The Koren Fam Blog: Disneyland, 2012

Walking through the tunnels of Big Thunder Mountain

Trying to comfort Abigail as she freeks out

Being evacuated after the ride broke down

The day was great with dear friends

With the help of Chris' parents, we surprised the kids with tickets to Disneyland as a Christmas present. The last time we attempted to take them to Disneyland a few years ago, there was a downpour at the park followed by days of fever and sickness...one day of tickets we completely didn't even use. With that as our prior experience, I was a bit nervous about how this day would turn out. I knew that the park would be crowded, and we'd probably get on very few rides, so I set the bar very low in terms of my expectations. The only thing I put on the "to do" list for the day was getting Isaac in the Jedi show and making sure Abigail was able to meet Merida and Rapunzel.

Well, much to our surprise, the day was famtastic. Even though the park was full of 170,000 people (max compacity that caused them to close the gates), God graced us with a fantastic day. The Somervilles, our friends who live in Anaheim and the masters of Disneyland, spent the day with us. Tiff taught us the art of using the fast pass and Dan brought us a full lunch they prepared from home and was the master at parking the car. Because of the passes, we waited in very few lines. We got stuck on our second round of Big Thunder Mt. and had to be evacuated. It was a cool experience, and we were rewarded with more passes to get on any ride later. We used it to get all of us, plus Nona Linda and Gandpa Rick, on the Haunted House together (which Abigail wasn't that scared of). Toward the end of the evening, there was still one fast pass to use. As we were discussing with the kids which ride to use it on, a worker came us and offered as pass to go the the Nemo ride. We said thank you and walked to the very next submarine while the other people stood in a 60 minute line (and still had our other pass to use on Star Tours again). We kept praising God for little gifts like this throughout the day.

One of the highlights was walking through the park after the parade and fireworks. As we were passing the castle covered in Christmas lights, tiny snow bubbles started to fall as the last song played in the show. I was holding Abigail in my arms and said, "I am so happy to be here with you right now. There is no other place in the world I would want to be at this moment. I love you." She said the same thing back to me. We held each other tighter. It was magical.