Kris is the keeper of all great vacation ideas and orchestrated our trip to Legoland. We had a fantastic time on all the rides and appreciated the unbelievable Lego creations at our every turn. We honestly should have stopped while we were ahead. I didn't want our family vacation to end and had a hair-brained idea that we stop in Anaheim and play at Disneyland for a day on the way home. I found a hotel room online at a reasonable price, researched military ticket prices, and sold Nick on my idea. Let it be known that Disneyland cannot be done in one day. Especially if you're traveling with a 6 year old, a 4 year old and two 2 year olds.
We arrived at our hotel in Anaheim late at night after a full day at Legoland and we were all smoked. Come to find out, the hotel room did not have two queen sized beds as advertised, but rather two full sized beds. And they didn't have any cots. So, three of us climbed into each bed, head-to-foot, and settled in for a fitful (at best) night of minimal sleep. After waking up with the sun, we packed up and headed to the shuttle. We kicked things off fairly well, it seems our turning point was early afternoon in the gift shop outside of the "It's a Small World" ride. In hindsight, unleashing 4 young children with $20 burning a hole in each of their pockets was a poor choice. We spent an exorbitant amount of time as they each weighed their choices, vehemently unwilling to leave the store empty-handed. Then we had to carry it with us for the remainder of the day.
We decided to head over to California Adventure to watch the Frozen stage show, getting out of the sun into the cool theatre to watch our favorite movie played out in real life. Except, sitting still and quietly for an hour and half is hard. Like, really hard. We were coming unglued, but we were determined to get our money's worth for our day at the happiest place on earth. We were determined to see the lights parade that evening. We had intel of the best place to see it and were advised to get there a couple of hours before to stake out our spot on the curb. So we did. I stayed with the 4 cranky kids while Nick went out to get us some dinner. The souvenirs from earlier got torn out of their packages and soon little pieces were everywhere. By the time Nick returned with a mountain of food, we had lost all composure. All of us. So, it wasn't long before our high-priced meal was scattered all around us in fits of toddler-rage.
Finally, we could hear the parade coming down the street, and Emmy let us know she had to use the bathroom. Nick, stressed to the max, grabbed her hand, and took off through the crowd to find a restroom. As soon as they were out of ear-shot, Hannah informs me that she, too, needed to relieve herself. I was guarding all of our stuff and in charge of the twins as well, there was no way that I could leave. Thankfully, Nick passed by a couple of minutes later enroute to the restroom that he'd been directed to, and I pushed Hannah to him and said she needed to go too. So, it came out in the men's restroom that Hannah actually wanted me to take her, and she tearfully refused to go. After pleading and prodding and whatever other tactics Nick could think of to coerce her to go, they left with a full bladder. By this time, the parade had finally made its way to our spot on the route and so the crosswalks were all blocked by Disney personnel. I could see Nick (and his protruding jugular vein) from my spot on the curb talking to the Disney cast member trying to explain our situation, to no avail. It wasn't until a majority of the parade had passed before he and the girls were allowed to run across the street to join us. After the parade wrapped, we hot-footed it out of the park as best we could with two over-stuffed strollers, four exhausted toddlers, and one of them with a bladder that was about to burst. I tried to convince Hannah to put a pull-up on since she was not amenable to any of the other options. She finally relented after we made a human wall around her in the middle of Downtown Disney.
Then, we needed to find the shuttle to our hotel, the only trouble is there were tens of shuttles to choose from. Once we found the line, we were quickly ushered to the front of it and good samaritans helped us load the kids and all of our things inside. Our defeat was that palpable. Once we finally got to the hotel, a new tantrum ensued because one of the tiny pieces of one of the new souvenirs had gone missing. I promised the kids that once they were in bed, I would go down to the car and shake down the strollers. We hurried upstairs and put all the kids in bed and I went to make good on my promise. I returned to the floor of our hotel room, empty-handed, to find that James and Julia had escaped to come look for me, in their diapers, while Nick was in the bathroom. Nick and I finally climbed back into our full-sized beds, sandwiched between our children, traumatized by the day and beyond ready to put a fork in this "vacation."
