We did it!!! Yes it was a nightmare is SO many ways, but in SO many more ways it was worth every nightmare, not to mention we will NEVER forget our first (of many) family vacations!!! I'm certain that this is why it has taken me so long to post about it...I needed time to get over the nightmare, so I could focus on the MEMORIES and the "what are the possible chance" thoughts going through my mind.
The first "special" part was having to wake our children up at 4:15 in the morning to get to the airport. This was a conscious choice because we had to pay $500 more to fly out at 9am. (Of course) But actually the even more first "special" part was that Everett had suffered from a stomach virus that caused him to vomit and have diarrhea for 4 days before we left and literally the night before leaving he threw-up twice and when we woke him up at 4:15 he had a diarrhea filled diaper. I was 100% convinced that he was going to vomit on me and another passenger on the plane. Here is the miracle in it though...he never vomited from that point on. He still had yucky poo, but that is containable. So needless to say, it went pretty good.
Here are these Disneyland ready cuties, waiting for the first of many times this trip.
Here is my poor sicko.
We arrived at around 1pm and we were able to check-in early...hallelujah! We got set up and got the younger ones to nap then afterward we went swimming. The kids loved it, even though it wasn't a very kid friendly pool, we made the most of it. We got to bed early because we wanted to be well rested for our first day at Disneyland!!! Tinkerbell visited Grandma's room and brought mickey pillow cases, and Disney t-shirts! Yay!
Here is evidence of the comfy-ness of those pillowcases. He is just so sweet. Surprisingly it was a very good first night for all of us being in 1 room and in new places.
That morning tinkerbell visited our room and brought autograph books for the kids to have the characters they met sign. We found out that our "special" hotel didn't have a continental breakfast, which was lame, but we adapted. After pictures with Mickey ears we were off for our first day. Btw, Vienna LOVED getting signatures and was very good at making sure she had it and a pen every time.
We made it!
Our first ride was the Jungle cruise! We all loved it!
Grandpa was so great with Everett the whole time, he just took him and walked with him and held him. They were best buddies the whole trip, which was extremely helpful for Mommy especially. Did I mention, EXTREMELY HELPFUL!
The castle with its face lift!
The train that takes us all around.
This was perfect, I discovered this on mainstreet and had to make Mike take a picture. Disneyland really does have it all.
That first, the kids all got their "First Visit" pins and Vienna also got her 5th B-day pin and once she realized that all the characters and even staff members noticed and wished her a Happy Birthday, she made sure people could see it. I didn't take any pictures of the parade, but that was by far one of my most special memories from the whole trip...and it happened the first night, the princesses would see her pin and blow her kisses and wish her a happy birthday and say "Happy Birthday princess!" and to see her face light up, and her blow kisses back, it just melted my heart. She was holding her pin out just waiting for the next wish...it was absolutely precious and pure magic. Our first day at the park was perfect!!!
That night is where it really gets "good"
Because Vienna was so good, we said she could sleep in Grandma and Grandpa's room. Well at 1am we get a knock at the door, it was Alan saying Vienna had thrown up and she wanted her Mommy. This caused Lincoln to stir and as I am getting dressed to go over, he starts throwing up, so I am trying to help him, in the meantime, Vienna has thrown up again, so I ask Mike to go get her and bring her to our room. Luckily Peg is washing clothes and sheets and changed her. She comes over and wants to go to sleep, so we give her the ice bucket and tell her that if she needs to again to do it in there. She doses. I put Lincoln in the bathtub to wash off, this wakes up Everett b/c he is in that area. I get Linc's back to bed, calm down Everett. Then Vienna vomits again into her hands, so we change her again and take care of that then get back to bed.
I'm wide awake and can't believe what has happened so I start to text my family to tell them...what are the chances and Mike and I are texting from the opposite sides of the room. He is always my comic relief and says "Tandem Vomiting, that should be an olympic sport, or something" It's hysterical in some ways and a nightmare in so many others. Well we make it another hour, until I wake up to Diarrhea from Lincoln, all over the bed. So I take him potty and he is on the toilet for like 10mins with stuff just draining from him. This is waking up Everett again. I have already removed the sheets and we are on the mattress cover thing, so I put a towel (one of the few non vomit ones left) on top and get him back to bed with one of Everett's diapers. He wakes up 1 more time after about 2 hours with more diarrhea, but luckily no more vomit!!! I begin to realize during the night, that I'm not feeling that great. I finally fall asleep at 6am and the kids get up an hour later. I am feeling super nauseous with no appetite, the kids have no appetite, but this doesn't stop us. We're at the park again. Day 2...
This is such a fun laser game!
My little lady is such a princess!
Even the Easter bunny was there.
Im feeling SO gross all morning and I know I need to vomit. We go on Thunder mountain and that was just enough to push me over the edge and so exiting the ride I lean over the railing and puke everywhere. It was awful and lots of people saw me and it started running down the path. The workers were barricading it off. What a mess. I felt shaky and weak, but better. (Of course I can't remember the last time I vomited, but we all had to get a stomach virus during the 5 days we were on our family vacation...nightmare, um yeah!) So Lincoln is still having diarrhea issues but he is ok to wear a diaper. YAY! Vienna hasn't shown any signs yet and none of us have appetites at all, but we keep on trucking. I asked for our room to be cleaned asap so we could come back to nap and of course it wasnt...argh. We made due. All I wanted to do was nap (I had slept like 4-5hrs and of course the cleaning staff knock on the door and wake us up and well more...but we go back and finish another full day.
Day 3 is California Adventure and on our way to the park, my diarrhea decides to show up and I literally went to the bathroom about 40 times that day. I was raw, sore, dehydrated and uncomfortable but I still stayed and rode rides and toughed out tired, cranky children when all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep beside the toilet. I knew Vienna's diarrhea would show up soon and it did, that night. Trying to convince her to wear a diaper didn't happen so we had a few accidents during the night, but day time was ok. The new Bug's land and Car's Land are SO amazing and cute. The new Ariel ride was a blast. We enjoyed the parade there as well.
On Vienna's Birthday we had a Princess Breakfast and she got to meet Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella and Princess Minnie. We got to eat yummy food and didn't have to wait in lines to see them, they came to our table. It was great! I still had no appetite but at least Vienna and Lincoln did. Somehow Mike never got this but he got some crazy ulcers all over his mouth which were very uncomfortable for him. Seriously...can you believe all this??? (Reading back on this will be hilarious, but in the moment...I'm surprised I only cried once)
This was special...we were by some buildings and out came goofy, so I said lets go say hi and he grabbed Vienna's hand and kept walking to his designating signing point and she got to be the first one and hold his hand all down the street. That was fun!
These guys looked perfect!
This is the ONLY family picture we got, and its my least flattering picture ever. Oh well, at least we got one.
We didn't even get a group shot of all of us, which is terrible. We were just hanging out in this really quaint round-up area, with live music and country dancing when all of a sudden Mickey and Minnie came walking out. It was so neat because there wasn't a long line at all.
Peter pan was adorable and acted just like him.
Vienna wanted her face painted SO bad and this girl did it for free for her because it was her Birthday. l-u-c-k-y!
They were so cute all snuggled up in there.
Here is Lincoln in one too. He didn't want to get in many, which is ok, he can next time.
Vienna got to see Cinderella twice and with Grandma she also got to see Snow White.
This was another fun ride we all got to go on together. Look closely, I got everyone (but me) in the pic.
This was our very last Disneyland ride and Lincoln barely made it on this ride, but we did it. Jimmy-riggin his shoes totally paid off!!! YAY! He didn't miss any of the rides.
Splash mountain wasn't suppose to be open while we were here, but they opened it on our second day and it was a blast. The 2 girls in the back were Canadian and fun to visit with in line while we waited. It looks like Vienna has fear, but she literally has NO fear, its quite amazing.
Even though I was sick, Mike and I went back to the park one night, because this is what we had talked about doing over and over and i'd been toughing it out all day, so why not all night too? We went on the tower of terror and saw the color magic water show and it was amazing! I wish I was feeling better we could have done the rollercoaster and Indiana Jones, but it was just too much.
Luckily we also got to do the brand new Cars ride, which was closed on Day 3 so it was our VERY last ride of our vacation and we pushed our kids to the limit of lateness to do it, but I'm so glad we did! We ended with a bang...and several thuds.
The next day was a slow start and luckily we were able to check out late so the kids could nap but that was such an ordeal, being told NO two different times then send Alan to ask again and they say sure. It was the greatest blessing to our day, as we didn't get home until 9pm and we almost missed our connecting flight in SLC. I mean running our buts off. No dinner, no potty, no Jammies. just madness. But we got on the plane and toughed it out...again.
He just got in there all on his own.
So...when people say its the "happiest place on earth" I quiver and shutter, but more than anything I laugh and smile and shake my head and think...well these were all things that make it even more unforgettable. Here's to hoping that our 2nd real family vacation goes a bit smoother!
