Our "Try Everything Once"Family Trip ***COMPLETE***

That sucks about your husband's tooth pain. Tooth stuff is the absolute worst, nothing seems to help :(

When we saw Mary and Bert a few years ago, we were the last family in line. Bert wanted my 12 yr old son to tell people that, but he was too shy. So he did it himself. I don't remember if they had handlers with them or not...But I don't remember anyone being rude. that's horrible :( Especially in front of kids.

When we went last year, we only watched the Pixar Play parade and that was just by chance. When we go in December, I want to watch more. My husband is not a parade person, so maybe he can go ride Indy or something alone. LOL I think our littlest will love the parades.
 
Great TR- I gleaned some great tips from your posts regarding being Disney-efficient with kids. I made a post-it that says: dollar store glow wands and rider swap! Your girls are amazing and they look so happy in Disney!
 
Great TR- I gleaned some great tips from your posts regarding being Disney-efficient with kids. I made a post-it that says: dollar store glow wands and rider swap! Your girls are amazing and they look so happy in Disney!
Thanks! Glad I could provide some tips. My kids absolutely loved the trip, and they talk about it almost daily. Looks like you're heading there soon! I hope you have an amazing trip. How old are your kiddos?
 
Thanks! Glad I could provide some tips. My kids absolutely loved the trip, and they talk about it almost daily. Looks like you're heading there soon! I hope you have an amazing trip. How old are your kiddos?

Thank you! My whole family is heading to DL including my two nieces who are 7.5 and 4.5 yrs. My Mom and I are trying to make their visit extra special!
 


I am so curious where you live. We live in a small town in Oregon, about 13 hours from Disneyland, depending on pit stops. :) We are just south of Roseburg. We are also planning on leaving around midnight and driving down over night (baby is not a fan of car seats, so hopefully this way he will sleep most of the trip!).

I really enjoyed your trip report (and look forward to reading the end)! We have been about half a dozen times, and our next trip is this November. We have four boys, ages 13, 10, 2, and 6 months, so I am happy to read a bit about Rider Swap (and think we should be able to maximize it because of our two older boys, no one would have to ride alone) and I will definitely plan on picking up some dollar store glow sticks. My two year old is a ball of energy, but hopefully I can use them to occupy him some during waits. :)
 
I am so curious where you live. We live in a small town in Oregon, about 13 hours from Disneyland, depending on pit stops. :) We are just south of Roseburg. We are also planning on leaving around midnight and driving down over night (baby is not a fan of car seats, so hopefully this way he will sleep most of the trip!).

I really enjoyed your trip report (and look forward to reading the end)! We have been about half a dozen times, and our next trip is this November. We have four boys, ages 13, 10, 2, and 6 months, so I am happy to read a bit about Rider Swap (and think we should be able to maximize it because of our two older boys, no one would have to ride alone) and I will definitely plan on picking up some dollar store glow sticks. My two year old is a ball of energy, but hopefully I can use them to occupy him some during waits. :)


We live in Cottage Grove, about an hour North of you. We were just in Roseburg yesterday to go to Costco. Cottage Grove is a pretty small town as well, at least compared to what we were used to before we moved here. The glow sticks worked like a dream, I can't recommend them enough. It's amazing how long kids can entertain themselves with them! The rider swap made all the difference for us, you should really be able to maximize your fun with so many riders!
Two year olds can be hard to deal with in line. Once Brynn got the hang of waiting she wanted to talk about whose turn it was. Like "hims turn is next", she still does this in the grocery store, thanks Disney!
When in November are you going? We have always wanted to go the week following Thanksgiving. The crowds are supposed to be lighter, and it's a dream of Brock and I both to see the park decorated for Christmas.
The rest of my report is going up right now, that's actually why I'm on right now!
 


So sorry that it has taken me so long to get this last day up! We had a family wedding this month and as Matron of honor I was in charge of the bridal shower. Audree graduated from Pre-k and life has just been busy. But, I know how annoying it can be to be reading a report and have no ending! So again, sorry for the delay, but I'm back and ready to finish. The first part of this next post is really wordy, but rest assured there will be plenty of pics later.

DAY 5: Our last Disney Day


This was our last morning in the hotel, and would be our last day at Disney. We had a list of must dos to cross off. But before we could tackle any of those we first had to finish packing up. We also had to say goodbye to the jogging stroller and would be renting from Disney for the day. So we packed, double checked the room, and Brock got all the luggage back into the car. While he was doing that I got the girls downstairs for breakfast. I had mentioned this before but Cinderella is Audree’s favorite princess, this cannot be overstated. She loves Cinderella above all others and meeting her was probably our biggest priority of the day. So Audree was dressed in her Cinderella gown and sandals and tiara all ready to meet her princess.

Quick side note here; the only other time our girls had been to Disneyland we had splurged and had Audree do the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique. She had her hair done, nails, make up and got to pick out a dress, wand and tiara. We went with the package that included pictures and a royal meet and greet. She loved the whole thing and got to meet Cinderella, Snow White, and Ariel. Afterwards we had reservations at Ariel’s Grotto where she met Ariel, Tianna, Rapunzel, Aurora and Belle. She met seven princesses that day and she still talks about it. Brock and I swear that BBB and Ariel’s Grotto were worth every cent. The whole day was pure magic!

Anyway we knew that this trip we couldn’t afford BBB again, and we explained that to Audree. She was fine with it but wanted to know she could still wear her gown. Um, heck yes that thing was pricey. So far we’ve gotten two Halloweens out of it and plenty of dress up days. Before our trip we needed to get both girls some sandals, and Audree picked hers out specifically to match her gown. At the end of our first day this trip we noticed that Audree’s sandals had rubbed the insides of her ankles painfully, so I had put some mule skin on them and she wore shoes the rest of the trip. Today was her first day back in the sandals.

So we loaded up and headed out planning to park in the same lot as the day before since it had turned out to be so convenient. But things did not end up that way. Somehow we didn’t take the right way to the parking garage and we ended up in the Woody lot which is not on campus or even campus adjacent. From this lot you walk to a shuttle that then takes you to the same drop off as the hotel shuttles. The line for the shuttle was long, I mean longer than any ride we’d seen in the park. We weren’t too thrilled with this lot, shuttle situation but we got in line. The good thing about it was that they kept the shuttles coming in a steady stream so the line was constantly moving. We were on a shuttle in no time and headed to the parks.

Now here is where my day took it’s worst turn, and I’m not sure how much anyone wants to read about it. But it’s part of our trip so I’m including it and I’ll try not to be too graphic.

As we waited in line for the shuttle I began having some horrible bowel issues.Basically I had to go NOW, and I couldn’t. The parking lot doesn’t have a bathroom or Honey Bucket, and the only option was squatting between cars or getting on the shuttle. I got on the shuttle. The entire ride there was awful, and by the time we arrived at Disneyland I was cold sweating. We still had to make it through security, rent a stroller and wait in line to get into the park. Thankfully Brock fully understood the direness of my situation and took both kids and every bag so that I could hurry through security without them and get to a bathroom ASAP while he did security and stroller rental. Thank God for that man. I opted for California Adventure for two reasons. the first was that the bathrooms are closer to the entrance than Disneyland. The second was that the entry lines are typically shorter. Of course the line I got in had some issues, so I line jumped to the next and then it had issues while my original line ended up sailing through. But all in all I made it to a bathroom and didn’t need to have a change of clothes, and that’s a win!

While in the bathroom I got some texts from Brock saying that they were in California Adventure and he was heading to grab some fast passes for Radiator Springs because that was a priority for the day. He pulled the fast passes at 10:55 and they weren’t good until 6:35pm. So that meant that we would be staying until at least 7 that night.

Meanwhile I got out of the bathroom and headed to get myself a fast pass for Soarin. Brock isn’t a huge fan of Soarin and really had no desire to go on it. It’s not my favorite either, but I hadn’t been on it in five years or so and I was under the false impression that the new video was running. Having gotten a fastness I met my family over at the Silly Symphony Swings. Brynn and I hung out while Audree and Daddy went on the swings. The swings were once again a big hit with Audree and Brock had actually gotten her to let go and lift her arms in the air a bit.

After the swings it was already time for me to hit up Soarin, so we headed over there next. Even with my fast pass it took 45 minutes just to get on the ride. I was ticked, my family was just sitting out there waiting. It was our last day and I felt like I had just wasted 45 minutes of all of our time waiting for a ride that only I was going on. Then for it to not even be the new video (which is totally on me, I’m not sure why I thought it was), just so frustrated. While I was inside the giant hangar waiting for my turn to glide Brock got sick of waiting on a bench and took the kids into Starbucks. Much better idea than the bench. I found them happily eating fruit and sharing a vanilla frap (caffeine free btw).

IMG_5133_zpsk16ajs6b.jpg


With Soarin crossed off the must do list we parked hopped over to Disneyland and headed straight for Fantasyland and Royal Hall. It was time for Our Princess Audree to meet her favorite. We got in line and I think the wait was 25 minutes or so. It didn’t matter we would have waited well over an hour for Cinderella. This was Audree’s absolute must do for the trip. As we waited the kids were being kids, spinning and laughing and just being normal. I was behind Audree as she spun and I happen to have some red catch my eye. That’s when I noticed that Audree was bleeding from both achilles. Her freaking sandals were just tearing her apart. I felt horrible for my baby. Brock and I asked her why she didn’t tell us that she was hurting and she just shrugged. Then we realized that she was communicating it to us, just in her own way. Instead of saying “hey guys, my sandals are killing me” she asked us like ten times “Can I ride in the stroller”. We didn’t know she was hurting so every time she asked we were like “no, you are five and can walk just fine, Brynn is two and needs the stroller”. So yeah, we were feeling like all star parents. She told me that she wanted to show Cinderella her owies, I advised her to maybe skip that info and just show her the shoes.

IMG_5136_zpstsyjmygo.jpg

Doesn't this face just scream mommy guilt?!

Soon it was our turn to go in and meet all the royalty. First up was Snow White. They hugged and curtsied. Brynn got a little confused when trying to curtsy and lifted her shirt up. Snow White covered her eyes, it was pretty silly. Brynn admired her headband, and they had a spinning contest. Then Brynn showed Snow how she could hop like a bunny. Next thing you know all there of them were hopping. They took some sweet pictures and then Snow White literally hopped the girls into the next room to meet Belle. Belle was wonderful she spun around with the girls too. And she got down on the ground and lifted her dress up a bit so they could see her shoes. Audree showed off her shoes as well. Belle hugged them and did pictures and then it was time for the one and only, Cinderella.

IMG_5140_zpsdzjvnany.jpg


IMG_0972_zpsxmndn5hb.jpg


IMG_0979_zpsxvkjxrjn.jpg


IMG_5147_zpsnv2nlrhx.jpg


DLPCA_DPFFEAST1_20160304_382510350703_zpsp8kodkfg.jpeg

This face!
DLPCA_DPFFEAST1_20160304_382510350715_zpsrtjzmfad.jpeg

And THIS face!

DLPCA_DPFFEAST1_20160304_382510350681_zpskprykgax.jpeg

Spinning with Snow
IMG_5150_zpseiq0rthw.jpg

Showing Snow how we hop
DLPCA_DPFFEAST1_20160304_382510350687_zpsctbcs9ug.jpeg

Staged photo time. Audree doesn't look too comfortable here.
DLPCA_DPFFEAST2_20160304_382510350688_zpshlw1zy16.jpeg

Hopping in to see Belle
DLPCA_DPFFEAST2_20160304_382510350734_zpshmsv9qfy.jpeg

We've been to the Royal Hall before, but I don't remember the princesses escorting kids to the next greet.
DLPCA_DPFFEAST2_20160304_382510350728_zps6enufcym.jpeg


DLPCA_DPFFEAST2_20160304_382510106947_zpszexl7sue.jpeg

Spinning
IMG_5163_zpspz9gzu2y.jpg

Checking out her shoes
DLPCA_DPFFEAST2_20160304_382510350707_zpseibysv62.jpeg


DLPCA_DPFFEAST2_20160304_382510350694_zpsuvbvoisa.jpeg

Hugs!
I can’t explain the degree to which Audree loves Cinderella. No other princess compares in her heart. She met her before over a year ago, but this was still so special. I was tearing up in the background. Cinderella was so kind to my girls, but Audree especially. She hugged her tight and complimented her dress saying that they must have the same fairy godmother. She held their hands while she talked to them. She told Brynn she loved her buns (we were going for Rey hair from The Force Awakens), and that sometimes you just need more than one. She taught them to pose. And when Audree told her that she was her favorite princess Cinderella gave her a huge, long hug. I’m sure many parents have had this experience with a meet and greet, but it didn’t feel that way. It felt super special. Cinderella made my girls feel like they were her favorite. She looked at Audree liked she truly adored her. I cannot describe it well enough, but it all felt so unique and genuine, like she had been waiting all day to meet Audree, rather than the other way around. And for me, as her mommy I was fighting back the tears. I felt like I was watching my daughters dream come true right before my eyes. This meet and greet, for us, was worth every cent we spent on the entire vacation. With that amazing experience our girls were on top of the world. They were both just sooooooo happy.
DLPCA_DPFFEAST3_20160304_382510350722_zpsv6sxupuf.jpeg


DLPCA_DPFFEAST3_20160304_382510350697_zpsdapqg7mg.jpeg

Hugs from her favorite!
IMG_5177_zpsdud3pgiq.jpg


DLPCA_DPFFEAST3_20160304_382510350660_zpsd6xlzmoe.jpeg


DLPCA_DPFFEAST3_20160304_382510350702_zpsdgdbhfyo.jpeg


DLPCA_DPFFEAST3_20160304_382510350676_zps22f9pdwy.jpeg

LOVE this one!
IMG_5186_zps3v25q203.jpg

Showing off her princess shoes
IMG_5187_zpsspu0cy9i.jpg

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of the entire trip! Audree getting this sweet hug from her absolute favorite princess. Dream come true for Audree and meanwhile you have Brynn in the foreground making this face, that to me says "Hey are you guys seeing this?". Just love this one!

IMG_5191_zpseofbzzli.jpg


DLPCA_DPFFEAST3_20160304_382510350732_zpsg5seuuf4.jpeg

Nice view of her Rey hair
DLPCA_DPFFEAST3_20160304_382510350662_zpsottn3orq.jpeg

Such a sweet hug!

And with that I've maxed out the pics for post, so this is to be continued...
 
Last Day Continued...
After Cinderella we quickly made our way to the bathroom the kind of straddles Adventureland and Frontierland. Fortunately I had had the forethought to pack an entire, top to bottom change of clothes for both kiddos. So Audree and I headed into the bathroom and got her changed out of her gown. We brought her back to daddy and Brynn who were waiting on a bench nearby and got her achilles cleaned and bandaged. Traded those sandals in for socks and tennis shoes and we were ready to eat! It was time for corndogs. The red wagon corn dog was on our list of must dos for the day and it was high time to cross them off. Brock and the girls headed to the wagon while i veered to the right to obtain another must. The Matterhorn macaroon has been on my list of things to try for the first time, and I was excited to get the chance. As I waited in line at the Jolly Holiday Bakery I also saw the Raspberry Macaron and grabbed one of those too, because I knew that was right up Brock’s alley. I found my family sitting over at the Plaza anxiously awaiting my arrival. The corn dogs were, of course, amazing! The girls weren’t as into the corndogs as we expected, but between the four of us we cleaned our plates. The Matterhorn Macaroon was delicious, and easily gained a spot in the must eat every time we come list alongside dole whips and Plaza fried chicken.The raspberry macaron was pretty good too, neither Brock or I had ever had a macaron before so we weren’t expecting the light texture. When you look at it you expect it to be a bit more hearty, it’s pretty big and has raspberries sandwiched in it. But it was delicious and though it’s not a must do every time I would definitely get it again.

IMG_5204_zpsdneilqov.jpg

Yum!
IMG_5205_zpslrkszqyf.jpg


By now the Friday crowds were really sinking in and we were starting to see the wait times creeping up. Among our must dos for the trip, and the day was Pirates. We had yet to voyage with the pirates which is crazy because we love that ride. So we headed toward the ride and found ourselves in a 30 minute wait. This is by far the longest I’ve ever waited for Pirates, but we really couldn’t imagine a Disney park vacation without doing Pirates so we settled in for the wait. Both of our girls wanted to be held the whole time in line, which makes for tired parents, but we did our best. The girls however, had very different strategies for waiting in line. Brynn handled it by laughing and goofing off. Audree handled it by crying her eyes out and saying that she didn’t want to go on the ride because it was too scary. Seriously, I mean it’s not and I know my kids very well. She went on this ride the year before and she closed her eyes and covered her ears the whole time. But this is a year later and she has done so many new, exciting and sometimes scary things since then and I felt like this little crying episode was more a result of her being tired at the end of a vacation and less to do with it being scary. We made it clear that we are going on this ride regardless. She continued to cry and say it’s too scary. So Brock and I told her that we are a family and that means that we put each others needs and wants before our own. We said “for example, meeting Cinderella was very important to you, so that means that it became important to mommy and daddy and Brynn. Going on Pirates is important to Mommy and Daddy which means that it becomes important to you and Brynn too.” This explanation kind of worked. She still didn’t want to go on it, but she understood very well that she was going on it and why.

IMG_5195_zpsidhnagap.jpg

Pretending to sleep
IMG_5196_zpsm0suxita.jpg

And then laughing her face off
IMG_5198_zpsqg13by9a.jpg

Yep, this is what we dealt with through the entire 30 minute wait!
IMG_5202_zpsbml5ko1y.jpg

Thank goodness at least one kid was happy
IMG_5203_zpsrah1pmhc.jpg


Pirates was great and we enjoyed the nice long break from being on our feet. We still had plenty of time before our Radiator passes would be valid so we headed over to Tomorrowland to see if we could get another ride on one of our other favorites. The wait time posted for Star Tours was 40 minutes, but Audree really wanted to go on it. So while she and Daddy cue’d up Brynn and I headed over to Fantasyland because Brynn was asking for the teacups. Brynn and I did a quick turn on the Teacups and headed over to the Carousel next. The holding pen for the carousel was packed with people, and they were all really pushy. Makes zero sense to me why grown adults set that kind of example to their children. It’s a kid ride people, it is built to fit a lot on every ride. You don’t have to push, there’s enough horses to go around. Right as we got Brynn on a horse Brock called me to say that they were already done with Star Tours, turns out it was only about a tweet minute wait. He said Audree really wanted me to go on it with her. So after the carousel, which Brynn loved, we monied on back to Tomorrowland and Brock and I switched kids. Audree and I got in the quick 20 minute (though still posted at 40 minutes) line for Star Tours, while Brock and Brynn headed back to Adventureland to buy some Dole Whips.

IMG_5210_zpsa0ag1eu1.jpg

Teacups!
IMG_5218_zpsgf0db8dm.jpg

Carousel!
IMG_5220_zpsduvfhl1t.jpg


Our tour into the galaxies was super fun and Audree further cemented her absolute love for the ride. When we got off the ride we headed into the gift shop Star Traders to see what we could see. We hadn’t really done any souvenir shopping yet this trip, but we knew that Audree had her heart set on a light saber and we had seen these BB8 mickey ears all over the park that we thought would be perfect for my brother; who was house sitting for use back in Oregon. Brock called me and said that Dole Whips were a no go, the line was just atrocious and he didn’t want to spend that kind of time waiting on our last day so he and Brynn had started shopping on Main Street. My husband is a watch guy and he had hoped to find a new Disney one while we were there, but unfortunately he wasn’t finding anything he loved. As Audree and I looked around I happened to see the Star Wars half Marathon Dooney and Burke purses on display and I was completely stopped in my tracks.

So, I feel the need to give a little bit of a backstory here before I continue. About 4 years ago I realized that I am indeed a purse girl. It’s not something I ever knew about myself but I do love purses. I first discovered that I love them when my husband got me a COACH gift card for my birthday. I bought a beautiful bag, that was big and roomy and purple and I loved it. I ruined that bag within months by simply being a full time worker and mommy of a newborn. My lunches were always on the go, throw in the bag and so were my daughter’s bottles. So I went back to a cheap American Eagle purse that I’d had for a decade and forgot about it. Then January 2015 Brock and went to Disneyland to run the inaugural Star Wars marathon and celebrate our 10 year anniversary. I knew that Dooney and Burke would be making purses for the run and I was really interested in getting one to commemorate our run and our anniversary trip. When we got there they had plenty in stock, but I hated all of them. I mean I just wasn’t into them at all. I didn’t like the design or the color scheme. I was bummed and still tempted admittedly. Here I was now a stay at home mom, ready to have a nice purse and not ruin it and I hated the ones I had really wanted to love. As much as I wanted a purse to signify the run (as the run itself was a monumental achievement to my completely non athletic self) I just could not ever justify the price for something I didn’t absolutely love. Then on one of our last nights in Disneyland we stopped into Disney Vault 28 and I saw this gorgeous Haunted Mansion Dooney tote and fell for it immediately. I loved it, and Brock could tell that we had found a winner instantly. The price was steep, so I took two nights to think about it and look around at all my other options. But ultimately Brock convinced me that even though it didn’t really symbolize our run it would be a great way to commemorate the anniversary side of our trip. We took a gulp, handed over our card and took her home. I love this Haunted Mansion bag still, I named her Eleanor and I use her all the time.
IMG_6604_zpspytt6hvc.jpg

This is Eleanor. Don't mind my messy table in the background. I realized I didn't have a pic of her and just took this. I don't have time to clean for a picture of a purse!
So anyway when I saw the designs for this year on line I was floored by how much I loved them, but we weren’t running this year and when the race happened in January we didn’t yet know we’d be there in March. So the thought that I could get one of these beautiful purses never crossed my mind. Brock had told me before we left home that he would be more than okay with me getting a purse. He had showed me the diamond celebration ones and had me look on our first night, but I just wasn’t in love with any of them. Then I saw the Dooney’s still for sale at Star Traders and I called Brock and said “I’ve found her, and I can’t decide which style I want”. He knew immediately what I was talking about and he and Brynn started over to find us. Meanwhile one of the cast members pulled down a couple of the different styles for me to check out. The pattern I really liked was the one with pinks, greens and yellow but it was also nylon, and that’s a no go for me at this stage of life. So I was torn between the satchel or cross body letter carrier in a grey, blue, orange pattern and grain leather. Brock came in the shop and looked and he really wanted me to also get a matching wallet, but I could never justify the price of two Dooneys at once, plus I’m happy with my current wallet. Ultimately I decided to go with the letter carrier because I don’t currently have anything cross body. We bought her, named her Leia and I use her every single day.

IMG_5223_zpsy36wlrtn.jpg

Isn't she lovely?
Alright, now that we are through my purse love story I’ll get back to the actual trip report. After I decided on my new purse we found a light saber for Audree and a second one that glows and has sound effects. By now Star Traders was a mad house, it was getting on in the day and the Tomorrowland crowds were just ridiculous. We searched high and low for the BB8 mickey ears to no avail. Finally we asked the cashier while checking out and he told us they were sold in a separate store across the walkway in Tomorrowland. We checked out, headed to the other merchant and found the ears without further issue. Next we headed over to the camera shop on Main street to view our photos from the trip. The package we booked came with one 5x7 complimentary so we needed to decide which photo that would be. Before the trip we had planned on doing the photo pass plus where you get all of the photos from your entire trip for one flat rate. We learned a couple weeks before the trip that Disney had changed their way of doing things and that photo pass deal was no longer available. I was super annoyed by this. Now you buy your photos by day and it’s $39 a day. Knowing this now I can better plan our next trip to do all the meet and greet on the same day as character dining, and try to squeeze in as much photo pass family pics as possible to really get the most out of that $39. But at the time of our trip we weren’t super clear on how that all worked so we ultimately ended up buying three days @ $39 a piece once we got home and could view them at our leisure online. We chose the picture of Brynn hugging Mickey and moved on down Main street to the candy store. Brock had decided if he couldn’t find a watch he loved, than he wouldn’t be getting one at all (much like me and purses), which left him free to stock up on Goofy candy. In our regular lives Brock is not much of a candy junkie, but Disneyland truly brings out his sweet tooth. Or sour tooth really, because it’s Goofy’s sour worms that he likes to stockpile every trip. He throw some cotton candy, short bread, and giant cookies in for good measure.
IMG_5225_zpsazbygldi.jpg

With all that purchased we parked hopped back over to California Adventure to end out our stay at the happiest place on earth. We still had some time before our fast passes were ready and we still needed to get a souvenir for Brynn. It had already been decided before the trip that Brynn would be getting bath toys, unless she randomly fell in love with something else. So we headed into the Julius Katz & Sons off of Buena Vista Street and started showing her bath toy sets two at a time. Whichever set won moved on to the next set of two, you know, bracket style. Pixar leading character set, that had Woody, Buzz, Mr. Incredible, Sulley and Nemo was the winner. They aren’t labeled bath toys, they are actually called squeeze toy sets, but they go in the bath and the girls love them.
Finally done with our shopping we headed to Bugsland to let Brynn have one more ride on the Chew Chew train before the rest of us took turns on Radiator Springs without her. Heimlich was just as jolly and hungry as ever. We finished up in Bugsland and hurried into Carsland to finally redeem our fastpass. Audree and I went first and I smartly grabbed a rider swap so that she and Brock could share the last ride of the trip. We had a great time, and I’m pretty sure we won. Brock and I switched kiddos, and he and Audree made their way to the last ride of the trip.
IMG_5230_zpsxvktb5oa.jpg

IMG_5235_zps7c4kaxlv.jpg

IMG_5237_zpsmlb0tc4d.jpg


They had a great ride and then sadly we started making our way towards the exit. None of us wanted to go, but vacation was over and we had a 13 hour drive ahead of us. We turned in the stroller and grabbed the shuttle back to the parking lot and our awaiting car. We got gas nearby and made our way to In and Out for some double double animal style grub, which Brock ended up not being able to eat because of his tooth pain(And spoiler alert he called the dentist the Monday after our trip and it turned out he needed a root canal, poor guy). The kids were asleep before we even made it to the drive thru.

We finally got on I-5 at 9:30pm and started heading north. The plan had been to push it as far as we could go, but any hope of driving straight back was long gone. We were hoping to get at least to Sacramento but there was no way. We ended up only lasting about 1.5 hours and pulled off in Lebeck for the night. We carried the girls up to the room and the four of us were out in no time.

The next morning we grabbed some breakfast to go from the lobby, bagels, bananas and yogurt at hit the road by 8:30am. After a couple hours we switched and I took over through Sacramento and beyond. As I was driving it started raining. Then it really came down and we hydroplaned a little. After a couple hours of crappy weather and some congested traffic Brock woke up and wanted to take over again. Fine with me! He ended up driving the rest of the way back and I’m so glad he did. It was awful, by far the scariest drive we’ve done weather wise. The rain didn’t let up the rest of the drive home and there were whole stretches where it was coming down too hard for safety. The worst of it though was driving through the Siskiyou Mountains. It was terrifying. Pitch black, curvy mountain roads with insane rain and a little hydroplaning thrown in for fun. We were white knuckling it a bit there, but what can you do? There isn’t anywhere to pull over and wait it out, and by then we are just a few short hours from home. Made me super grateful for my husband, he is an incredibly safe driver and is well trained (he used to drive semi for a living).

Any way we made it home safely by 8:30pm and were beat. We chatted with my brother for a bit before he took of back to Washington and gave him his BB8 ears. Tucked ourselves into bed, with thoughts of our next trip in our heads.

IMG_5241_zpsgdp9j8ub.jpg

Important to note: The red bull in Brynn's cup holder was not consumed by Brynn!


Well, that does it. My first trip report is officially in the bag. To anyone who read along, thank you! I hope it was enjoyable, as I really enjoyed writing it. It has been so fun to relive this trip as I write it! It really does make me want to go back right now! Unfortunately I don't think we will be going back for a few years unless we come into some windfall of finances. But I do think whenever we go back I will be doing a trip report, this has been so fun!
 
I loved reading about your trip! Thank you for sharing everything!

I grew up in Cottage Grove!! Moved down south when I was 13. :) Love that town and make a point in driving through it after we visit Eugene, and actually, one of my friends lives there now.

We will be in the parks November 14-18, so the week before Thanksgiving, which should be the beginning of the Holiday season. We have been once before during December and it was amazing. I highly recommend going during the Holidays! I have been wanting to go during Halloween, but we are a football family and our older boys' seasons don't wrap up until the beginning of November.

Your girls are so precious and I confess to tearing up over the Cinderella meet and greet stuff.

Love your purses! I am way too hard on purses to get a nice one unfortunately.

Corn dogs and matterhorn macaroons are two of our must have Disney treats, too! And it is so funny that you tried the raspberry macaron because I have been debating trying one this trip.

Once, we hit snow over the Siskyous in April and it was terrifying! Glad you guys made it safely!

I have been debating doing a trip report for our trip, too. I've never done one before, but I love the idea of having a detailed account of our trip recorded instead of letting the details be forgotten like our other trips.
 
I loved reading about your trip! Thank you for sharing everything!

I grew up in Cottage Grove!! Moved down south when I was 13. :) Love that town and make a point in driving through it after we visit Eugene, and actually, one of my friends lives there now.

We will be in the parks November 14-18, so the week before Thanksgiving, which should be the beginning of the Holiday season. We have been once before during December and it was amazing. I highly recommend going during the Holidays! I have been wanting to go during Halloween, but we are a football family and our older boys' seasons don't wrap up until the beginning of November.

Your girls are so precious and I confess to tearing up over the Cinderella meet and greet stuff.

Love your purses! I am way too hard on purses to get a nice one unfortunately.

Corn dogs and matterhorn macaroons are two of our must have Disney treats, too! And it is so funny that you tried the raspberry macaron because I have been debating trying one this trip.

Once, we hit snow over the Siskyous in April and it was terrifying! Glad you guys made it safely!

I have been debating doing a trip report for our trip, too. I've never done one before, but I love the idea of having a detailed account of our trip recorded instead of letting the details be forgotten like our other trips.


What a small world! We love Cottage Grove, it has really grown on us since we moved here. Everyone is really kind and I love all the parks and trails.

I would have been flipping terrified if it had been snowing! The rain was bad enough.

Your trip in November sounds like so much fun! Please, please, please do a trip report. I'm so glad I did. It was time consuming, but I also got to relive it all as I wrote it, and now I can go read it anytime.
 
Awesome trip report! Your kiddos are so adorable! And I'm quite frankly envious of your Haunted Mansion Purse.
 
Thanks for reading! I think they're pretty adorable too, but than I'm biased. I'm not gonna lie, it's been a year and a half and I'm still in love with Eleanor (my haunted mansion purse).
 
Loved your report! Cindy is my DD11's fave too, and when she met her, I did the teary-mama thing too. Totally get what you mean. Your kids are adorable and your photos are great.

I think I'm going to have to Youtube ToT and Screamin' for our next trip as my DD9 is the daredevil in the family and has made me promise we'd do those rides next time.
 
As we waited in line for the shuttle I began having some horrible bowel issues.Basically I had to go NOW, and I couldn’t. The parking lot doesn’t have a bathroom or Honey Bucket, and the only option was squatting between cars or getting on the shuttle. I got on the shuttle. The entire ride there was awful, and by the time we arrived at Disneyland I was cold sweating. We still had to make it through security, rent a stroller and wait in line to get into the park. Thankfully Brock fully understood the direness of my situation and took both kids and every bag so that I could hurry through security without them and get to a bathroom ASAP while he did security and stroller rental. Thank God for that man. I opted for California Adventure for two reasons. the first was that the bathrooms are closer to the entrance than Disneyland. The second was that the entry lines are typically shorter. Of course the line I got in had some issues, so I line jumped to the next and then it had issues while my original line ended up sailing through. But all in all I made it to a bathroom and didn’t need to have a change of clothes, and that’s a win!

I have IBS, and soooo identified with this! Thank goodness Brock helped out!

Loved your trip report, and all the pics, thanks for sharing, you have a beautiful family, and the Cinderella time looked truly magical!
 
I really enjoyed reading through your TR- thank you for sharing!

The Matterhorn Macaroon and Raspberry Macaroon photos set off some serious cravings- they are two of our favorites!

The Cinderella meet 'n' greet photos are AMAZING!! I'm so glad that your family had such a special trip!
 
Loved finally getting a moment to finish up reading your report! What an awesome time you had! I'm not a huge purse person, but I'm super super jealous of your Leia bag. I love it! Part of me is also envious of you just having two kids on your trip. I'm starting to feel anxious about taking 5...
 
I enjoyed reading your trip report. It looks like you had a lovely trip! Your little girls are SO cute and it was awesome seeing them with Cinderella. Such a magic moment for you!!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top