Disneyland!

Weeks ago I loaded all of my pictures onto the blog and thought I'd write all about our trip. I totally forgot about it until Becca posted about Disneyland today. 

When I look at these pictures I feel intense emotions. I am filled with frustration and regret that I'm not there RIGHT NOW.  I also have such perfect memories that I love because we had an awesome trip.  This year we went to Disneyland with my whole family. We prepared for our trip by making a list of all the Disney movies we could conceivably watch.  Throughout the month of January we watched a lot of them! Lucy and I also made a paper chain to count down the days. In my opinion, one quarter of the joy of Disneyland is the anticipation. 

We had a nice drive down to Southern CA.  Danny and I got to talk and listen to a book on tape and the kids were mesmerized by Disney movies. That afternoon we checked into the hotel and went swimming-the best part about vacation. Having not been swimming for awhile the kids were in heaven. We ordered food up to our room and went to bed early-which was heaven for me:) That evening I went to pick up Becca and her girls at the airport. It was so fun seeing my baby girls at last!

The next day we loaded up on breakfast (Embassy Suites is perfect for that reason) and headed to Disneyland. I deejayed the drive over there and I had played a perfect mix of pump-up Disney and classic Disney tunes, if I do say so myself:) 

One of my favorite parts of the day is on the tram ride to the park-there is just so much excitement and a whole wonderful day ahead of you!

We started our two day trip at CA Adventure. We went straight to Cars Land. Becca, Katy and Mom took all the little girls on rides while Dad, Danny, Lucy and I went on Radiator Springs Racers-and grabbed a stroller pass thank heavens. Man that ride is fun-this was my second time on it and I couldn't possibly love it more.

The whole gang in Cars Land.

We sent Mom, Becca, Katy and Lucy off to Radiator Springs and the little kids got to meet Lightning McQueen!

After doing everything there is to do at Cars Land we headed over to Disneyland. 

We went on some of our favorite Fantasy Land rides and met some characters. We were lucky to stumble upon Merida playing "Bear, bear, Queen" with Peter Pan! Ruby was chosen as the "Queen" and had to race away from Peter Pan after she picked him.

The wishing well is a great place to meet people! My girls loved meeting Snow White there that afternoon too.

 My favorite ride is Space Mountain. It is truly my happy place. Danny is SO Fun on Space Mountain.

 One highlight was seeing a play about Rapunzel at Princess Fantasy Fair. I ended up sitting on the front row with the kids (Ruby told me she was scared of Mother Gothel and Lydia wanted me up there) and I loved seeing Lucy beaming up at the stage. It was a really cute show.

 All of the adults agreed that this ride was their least favorite.

 Jungle cruise! Historically Becca's favorite ride. We always made fun of her for it as kids.

Later that afternoon we went back to CA Adventure and saw the Disney Jr show while the other adults went on Tower of Terror. We saw the Pixar Parade and rode the Little Mermaid ride six times in a row. It was by far every child's favorite ride.  We also went on Tritan's carousel-can you see their incredibly happy faces?!

 We got in line for World of Color freakishly early and sat waiting for it forever. I started thinking it might not be worth the discomfort and late hour, but after it started I remembered that it is worth EVERYTHING. We earned our glorious position being there so early and it gave us great views and didn't disappoint. We were all surprised that we got so wet during the show-we weren't right by the water, and only when it was over did we realize it was raining! It was a soggy walk out of the park, but we had such a great day.

The next morning I made everyone get up and to the park as soon as it opened. When we walked in Ariel was standing there waiting for us! She was so nice and the girls loved chatting with her. She noticed Lucy was wearing a shirt with her "portrait" on it!

That morning we met a lot of important people. We stood in line at Princess Fantasy Fair and met Cinderella, Aurora and Ariel. Then we went to Pixie Hollow to meet some fairies. My little girls are obsessed with the Tinker Bell movies so this was a very big deal. They saw the ice machine Tink made in Secret of the Wings! ( I was even more excited about this than they were-which is saying something).

Meeting Tink and Iridessa at last! They were so nice and had a very long chat with us.

Riding Dumbo with my girls. I think at this moment my mom was with Jane in line to meet Anna and Elsa (a two hour line that didn't move cuz the princesses weren't even there yet), Dad and Katy were on the Indiana Jones ride and Danny was..somewhere. Becca and I took our girls on Dumbo, the carousel, the storybook ride and then Teacups with Katy-all while Mom/Danny waited in the Frozen line.

 

We managed to squeeze all seven of us in one teacup (it was that or wait for the next cycle). It was a big mistake-we were super tight and uncomfortable-so much so that Lydia just squirmed and cried the whole time. Somehow it was still pretty funny:)

At last it was our turn!! 

This was the highlight of the whole trip. Elsa and Anna spent five minutes talking to our girls. I mostly heard Elsa, but she chatted with my babies, mostly about what being a sister really means (!!).  Everyone got hugs and a few pictures and then our time was up. It was perfect.

That afternoon Dad and Danny took all the girls on the train while the big girls (Mom, me, Becca, Katy and baby Jane) went to the Haunted Mansion and then stopped to eat some beignets in New Orleans Square. We never bother sitting down to really...eat...at Disneyland so it was a fun change:)

After seeing the Beauty and the Beast play and going on Space Mountain two more times it was time for the parade.  Andersons know how to do a parade. We staked out our favorite spot an hour early. We get ice cream and churros to fuel out excitement. Then we clap along to the music, scream and yell energetically and blow kisses and wave to every dancer/character that passes us. I find  that most parade goers either watch quietly or film the whole thing on their iphones, so the characters really respond to our enthusiasm. We get more waves, kisses and hugs then anyone and are thrilled with it. The parade is always our favorite thing.

Here is Joyce offering Alice some of her ice cream sandwich. The Mad Hatter was quiet comfortable with us and even put in Jane's binkie for her.

 After the parade everyone was pretty exhausted. My parents and Danny offered to take all the kids home in one car so my sisters and I could stay later and see the fireworks. It was really fun to play at Disneyland with my sisters:)

 I've only been on the Matterhorn once. I remember it being lame, and my memory was accurate, but it was really fun to do with with the girls. We also rode Star Tours together and then Katy and I did one last run on Space Mountain.

 I have never seen the fireworks at Disneyland before. Crazy huh?! It was really fun. I decided to tape it so I could show the kids, so it wasn't quite as fun watching them through my phone, but I loved showing the babies Tinker Bell flying around the castle. They LOVED it.

While waiting for the fireworks I convinced the girls that instead of going home immediately after the fireworks, we should go finish our trip at Cars Land and see it at night. I was so excited they agreed!

One of the nice photogs took this picture and made us do this pose...

It was so fun to walk through Radiator Springs at night. When we got to the end of the street I used my amazing powers of oersuasion to get the girls to stand in the single rider line and go on Radiator Springs Racers one last time. The wait was kinda long... but so wroth it to go at night:) It was really beautiful and the perfect way to finish our trip. 

Disneyland with my family was absolute heaven.