disneyland...day one.

over a month ago, we had the vacation of our lives at disneyland in california.  it still seems incredibly surreal... i'm still pinching myself in disbelief that it actually happened.

but the fact that my kids are still talking about it every other second (along with the photo documentation) tells me that it did, in fact, happen... so, i guess i believe it :)

a year and a half ago, i took the plunge and signed up to be a consultant with the pampered chef.  i had no idea what i was in for, and would usually always do an internal "eye roll" when i'd hear people talk about their experiences with direct sales companies and how they had changed their lives.  but i loved what i heard about the company and had been using their products since cooking in my mother's kitchen growing up.  their mission to gather people together and make memories around the table was something i had been trying to practice for years, so that was vision i could get behind!  we needed some extra income and i wanted to help contribute so that my husband didn't have to put anything else on his plate, so i signed up.  seriously: life hasn't been the same since!  pampered chef does an incentive trip every year; consultants have from january to december to earn and they've gone everywhere from hawaii to london to an alaskan cruise.  i started getting promotional material for the incentive trip as soon as i signed up: disneyland.  it was way too good to be true, and too far out of my league (so i thought).  i actually would hide the brochures and castle-filled posters away so that my girls wouldn't see any of it, because i knew as sure as the day was long that i was not going to be earning that trip.  i was just there to get some good products for my kitchen, a little extra cash each month and call it a day.  BUT: God had other plans about how he was going to use this business of mine... and soon, i was starting to believe how this company really could change my life and the life of my family.  by october, i had earned the disneyland trip, and just over a month ago, we scurried off to the airport on one of our most special adventures.  

when i was little, my dad always wanted us to keep travel logs of different trips we took, even if it was just a day trip to the coast, or a weekend stay at our family's cottage.  i've attempted to do that with this blog... i want to remember the things we've done as a family, the looks on my kids faces, the things we've seen and places we've been.  and this trip is no exception.  so please excuse all of the details, the photos and the videos.  it's for my kids to look back on some day, and i want to try to record for them as much as i can.  and for me, too.  because i never want to forget the many moments this trip held for me, as their mom... and how they made my heart want to burst.  i may have shed a tear or two... anyone who knows me knows that is more than a slight possibility ;)

so, here we go... with day one.

bags packed!

we woke up bright and early wednesday morning... i think that was the quickest bella has ever jumped out of bed!  "we're going to disneyland!!!!!" she said, and hurried to get dressed.  emmy, our three year old, was a bit slower to warm up to the idea that we were waking her up so early in the morning... as you can tell from this picture i took right before we headed to the airport:

makes me laugh every time.  

flying with bella has been a piece of cake for a while now, but emmy has continued to be our "wild card".  when we flew last at christmastime, she had gotten better... this trip, she was great.  our flight from philly to los angeles was over five hours, and they were such little troopers!  between the ipad, snacks and a bunch of target dollar aisle finds i stashed away, it was almost perfection (have i mentioned before that when we fly i let our kids eat like eighteen packages of fruit snacks to keep them happy?  kidding, but almost...) we got in to LA around twelve thirty, got our bags and boarded our shuttle (a big bus with lightening mcqueen plastered across the side) to our hotel.

target aisle toys are the best!

ipad time is limitless on long flights...

at LAX

as we were driving, it dawned on me that the girls had never seen palm trees!  so we sat, gazing out the windows, taking in each tall and lovely tree.  it felt like a different world.  the sight of them will never get old for me, because they always mean one, blissful, beautiful thing: vacation.

we stayed at the disneyland hotel, right on property... a 5-10 minute walk through downtown disney and we were at the gates of either disneyland or california adventure.  walking into the lobby of our hotel felt instantly magical.  everyone was friendly and smiling like they're were actually at the happiest place on earth.  i had ordered groceries to be delivered to our room (look up Vonn's grocery delivery if you're headed to disneyland! they usually have promo codes for free delivery and they were great to work with!), so the bellboy brought them up upon our arrival.  we instantly had a stash of bagels and cream cheese, yogurt and granola, blueberries, apples, crackers, pb & j fixins' and other snacks that would help us save money on food for the week.  it was awesome.

our room had disney touches everywhere... but my favorite part was the headboard that lit up and played "a dream is a wish your heart makes" at the push of a button.

we threw on our suits and headed to the pool... three pools, actually, with waterslides!  the girls (well, and us) loved those!

after a couple of hours at the pool, we headed to downtown disney for dinner.  at a cheap little taqueria (turned out to be one of our favorite spots!), we chomped on burritos, tacos and nachos through a haze of jet lag.  after dinner, we went back to the hotel and crashed... closed our blinds on the california evening sun, in bed by seven, completely crashed and ready for our first day in the parks!