Disneyland 2011- Part 1

Cliff blocked out a couple of days in his schedule 9 months ago for a possible trip to Disneyland. I thought he must be joking so I didn't really take him seriously. But this soft-hearted dad decided that Cambria "needed" to go because she is the perfect age, loves her princesses so much, and we might be moving, so this seemed like a great opportunity. I didn't actually get my hopes up until he had paid the money for the hotel. That seemed more legit. And when my mom agreed to go, and Cliff definitely had the time off, I thought wow! We are going to Disneyland again.

We found a great deal on hotel, planned our meals so we only ate out 4 times, didn't purchase souvenirs, and walked instead of taking buses or trolleys to get to the parks. These things saved us a lot and helped offset the cost of the $4/gallon gas...! We feel pretty blessed that Cliff is able to take these long stretches off without needing to use up many vacation days. He only needed 2 for this 9 day trip! And he was able to pick up a few extra shifts to help pay for it all.

We decided to wait to tell the kids until a week and a half before we went so we wouldn't be reminded every day about "how long it takes to wait to go to Disleyland."

The younger kids have been watching Blue's Clues on Netflix lately and the older kids decided to play their own version called "Black's Clues" (I know... really original :) Anyway, they made these black paw prints and have to solve mysteries (that the other kid thinks up) around the house and yard. We took a whole day and placed the black paw prints on things that would help them guess what Mama and Dada wanted to do with the whole family.

Mason and Kaiah made their own "notebooks" and sat in the thinking chair to figure out their mystery at the end of the day.

 The first clue was a toy car...

 The second was a picture of a road. 

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The third was a picture of Mimi.

And the fourth had the paw print on one of Cambria's Polly Pocket castles with Tinkerbelles and Auroras handing off the walls. He also put a map of California and a Disney movie...

They still didn't get it, so at the end of the day they sat down in their "Thinking Chairs" to think.

They were so excited! We made a paper chain with Disney stickers on it which helped Cambria with the concept of our departure being several days away still. She really enjoyed pulling off one link every day and looking at the characters.