Date nights can lead to wild ideas.
We pretended we were just daydreaming, but we both knew that we wouldn't let it rest until we went through with it. It started as, "Let's fly to California and do a quick two-day visit to Disneyland." Then it became five days in Disneyland (a habit we always fall into). And then we added a day at Knott's Berry Farm.
We are nuts. Absolutely nuts.
We kept the entire thing a secret from our kids (and therefore, everyone else) because we though it would be fun to surprise them. We planned everything and packed everything in secret. I waited until the last possible minute to contact all my kids' teachers (as not to burden them with the responsibility of keeping it a secret) to get the schoolwork we needed. Then we discretely loaded our luggage and the stroller in the trunk and told everyone to get in the van.
No one asked where we were going.
As we were approaching our long-term parking destination (but before it became apparent that that's where we were going) Nicky conveniently asked, "What's that place?" Scotty said, "I think it's a parking facility. Let's go check it out!" So we pulled in and pretended we were just going to drive around and see what it was. Right as we parked, the shuttle pulled up, so we told the kids we should get on the shuttle and go for a ride. We pulled out our luggage - thinking they would start to make assumptions about what was going on.
"Why do you have suitcases?" they asked.
"To see if they fit on the luggage racks in this shuttle," we said.
Oh the web of lies!
Finally, as we shuttled to the airport, we explained to the kids that we were going to Disneyland! On an airplane!
Our kids don't respond well to surprises. Their reaction is usually confusion. In fact, this was Nicky's face for a good ten minutes:
The questions started, "What about school? What about carpool? What about dance class?" Once we assured them that everything was taken care of, they were pretty excited!
This was the first time we've flown to Disneyland as a family (other than one time when Nicky was a baby). Daisy was so excited to go on the plane that she kept clapping, and once she found out that she could wear headphones and watch her very own tv and pick a drink and a snack, she was absolutely elated!
The kids did really well on the plane. The trip there went as perfect as we could have asked for (other than a slight delay due to fog).
Zoe's first flight
When we arrived, we picked up a rental van and settled into our hotel. The next morning we headed to Knott's Berry Farm. Scotty and I had been to Knott's before (15 years ago), but our kids hadn't. We thought it would be fun to take them somewhere new.
We had a lot of fun at Knott's, but it's definitely a better option for older kids (we knew this going into it, so it wasn't a surprise, just a fact confirmed). It took a while for Eva to open her heart to the rides at Camp Snoopy, but she eventually got comfortable and started riding things. Eva and Zoe loved the little rides. Scotty and I took turns chaperoning the Bigs and the Littles. The crowds were manageable other than a few instances. It rained a little, but the rides were still operable.
We take our rides
very seriously!
There was a rollercoaster (Jaguar!) that I really wanted Zoe to go on. It's a pretty mild coaster that weaves through the trees and covers a big section of the park. Zoe had been begging to play a game, so Scotty told her that if she went on the rollercoaster with me, he would let her play a game. She followed through with her end of the deal, so in order to best follow through with his, Scotty found a game that guaranteed a prize for every player.
For the game, you pick two rubber duckies out of a river until you find a pair that matches, then you get to choose either a stuffed Snoopy or a stuffed Woodstock for a prize. Zoe and Eva each played and each picked a stuffed Woodstock.
Hours later, when we were getting ready to leave, Scotty noticed that we only had one Woodstock in the bottom of the stroller. He retraced his recent steps to see if he could find the missing bird, but it didn't turn up. This was one of "those" parenting moments. It really wasn't anyone's fault that the bird was missing. We thought the missing bird was Eva's, and we coached her through her meltdown, but then the girls figured out that it was actually Zoe's, and things went from ugly to hella ugly.
We had a voucher for a free meal, so the kids and I sat down in a restaurant to share the meal while Scotty set off to solve the Woodstock problem.
To play a game at Knott's, you have to have a game card. Scotty's card had $3 left on it, but the game cost $5. He went to the kiosk to load more money on the card, and the employee informed him that it wasn't working. He asked if he could just give her the additional $2. She said no and told him he would have to go to another kiosk on the other side of the park and load the money, so Scotty ran all the way across the park. Then he came back to the game and asked, "Can I just have a Woodstock or are you going to make me pick the ducks?" Luckily, she let him just take a Woodstock. Duckie selection would have really pushed him over the edge at that point!
After all of this, I turned to Scotty and said, "You know that missing Woodstock is going to turn up at some point, right?" and he said, "Yeah."
The next morning, while I was packing my backpack to go to Disneyland, I pulled out a stuffed Woodstock and put it on the bed. Sure enough, it was the Woodstock. It had been in my backpack all along.
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