The next morning we headed towards California. Our lunch stop was in Barstow. We took the kids to “The World’s Busiest McDonald’s”. Don’t ask me why. No, it was fine. It was just a glorified McDonald’s set inside some fake train cars with a gift shop. The only reason it’s the busiest in the world is because a million tour busses stop here on their Route 66 tour. Rob and I picked up hamburgers from next door…

We finally made it to the Anaheim Marriott Suites (Rob’s aunt works for Marriott and so we get a gracious family discount on many Marriott brand hotels. Thanks, Stacy!). The location was perfect (2 miles to Disney) and as soon as we stepped outside and felt the warm, humid air, the excitement really started to build for the real part of our vacation to begin.

First we headed to our room and let the kids get crazy for a while. Then, during the craziness, Caroline fell and hit her head on the corner of the armoire and got a gigantic goose egg on her forehead. Huge. Enormous. It turned red, then purple. It stayed that way all week. She felt terrible for a little while so I rested with her while Rob and the kids headed to the freezing outdoor swimming pool for a quick 10 minutes.

By now it was time for dinner and I decided that we should head to Downtown Disney. By this point we were all so excited to do anything Disney related that we could barely stand it. We were able to park very close to the entrance and then enjoyed our evening in the bustling area. We shared a pizza, played in the Lego store and the Disney Store,

listened to live music, watched the dancing fountain,

ate treats, and walked around just as happy as could be.

Madeleine was so excited she hugged just about every lamp post we came across.

  It was a fun night in preparation for the big day.