The Hunter Family: The Wonderful World of Disney!

We had an absolutely magical time at Disneyland - it was positively wonderful.. We spent 3 days in the park and loved just about every minute of it! The drive down was somewhat treacherous because of the nasty Christmas snowstorm that came in on Christmas Eve. We decided to head out on Christmas Eve and drive through the night in order to get ahead of the storm, which we did for the most part. It was pretty slick and icy in some parts, but Matt was stalwart and cautious and the Lord helped us travel safely to California.

Our first day was probably the best day there. We got there right when they opened and the crowds were less intense that first day. We spent those three days in a whirlwind of fun. We tried really hard to plan our days and our traveling, much of which ended up being thrown out the window, however I was very grateful for out forthought and planning. If you have never been to Disneyland, do not walk in there without a plan or it will eat you alive. Okay, perhaps that is a little harsh, I mean we are talking about Disneyland, the happiest place on earth, right? However, if you want to get your money's worth, you need to plan! The whole place is such a spectacle that if you do not plan, you could easily get sidetracked and get to bed wondering what you did all day...
Anyway, so the first day was positively magical and we got some absolutely darling pictures. The next two days were also wonderful and we spent most of the third day waiting in lines to take pictures with different characters. We got to the Princess place right when they opened and waited patiently for Daphne's turn to meet and get autographs from Snow White, Cinderella, and Princess Aurora. We got all those things done and found ourselves there on the evening of our third day trying to finish last minute things that we wanted to see and do, as well as pictures we wanted to get. Matt and Isaac went over to California Adventure to ride some roller coasters , while I took Daphne and the baby to go meet Tinker Bell. We waited in the line, which wasn't terribly long,but the sun was setting and it was getting pretty dark. I was pushing the stroller, which was weighed down with bags and the cooler of snacks as well as everyone's coats. As we waited, we tried to get Daphne's autograph book and pen, and of course Victoria got hungry. So, I tried to calm her, watch Daphne, make a bottle and push the stroller through the line. I started feeding the baby and it came to be our turn to see Tinker Bell. So, I got out my extra hand (oh, wait, all my hands were already occupied) and found the camera. Pixie Hollow was so dark- there were teeny tiny little fairy flower lights along the walkway, but no lighting over head. My camera said that the memory was full. I should have thought of that- all our Christmas pictures and pics from Disney land were on there. So, I tried to delete a few so that I could get one of Daphne with Tinker Bell. I realized that this action was taking much longer than necessary and began panicking, "Oh no! Oh No! OH NO!" Sure enough I looked down and my camera said, "Card contains no Images" I accidentally deleted all the pictures on my camera!! You know me, always in such great control of my emotions- I immediately began sobbing. "They're....sob... all...sob... gone!" A young woman working there came over to me, "What happened? Oh dear- Can I do anything?" "No!", I cried "Everything is gone!!" I was so upset. I went ahead and took a picture of Daphne with Tinker Bell and the nice Disney worker, Alex, helped me out of Pixie Hollow with all of my things. She just kept apologizing over and over and asking how she could help. I felt bad for her. Clearly she wasn't used to such overt displays of emotion. Perhaps if she knew me better she would have been able to let it go. I really tried to calm down for her benefit. I could see that she wasn't going to let this go. Daphne began looking around the gift shops and showing me toys and trinkets, saying "Here Mommy, this will make you happy!" I felt a whole new wave of tears coming on as I absorbed the guilt for upsetting Daphne with my outburst. Honestly, I wish I could handle things with more grace sometimes. It was about this time that Alex said, "I really want to help you- Let me talk to some people and see what I can work out" I wasn't going anywhere, I was still holding Victoria and trying to feed her while mangaging the stroller and my exuberant 4 year old. While Alex was gone I was able to secure Tori in my baby wrap and get back into a moderate level of physical control of the situation. Alex then announced that she'd like to take us back over to Mickey's house so that we could meet him again and try to replace our pictures. It's a long line to do that, so this was very kind of her. Of course, Matt and Isaac weren't even in the same park as us, so I was only able to get a picture of Daphne with him:

Of course every time Alex went behind the scenes to arrange something, I would start thinking about all the lost pictures and my eyes would tear up again. We had the most darling candid shots wiht Minnie Mouse and we had waited so long to meet the princesses. After meeting Mickey, Alex offered to take us back to meet the princesses again and replace our pictures. There was such a long line and she took us right back to meet them. She was so kind!

Of course, this is the end of the third day, so Daphne looks about as ragged as can be- her hair has been through several roller coasters and a nap, but she was so happy to see the princesses again.

After meeting the princesses, Alex offered to run across the park and save us a fabulous spot to watch the holiday parade. At this point, I finally got a hold of Matt on the phone and told him to meet us for the parade. The kids had so much fun watching the parade and we saw just about every disney character imaginable. It was awesome. Alex had finally distracted me from weeping and seemed to feel confident enough to leave me at this point. She was so kind and generous and more than made up for the nightmare that was parking at Disneyland.

We then tried to run around the park and re-create our cute pictures with little cooperation from our very tired children. We look completely exhausted in these because well, we were completely exhausted. Not to mention my red eyes and swollen face.