Are we really driving 8 hours to go to Disneyland again???

As you can clearly see from this picture, all Ben wanted for his birthday was to ride the Monorail. So we made reservations at the Disney Hotel the night before his big day to ride the Monorail over and get in early. The park opened at 7. I think it was early enough. As you can see it was pretty empty that early. We enjoyed all our favorite rides within 2 hours or so.

We took the boys out of school early on Wednesday and headed down around noon. As soon as we got the Grapevine they closed it due to snow. So we turned around and thought we'd just add an extra hour or so and go up through Tehachapi. Then, before the turn off the alert boards say that road is now closed. The last option was through Maricopa to Santa Maria and along the coast. I have never driven through such a crazy snow storm! It turns out that road was closed a few minutes after we started on it. I got my wish of seeing the ocean I'd been missing, but we didn't arrive at the hotel until 8:30. We thought we be there by 3 to check in, have a fun Goofy's Kitchen Character Dinner, swim in the heated pool. Oh well, anything for Benny!

Don't they all looked thrilled to meet Tinkerbell?

We ended up having a great time and the roads were still closed the next day, so we stayed an extra night and got the kids back to school around 10 on Friday for their Christmas parties. Ben was happy he rode the monorail, and I was happy I had a hotel to take a nap in halfway through the day with the 2 little ones and my round self!

We really enjoyed Fantasmic that night and the fireworks. Nate had a little photo shoot with Al and I while Ben slept through both shows. While he was sleeping I went and bought him some Mickey gloves. It was very cold, and he never asked for a single thing all day! Great birthday boy!