might be rough, but wouldn’t be that bad. The kids would be close to their bedtimes, so they would just get tired and fall asleep, even if it was later than they normally do at home, and then we’d get to our destination. We were on an Alaska Airlines flight that we picked because it was nonstop, figuring that would be our best option versus having to make it through a layover and having an even longer travel time. The flight was about 4 hours and 40 minutes, which meant we’d be landing just after 10 pm in Seattle, but it would feel like after midnight to us.

I was totally and completely wrong. DD was fighting sleep as hard as she could at every turn. Pacifiers were flying all over the place, she spent a lot of time crying and fighting not to stay in one of our laps, and to top it off, the flight was crazy hot, so after hours of this, both me and DH along with DD were sweating like crazy. Finally, DD fell into a fitful sleep in DH’s arms.


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I was hoping the rest of the flight would be okay after that, but no such luck. You’ll be happy to know there are no photos of anyone after DS vomited all over himself and even got some on DH. Thankfully, one of our carry-on bags was full of his clothes, so I was able to get it down, clean him up as best as I could, and get him changed. After that, everything was okay, but…by then we only had about 45 minutes left on the flight! I was never so happy to see a flight end as I was on that night.

We got our bags, took a shuttle to the Red Roof Inn near the airport, and got to sleep around midnight Seattle time, so nearly 2 am to us! It was a restless night sleep for everyone, but we had no real plans for the following day, so it was a welcome few hours.

Day 1: Thursday May 25th

Despite how late we had gotten to bed, we were up at 7:30 am thanks to the kids. I took a quick shower while DH got dressed and got the kids up. We had decided to wait to pick up our rental car today instead of spending time doing it the night before, so DH was going to pick that up. The hotel was walking distance to the airport, so he was able to walk there to pick up the car.

I got the kids ready and decided to take them down to get something to eat, but as I found out when I got down to the lobby, they don’t have breakfast there! I don’t remember if we had looked at that before booking the room or not, but it was a little frustrating. Once DH got back with the car, we decided to go grab some breakfast at McDonald's, and they even had a Playplace there, so the kids were in heaven.


After breakfast, we went back to the room to reorganize some of our luggage, then checked out at 10 am to drive to where DH’s aunt lives on Camano Island. It took about an hour and 40 minutes to drive out there, and it was a beautiful drive, seeing the mountains and greenery as we got further away from Seattle. We were staying with his aunt Jan in her guest room, and her husband Brian was not able to be there while we were. Apparently they had just gotten a new dog that wasn’t friendly around women and kids (lol) so he had that dog and another of theirs in the camper and he was staying nearby at an agility competition their dog was competing in. We did see him a couple of times throughout our visit. Also, DH’s dad Donald and his girlfriend Glenda had driven (yes, driven!) up from Louisiana and were arriving later that same day to spend time together over the weekend.

We spent a little time at the house and unloaded our luggage while the kids looked around and met aunt Jan’s other 2 dogs (DD LOVED those dogs!) and DS even ran some of the agility equipment they keep at their house to train the dogs. Then we wanted something to eat, so we stopped at Subway for lunch and made a stop at the grocery store for some snacks and breakfast items.


It was a relaxing afternoon and evening after a long night and day of travel. DD took a late nap, we had dinner at the house, and we were all ready to get to bed early.

Day 3: Friday May 26th

It was hard most mornings for us because the sun was coming up just before or at 5 am, and we were sleeping in a room with direct morning sunlight and no curtains. But we got up for good at 7:30 am, had breakfast and took our time getting ready. We had decided to go to Cama Beach State Park to walk along the rock beach and let the kids get seashells.

There was a little shop there and it said outside that they have different activities, so we stopped inside to get a list of the upcoming activities. There was a boat building activity, so we thought DS would enjoy that and made plans for DH and DS to come back Saturday morning to do that. Then we headed back home.


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We got back in time for a quick lunch, then I went to put DD down for her nap. While I had been putting her down, my FIL had come over along with Grandma, so they were all sitting in the living room talking. DS was watching the iPad and looking very sleepy, so I convinced him to go lay down for a little while too.

We had plans for the afternoon to visit The Outback Kangaroo Farm, and they offer tours throughout the day with the last one being at 4 pm, so we were aiming to make it for that one. This afternoon turned out to be a rough one…

Unfortunately, neither kid got to sleep as long as I would have liked, but we had to get them up around 2:45 to leave in time to make it for the 4 pm tour. DS was especially crabby because he’d only gotten about 40 minutes to nap. So then once we got them up and ready, Aunt Jan asked DH if Grandma could ride in the car with us because she thought Grandma would like that, and he said sure, which annoyed me because that meant I’d be crammed in the backseat with the kids which is incredibly uncomfortable with a car seat and booster seat on each side.

Then while outside loading the car, I bent down to scratch an itch on the back of my leg and nearly came unglued when I realized it was a spot of impetigo! I must have gotten it from DD somehow, and I was totally freaking out. I had it back in February all on the backs of my thighs and it was the most miserable week ever. Back then, though, I didn’t realize what it was when I had the first couple of spots so by the time I got diagnosed and started treatment it was all over my legs and itched like fire. But still, even knowing what it was, I was totally freaking out that I didn’t know how long it had been there and what it had come in contact with, so I was terrified of getting it all over myself again or spreading it to someone else. But all I could do at the moment was hurry down to our bathroom to put some ointment (thankfully had nearly a full tube with us to use for DD’s scalp) and cover it with a bandaid and pray it didn’t spread. Spoiler alert: it didn’t, thank God! I kept that spot and one other suspicious one on my arm covered the entire trip and it didn’t rear its ugly head anywhere else or on anyone else. The worst damage was where the bandaids tore my skin up from wearing them for so long.

I was nearly in tears the whole ride to the Kangaroo Farm worrying about it. And to top it all off I was even more annoyed at the car situation because DH and his Grandma weren’t even really talking, so there was no point in her riding with us!

We made it just in time for the last tour, and I made the decision to keep DD in her stroller even though most of the animals could be petted or fed, because I didn’t want her doing anything with the animals with her broken arm when we couldn’t clean that hand very well. She was actually perfectly content with it. After paying and while waiting for the tour guide, there was a woman walking around with a baby albino kangaroo and letting people hold it for pictures. DD didn’t want anything to do with it.


The tour started out with a cage full of lemurs, but we weren’t able to touch or interact with them. Next we went over to see a giant tortoise and the kids were able to feed it leaves of lettuce and carrots.


Then we went over to see the kangaroos! They were so lazy and laidback, just laying out in the sun all over. They seemed totally unfazed by all of us mingling around them. There was even a huge one laying in one of the doorways of the fencing and the guide told us to just walk over him, and he couldn’t care less when people started doing just that.


The guide had given us little bits of bread to feed them.


Right after I stood up from this photo, a car backfired nearby or something else loud, and all of the kangaroos went on their guard. The one I had just been posing with hopped up so fast behind me I could feel the wind on my back and I could swear that thing almost bowled me over!


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A Wallaby named Maui!

Next up were some goats and donkeys that we were able to feed also.

Continued in next post...
 
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A huge llama!

Next we saw a miniature horse named Oreo and a couple of emus, but all of them were aggressive so we weren’t able to feed or pet any of them, just observe.


Last up are the alpacas. The guide will ask you sneakily if you want to feed it and if you say yes, gives you a pellet. However, Aunt Jan had already spoiled the surprise of how you feed them, so DS and I said No Way! But DH was feeling adventurous and decided to do it. So he put that pellet between his lips and let the alpaca take it from him. GROSS!


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A cute photo op outside.
We had dinner at Red Robin (YUMMMMM) after leaving the Kangaroo Farm, and DH went with the bottomless root beer float and ended up getting 3 glasses of it!


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And we already knew DD loved ketchup, but we all found out just how deep that love runs when she discovered how much she likes dipping her apple slices in ketchup too.


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When we got home, DS had some fun running the agility equipment in the front yard before baths and bed.


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Day 4: Saturday May 27th

In the morning, I went a little laundry crazy, washing as much as I could that could have come in contact with like the sheets and some of the clothes. But I felt a lot better after having done so.

Around 9:30, DS and DH left to go back to the state park to do the boat building activity.

They came back and we had an early lunch and got DD down for an early nap. We were having a get-together with everyone for Grandma’s birthday at 2 pm at an Italian restaurant, so I wanted to make sure she got a decent nap in before then.

This was the only time everyone was together. Well, almost everyone. My FIL came but his girlfriend stayed at the hotel. In fact, she never joined us for anything the whole weekend, which I found odd. Uncle Brian drove down from the agility competition, and Aunt Jan’s and my FIL’s other brother Michael joined us too, as well as one of Grandma’s friends named Kay.


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That’s Kay sitting next to DS and luckily she enjoyed him talking her ear off, because he certainly did, for the entire meal! The food was really good, and then we watched Grandma open a ton of gifts my FIL had gotten her, and had some cake.


Day 5: Sunday May 28th

No pictures from this day, as it was pretty laid back. We got up and went to a local swap meet, which ended up being a bust. I was expecting more booths of handmade items but it was mostly people selling their crap and lots of it.

After lunch, DD went down for a nap, and I stayed to pack up our toiletries and as much of our other things as I could while DH, DS, and Aunt Jan went over to the agility competition so DS could watch a few dogs do their runs.

When they got back, we had a bit of cake before loading up the car and saying our good-byes to head to our hotel for the evening. We were staying at the same Red Roof Inn we had stayed at on our arrival night. We picked up McDonald’s again for dinner and did our best to all get to bed early that night because we’d have to get up incredibly early for our flight. Unfortunately, DD was not on board with that plan and took forever to go to sleep, then woke up frequently during the night and we had incredibly rude people on our floor talking loudly and slamming doors as they came down the hall at 3 am. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait for the night to be over so we could be on our way to California in the morning!!

UP NEXT: California, Here We Come!
 
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Joining in your trip report - looking forward to following your latest adventures. I have enjoyed reading your previous trip reports and watching your family grow and grow up.
 
Oh my - rough start but sounds like you had some good times in-between the bad. I laughed and could picture the pacifier flying all over the place on the plane! Then the impetigo scare - I could feel your pain! I'm glad it didn't end up being an issue. Did you kiss the ground when you landed in California? :rotfl2:
 
If you’ve read any of my trip reports in the past, then this will probably come as no shock to you…the month leading up to our trip was a doozy!!

It wouldn't be pre-trip for you without some major drama.

You’ll be happy to know there are no photos of anyone after DS vomited all over himself and even got some on DH.

I feel for you - I have been there on a flight with Hannah. We had to strip off all the seat covers. I had a change of clothes for her but none for me. Future trips I also made sure I had a change of clothes packed. We have also had to stop and clean up a hire car on the way back to the airport. The joys of parenthood.

Also, DH’s dad Donald and his girlfriend friend Glenda had driven (yes, driven!) up from Louisiana and were arriving later that same day to spend time together over the weekend.

:scared1: That is some drive! How many days did they do it over? At least they didn't have little people in the back.


Then while outside loading the car, I bent down to scratch an itch on the back of my leg and nearly came unglued when I realized it was a spot of impetigo!

Poor you! At least you knew straight away what it was this time. More joys of parenthood!

Grandma could ride in the car with us because she thought Grandma would like that, and he said sure, which annoyed me because that meant I’d be crammed in the backseat with the kids which is incredibly uncomfortable with a car seat and booster seat on each side.

I've been there as well - MIL can go in the passenger's seat while you squeeze in the back between bulky child seats.


Aww..you look really comfortable in this role. You are obviously used to working with babies.

When we got home, DS had some fun running the agility equipment in the front yard

That does look fun. Peter would have been the same. Does Paxton do gymnastics or maybe he will take up Parkour?

Loving seeing your non-Disney activities. The Kangaroo park looked like a lot of fun - it was really good they were able to get up close to the animals. I love the boat that Paxton made -did he enjoy using the real tools?
 


I'm following along!
Whew, that flight sounds rough. I know what an adventure it is to have a toddler in a cast, so I was glad to see you still went on your trip. It can add some interesting challenges to your life...
Aside from the scratching fear, it sounds like it was a pretty nice visit to Seattle. At least there were several kid-friendly activities to keep the children entertained in between the family events. That's always a plus!
 
I love your TR writing. I also appreciate your honesty. Things don't always go as planned that's for sure.
 
Wow, that flight sounds like my worst nightmare!

Interesting to see how laid-back the kangaroos are. We have a kangaroo exhibit right now at our zoo and I was surprised that they really don't have any barriers and the kangaroos just kind of lay around.

Ugh, we had an impetigo experience like 7 years ago (Dug's lip) on a WDW trip. Not fun - I'm glad it didn't spread for you! (it didn't for us, either)

Agility stuff brings back memories - back in Bailey's younger days, we did a bunch of agility classes (for fun) and she was really good at it!

Haha, sounds like DD feels the same way about ketchup that Izzy does about butter (she told me today that she planned to butter M&Ms, not to mention that she's invented her own language called "butter language" and plans to make Butterland when she's older :lmao: So, get ready for Ketchupland someday!)

Can't wait to hear about CA!
 
Joining in. Bless your heart that flight was rough! Glad you were able to get some quality time with your family. Can't wait to read about your Disneyland visit. We were there June 28 - July 3 for our first trip. We were incredibly lucky to stay at the Grand Californian and spend four days in the parks. The kids are already asking when we can go back! :)
 
I enjoyed following along with the pictures on FB during the trip and I can't wait to get the details all filled in!

I was hoping the rest of the flight would be okay after that, but no such luck. You’ll be happy to know there are no photos of anyone after DS vomited all over himself and even got some on DH. Thankfully, one of our carry-on bags was full of his clothes, so I was able to get it down, clean him up as best as I could, and get him changed. After that, everything was okay, but…by then we only had about 45 minutes left on the flight! I was never so happy to see a flight end as I was on that night.
Oh no... cross country flights with kids are brutal. And an incident like that just makes it even worse.

DH’s dad Donald and his girlfriend Glenda had driven (yes, driven!) up from Louisiana and were arriving later that same day to spend time together over the weekend.
Hmm... drive a couple of days or get puked on in a plane... that's a tough call.

Right after I stood up from this photo, a car backfired nearby or something else loud, and all of the kangaroos went on their guard. The one I had just been posing with hopped up so fast behind me I could feel the wind on my back and I could swear that thing almost bowled me over!
Just look at it this way. At least that didn't happen when you were stepping over the one that wouldn't move.

And we already knew DD loved ketchup, but we all found out just how deep that love runs when she discovered how much she likes dipping her apple slices in ketchup too.
Just like our DD. Ketchup on everything.
 
I'm finally caught up, just in time for me to leave for my trip and get all behind all over again! I'm so sorry you had such a rough start to your trip! Looks like you had a few bright lights in your Seattle visit though, which is great. Can't wait to hear all about your Disneyland trip!
 
Joining in your trip report - looking forward to following your latest adventures. I have enjoyed reading your previous trip reports and watching your family grow and grow up.

Welcome! Always happy to see some familiar screen names!

Oh my - rough start but sounds like you had some good times in-between the bad. I laughed and could picture the pacifier flying all over the place on the plane! Then the impetigo scare - I could feel your pain! I'm glad it didn't end up being an issue. Did you kiss the ground when you landed in California? :rotfl2:

I full on made out with the ground when we landed. :rotfl: I had never been so happy to reach a destination as I was when we got there! Luckily, the worst flight was that first one. The rest of our travels went much much better.

It wouldn't be pre-trip for you without some major drama.

Ain't that the truth!!

I feel for you - I have been there on a flight with Hannah. We had to strip off all the seat covers. I had a change of clothes for her but none for me. Future trips I also made sure I had a change of clothes packed. We have also had to stop and clean up a hire car on the way back to the airport. The joys of parenthood.

I had thought to pack an extra shirt for me thinking something might happen with DD. Didn't expect that it would be something with DS and that DH would get some of the mess on himself too. Definitely next time will pack extra clothes for EVERYONE for the flight. And after that experience, we made him keep the air sick bag in his lap from takeoff until landing!

:scared1: That is some drive! How many days did they do it over? At least they didn't have little people in the back.

I think they took like 2 weeks total. So they spent a week driving up and stopping places along the way (like in Las Vegas, etc), spent pretty much the same amount of time in Washington as we did, then spent a week driving home by a different route and stopping in different places. Just the two of them and their dog. Driving was nowhere within the realm of possibility for us!

Poor you! At least you knew straight away what it was this time. More joys of parenthood!

Yes! The only thing that saved the trip was knowing what it was right away and knowing what to do. The first time I had it months before the trip it took a few days before I decided to get it checked out and it was so miserable. This time knowing what it was I was able to contain it.

I've been there as well - MIL can go in the passenger's seat while you squeeze in the back between bulky child seats.

:rolleyes: Yeah, not the best.

Aww..you look really comfortable in this role. You are obviously used to working with babies.

Thanks!

That does look fun. Peter would have been the same. Does Paxton do gymnastics or maybe he will take up Parkour?

Loving seeing your non-Disney activities. The Kangaroo park looked like a lot of fun - it was really good they were able to get up close to the animals. I love the boat that Paxton made -did he enjoy using the real tools?

He doesn't, but I may have to look into it! He certainly enjoyed it a lot!

He loves building stuff like that, so this was right up his alley!

I'm following along!
Whew, that flight sounds rough. I know what an adventure it is to have a toddler in a cast, so I was glad to see you still went on your trip. It can add some interesting challenges to your life...
Aside from the scratching fear, it sounds like it was a pretty nice visit to Seattle. At least there were several kid-friendly activities to keep the children entertained in between the family events. That's always a plus!

Yes, it definitely makes all things interesting, including travel! I'm glad it wasn't worse to where she was in a lot of pain and we would have had to postpone or cancel. She really handled it all well. And I remember seeing pics of Landon in his cast!

It was a nice way to start off a vacation with a little relaxation and time to get ourselves over the jet lag.

Joining in!

Welcome!!

I love your TR writing. I also appreciate your honesty. Things don't always go as planned that's for sure.

No, they certainly don't! Especially with 2 small kids!!

Wow, that flight sounds like my worst nightmare!

Interesting to see how laid-back the kangaroos are. We have a kangaroo exhibit right now at our zoo and I was surprised that they really don't have any barriers and the kangaroos just kind of lay around.

Ugh, we had an impetigo experience like 7 years ago (Dug's lip) on a WDW trip. Not fun - I'm glad it didn't spread for you! (it didn't for us, either)

Agility stuff brings back memories - back in Bailey's younger days, we did a bunch of agility classes (for fun) and she was really good at it!

Haha, sounds like DD feels the same way about ketchup that Izzy does about butter (she told me today that she planned to butter M&Ms, not to mention that she's invented her own language called "butter language" and plans to make Butterland when she's older :lmao: So, get ready for Ketchupland someday!)

Can't wait to hear about CA!

It was definitely MY worst nightmare, that's for sure. I think it would have been a lot better had the flight not been full and we would have been able to have DD in her car seat. Lesson learned. Though it doesn't really matter now since she will need a seat for all future flights.

It was really surprising to me as there aren't really any opportunities to interact with kangaroos anywhere near us at home. But so cool! They are beautiful animals.

I would never wish impetigo on my worst enemy! :sad2:

lol Butter language! Kids come up with some crazy things!!

Wow! That sounds like a crazy start to a trip! Crossing my fingers that it got better!

Lots of hiccups along the way, but nothing as bad as a broken arm and the worst flight EVER, thankfully. lol

Joining in. Bless your heart that flight was rough! Glad you were able to get some quality time with your family. Can't wait to read about your Disneyland visit. We were there June 28 - July 3 for our first trip. We were incredibly lucky to stay at the Grand Californian and spend four days in the parks. The kids are already asking when we can go back! :)

Staying at the GC would be a dream come true!! How awesome for y'all! I'm with your kids, I keep asking DH when can we go back. :rotfl:

Oh no... cross country flights with kids are brutal. And an incident like that just makes it even worse.

I was not thrilled at all about the late night flight (obviously for good reason, considering our experience! lol) but it was literally the only option for a nonstop flight, and I thought that it would be better to get it all over with in one flight than spending an entire day traveling.

Hmm... drive a couple of days or get puked on in a plane... that's a tough call.

I can only imagine how many other things could have gone wrong on a drive that long. :faint:

Just look at it this way. At least that didn't happen when you were stepping over the one that wouldn't move.

:rotfl2: Excellent point!!!

Just like our DD. Ketchup on everything.

I always ask her if she wants some food to go with her ketchup. :rotfl: Last night I even had to put a dollop on her spaghetti!!

I'm finally caught up, just in time for me to leave for my trip and get all behind all over again! I'm so sorry you had such a rough start to your trip! Looks like you had a few bright lights in your Seattle visit though, which is great. Can't wait to hear all about your Disneyland trip!

A Disney trip is a great reason to get behind on trip reports!! Hope you have a great trip!

Seattle was great, even if it did come with some interesting challenges. Thanks for joining in!
 
Day 6: Monday May 29th

I forgot to mention at the end of the last post, but I was very happy we had decided to structure our trip as we did. The last time we had done a Seattle/Disneyland trip when DS was a toddler, we had done the reverse order and done DL first followed by a few days in Seattle. While it was nice to have some relaxation after the hustle and bustle of the parks, this time with two kids, it was better to do Seattle first as it gave us several days to get over our jet lag and get acclimated to Pacific time, which is 2 hours behind our normal time.

Now, moving on to Memorial Day and to California...

We got up at 5:20 am to throw our overnight items in our suitcases and drive to the airport. After returning the rental car and getting through security, we had a bit of time to kill before our flight. It had been delayed already from 7:40 am to 8:30, so we did a lot of walking around with the kids to keep them busy.


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The flight wasn’t too bad and was thankfully pretty short. DS was happy with the inflight entertainment (I think he watched Sing) and DD was a little restless but nowhere near as miserable as she’d been on our first flight. She even watched Moana a little bit on the iPad since DS wasn't using it.


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On all of our previous trips, we had flown in and out of LAX every time. This time, when looking for nonstop flights, an option had come up that would get us in to Long Beach Airport instead, so we had booked that. It was so nice getting in to a smaller airport! We picked up our luggage and walked right to the car rental counter, which was great because at LAX none of the rental car places are onsite and require taking a shuttle there. In no time, we were in our car and on our way to our resort, Worldmark by Wyndham.

When we got there, DH went to check in but our room wasn’t ready. It was already nearly 1:00 so we decided to go get lunch. However, I had a 5 pm dinner booked for that evening, so we didn’t want anything heavy. We decided on Jack In the Box, and just all got kids meals to hold us over. Once we were finished eating, we weren’t sure what to do. We needed to make a grocery stop, but didn’t want to get any of our cold items until the room was ready. So we thought we’d go straight to DTD instead and walk around shopping until our dinner time, then do grocery shopping after. Just as we were at the car and moving things around in bags to take to DTD with us, the phone rang and it was the resort letting us know our room was ready. Yay!

So we went back to the hotel and unloaded our bags. Our room was on the 5th floor overlooking the pool, which also gave us a view of the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, and as we’d find out later, the Disneyland fireworks! DH took DD to go grocery shopping while DS and I stayed behind to unpack.


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This little area was the perfect spot to put the pack & play for DD to sleep


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When they got back with the groceries, we put everything away, then got ready to head to DTD. DH had picked up our rental stroller, a City Mini single that we had rented from City Strollers. We wanted to test out the walk and see how long it would take us so that we would know how early we needed to leave for the parks in the morning, and it ended up taking about 25 that first day. But we were taking it a bit slower to figure out exactly where we were going, and we got it down to about 20 after that. We had to walk through Garden Walk, which has the most RIDICULOUS staircase/ramp setup I have ever seen.

The stairs are very wide and broken into 4 sets of 4 steps, with landings in between them. The ramp starts on one side and gets you down to the first landing, where you then have to walk alllllllll the way across to the other side, go down the ramp on the other side which gets you to the next landing then walk allllllll the way across to the other side again, and you repeat and repeat until you finally get to the bottom. Clearly whoever designed it has never pushed someone in a stroller or wheelchair before because it was a horrible design. Most times if we could, we’d just pick up the stroller and carry it up or down the steps.


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I don’t even know if this visual lets you see how completely ridiculous these stairs and ramps were, but I had to try.

When we got to security, we stopped at the ticket booth to exchange our vouchers for our 4 day park hoppers, then crossed the plaza towards Downtown Disney.


To waste the time until our dinner reservation, we made a pass through World of Disney, and of course DS wanted to buy all the things. But we held off on getting anything just yet and walked over to Naples to check in a little early. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE the pizza at Via Napoli, so of course given the opportunity to have it in Disneyland is a must!

They took us right away and asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside. The weather was so nice that we said outside would be good, and they took us up to the second floor where they seated us on the upper patio next to the railing.


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The dining room from the top of the stairs.


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The view from our table


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First we got some bread with olive oil to dip it in, and I had to fight DD for it because she was acting like she wanted to eat it all! :rotfl:


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Up next was the pizza. DH got pepperoni, I had my favorite Quattro Formaggi, which is a 4 cheese pizza with white sauce but it’s a little different here from in WDW in that it has tomatoes and arugula on it. DS and DD shared the kids pizza which came with fruit that DD ate.


After dinner, we walked back to the resort.


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Checking out a store full of Star Wars in GardenWalk


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We were back in our room by 6:20 pm and within about an hour, we had the kids bathed and down for bed, after a little playtime.

We had picked the next morning to do our Magic Morning because it started at 7 am, so we figured it would be the best thing to do on our first Disneyland morning since we could actually get to bed early the night before on our travel day. So with our alarms set for another early morning, we headed off to bed!

UP NEXT: A Magical Magic Morning
 
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Loving this!! We're going next month with our 5.5 yr old DS and 23 month old DD, so almost the same ages. I'm so glad I found your report...and once I saw your pics I'm 100% sure I've read some of your other reports too!

DS was SOOO cute as a pilot! OMG! And I'm dreading our flights, our last flight home from WDW my DD pulled the same "cry the whole time" trick that your DD did. :-( I really don't want to handle that one again. Crossing my fingers for a not full flight so we can use the carseat in an empty seat.

Can't wait to read all about it! Don't take too long! We go in 45 more days! lol

Oh! What did you think about Naples as compared to Via Napoli? We LOVED Via Napoli on our last WDW trip and I was hoping to do Naples as my birthday dinner on our trip (It'll be my birthday at DL!! what could be better???)
 
Sounds like the perfect travel/arrival day! Your pizza looks so good! We also ate there about 5 years ago and I remember the pizza being excellent. That stair/ramp thing looks ridiculous - did you have to walk that way every day? Strange. Good idea to make it an early night in preparation for your early morning. Of course I love WDW but really love DL - it will be fun following along!
 
Loving this!! We're going next month with our 5.5 yr old DS and 23 month old DD, so almost the same ages. I'm so glad I found your report...and once I saw your pics I'm 100% sure I've read some of your other reports too!

DS was SOOO cute as a pilot! OMG! And I'm dreading our flights, our last flight home from WDW my DD pulled the same "cry the whole time" trick that your DD did. :-( I really don't want to handle that one again. Crossing my fingers for a not full flight so we can use the carseat in an empty seat.

Can't wait to read all about it! Don't take too long! We go in 45 more days! lol

Oh! What did you think about Naples as compared to Via Napoli? We LOVED Via Napoli on our last WDW trip and I was hoping to do Naples as my birthday dinner on our trip (It'll be my birthday at DL!! what could be better???)

Well, welcome back!! :)

I was so relaxed about that flight out because it was past her bedtime, and I thought for sure she would just fall asleep. I was soooooo beyond wrong! I was actually most worried about our trip home because it was another long nonstop flight and during the day, but it ended up being probably the easiest one!! lol I hope for you that you get an extra seat and your DD is a perfect little angel for the entire duration!!

I've gotten kind of far ahead in typing up the days and DH has been editing faster than he ever has before on previous trips so I will make sure to crank out as much as possible for your trip! haha

Not much I can think of better than spending your birthday in a Disney park! The pizza was just as delicious as Via Napoli. Mine maybe even a little better than VN! It was one of my favorite meals of the trip.

Sounds like the perfect travel/arrival day! Your pizza looks so good! We also ate there about 5 years ago and I remember the pizza being excellent. That stair/ramp thing looks ridiculous - did you have to walk that way every day? Strange. Good idea to make it an early night in preparation for your early morning. Of course I love WDW but really love DL - it will be fun following along!

Yes, it was a great day. Nothing super stressful, cooperative kids on the flight, and everything ended up working out timing wise for our dinner reservation.

The pizza is so delicious! It's one of my favorite DL meals.

Those stairs were BEYOND ridiculous. And yes, we walked that way every day because cutting through GardenWalk was the quickest route instead of passing it up and going down another block. It SUCKED, especially the few times I was alone with DD in the bigger stroller and couldn't just carry it down the stairs. I dreaded it every time!!
 

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