We're back! We had a great vacation playing at Disneyland with Aunt Luise. Though Uncle Van didn't actually come, not for lack of being invited, we had fun visiting with him too! We are happy to report we had a great time and got to do all the things we really wanted to, but never got to see it snow on Main Street USA. We found out as we left the park that it wasn't really snow anyways, its just bubbles, which is fun, but isn't snow. What a scam!
Well, we started out from home Thursday night. Adam was asleep for a little bit and then woke up screaming, angry, and wanting out of his carseat. We were intrigued to find that the only thing to calm him down and get him to sleep was a movie! We positioned the little DVD player at the edge of his feet so he could enjoy Jungle Book and he fell asleep. This provided most helpful rest to a very tired baby on the car rides! The girls couldn't sleep well through Adam's movie, but at least they weren't screaming. It made Sarah hyper and Rachel groggy.
Aunt Luise's house was beautiful in its holiday attire. We were all so happy to see her and Uncle Van. The girls took their spot in "their room" (aka the bonus room). In the morning we visited and relaxed and watched the new Tinkerbell movie, Uncle Van included. Then after lunch we headed over to Disneyland donning our new $5 special, Disney t-shirts. Aunt Luise was schemeing of how we could get Uncle Van to join us. She even had the girls beg, but Uncle Van insisted he'd be the party pooper. We tried to commit him to go be the grand marshall of the parade with Aunt Luise for their 75th anniversary and ride in the front carriage of the parade. We'll see, she desperately wants him to come with her and enjoy Disneyland like she does.
DAY 1
On the tram taking roll,
Sarah and Mom, Check!
Dad, Adam, Rachel, Check!
Aunt Luise, Check!
On Main Street USA, OH Its Beautiful!!!
Can you believe this huge tree is real?
Too Bad it was Too Cold for Ice Cream!
The Castle, Gorgeous!
My symbolic shot, here I'm attempting to be a photographer.
The adventure began with Small World with magnificent Christmas lights and all new inside displays complete with bubbles, which now we know they consider snow.
It made one girl very happy.
Then to the Princess Fantasy Faire, which I had no idea what was, but Rachel was soooo hoping to meet Cinderella and give her a picture she drew for her, so I guessed this would be the place to find her.
It turned out to be a show with generic princesses and princes singing to you of how to be a princess and how to dance, lame I thought. Then out came 3 real princesses, one of which was Cinderella! I wondered how we would be able to give her the picture while she was singing and dancing up on stage. Tyler, knowing how important it was to Rachel to "meet Cinderella and give her my picture" said a silent prayer that she would be able to do so. To our surprise they pulled out 3 ribbon maypulls on the floor and each princess came down from the stage to dance at one with the kids.
Sure enough Cinderella came and stood right next to Rachel, she even got to touch her glove. Rachel presented the picture, but Cinderella couldn't hold it at the moment so I placed it near the stage for later. Her squire retrieved it for her as she went back up onto the stage to finish the show, but before she left the stage she winked at us and mouthed "Thank You!" It was a tender moment to see the simple wish of a child fulfilled.
Then we stopped by Minnie's and Mickey's houses in Toon Town,
Adam and Rachel enjoying Pluto's bed
Sarah getting relaxed on Mickey's Chair
Then to the reindeer farm to see Rudolph.
Then we headed toward Critter Country so we could get on Splash Mountain before the sun went down. We grabbed fast passes and went on Pooh Bear while we waited. It is such a cute ride and they have it set up so cute with a little stream and the little houses the characters would live in set up along the stream.
We paused on the footbridge to look over the side and plop,
Sarah's shoe fell down into the stream and was whisked away in the current until it got stuck on a rock, luckily. Obviously, Sarah was very concerned, poor thing.
We had to wait for special assistance to arrive.
They were very nice and concerned that she would now have to walk around in a soggy shoe and by now the sun was just about down. They went into the gift shop and brought her a new pair of shoes for free. Sooo nice!
Notice the cute little Mickey Head holes!
Then finally it was time for Splash Mountain! We got right on the ride and Rachel got very wet. Next we ate dinner at The Hungry Bear Restraunt where they messed up our order so we got a free sandwich, what a lucky day. We headed back to Small World and Fantasy Land for the rest of the night. It looked even more fantastic at night.
I was lucky to catch Rachel's reaction. Pure Awe.
Adam sure made a friend.
He loves Aunt Luise.
You can see him stretching from his tummy pack as far as he can hoping for a bit more time to snuggle her. I can't blame him. She is very fun!
Then it got very crowded and undesirable and I vowed never to come again on a weekend. Through the rough-you-up crowd we encountered a huge lady that thought she could barrel right through Aunt Luise in her wheel chair. Instead she fell onto Aunt Luise and her bad knee. Aunt Luise was in a lot of pain the rest of the night and couldn't come back with us the next day. We got home by 9, ate a bed time snack, and iced her knee. What an eventful day.
DAY 2
We started our second day at California Adventure. Because Aunt Luise's knee was hurting she opted for a Dr's appointment the next day instead and didn't come back with us. It was actually our first time alone just our little family at Disneyland. (We've always been accompanied by helpful grandparents.)
I love seeing Tyler with Adam in the tummy pack. My boys.
We headed first to Monster's Inc.
and Bug's Land, where Sarah drove her own bumper car for the first time and caused all sorts of traffic jams, which she is very proud of.
I had never noticed this figure of Slim hiding in the foliage. It cracked me up and made me think of Braxton's Francis and Slim phase, I think he was 4. Do you remember those guys Brax and Lo? Ah, memories.
Then we went to the Mission Tortilla Factory tour for free tortillas and happened to be in the right place to get free lanniards with collectible pins to start collections on.
We rode Ariel's Carousel, and stopped on the pier for lunch. Rachel very dramatically refused to eat her food.
When a kid looks like this at Disneyland after riding on the Carousel you wonder if its better not to make them eat.
Then Adam decided to help himself.
Yoink! It was so funny, maybe you had to be there.
Then on to Jumping Jellyfish. Can you tell Rachel is scared to death?! She slunked down into the seat gripping the hand holds for dear life.
In contrast, Sarah is loving the thrill, even taking the liberty of hanging over the side to say, "Hi Mom!"
This was Rachel's first time trying those Jellyfish. She decided to brave and debut on Bear River Rafting too! They got soaked, more than we ever have, so soaked we had to go out to the car and change, even underwear! No I didn't take a picture of them changing behind the car in the parking structure. But I did get a picture of Adam trying on these Mickey sunglasses while we waited in the gift shop.
When everyone was dry again we went over to Disneyland to enjoy Fantasy Land and Small World again. I love it there at night, when its not crowded, especially Alice in Wonderland. I have such great memories coming out on the caterpillar's leaf with the rest of Fantasy Land lit up and you can see the Matterhorn and the Teacups and Small World. I also love Dumbo at night, seeing the carousel and the castle and Toad Hall and Monstro as I spin around at the top of the world. Its just so magical.
Like crazy people we left that night at 10 and got in the car to drive straight home for 6 hours. Tyler falls asleep so I ended up driving from 2am to 4:30. Somehow it didn't seem fair that when we got home all my sleeping passengers got out of the car and got to go right to sleep, but I had to stay up and get Adam to bed then had to wake up with him again in just 3 hours. I decided since the two of us had to be up, we may as well be at church, so we went. Tyler and the girls joined us half-way through primary. That afternoon I finally got a nap! We were all very tired and have slept it off this week. But it was worth it!
The Recap:
Rachel met Cinderella.
Sarah's great shoe adventure.
Aunt Luise got crushed in the crowd, I hope we didn't break her.
Small world in all its holiday glory.
Have Happy Holidays, We Are!
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