Disneyland 2010

Where do I start? Our summer was so packed it's time to catch-up. So I'll start with Disneyland. We did Disney's "give a day get a day" and got free tickets for Jake and I. (I made covers for heating pads at the hospital with my squister.) We only had to pay for Reesa since Jansen wouldn't turn 3 for a few more weeks (yeah!) and Mitchell is of course a baby.

doesn't this look like fun?

I had matching shirts made and Reesa wore her's for about 5 minutes. She was screaming and crying and we were making her wear it when I just thought "all she's going to remember about Disneyland is that her parents made her wear a shirt and she cried the entire time." So we took one family photo, and off it went. Although all day long I kept asking her if she wanted to put it back on. It had Cinderella on it, which she wanted (but it was a boy T-shirt b/c I couldn't find a solid girl one and I don't think she liked the neckline).

we got to meet Donald and Goofy, which Jansen LOVED

We went with Jake's family and we had a total of 22. It was so much fun. We had a blast entertaining the kids the first half of the day, then that night all the kids fell asleep in their strollers, and the adults took turns staying with the kids and going on rides for the last 3 hours.

Reesa got to go on stage and sing along with Tiana.

So the two best things... #1 Jansen was diagnosed with Autism in June and Disneyland is SO COOL! They let us have a special pass to go to the front of the line with 6 people in our party so Jansen wouldn't have to wait in the lines. And even that was SO HARD. Jansen had to wait maybe 5-10 minutes for each ride and he was screaming and crying to get on the ride. He didn't want to wait at all! Seriously it made all the difference for our family. I don't think I would EVER go again if we didn't have that pass. While were there I started crying just thinking about how nice Disneyland is for thinking of families with kids that are special. It was so touching to me that we were able to have such a wonderful experience there. In fact it worked so well because with changing diapers and feeding kids we would just catch-up with Jake's family as though we had been in the long lines anyway. It was AWESOME!!!

fun at Tom Sawyer's Island

#2. Jake's sister wanted to let her daughter meet the princesses, so I went mainly to keep Allison company. I didn't even think Reesa would care. Well when we turned the corner and saw Ariel, Reesa seriously started jumping up and down and screaming. She was so excited and she couldn't believe it. She wanted her picture but was just a little too shy to do it alone, so I helped out.

Next we saw Tiana and she kept telling her cousins to hurry up because there's "princess and the frog!" She was totally loving on her. I'm serious she was practically malling these princesses, kissing and hugging them! and they were so nice to her.

Finally she saw Belle and the rest of the day wanted Belle's dress (which was $68, no thank you). It was so cute, Reesa was in heaven. It was the highlight of my trip seeing how magical that was for Reesa. And to think I wasn't even going to take her....

Reesa got a baby Aurora instead which she loves! and Jansen got a Buzz lightyear. We had such a great time and can't wait to go back!