Catching up. And Disney Paris.

Holy cow, I am so far behind.  I'm going to blast a bunch of posts in the next few days.... trying to catch up!  Things have been crazy since the first of the year, and Russell and I both had surgery in the last 2 months.  Russell's back is still on the mend, and I re-tore my ACL and had that repaired.  We are hoping that things with our health will not be an issue any more!  Before we start traveling this summer, I figured it was time to catch up on here.  The posts coming up will not be in order...

Disneyland Paris

Russell was supposed to deploy this spring, and at the last minute it got canceled.  We were so relieved.  He decided right away that we should take the kids to Disneyland Paris.  It was time to take a trip that was for them, and they had been asking to go.  We didn't tell them; a surprise would be even more fun. We booked a full package with hotel and meals through our friends that are travel agents.  It's definitely the way to go.  Once you are there, and you see the prices of food, you are thankful that you prepaid for meal vouchers.  It saves a ton of money.  The hotel was a Disney hotel called the Davy Crockett Ranch.  It's little cabins with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a kitchen.  It was great.  It's about a 7 minute drive to the park, and includes the parking pass for the park and the tickets for the Magic Hours (the park is open 2 hours early every morning to hotel guests only).  We did 4 days at Disney with 3 nights of hotel.  It was absolutely exhausting, but so much fun.  We also had special guests; our friends Travis and Sara from Belgium came down and stayed with us and did 2 days of the park, and our friends Lindsey and Justin from Paris came down and did a day at the park with us as well.  The kids loved seeing their "aunts" and "uncles" as they call them, it's so wonderful having friends all over!  I'll include more details on the pics, but here come the photos.  (I did not even take my camera on this trip, it's all iphone.)

Headed out of Dover to catch the Chunnel early in the morning

Happy Babies

First ride: Autopia

The boys were in the car behind the girls

After a day of rides, we ate at the steakhouse in Frontierland.  Flaming creme brulee.

She ate 2 servings of dessert...

We started day 2 with the Magic Hours, got there right at 8.  It was great, the park was empty.

Mad Hatter's Teacups

 We had breakfast with the characters later that morning.

Watching Mickey make his rounds

So excited!

We rode lots of rides the rest of the day...

Their Mickey ears from Disneyland (California), when we went 2 years ago

The garden parade

That night, Travis and Sara arrived from Belgium.  In the morning, when we headed to the park, Lindsey and Justin met us there.  It was such a fun day with our friends!

Travis and Scout

Travis and Russell on It's a Small World

Another garden parade

Toy Story parachute ride

Lindsey and Scout

Sara and Scout

Travis and Jack

Justin and Jack

That night, after Justin and Lindsey headed back home, we went back to watch the fireworks after the park closes.

The park is beautiful at night

The light show and fireworks show was really great!!!!

The final day was Mother's Day.  What a fun day to spend with my kiddos and husband!

Travis and I got stuck on Thunder Mountain roller coaster that day, it broke while we were riding it.  After almost an hour, they came and got us all off of the ride and walked us through the underground tunnels to the exit.  This is a panoramic I took from the spot up top where we were stuck.

It was a great trip, the kids are already asking to go back.  When people ask if I recommend it, I'm torn.  If you haven't been to the "real" Disney, then yes.  Or if you can completely rinse your brain of expectations based on the "real" Disney, then yes.  The kids don't remember much of Disney California, so they didn't know the difference.  It was fun, I just felt a bit disappointed and had to try not to compare it.  Since it was a trip for the kids, that wasn't what mattered.  Seeing how happy they were and how much fun they were having made it all a great time!