Disneyland

I seriously can't believe how fast that vacation went. I am already hoping that Brandon will let me plan another one sometime soon, maybe for his birthday or something. Or maybe my parents will plan some extravagant family vacation for this summer and will let us tag along (hint hint). We left Friday afternoon around 2:30 and drove all the way to Vegas that night. Brandon's older brother James and his girlfriend came with us too. We hit quite a bit of weather on the way down there. It was snowing like crazy between Provo and Cedar City and it was a little scary, not gonna lie. We got to Vegas at about 9:00 their time, and stayed at a hotel just south of the strip. It was a pretty nice hotel. Brandon and I had booked it before James and Candis decided to come so the room only had one bed, but they brought sleeping pads and everything was fine. The next morning we left the hotel at 7:00, drove down the strip, then made our way to Anaheim. We got to our hotel around 11:30, but couldn't check in yet so we parked the car and walked over to the park.

We stayed at a Travelodge hotel, and it definitely wasn't the nicest hotel ever, but it worked, and the location was prime. All we had to do was walk across the street, walk through the Disney parking garage, and take the Disney tram to the loading area at Downtown Disney. It was super convenient. So we got to the parks, got our tickets from will call, got a "Happy Birthday" button for me and an "I'm Celebrating" button for Brandon, and made our way into Disneyland! James and Candis went to California Adventure the first day, and I think it was kind of nice for us split up and go to the parks just as couples. Brandon and I have been so busy lately that I feel like we hardly ever get time alone, so it was fun to hang out together for five days straight.

Holding to tradition, the first ride we rode was the Jungle Cruise. It's not our favorite, but it is the first ride you come across when you turn left into Adventureland. We were starving when we got to the park, because we hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning, so we got some barbecue skewers and a mickey pretzel (my fave) for lunch. We made our way around the park, waiting in lines, riding the rides, and people watching (we did lots of that). Unfortunately, the weather in Anaheim was nothing like the weather was in Orlando when we were there in August. It was maybe 65 degrees at noon, and from about 3:00 on it just kept getting colder. We got a mickey shaped ice cream that afternoon, but at about 7:00 we were so cold that we got hot chocolate! Nuts huh? Around 8:30 we were so cold that it just wasn't even fun to be there anymore, so we went and checked into the hotel and fell asleep.

The next morning we woke up early so we could get to California Adventure when it opened. James and Candis didn't go to a park that day, so Brandon and I were on our own again. When we got to California adventure, we hurried to get fast passes for the show World of Color. Then we went to Cars Land so we could do everything over there before it got busy. Cars Land was way neat! We got to walk through Radiator Springs, see Mater, and we even got some Cars buttons! The main ride in Cars Land was great too. You get to drive through the town, then you race another car around a track. It was a long ride, and we were all way impressed with it! I was so happy that we got there when we did though. Later that day the wait time was more than 90 minutes! We got fast passes for it after we rode it the first time so we could go on it again later.

We finished out Cars Land, the Bugs' Life area, Tower of Terror, and by then it was probably about noon and we were starving. We went over to the pier to eat at Cocina Cucamonga, a Mexican place, and let me tell you, it was so dang good. By that time too it had started to get pretty warm. The high that day was 75, but I wore jeans because I had been so cold the day before. I rolled my jeans up into capris though, and had on a t shirt, so I was pretty comfortable the rest of the day. We did all the other rides in the park like California Screaming, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, and tons more. We didn't do Toy Story Mania though, because the line was so long and we pretty much beat the game on the Wii like three months ago. Like the day before, we had a lot of fun just people watching. The pier area was so pretty lit up at night, so we just walked through the shops before World of Color started. World of Color was amazing! It is a water show with lots of, you guessed it, color. I am always amazed at how well Disney does things. Their shows are so magical that it seriously makes me want to cry every time. After World of Color we hurried over to Disneyland so we could watch Fantasmic. I was so happy that we did that, because the show doesn't run during the week, and we hadn't planned on going to Disneyland again until Monday, so we made the right decision! We never got to see Fantasmic in Disney World, so yeah, it was a good thing we raced over there for a good seat Sunday night! After Fantasmic we went on Indiana Jones. I hate that ride. I had only ever been on it once before and I really didn't want to go on it, but Brandon did, so I decided that I would be a good wife and make the sacrifice. I won't go into details, but lets just say the ride didn't work out so well for me.

Monday morning we got to sleep in since the park didn't open until 9:00. I think we all finally got out of bed around 8:30. Brandon and I got to Disneyland around 10:00 and hurried to get in line for the Matterhorn. While we were waiting in line I told him that he should text James and tell him that we were at the park if he and Candis wanted to meet up for lunch later. Brandon said that he would text James after the ride, and as soon as he said that James and Candis walked right past us! They were going to get in line for the Matterhorn too, so we let them hop in line with us. That ride is not as great as I remember. It just made my bum hurt. After that ride Brandon and I went over to Tomorrowland to ride the Finding Nemo submarine ride and Star Tours. The line for Space Mountain was really long, so we got fast passes for that and then rode Pirates again before we had lunch with James and Candis. I got free dessert from the place we ate because of my birthday pin! And at dinner the previous night the cashier lady gave us a discount because it was my birthday. I love those pins, they get you so many great things. Anyways, after lunch Brandon and I went back over to California Adventure. They have an Aladdin show there that we hadn't been able to see the day before so we went and watched that, and just spent more time walking around. We saw two people that we used to work with at the movie theater, so that was fun! We went back to Disneyland around 7:00 and were going to ride some more rides, but there had been a parade, so we had to take roundabout ways to get where we wanted to go and after walking around so much we didn't even care. We didn't even ride Splash Mountain or Space Mountain. I think we are disney'd out. We did watch the fireworks that night though. James and Candis came and sat with us too. After the fireworks we snagged some hot dogs and then went back to the hotel.

Tuesday morning I woke up dead. Not literally, but I had been keeping a cold at bay for about two weeks, and it finally hit. Airborne had been my best friend before the trip, but I forgot to bring it with us, so each morning I could feel myself getting more and more sick. Tuesday it hit in full force. On top of that, we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us, and I always tell myself that if Brandon is driving then I have to stay awake to make sure he is doing okay. Luckily James offered to drive for about half of the trip, so Brandon and I got to nap in the backseat. It was a long drive, but it wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. We stopped at Del Taco on the way home, and my throat hurt so bad so I got a shake and a small taco. We got back to Logan around 8:30, so we made pretty good time. We dropped off James and Candis then went to go get Sophie from Brandon's parents' house. She was so happy to see me! It made me the happiest cat-mom in the world. She heard the car pull up and was waiting for us by the door when we came in, then she let me pick her up and she just sat on my shoulders for probably a good fifteen minutes.

When we were getting ready to leave to go to our apartment, I noticed that my wrist was itchy. I looked at it and had a few bumps, but I wasn't sure what they were. About five minutes later I looked at it again, and the bumps had turned into hives. We had to stop at the store to get milk, so I bought some benadryl too. When we got home and was getting ready to put on my pj's, and saw that the hives had spread to my stomach, armpits, and legs. My legs felt like they were turning to toad skin, it was gross. Brandon told me that I should go take a shower, just in case they were from something that I had touched, but when I went to turn on the water, nothing came out. They were doing construction out on our street so I guess they had turned the water off. It's a good thing we keep water in the fridge or else we wouldn't have been able to brush our teeth. I went to bed in a miserable state. Coming home from vacation was a lot worse than it usually is, because of my sickness and the hives. Yesterday morning the hives came back, and they have been off and on since then. But I felt so tired yesterday that I only came to work for six hours then went home for the rest of the afternoon and did nothing.

Honestly, the vacation didn't live up to my expectations. I don't even know what to think about it now, because if a Disney Vacation didn't cure my mid semester blues, I don't know what can. But oh well. Below are some happy pictures of things we did/bought on our trip.








 
 

This was the best day ever!!