Disneyland

We headed out through a blizzard Monday morning to Sunny California. Get us back to the sun! We safely arrived at Aunt Luise and Uncle Van's.



We went to Disneyland.
We were so happy to see that Aladdin was playing at the Hyperion again. They have a very professional show with a very funny Genie.


You can see from her face that Rachel loves it the most. It also gives Adam a great chance for a nap.


Of all the weirdo Disneyland people I've seen through the ages this girl takes the cake! We kept bumping into her all over the park. I thought I did a very good job of getting a shot of her without her noticing. Although with that get-up she probably wanted attention, I think she may have liked me asking for a picture, but I was too embarrassed--for her.


It outrages me that this is all the Cinderella Disneyland has to offer, other than seeing the actual princess. Is it just me or is she not the best princess, the best movie ever created!


Making our wishes at the wishing well.


*Trivia: When Walt ordered these Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Statues, there was a problem with Snow White. Upon delivery he realized they had failed to make Snow White the size he wanted and she was in fact the same size as the dwarves! He had this brilliant idea to set Snow White up high on the hill with the waterfall to give us the illusion that she is far away and thus looks smaller due to distance. Then he set the big dwarves closer to us so they would only look bigger because they are closer. It evens them out quite nicely and created a very dramatic scene, that would have been very different. Knowing how this scene came to be makes me love it even more.

This little cottage is so inviting, I've had a lot of dreams about finally getting to go inside and what is really in there. The girls just can't go past without knocking on that cute little door, who knows, maybe this time they'll be invited in!


Testing Sarah's strength, just look at those muscles!


We as parents play it cool acting like we don't need to go on any rides for ourselves. We are above that right? Well, every time we get near the Tower of Terror Ty gets giddy and starts suggesting how we could just run over there, real fast, and do it. The secret is finally out Ty, we all know you love that ride...and yes, I always plan we'll be going on it if we are even remotely close by. I guess I love it too, because not many things make Ty giddy, except maybe an extremely long detailed spreadsheet or a legislative special session, or of course his incredily awesome wife. Look at those eyes light up!


Tarzan's tree house, a very fun attration for the kids to explore. I learned Tyler is afraid of heights! It does go very high. I got a work out from all the stairs!


Adam and I met Mater and Lightning McQueen while everyone was on Soarin'. The are both very down to earth. Ha ha. Rachel still calls him Lightning the Queen, I think she thinks he is a girl.


Goofy was in rare form. He was dancing all around, even pretending to be a ballerina at one point! The kids were loving him.


My boys had some fun together.


Tyler loves Chip and Dale, along with Mickey they are his favorite characters.


We discovered Adam's favorite ride: eating leaves while waiting for the train.





...and going back for more. Doesn't Tyler look so proud of his boy! Our girls would never have eaten leaves!


Us posing in the "fake" teacup. I wish Tyler could join us in the teacups, he just gets too sick on all the circular rides.


He couldn't handle Dumbo by the end of the night, so Sarah got to fly her own Dumbo for the very first time.


*More Trivia: How the Matterhorn came to be, just because it is so cool.

After digging the mote for the castle Walt was left with a 20 foot high mound of dirt that he spruced up with some landscaping and benches and gave the name Holiday Hill. This hill was also home to the rather unattractive steel tower that supported the Sky Ride. Walt was visiting the set of a movie Third Man on the Mountain which was being filmed on the Matterhorn in Switzerland when he got the idea to build his own Matterhorn with Bobsleds. The Matterhorn premiered in 1959 as the first tube steel track roller coaster in the world. It was part of Tomorrowland until 1970 when it made its way into Fantasy Land, without moving an inch. And because Walt is the kind of man that pays attention to detail, the Disneyland Matterhorn is exactly 1/100 the size of the actual mountain, standing at 147 feet tall. What a cool way to hide a big ugly beam and make use of unwanted mote dirt.

Thanks to Fran for my Disneyland book. You're the best.