The Happiest Place on Earth

We recently returned from a week-long vacation/family reunion in sunny southern California. We had planned on going to Disneyland with the kids quite a while ago. It started out as just our family and we had invited our good friend, Deb Duncan (our pseudo-grandma), to come with us to lend an extra pair of hands. Then Jade heard we were going and she thought it would be fun. Then my parents felt like they would miss out on all the fun, so they wanted to come along as well. I hadn't mentioned it to Rylan because they were planning on visiting earlier in the summer (since Molly has never been here when there has been green grass and leaves on the trees), but mom thought I had better offer the option. So before we knew it, it became a full family affair and with that we decided to make it an official Chan Family Reunion.

We all decided to meet in Anaheim. On Tuesday, September 23, we flew out of Great Falls with an unexpected stop in Helena and a plane change in Seattle. What a long day. The kids all did pretty well. This was Emmy's first time flying and she was a bit nervous, but no one got sick and everyone stayed relatively happy. We had one fellow traveller who was assigned to sit next to me on the flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. As she approached our row, Sawyer was a bit upset and crying. The lady looked at me, who was scrambling to get Sawyer settled, and said, "Oh, no way! There is no way I'm sitting there!" All the better! I didn't want anyone sitting next to me anyways as there is not a lot of room to feed a baby flanked by two other people. Thankfully, it was not a full flight and she managed to find an entire row all for herself.

Rylan, Molly and their girls were already at the hotel by the time we arrived. We awoke the next morning, and made our way to Disneyland. The heat and humidity were a bit overwelming. I had thought by going at the end of September, we would miss the hot weather...not so. It was HOT!

Jade, Mike and their boys arrived later on in the day. We met them at the hotel after a fun-filled day at Disneyland.

The next couple of days were spent driving down to San Diego. We went to the zoo on Thursday and Sea World on Friday. Again...hot, hot, HOT! The highlight at the Zoo was seeing the giant pandas. They were way too cute! We also made a quick jaunt to Mexico...so now the kids can say they've been to 3 countries in 1 week! Sea World was also a lot of fun. We caught the dolphin show and the Shamu show. We also spent a good chunk of time at the Sesame Street/Elmo play area (not a surprise when 6 out of the 9 kids are 3 and younger.) The kids also got a kick out of touching the stingrays and lifting up star fishes. It was pretty fun. On the way home, we stopped by Mission Beach. I think the kids (and adults) had more fun in the 1/2 hour we splashed around in the ocean than they did all day. After getting our clothes drenched and sandy, we made our way to the stunning San Diego Temple. It really is a beautiful building (and as some of my friends stated, THIS is one of the happiest places on earth!)

Saturday was our big Disneyland day with everyone. We all donned our custom designed reunion shirts (by yours truly) and made our way to our favorite rides. Some of the favorites of my family: Buzz Lightyear ride, Toy Story Mania, Soarin' over California, California Screamin', Space Mountain, the rocket ride by Tomorrowland, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Grizzly River Run, all the rides in A Bug's Land, Mickey and Minnie's houses...well, pretty much any ride was a winner.

The next day we went to Universal Studios. I was bit disappointed with this park. It was not very "young" family friendly and there wasn't a lot of stuff for little kids to do. I would've been fine NOT to have gone here and spent it somewhere else. We did see, however, the houses from Wisteria Lane (tv's Desparate Housewives), the plane crash scene from War of the Worlds, Shrek and Fiona, Curious George and Dora and Deigo. Jade and Mike also left to go home.

Monday was our final day at Disneyland. Wayne met up with an old mission companion, Roland Schmeidl, who now lives near by. He brought his 2 daughters with him and we had fun hanging out with them. We hit our favorite rides once again and stayed until the parade.

We flew home on Tuesday and once again, the kids did great! Sawyer was able to sleep most of the way home, despite cutting his 4th tooth while on our holiday. (And there were no cranky old ladies on our flights!) We loaded up our van in Great Falls and headed home. We rolled in at about 2am!
What a wonderful week full of great memories. I'm so glad we were able to do this with all of our kids and have the added bonus of spending time with Ry, Jade and their families. We really have some pretty cute nieces and nephews! This is such a fun time in their lives, with so many little cousins. I'm sure this will be a trip that they will remember (well, those that are old enough to remember!)