Disneyland Delights

A few funny things the girls said while on our trip.

Upon walking in our hotel after it had been cleaned up by housekeeping. "Wow, the servants do a really good job at making beds!"

While watching the firework display where Dumbo and Tinkerbell fly toward the castle Brielle says to me, "Mom, it's Tinkerbell, it's Tinkerbell!! I just knew she was going to be here!"

When Nick and Emma were waiting in line for California Screamin', Emma got stung on the arm by a bee. Since I wasn't there she was telling me about it on the way out of the park that night. "Yeah, it hurt really bad. It hurt like a mother.....and a father!"

Our Last Day

Note to self: Always do the family pictures before the last day since by then no one wants their picture taken anymore! On our final day, we had until 3:00pm to get it any last rides, so we let the girls choose their top 2 rides they wanted to do again. For Emma, it was Thunder Mountain and California Screamin'. For Brielle, it was Teacups and Spaceships. We also squeezed in a few more as we were walking around hitting the typical family picture spots. Then, we spent the last hour picking out souviners (it made the trip a lot easier because the girls knew we were not buying anything until the last day.) Emma picked out two stuffed animals and a robot dog. Brielle also got a robot dog, a Minnie Mouse polly and a Minnie Mouse snow globe. Then, it was off to the airport and home. We had such a fabulous time! I can't believe it was over a month ago! I wish we could freeze the excitement that our girls had for a couple more years because all too soon Disneyland probably won't be quite as exciting and magical!

Disney Day 5

By this point of the trip we had seen or been on all of the big things. So we decided to explore places we have never had time to do before. Nick took Emma on Splash Mountain while Brielle and I went to see Winnie the Pooh and characters. We rode a raft to Tom Sawyer's Island and spent an hour or so exploring caves, climbing in tree houses, searching for buried treasure and pretending we were pirates. It was a lot of fun! Next, Nick and I went on Splash Mountain and got drenched!! The last time we were at Disneyland, Splash Mountain broke down while we were on it, so I never got to experience the dramatic drop. Lucky for me, I was the front of the log this time so I got the full view of the white wall of water. It was crazy!! It felt like someone poured a whole water cooler on my head (hence the lovely picture and frizzy hair the rest of the day!) So, to dry off we went to Mark Twain's ferry and lounged in the sun.  Then, it was more rides and the "Celebration" parade down Main Street to end our last night.

Day 4 California Adventure

On Monday we spent the day in California Adventure. I was really proud of Emma because she was tall enough for pretty much every ride, so she tried them at least once. She loved California Screamin' (she went on it about 6 times!) She also liked Tower of Terror (surprise!) but hated Soarin' over California (another surprise!) We ate lunch with the Princesses and pretty much saw all that we could by 5:00pm. The girls had fun playing in the water fountains in A Bug's Land, too. We waited around for the World of Color show but it wasn't worth the wait and I was disappointed. Our kids couldn't see since you stood to watch it and you had to arrive in your section 30 minutes before showtime which was a long time to stand at the end of the day. Otherwise it was a fun day where we had plenty of time to see everything we wanted.

Disney Day 3

This day was big as you can see from all the pictures. We got pics with a few characters right when we walked in and then we took the train to Toon Town.  However, we got sidetracked when we saw the short line to see the princesses. The girls met Tiana, Jasmine (their favorite), and Ariel. Then they stayed for the Fantasy Faire where they learned to dance like a princess. After the show, you could stay and meet the main princesses: Belle, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty.  (Brielle brought her baby Belle she got for Christmas last year to show to the "real" Belle). Next, we played around in Toon Town and met Mickey in his house. We were melting in the heat so we took a nice, cool, long ride on Small World and got that song in our head for the rest of the day. On our way out of the park to grab lunch and a nap we finally got a picture with Minnie Mouse. (Nick named her the "DIVA" of Disneyland because we had tried to get in her line at least three times and were turned away due to her busy schedule). That night we came back for more rides and the Fantasmic show (which I thought was the best show after the fireworks)!   

Disneyland! Day 1 & 2

We've been spoiled by Nick's parents this year. First they gave each of their children some money from Nick's dad's inheritance and then they offered to pay for Disneyland tickets this fall and our hotel while we were there! So, we left on my birthday (a Friday morning) and came home on Wednesday night. We had such a fabulous time--I think it was even better this time because our kids were two years older and hopefully will have more memories of this trip.
On the first day, by the time we checked into our hotel it was mid-afternoon so we just walked to Anaheim Garden which is like an outdoor mall. It has restaurants, shopping, movies, and bowling. We tried to see a movie but their were no kid shows so we opted for bowling! That was a lot of fun (except for the part where Emma had a higher score than me!) We haven't done that for a long time. Then, since it was my birthday we ate at The Cheesecake Factory! It was so delicious! I tried to eat my whole dinner because I didn't know we had a microwave back at our hotel, but it was worth the stomach-ache as we walked back! That night we crashed early until we heard fireworks outside. Emma and I were still awake so we went out on the balcony and watched them. It was great! You know Disney performances are always going to be awesome.
We decided that since we had a 5-day hopper pass we didn't need to kill ourselves on this trip so on the first two days this was our schedule: Pop-tarts in our hotel room, bought some breakfast items from McDonald's and headed to Disneyland. Then, we would eat our brunch around 11:00, stay for a few more hours, get lunch outside the park, have a 2-3 nap at the hotel, eat dinner, and then head back to Disneyland for the night. It work perfect for the weekend days we were there because we left during the hottest/busiest period of the day, didn't have to buy food in the park, our kids were rested so they could stay up late without meltdowns, and we weren't in a hurry. The fireworks that first night were even better in person and it was the best night show they did. The next night was their water show which was really good too, but both of the girls got scared because it had the mean witches in it.