Disneyland Day Two

I'd like to say we got right up and headed off to another day a Disneyland.  I was so tired that I slept in as long as I could and so did everyone else.  As I was getting stuff ready to go I decided I was going to take my camcorder along this time.  On our walk there I filmed us walking a little bit.  Then Inside Downtown Disney I tried again only to find out that the cable that connects my extra large battery to my camcorder had a major short in it.  So no videos for any of our trip.

 We made it inside!  The girls were more than just simply excited to have more "fun."

 We met Mary Poppins and Bert just after coming inside the main part of the park.  The girls handed them their autograph books and looked at them very expectantly.  I died a little inside when Mary Poppins cocked her head a little and waited.  I knew what she was waiting for because I was waiting for it too.  She wouldn't sign their books until they asked politely. 

We started off with "Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters" in "Tomorrowland."  Here is Emma shooting her laser at the bad guy. 

 Khloe is taking aim to take down Zurg.  Les was behind us with Samantha and Jacob.

 Then we took a ride on the monorail.

 Don't I look hapy to be there.  Loved it because I meant I could sit down and take a load off my feet.  They were so tired after day one that I was ready to make sure I took every opportunity to rest them.

 Then we went to the "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage."  The girls got a little nervous when the ride "hit" into something and the lights went out.

About then I had to find a bathroom for the girls.  So we headed out of "Tomorrowland" and entered "Fantasyland."  We mostly looked things over while trying to find characters to take pictures with.  That took us all the way up to "Mickey's Toontown."  I took the girls into "Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin."  The line was so long.  Very deceiving since it was all inside the building.  At one point there was a sign on an archway we were walking through that said, "KEEP OUT."  Emma turned to me and with concern in her voice asked, "Why are we going in there?  It says, 'keep out!' mom!"  Oh how I love that girl.  Can't sneak as much past her now that she can read so well.  The girls didn't like the ride much so I won't include the few pictures I have of this ride. 

 We walked around "Toontown" looking at the buildings like the jail in the picture above.  It is the type of jail that anyone is strong enough to escape. 

 Goofy came along and we got a picture with him.

We wandered over to "Mickey's  House" where we met Mickey.

Jacob was unsure about him at first but he did smile by the end.

 We took a little bit of time to play in the "Chip 'n Dale Treehouse" . . .

"Donald's Boat" . . .  

 and "Goofy's Playhouse." 

On our way out of "Toontown" we saw Pluto! 

 From there we went to the "Fantasyland Theatre" to watch "Mickey and the Magical Map."  Do to technical difficulties the show stopped part way through so we didn't get to see how it ended.  The girls had been engrossed in the story.  So disappointed.

We wasted a lot of our day looking for characters for the kids to meet that we walked by so many rides.  In particular, we were looking for Rapuzel.  She wasn't at the "Royal Hall" where we thought she would be.  So instead we backtracked to "Sleeping Beauty's Castle."

I had always wondered if there was anything in there or if all you got to see was the outside.  Turns out there is a self guided walkthrough.

I had a ton more pictures but it all disappeared when I published the post.  Then my computer, which had been suffering for a while, had a down turn.  My loving husband worked on it for a few days to get it back to normal.  Once it was back up and going I started using it again only to find that not everything was as I should be.  So I put it aside and waited for my honey to figure it out.  It took a while but he did find time here and there to work on it.  Now months later it is mostly back up and going.  So I will spare you the pictures and just paraphrase the rest of what we did on this day.

After the castle we went to the "Sailing Ship Columbia."  We saw a lot of neat stuff as we sailed the "Rivers of America."  Then we hopped on a ferry to go to the "Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer's Island."  We ate lunch at the "Hungry Bear Restaurant."  We went to "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" and as we were getting off we saw Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore.   We stopped to get autographs and have our pictures taken with them.

From there we went to "Jungle Cruise" where we had an absolutely great guide.  She had us laughing over and over.  I know what you are thinking at this point.  You are hearing about all these whimpy rides and we are skipping over the big fun ones.  First of all, our kids are still to young to ride most of those.  Second, they were too afraid of these rides. Lastly, the lines for those rides would take most of the day just to get through.  So, yes, we skipped "Thunder Mountain" and "Indiana Jones."

Then we found a spot near the castle to rest and wait for "Mickey's Soundsational Parade."  They kids loved it.  We sat next to a Reserved Section.  Turns out that two of the guys who designed almost everything about the parade were sitting in that section.  We could hear them talking about why the different costumes were chosen and things like that.  It was interesting to listen to.

After the parade we went to "Innovations" in "Tomorrowland."  Les had been waiting all day to go to it.  They had a lot of interesting things to see.  The girls loved the "Iron Man" display.  It had all his suits including the new one he would have for "Iron Man 3."  My favorite part was the house of the future.  At first it didn't impress.  Then we were in a kid's room.  One of the guides was sitting in there.  She saw us with the kids and she asked if she could read them a story.  Of course we said yes.  She had the girls sit on the bed which was shaped like a boat.  She read the story of Peter Pan.  As she read images appeared on the walls to go along with the story.  At the end of the bed was a canon.  When she got to the part of the story where they get to Neverland and Captain Hook is trying to shoot them out of the sky she stopped and has each of the kids take a few shots with the canon.  When they pulled the trigger (for lack of a better word) a whole in the clouds on the opposite wall would appear.  That was pretty awesome.  Too bad it would be way too expensive to actually get in your home. 

We wondered around for a while looking at things until it got near sunset.  We found a spot to sit along the banks of the "Rivers of America."  I left for a little bit to find something for us to eat for dinner.  I little while later the sun set and "Fantasmic" started.  The girls loved all the colors as the water shot into the air.  As that was ending the fireworks started.  It had been a long but wonderful day.



Disneyland Day One

We went on our first family vacation.  By that I mean that we actually left the state we live in.  Les and I decided that we should take our girls to see the princesses at Disneyland before they stopped liking them.  So off we went.

 And we are off!

 Look how happy we are! Especially these two since they don't have to do all the walking.

 Our first ride was Ariel's Undersea Adventure.  The girls loved it!

 Then to kill time before our big surprise for the girls we went to the Redwood Creek Challange Trail.  At different points along the trail they had to look for different things to pass off a "merit badge."  In the picture above our family walked high in the air on rope bridges.  The girls were terrified at first until the realized that there was a net under them to catch them (they only realized this because a shoe or two come loose and fell down there - it was only a few inches under the ropes).  The next four pictures of the kids climbing through a swinging "log."

Yes even Jacob and Les went through!  Next up are pictures of each of the kids going down a slide.

Emma and Khloe got to "rock climb" while we were there.  Samantha wasn't tall enough to reach the handholds so. . .

 She got to climb these bear shaped rocks.  Love the triumphant pose!

 Then we were off the the big surprise for the kids (okay really just the girls).  We went to Ariel's Grotto to have breakfast with the princesses.  They got to have quite a few pictures taken with Ariel.

 My bad on this picture.  It is Emma with her favorite princess, Cinderella!

 Khloe with her favorite, Snow White!

And Sammi got a hug from one of her favorites, Belle!

Not pictured is Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty)

 In between posing with princesses we ate a lot of good food.

On our way out we met up with Donald Duck so Jacob got to get in on the action.

 We went back to the redwoods were the girls participated in a merit badge ceremony and got to meet Russell from, "UP!"

 After leaving Russell we came through Condor Flats and meet Minnie in front of her personal plane.

 From there we went to "Cars Land" . . .

where we saw Mater . . .

 and Lightenin' McQueen.

Then we went to "a bugs land."

 We took a ride in Heimlich (the catepiller).  We all loved going through the giant watermelon.

By this time it was so hot that when we spotted this spotted huge water spiget with water leaking out all over we didn't hold the kids back from running straight into it.  Jacob, who is usually very reserved, ignored all the other people and played in it too.  He loves water.

Here we are getting ready to ride "Francis' Ladybug Boogie." I am happy to report that they took it easy on me so I didn't get hit by motion sickness.

Next we went to "Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies."  Jacob was asleep at this point so Les volunteered to sit with him.   Only one kid could go on the ride with me at a time.  Thank heavens they do the child swap thing so you don't have to wait in line everytime.  You just swap out kids until you are done.  

Samantha went with me first.  I helped her steer just enough to keep us out of the pile ups everyone else was getting into.

Khloe went next.  I helped her steer a little as well. 

Finally, it was Emma's turn.  She didn't want me to help.  She did well for the most part.  She did steer us into the wall a few times but she loved every moment of it.

After a little "break" we found this splash pad.  The girls played in it while we tried to decide what to do next.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Jacob asleep inside the stroller.  I wazs so glad there was plenty of shade to stick the stroller in so he wouldn't bake in there.

I sat with the sleeping prince while Les took the girls on "Flik's Flyers."

From there we went through Hollywood Land.  Mostly so Les could look at the "Tower of Terror."  He wanted to ride it but the kids refused to go with him.

Instead we found Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc and . . .

"Sully" in front of their university.

Here is a picture of the girls waiting to see "Disney Junior: Live on Stage."  We found it be following Jake from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates."  The girls were excited to see characters from shows they had watched and see more about ones they hadn't watched.  Jacob loved it when bubbles came from the ceiling.  He kept looking up at it waiting for more to come down.

 Next we rushed over to to watch Goofy conduct the "Instant Concert . . . Just Add Water" over Paradise Bay. 

 we loved watching the water shoot high into the air.  We even got to cool down a little when  the water rained back down on us.

 Just as Goofy was leaving we spotted Phineas and Ferb driving by.  We stopped to see if we could get on the "Golden Zephyr."  It was closed down due to the wind that had suddenly picked up.  So we moved on to "Mickey's Fun Wheel."

 Les had us get into the line for the cars that slide around as the wheel moves.  Here he is with his "I am excited to watch all of you squirm" smile.  The wheel moved slowly enough that while the girls tensed up they didn't seem to feel the need to scream.

Emma, Khloe, and I on the farris wheel.

From there we went to the "King Triton's Carousel" where each of our kids rode on their own sea creature.

As we were walking around we noticed the workers setting up for something.  We stopped and found a place to watch the "Pixar Play Parade."  I have way too many pictures of that to put on here.  When that was done we decided that we were tired so we went back to the hotel to rest and eat dinner.

Samantha and Jacob fell asleep on the walk back.  They didn't wake up again until morning.  So I stayed in our room with them while Les took the other two back after dinner.  They went to see "World of Color."  So that my friends was day one.