A Disney Dream Vacation

When Debbie scheduled her family's Disneyland vacation for the first week in February, we decided to join the Turgeons and reserved a room for two nights at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel.

The hotel is grossly overpriced, but is incredibly convenient. What we loved the most about it was the early entry to the park and the convenience of the location. It is literally right next to Downtown Disney and has a private entrance into California Adventure.

None of us slept well in the cramped room, but the girls loved the bunk beds and the experience of being at the hotel. The foyer, pool and grounds of the hotel are indeed grand. It was fun to walk around and just enjoy the surroundings.

We loved spending time with the Turgeons. Deb and Andre have really cute, well behaved kids. I love them so much. Little Lizzie got sick, and that really put a lot of stress on their vacation, but they all survived and got home safely and hopefully Lizzie can get better now with some good rest at home.

Emily wants her photo with every character. She doesn't care which one. But she especially likes Woody, so we caved and let her stand in line for this one. This was taken right after she went on California Screamin for the first time. She loved it! But she says Space Mountain is her "first favorite ride". She hated Indiana Jones. Too creepy.

 

Want to dance with the cars ladies in Cars land? Of course!

I couldn't believe she joined in the dancing! She is getting so brave :)

Gabby was so cute with Emily. Emily followed her around and wanted to ride with Gabby on all the rides. Avery is in this car with us, she's just too small to see. She is a little thrill seeker, too, which makes all the rides lots of fun. She especially loved Mickey's Ferris Wheel, with the rocking cage, of course.

Daniel was bribed with cotton candy to go on the Ferris Wheel. He ended up loving the ride and the cotton candy. Win, win!

Emily appears to have gotten over her aversion to cotton candy.



Poor Jon twisted his ankle coming out of the Little Mermaid ride. He was a good sport and still managed to talk a group into riding the Tower of Tower. Ryan even went and ended up liking it. Yay! Jon was my buddy on Indiana Jones. I liked it so much, that the two of us rode it a second time while our families went on Pirates of the Caribbean. The worst part for Jon, I imagine, was throwing up in Star Tours. Poor dude has always been prone to motion sickness.