Twelve Days of Christmas (Days Eight - Eleven, aka DISNEYLAND)

This year for Christmas we took a trip with all of the Weldons to Disneyland. We left on Friday, December 21st and got back on Wednesday, December 26th. It was a great trip and a perfect way to spend Christmas. 

The morning of the 21st, we woke up early (me earlier than the rest because I couldn't sleep) and loaded everyone into the car to drive to the airport. We met the Iowa clan after their first leg and then boarded the plane to California. Despite waking up early, the boys did great. 

 

Side note: this was Patrick's first plane ride. It went really well. I lucked out, too. Despite being a full flight, I had an empty seat next to me. I think he liked it. 

We made it to LAX late in the morning (CA time) and after a little less than an hour wait for the bus (all the kids did really well sitting on the side of the road) we made it to our hotel. We had decided to stay at the Disneyland Hotel. It was awesome! It was right next to Downtown Disney so we unpacked and then walked around for a while. After the day of travel, we had an early evening (the only one of the trip).

The next day, we headed to Disneyland!

Here's a picture of almost all of us when we first got there. Jeni and Adam were with Jerrod at the hospital (he was diagnosed with croup and had to get steroid treatments-Merry Christmas) and the CO Weldons had not arrived yet. 

We spent the whole day there going from ride to ride. 

Star Tours!

The next day we headed over to California Adventure. My favorite place there was Cars Land. It just opened in June. It was amazing. If you have ever seen the movie Cars, this place is like walking down main street. They spared no expense to make this place look exactly like Radiator Springs. It was so cool.

The had all the characters and they actually moved!

This is my favorite picture of the older cousins.

Daniel's favorite ride of the trip was Space Mountain. I think he rode it four times while we were there. My little dare devil. We were nervous leading up to the trip because we knew you had to be at least 40 inches to ride most rides (including Space Mountain and Radiator Springs Racers). Daniel was just under that the few months leading up to the trip so we came prepared with big shoes and additional insoles. We didn't need them though. He measured at 40 1/2 inches. His first ride on Space Mountain they measured him at every turn and each time he was tall enough he walked away saying "I'm tall enough". He was so excited!

Josh's favorite ride (and mine) of the whole trip was Radiator Springs Racers. You got to ride in a car through scenes from the movie and then race another car. It is so fun. Plus, as with any Disney ride, the line scenery is fantastic.

The boys were excited.

I love this series of pictures. Apparently Josh could only be bothered for one shot.

 Being over Christmas, Santa was able to visit us in the hotel. It was cute. We woke-up Christmas morning to the boys talking about Santa and wondering if he had come to the hotel. It was a nice way to wake-up.

Baby's 1st Christmas!

You may be asking how was Patrick when we did all this, he was awesome (of course, we wouldn't expect less from the easiest baby). He enjoyed being held by the many family members. 

He even was okay napping and riding in the stroller (or Yacht as Grandpa would call it). He even made it onto a few rides. He really enjoyed everything there was to see in Small World.

Christmas at Disney is a must experience for anyone. It is a great place to visit any time but they really do Christmas up, even changing some of their rides for the holiday. It was a great trip.

These are just a few of my favorite pictures. You can see all of the over 900 photos at www.weldons.shutterfly.com in a few weeks.