November 2009: 3 Days of Disneyland with the Johnson Clan

Each year Mike's parents and several of his siblings and their families come down to Disneyland from Utah and Idaho in the fall. This year we were able to stay at the Disneyland Hotel for 2 nights to spend some quality Johnson Time together. It was a dream come true for our boys to see their Johnson cousins, stay in a hotel, and to be at Disneyland for 3 days in a row! It was so great to see so much of Mike's family at once. The cousins became best friends again and followed each other around.

We spent Day 1 at California Adventure, Day 2 at Disneyland, and Day 3 at both. Let me tell you it was so much fun but absolutely exhausting. We've never done more than 1 day. It was so nice to be able to go right to your hotel room and straight to sleep. The boys did so great. Once we were back in the room with the lights out, they actually went to sleep. Owen and Eyan loved going on all the big kid rides with their cousins and Owen especially loved going on California Screamin' for the first time. He went on that probably 4-5 times between the days we were there. Toy Story of course was a huge Johnson Family favorite with all those competitive boys, and I'm not talkin' kids, I'm talkin' dads! Mike took the trophy on that one. Mike contests that one of the advantages of having MS is that he gets a "Special Assistance" pass which puts him and 5 other people through almost to the front of the line. This allowed for lots of rounds of Toy Story between the brothers.

We actually stayed to watch a parade. The boys loved it, especially when the "Up" float came by. They loved that movie. I loved that movie. It had me crying within the first 10 minutes. The kids love to watch the "Upisodes" over and over. This is their favorite one. They imitate these animal calls and laughter histerically.

We were able to do some things that we hadn't done before like Dumbo (we've never been interested in standing in line for that ride before), the train that takes you around the entire park, and the Monorail. Owen couldn't believe how fast that thing went. I do have to say my favorite was going on the teacups with just my boys. I couldn't believe how fast we got that thing cranking. It involved lots of delirious laughter:-) We look forward to next year when we can hopefully do this again with the Johnson Family.