The Happiest Place on Earth

The family took a little trip down to

the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH....

DISNEYLAND!!!!

We drove all the way, thinking we could save a little bit of dough to use in the park for food and important stuff like Buzz Lightyear paraphernalia, and we did. On the way down, Chad made a comment about some guy who cut us off, and at the same time, Benjamin was asking his dad if we could go pronto to get to Disneyland. Well, the next thing out of Benjamin's mouth was,

"We can't go pronto because that jerk is in front of us."

Chad and I could not hold back our laughter.

The following is a montage of photos with just a little bit of commentary from our trip.

We were greeted at the hotel by Goofy. Benjamin loved climbing up the statue. And it was a wonderful welcome to the vacation.

The hotel also had a movie viewing room where old Disney cartoons played continuously. Any time there was a lull, Benjamin and Matthew would go in and watch one episode.

Matthew was a ham the entire of time. He just loved posing for the camera.
As evidenced above.

And here.

And here.

And here.

Chad even tried to join in the fun.

The boys liked the areas where there was interaction. They would bang away on whatever was handy.

The boys loved the rides. In fact, Benjamin was old enough to ride on Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Soarin' over California, and Grizzly River Run. He loved all of those rides. He went on most of those twice, and he absolutely went berserk on Grizzly River Run. He went on that ride seven times and would have gone more if the park would have been opened later. Every time he went, he would have a running monologue of what was coming up. All the other riders thought he was so cute. And they couldn't believe that his memory was so good. Here are the boys driving in Autopia.

Benjamin was a smooth driver.

Matthew, not so smooth, but it was a ride of a lifetime.

There were some character sightings. Above, we had breakfast with Mickey and Friends. That was pretty cool because we got to have a picture with Mickey, then Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch), Max (Goofy's son), Minnie, and Pluto came around to the tables for some one-on-one time with the boys. Matthew and Benjamin both ate it up. Well, not the food, but the characters had them grinning from ear to ear.

The boys with Tigger

Benjamin with Mickey.

We only got lucky on two days when Matthew took a nap. Here he let Benjamin and Chad go on Soarin'. The other time was when we actually left the Park and had a walk to the Cheesecake Factory to have a late lunch.

And we only had to deal with Mr. Grumpy a few times. I was just glad that I captured the moment on film.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Matthew and I. Benjamin and Chad had gone on The Matterhorn so we went on the Carrousel. It was very early in the day so we are both looking refreshed and happy. I guess I am emphasizing refreshed. Anyway, it was a good self-portrait.

On the last night, Chad wanted to close the park down. So we did. And we did some great people watching. And some great pretending at being asleep.

We then cannonballed it home, making the trip in one day. It wasn't so bad, but I was definitely feeling it yesterday and today. I would absolutely love to do it again. Just maybe not for a couple of years.