Electrical Prarade

This was my favorite part of the whole trip.  This is the moment where I felt like all the stress, all the planning and all the money were worth it.  Not the parade exactly - but the moment, the experience, the whole evening was just magical and perfect and I think we all left feeling completely happy and satisfied. 

It all started at 5:00 when we noticed that people were already lining the streets with blankets and chairs saving their places for the parade.  What?  Its not for 3 hours and I didn't bring a blanket!  We had planned on going back to the hotel for dinner and coming back for the parade with a blanket - I was not ready to start saving places at 5:00.  We still had so much to do  - I wasn't ready to just stop and sit on a curb for 3 hours!  I was feeling annoyed and frustrated.  We went on a few more rides and by 6:30 it was clear that there was no good seating left.  We decided to cut our losses, stop the rides for the evening and get a place for the parade.  One of us would save seats while the others took the kids on a few more rides, gets more treats, and get the kids their souvenirs.  

Brock and I found an ok space about three rows back from the curb - then I spotted it - a small spot in between 2 benches, about 2 feet wide - that didn't have a blanket on the ground.  It was the only pavement you could see.  I ran over and parked our stroller - I figured we would put the stroller there now and when the parade started we could fold up the stroller and all fit in that space - especially since it was right up against the curb - the kids kids could sit on the curb.  Now we were still 2 hours away from the parade so we had a lot of just sitting to do.  Right next to our stroller space was a mostly empty (but saved) bench with 2 old black women.  Madison imminently became friends with them and they told us we could sit on the bench until the parade started.  We chatted for a while and Madison told them about everything she had done and seen the last 3 days.  They were completely in love with her (who isn't?).  We found out that they live there in Anaheim and come often and just people watch.  They had been sitting on that bench, saving it, since 2:30.  About a half hour before the parade started they said they wanted us to have their bench - they were tired and wanted to go home and wanted us to have a front row seat on our last day at Disneyland!  It was so so nice of them.  I wish we would have gotten a picture with them - they were the nicest ladies and we had become good friends in the last hour and a half.

Here we are on our bench!

During this time Jason went around with each kid to buy their souvenir.  Their grandma Hanna had given each of them some money to spend and so did the Anderson's (Ammon's parents)!  Other wise (if you know us) - they surely weren't' getting souvenirs.  Brock chose a light saber key chain and a real light saber weapon, Madison chose a baby stuffed Naula from Lion King (who sadly got left in a gas station bathroom on the way home from Disneyland), and Megan and Noah got these cool light up spinners, Jason "surprised" me with a Minnie apron (I may have told him to buy it for me), and Ashley bought herself several sweatshirts and a make-up case.

I had gotten some light sticks from the dollar store for the parade.

While we waited we face-timed my mom to thank her for the souvenirs and tell her about our week.  The kids just kind of played around our bench with their souvenirs and with their light sticks and it was in that moment I was so happy we were there.  Everyone felt so special and loved and grateful.  We had had wonderful moments with each one of our kids and also as a whole family - we had worked together - it had been wonderful.  This was magical and I couldn't' not have planned a better ending to our trip.

Here is a funny story about Madison and the missing fanny pack.

When we were waiting for the parade to begin (in about 15 minutes) - Jason was going through the stroller and reorganizing it (he made the trip a success by his excellent organizing and planning skills).  We noticed that Madison didn't have her fanny pack on and Jason didn't see it in the stroller - it was missing!  It was mostly empty but did have about 15 dollars in it left over from her snack money.  Madison got very emotional about her lost fanny pack.  There were some Disney workers walking by at the time and I asked them were the lost and found was - it was all the way at City Hall at the front of the park - I was worried we wouldn't make it there and back in time for the parade to start and they said they would help us do it. So Maddie and I went with a worker up to City Hall. At this point Madison was crying becasue she was so worried about her fanny pack, she was saying the cutest things like "where will I put my snacks?".  I decided I wanted Madison to take full responsibility in this and teach her a lesson - so I made her do all the talking (I am sure that was the "mistake" or the best thing -  I am still not sure).  Everyone just fell in love with her.  She told them her money and snacks were in there and was crying just enough to pull at your heart strings but not enough to make you think she was a brat.  When the lost and found attendant told her they didn't have the fanny pack she started to really cry.  The said, "we don't let kids cry at Disneyland" and they took her into a toy shop and told her to pick out anything she wanted.  She went over to the lolly pops (the cheapest thing) and asked if she could buy suckers for her brothers and sisters.  Well... that just melted their hearts.  They grabbed a bunch of lolly pops and then threw in a glowing Mickey Mouse bubble blower - because "every kids needs one of those".  She was in heaven - and then as we were walking out of the store a security guard was walking up the stairs with her fanny pack!!!  I doubt she learned a lesson about not losing things.  She got suckers, a bubble glower, her fanny pack (with all the money still in it) and all this attention.   As we walked out the speaker said "2 minutes to the start of the parade"  Madison said, "oh no we are going to miss it" and this cute worker said, "no your not" and he took our a huge glowing light stick and ran us up the middle of the parade route waving his stick to clear the crowds - we felt like celebrities.  ha

Thanks to these cute Disneyland workers that made my 5 year olds whole trip!  She is still talking about it!

When we got back the other workers had felt bad for our family that Madison had lost her fanny pack so they pulled our kids up to the middle of the route to play a game with the rest of the crowd.  They all got a turn - I felt like we had been so spoiled.  It was awesome.

The parade was great too. Once it started I thought it was going to amazing.  All the characters we hadn't had a chance to see where in it - and since we were front row - with these bright orange sweaters, and glow sticks almost all characters either made eye contact with my kids and waved, or spoke to them (answering yelled out questions) or came and gave a high 5 - it was amazing - my kids thought it was their own private show.  I thought - "wow!  This is so worth it, we are going to see all the characters!"  And then it ended.  It was only like 15 minutes and there were about 4 characters.  Don't get me wrong - the whole night was incredible and were very blessed and had great luck - but from a pure analysis view if we had just been sitting on a blanket on the sidewalk for 3 hours and watched the parade and none of those other things had happened I would have felt a little let down.  It needed to be twice as long and more characters.

While all the guest headed for the entrance we decided to just sit for a while - the kids decided to turn the bubble maker on for all the other kids walking by - I think they felt a little like Santa Clause watching all the kids chase their bubbles and try and pop them.

Then there is this cute guy!  What can I say about him!  He was amazing!  He even surprised me with a caramel apple during the parade!

And... as every night the kids who got to ride in the stroller fell asleep before we even got out of the park.

In the end we felt completely happy with our trip.  Which, like I said in the beginning, we were not expecting.  In our heads Disney was way too expensive, too crowded, and not worth the hype.  I now completely disagree (crowds... well... we went during a rain storm in February... so we got lucky).  In truth Disneyland is not a lot more expensive than your local amusement park (Lagoon, Six Flags, Eliches etc) but it is a million times better.  The staff is amazing.  They don't cut ANY corners, everything is clean all the time and perfectly put together.  I just can't believe they do this every single day all year.  Everything was of the highest quality and nothing feels cheap, or gross, or broken.  The staff really does make the whole thing worth it.