"Let It Go"

If you read the last post, you'll know the story of the "Elsa incident" that occurred at Disneyland.  Long story short, we waited in an eternal line to meet Elsa and Anna.  Then when we finally got in there, Melia's little heart was broken when she was reprimanded by Elsa (who she'd been waiting the entire trip to meet) for picking her nose.  Before "the incident," Melia would wear her Elsa dress almost every single day.  All she wanted was to be like Elsa.  After "the incident" we went weeks without her even wanting to LOOK at the dress.  I was so saddened by this because it was something that had brought her so much happiness, but was ruined by this one unfortunate incident.  After telling a few people of the story, I was told I really should contact Disney because they really should be training their employees better because something that could seem so minor to them, can seriously shatter a child's world.  Anyway, I emailed them the whole story and the next morning I got a phone call from the manager of public relations at Disneyland.  She wanted the exact date and time of the incident so they could address the issue and assured me that they give their employees extreme training to avoid such issues.  I told them overall our trip was a great success, and that Anna was adorable and sweet.  To make up for the "incident" she asked if she could send Melia an autographed photo of Elsa and Anna.  She also offered to send autographed photos to Spencer and Evera of their favorite characters.  I agreed, and had her send Buzz & Woody to Ev and Donald to Spencer.  About a week later, our 8x10 images arrived in individually addressed envelopes to each child.  The pictures were all cute.  The Buzz & Woody one just said "To Evera  --Buzz Lightyear & Woody".  The Donald one was pretty much the same.  The Elsa and Anna one was a little more personalized though.  It said, "Let it go Melia" and was signed Elsa and Anna.  REALLY?!  REALLY?!  Let it go?  That's a little snarky, don't you think?  HAHA!  I wasn't sure if I should be offended or just laugh.  Wow...perhaps in the future they shouldn't send "Let it go" notes to disgruntled customers.  Lol.  

Disneyland 10k

At the end of August, Mike and I took the kids down to Disneyland so he and I could run the Disneyland 10k with a bunch of his family.  EXCUSE THE EXTREME PHOTO OVERLOAD!!

As we were getting ready to leave, Melia was INSISTENT on bringing her Cinderella shoes (because it wouldn't be a Disneyland trip without some glass slippers).  She has been squeezing her feet in these little shoes for 2 years now.  Her feet were busting out!  But she was still prepared to wear them walking around Disneyland for three days!

Luckily, one of her car hourly surprises was a new pair of much sturdier, and better fitting glass slippers.  :)  She was thrilled.  (Don't worry, you'll see them in pictures further below.)

It was a pretty good drive and the kids were surprisingly good.  They were excited to have their headphones to listen to music while we drove.

We stayed at the Fairfield on Harbor Blvd across the street from Disneyland.  The next morning we got up and were ready to head out.

FINALLY HEADING TO THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!  (Can't you tell?!)

When we first arrived at Disneyland, we ran into Goofy!  The kids were super excited.  :)

Then we saw Mickey!

And then Melia pouted some more.  (Who knows why?)

And we even got a little Evera pouting in there too!

Then we saw Donald, Spencer's favorite!

Next we waited in line for Peter Pan's Flight.

Unfortunately, right as we got to the front (and that line is ALWAYS FOREVER LONG) it broke!  We had to wait even longer for them to fix it, but we did, because we love that ride!! :)  But of course, Melia had to pout a little first.

But then we got a smile.

We rode the carousel.

And we rode on Pinocchio's Daring Journey.  (This picture is just to prove I was there too!)

And Melia pouted.  :)

But her moods sure change easily!

We rode Toad's Wild Ride too!

These next few pictures are some of my very favorites from the whole trip.  I cannot believe the kids convinced me (pregnant nonetheless) to go on the Tea Cups with them!  But that was what Melia was most looking forward to, so I had to oblige.  But these pictures were well worth the nausea!  :)

This one is by far my favorite and needs to be framed.

Knock, knock.  Anybody home?!

Evera made himself right at home while waiting in line for Alice in Wonderland.  :)

Spencer enjoyed trying to get the water fountains to hit him in the head!  :)  It was pretty funny to watch!

This was our first time experiencing the new Princess Fantasy Faire.  It was a little building where 3 princesses were inside and split up separately.  Therefore you only have to wait in ONE LINE and you get to see 3 princesses.  Not to mention, the line was only 10 minutes long.  It was amazing!

First we met Ariel.

The kids loved getting to talk to her and actually feel like they got to MEET her without being super rushed!

She was so sweet.

Next was Aurora.

Melia curtsied for her and showed off her pretty dress.  And Evera was MESMERIZED by her!

Then Evera started talking to her and was being so silly and she was so cute with him.  He said, "NO CARROTS!" Which is his favorite line from Sleeping Beauty.  Aurora laughed and said, "That's what Prince Phillip tells Samson!"  I was super impressed she even knew Samson's name!

After this cute picture we told them to say goodbye and she hugged each of them and Evera ran back to her and KISSED HER on the cheek!  I was DYING!  He totally had a crush on her and it was so out of character for him to kiss her like that.  And she was sooooo cute about it and acted all shy and embarrassed like.  It was adorable.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of the kiss.

Lastly we met cute Snow White and Melia wore her twinner dress so it was perfect.

We got to meet Alice in Wonderland, who was playing musical chairs at one of the restaurants.

Melia met this ADORABLE little girl at The Jolly Holiday restaurant.  She was so stinking cute and the two of them just started playing together as if they were best friends.  Long lost friends perhaps.  The cutest part of it, though, was the neither of them could understand a single word the other girl said.  This little girl was speaking a foreign language a million miles an hour (perhaps Portuguese or French?) and, of course, Melia was speaking English and they both just kept playing together.

Language and ethnicity was no boundary to their friendship.  It was seriously so special and cute.

Evera was super excited to get to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride, and even wore his Woody hat!  :)

We took a little detour into one of the shops and tried on Mickey hats.  This one was my favorite on Evera.

But even the Mickey hats couldn't beat how stinking cute Evera looked in his Woody hat (which was actually just a random brown sheriff hat I got in the dollar spot at Target)!

So much fun can be exhausting.

Later that evening we met up with Justin and Sarah and their girls.  Melia and Lydia were so excited to get to play together.  AND, after much begging by Lydia, Melia agreed to switch shoes for a little while and let Lydia wear her new glass slippers.  :)

Gotta love THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH.  (More pouting--this time brought to you by both Melia and Lydia while waiting in line for Midway Mania.)

Another "favorite moment" from the trip was after riding Midway Mania in California Adventure.  The exit is into this little Toy Story store.  The adults went and sat on the benches right outside and were kindof watching The Wonderful World of Color while the kids explored the store a little.  Evera has got a mind of his own and had notice the Captain Zurg figure as we'd come out. He went into the store, climbed up the shelves (seriously), and got down the Captain Zurg.  He brought it over to a completely different part of the store, climbed up a different set of shelves and retrieved a bunch of Astro Blaster guns.  He then set Zurg down on the ground, backed up, and started shooting him with the Astro Blasters (like you do in the Buzz Lightyear ride in Disneyland).

This adorable employee came over and started playing with him, moving Zurg around as Evera shot him. 

It's employees like this that make the Disneyland experience so special.

After playing with Ev for a while, she took Melia and Lydia over to the desk and got out some Nurf-like dart guns.  Then she taught them how to shoot the mural behind the desk with the darts.

Friday we met up with Justin and Sarah and their kids first thing and Melia was so excited to see Lydia.  They immediately traded "crowns" and "slippers."  :)

I love how much these cute cousins adore eachother.

At California Adventure we ran into Buzz Lightyear and Evera was super excited!

Could it get any cuter?

Next we rode Triton's Carousel.  

I think Annie's reaction was my favorite!  :)

We got to meet Mater too!  :)  (Too bad Mike's eyes are closed.)  I was not planning on bringing this shirt because I hate the way it fits like a balloon on top.  But Melia insisted I bring it because it was like my "Elsa" shirt and we could be twinners.  :)

Next we met up with more of the family.  Melia was SUPER brave and rode on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror!  She was super scared, but was so cute about it and insisted she sit by Grandpa Morgan so he could protect her.  I think it made him feel good because she's always wanting Grandma, not Grandpa.  She sat between them and was terrified, but was so brave and after we rode I asked her if she liked it and she said yes.  I asked her if she wanted to go again and she said yes, but not right then.  :)

It was a super fun age to go to Disneyland with Melia because she could ride on most of the big kid rides for the first time.  I think my favorite to do with her was Space Mountain. And she loved it.

At California Adventure, we lucked out and ran into Doc McStuffins!

And we couldn't go a whole day without a little bit of pouting from Melia!  This particular pout actually came while waiting in line to meet Elsa and Anna.

I don't blame her for the pout.  The line was ETERNAL.  But she was a good sport and waited anyway.  The line was going to be 2 hours long and it was just (pregnant) me and the 2 kids.  It sounded like hell to me, but even when I explained to Melia how long it would be, she still wanted to wait.  (This was what she'd been waiting for the whole trip--she just wanted to meet Elsa).  She'd worn her special Elsa dress, her glass slippers that were similar to Elsa's, her crown, she'd had me do her hair in a beautiful Elsa braid--and because it was sortof falling out, she even had me re-do it in line.  She hates having me do her hair, but it was worth it to meet Elsa.

Unfortunately when we got in there, finally, Elsa was a bit "frigid," go figure, and wasn't super friendly.

On top of that, there was a little incident...Evera was picking his nose and Elsa told him not to.  Cute Anna made a joke about how Kristoff says all men do it and we all laughed.  I think the mention of picking your nose triggered Melia to feel an itch or something.  Melia (now) claims she was scratching at the base of her nose (it really didn't look like she was picking it, but she does do that, so whatever), when Elsa reprimanded her.  She told her not to pick her nose.  After all the buildup to meet Elsa and how perfect she wanted to look and be for her, having the first (and possibly only thing) Elsa said to her be a reprimand for picking her nose truly just crushed her.  I think she was hoping Elsa would point out how they were twins and how pretty her hair was or something, but instead, she just told her not to pick her nose.  Immediately Melia's shoulders hunched and she looked so broken.

I told them to turn around for a picture and Melia turned around with her shoulders hunched and the absolute saddest look on her face.  I should've taken a picture anyway, just for the moment, but my (pregnant) heart immediately broke for her and I almost burst into tears myself.  Knowing how much she'd been waiting for this moment (seriously for MONTHS) and then to have this happen, I could feel her devastation.  I told her to cheer up and smile for the picture, and she did.  But her shoulders were still a bit hunched.  

On a better note, Anna was absolutely ADORABLE with the kids and we loved her.

Stay tuned for a little more about this Elsa story...I'll finish it off in the next post.  Needless to say, our Elsa encounter was a little anti-climatic.

The next morning, Mike and I woke up bright and early at 4AM to get ready for the 10k. 

Here's a picture of all of us after finishing the race!

We all had matching shirts that Big Spencer had made for us.  On the front of the shirt was a picture of our family Disney brick (which can be found at the entrance to Disneyland.  The Brick is a hexagon which reads, CURT AND KATHY MORGAN FAMILY TANKO, FR.  Above the writing is the year.  Instead of having the year on the shirts though, they each have a Mickey head with 6.2 written inside.  The "TANKO, FR" is a family joke.  Back in the olden days when the Morgans would go to Disneyland, Kathy would always pack a thermos full of boiling water and hot dogs.  That was what they'd always eat for lunch at Disneyland, as to save money.  They referred to this thermos of hot dogs as the "Tank of Franks" or "Tank-o-Franks."  We wanted to write something special on our brick when we bought it, but the rules prohibited anything but year, name, and location.  Therefore, it says Tanko, FR (as if Tanko is a location in France).

As the race was about to begin, we were located near the announcers.  The announcers were talking about how there are people from all different states in attendance.  Then they saw our shirts.  They called out to "The Morgan Family" and asked where we were from (thinking perhaps we were French).  I think Big Spencer yelled, "France" while others yelled "Washington" and "All Over!"  The confused announcers seemed a little annoyed.  Later as we ran passed the announcers again they said, "And here comes the Curt and Kathy Morgan Family who may or may not be from France!"  :)  Haha!

The back of our shirts were really fun with a bunch of Disney quotes about running.

I was incredibly proud of myself for completing the race.  My family had made bets about the fact that I'd never make it.  They never seem to believe in me much.  They made bets about how long I'd stay in China the first time I went there--no one thought I'd last the whole time, and especially never dreamed I'd go back again.  They made bets about me giving up on cloth diapering--thinking I'd never stick with that either.  They also made bets about how quickly I'd ask for an epidural when I was giving birth to Evera because they never thought I'd succeed at doing it naturally.  But I consistently prove them wrong, and I guess it serves as a way to push me harder.  :)  I even made it through the race pregnant!  Mike was a super-trooper and stuck with me the whole time, and even carried a bag full of granola bars for me just incase I needed a little sustenance for the baby.  :)  I never did eat any of the granola bars though.

And here's the medal to prove we made it!

And a picture of all the Morgan brothers and dad.  Ooh and did I mention, the PPW's finally made their way to Disneyland as they were always intended to?!  Spencer WORE them the whole race!  Haha!  (If you don't know what the PPWs are, go back to the Morgan Reunion 2014 post to read more about their amazingness!)  

We all met for lunch at The Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney.  After eating, Mom mentioned how we all needed to sit with our legs up against a wall that evening to prevent swelling in our legs from the over exertion and running.  So instead of waiting, we all put our legs up right then and there...well at least the boys did!  :)  Lol, we all looked like a bunch of dying bugs!  And apparently Dave's arms needed prevention from swelling too!  :)

After the race (but before lunch) we headed back to the hotel to get the kids.  Did I mention it was another mile and a half walk from the end of the race to our hotel?  I thought I was going to DIE!!  We got all ready for one last day at Disneyland.  This time Melia wore my favorite of the dresses she brought--her Minnie Mouse dress!  I did her hair in two buns for ears.  :)

At Disneyland, Evera was soooo excited when we happend to run into Peter Pan!

As Peter was leaving after our pictures Evera started shouting to him.  Evera had both hands up in the "I LOVE YOU" sign and was yelling, "Pee-a Pan!  Pee-a Pan!  This I love you sign!  Pee-a Pan, this I love you sign!"  Oh my gosh, it was so darn adorable.  Definitely another favorite moment from the trip!

We had fun riding my favorite ride, It's a Small World.

Every time we had to sit down and stand up, I thought I might die.  It was sooooo hard to stand after sitting down for even a moment.  My legs were like jello.  Painful jello!  :)

Therefore, we all took advantage of the opportunity to see the new Mickey show.  Melia, of course, had to sit with Grandma Morgan, and Dave is just a weirdo!  :)

We had fun exploring Toon Town.  I keep hearing that they're going to do away with Toon Town, and I'll be sad when that day comes.  I just think it's so cute.

I'm pretty sure Evera thought this birthday cake was just for him (as it was only a couple days shy of his 3rd birthday).

Speaking of Ev's birthday, he was excited to get his Mickey Beignet at Cafe Orleans.  If you're ever at DL for your birthday, be sure to visit Cafe Orleans to get your free beignet--it's the best dessert in all of Disneyland!

And of course the Disneyland trip wouldn't be complete without eating at Cafe Orleans because we had to get our Monte Cristo sandwich.  I'm pretty sure that one sandwich probably completely made up for all the calories lost during the race!  :)

I love these cute boys of mine!

While our character meeting experiences were a bit tainted by the sour experience with Elsa, all of that was made up for on our way out of the park on our last day.  I was determined to get a picture of Melia with Minnie while she was in her Minnie dress, but the line at Minnie's house in Toon Town that day was outrageous and I was not about to wait in it with my jello legs, aching back and pregnant nauseous belly!  Luckily, as we were leaving the park on that final day, there she was.

She was SOOO DARLING when she saw Melia and immediately dropped down to the ground to be on her level and gave her the biggest hug.

Although she doesn't talk, she was soooo cute and full of personality.  They both posed showing off their twinner dresses.

She twirled Melia around.

And they danced together too.

It was a trip full of amazingly magical moments!  I cannot wait to go back again!