"while they were off track" Part 1- DISNEYLAND

We LOVE Disneyland. Who doesn't? Well, I am sure there are some people that don't, but I must say that it is one of the places that I think we could be at everyday and be very happy.

So, the kids were off track and we planned our family vacation for October. It's hard to go during the summer because of year-round school. It rained the first couple of days that we were there, but honestly that didn't stop us at all! We just kept on going! Besides, the rain wasn't hard, just more of a drizzle and we were warm enough with just our jackets on. We walked onto rides. Seriously. We love going in October for that reason. It is still nice-ish weather and not busy like during the summer or Christmas time.

We did a day at Knott's Berry Farms too. That was super fun for the big girls because they could go on some bigger roller coasters. Jonathan and Sidney had a ball in "Camp Snoopy" which is the kids rides section of the park. And yes, the park has a Peanuts (Charlie Brown and Snoopy) theme to it. We even got to see Snoopy and the kids liked that!

Jonathan was much braver this trip and tried most every ride. He even went on Space Mountain! He was freaked out when they got off of it and claims he will "never ride it again until he is 13", but whatever...at least he tried it once. I was just glad we didn't have a repeat of last time when he cried and screamed before every ride asking if it was scary. That stunk! Sidney was a trooper and officially has a favorite ride called the Carousel. She loved it and wanted to go on it all day long or at least anytime we passed by it. Jenny and Meghan and Rachel all had a ball, just like we knew they would! They were all tall enough to go on every ride and that was fun for them.

New things I tried this time around that worked really well:
1. Instead of having a "general snack bag" that everyone could get something from when we had snack breaks like I have done before...I made a ziploc with each person's name on it. Every morning I put in it a variety of snacks. Then the kids could choose how they wanted to use up their snacks. They could eat them all before noon and have nothing else the rest of the day, or they could space them out. Also, there was no complaining that "she got a fruit snack and I didn't" or whatever. Everyone had the same types of things and if they ate all the good stuff and didn't save it for later, then that was their problem.
2. Everyone took the same amount of money to spend. No one got to take any more than anyone else even if they had more. I think this helped cut down on arguments between kids too.
3. Our hotel rocked! I can't take credit for that one, it was all Mike, but it was fabulous! We ate breakfast and dinner at the hotel restaurant and ALL the kids ate free. How wonderful is that? Plus, it was pretty good food.

And now...here are some highlight pictures of our trip!!