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.