Cole Family: November 2010

We had the best Disneyland Vacation ever!!!!!! And I mean the BEST!!! We went with Scott's brother Tommy & wife Amber, their son's Tyler (4) and Jude (8 months). We dropped Courtney off in St. George to stay with her Grandma & Grandpa (people gave us a hard time about not taking our 3 year old to Disneyland but I've always said that I wouldn't take my kids to Disneyland until they could remember it).

Here we are saying good bye to Courtney. She spent 4 nights with her Grandparents and had a blast. She went walking with them each day, ate at restaurants, played at the park and went swimming. Thanks Margaret & Larry!!

Amber (my sister in-law) works at Get Away Today and as one of her perks she gets Free Vacation Stuff which she graciously shared with us. She's such a sweet heart. Thanks again Amber!!

This is what she hooked us up with...

- Free 4 night Hotel stay at Homewood Suites

- Free Universal tickets

- Free Medieval Times tickets

(we almost got the Disneyland tickets for Free but right at the last minute it fell through.. but no worries... wait until you hear the rest of the story...)

The Drive

I had to take a picture of this, we stopped at a gas station at an Indian Reservation. When the boys walked into the bathroom they started laughing. No joke, this beautiful waterfall is the Mens Urinal. Have you ever seen anything like it??? Seriously hilarious!!!

Arriving in Anaheim

The first thing Jake wanted to do when we arrived in Anaheim was swim. The entire time we were there the weather was in the low 70's, warm in the day but we definitely needed a coat in the early mornings and evenings. It was a little chilly swimming but thankfully the hotel had a hot tub.

Down Town Disney

The first night we were there we went to Down Town Disney. Jake had brought his own money and had a blast buying himself toys.

Hotel Room

When Jake entered our Hotel Room he saw the big closet and asked if he could sleep in it. We started laughing but when we realized he wasn't joking we thought "why not"? So here is Jake sleeping in the closet.

And here is Tyler sleeping in the other closet (he also loved the idea). Too funny!

Our Crazy Story

Okay, so this is where our vacation started getting really exciting. The next morning we were eating breakfast at our hotel and happened to run into our next door neighbors. We were shocked, not only being in Disneyland at the same time but staying at the same hotel. Crazy! Our neighbors happened to be there on a work retreat, they told us about how their company gives them a coupon book full of Disney dollar vouchers to spend on food at the park. They were leaving that day and gave us what they hadn't used, which happened to be around $300.00. We were shocked BUT even more shocked when they came back with all of their co-workers left over money. We ended up with $940.00 to spend on food at Disneyland.

$940.00!!!!

The money vouchers were good for food only, you couldn't use them at the gift shops but we weren't complaining. The question now was, how do you spend $940.00 in two days? Easy, you go to Goofy's Breakfast at the Disneyland Hotel ($162). You get a churro every hour on the hour, you buy cookies, cupcakes, muffins, cotton candy, chinese food, clam chowder etc... You eat at the Blue Bayou Restaurant (located in the Pirates of the Caribean Ride) and order Lobster and Filet Mignon, making your total bill come to $240 and you leave a $60 tip. When you notice a couple sitting near by that seems a little annoyed with our kids, you give them $30 on the way out. I can't tell you how much fun we had with this money and how much stress this relieved from our vacation. Not having to worry about where to eat, what to eat and money was a dream vacation. Thank you so much Travis, Makel & Sarah!!

Sadly their is a limit to how much a person can eat and we were unable to spend all of our Free money. But, I have to tell you we gave it a worthy try as we ended up with around $200.00 left over. Not too shabby eh! We decided to pass on the fun and gave the left over money to two families we found at the park and our hotel.

Disneyland

Tommy, Amber, Tyler & Jude

Here are the two boys waiting in line. We were in Disneyland at the most perfect time. Most of our lines we only had to wait 5 to 10 minutes. The longest line was around 20 or 25 min.

Jake on the left is standing in front of Santa's Reindeer. Disneyland was completely decorated for Christmas. It definitely put us in the Christmas spirit.

Goofy's Breakfast

Goofy's character breakfast is at the Disneyland Hotel. It's where you get to eat breakfast with Goofy and his friends. Jakes wasn't too excited about seeing all the Disney Character's, he was more excited when he saw the breakfast buffet and then got more excited when we told him he could eat what ever he wanted. Not only was there Mickey Mouse waffles, pancakes and all the regular breakfast food but it also had pizza, chicken nuggets, ice cream, macaroni & cheese etc.. Basically all the food that kids love. So fun!!

Univeral Studios

Jake was more excited to see Shrek and Sponge Bob than any other character in Disneyland.

Medieval Times

Jake & Tyler loved Medieval Times. I have to say it was one of my favorite things we did. The boys were so enthralled with the fighting as it looked so real. Sadly our Knight was the first to die, you can see on the left that Tyler took it really hard. Lots of tears. Poor little guy. We were served Chicken & Ribs, Jake was excited when he found out we had to eat everything with our fingers. Such a blast!!

Riding The Shuttle Bus To Disneyland

2nd Day in Disneyland

Jake's favorite rides were Thunder Mountain, Matterhorn, Space Mountain and Indiana Jones. His least favorite was It's A Small World.

It's a Small World was all decked out in Christmas.

Eating one of our many yummy meals.

I loved the Castle with all of it's Christmas lights!!! Gorgeous!!

Check out the huge Christmas Tree.

They made it snow after the Christmas Parade and Fire works. It was awesome!!

Jake loved everything about Disneyland and the entire trip. He had a blast!! But I have to tell you that it made me tear up when I asked him what his favorite thing about our trip was and he said "the rides and Mom and Dad". I have to agree with him, Scott & I had so much fun spending time with Jake without Courtney around (she tends to demand a lot of our attention) and we loved spoiling him, if any kid deserves to be spoiled it's our little Jake. Jake is the kind of kid that when you get him McDonalds and rent a movie he will tell us that he's having the greatest day of his life. So to take him to the "Happiest Place On Earth" was truly magical.