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.