H Family Adventures: Disneyland Part 1

Disneyland!! It had been a long time since the girls had been to Disneyland and Caleb has never been. So he was long overdue. As part of our Christmas gift to each other and the kids we decided to surprise the kids with a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth! We made lots of great memories and the girls were so surprised! Caleb tried his best to be happy but the combination of teething, no real good napping schedule and being confined to his stroller most of the time made him a little difficult. He really just wanted to eat and run circles around the entire park.

Here was the beginning of our first day. We were ready to ride rides, see characters and eat snacks all day! And what a great way to begin our morning! As we were walking through the park we see Cinderella and Aurora walk past us. So we begin to chase them to see where they will stop to take pictures. With the park being as crowded as it was that day if you don't get into line quick enough you may not get to meet them. I just love to see the joy on Leah's face while standing next to Cinderella(my fav)! And then to see it again on both of them with Aurora was the perfect way to begin the day. We did see lots of other characters, it seemed to be the trip of characters. We saw Goofy-more then once, Pluto-more then once, Mickey!-which was a shocker, he walked right in front of us and we ended up being second in line! We also saw Tigger, Pooh, Woody, Jessie, Tinkerbell and her friends, Sully-we love Sully!-Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Phinneas and Ferb and had a dance party and Doug from Up!

Leah had a bunch of new experiences going on rides she was tall enough for. Her first "roller coaster" was the Go-Go coaster and I tried to zoom in as best as I could so, look close. You can see the terror on her face as we are coming down the hill. :-) She didnt like it. However, she loved the Matterhorn (a.k.a. the unicorn) which is larger, faster and longer then the GO-GO Coaster. Go figure. She also tried Thunder Mountain and was not a big fan of that either. Oh well, she got her big girl ride pins for her lanyard and she is happy. Ultimately, Leah's favorite was the Winnie the Pooh ride. I think she went on that ride more times then we could count.

Abi was tall enough for all the rides except for one over in California Adventure. Her list of new rides includes Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Star Tours, Grizzly River Run, and Goofy's Sky School. Her favorite of those was Splash Mountain! Its fun to have a daughter that is big enough and enjoys some of the big rides.

One day we let the girls wear their costumes to the park. Abi was Tinkerbell and Leah was her favorite, Snow White. We were able to see Tinkerbell that day but we never saw Snow White by the wishing well. Its okay, they had a good time anyways. Leah wore her dress like a true princess would. From the moment we walked into the park she held her hands to the side and flipped them out at her wrist and had a float about her walk. She was feeling the Disney princess magic and it was fun to watch.

It was plain to see Caleb LOVED the characters. With each one we visited he showed no sign of hesitation. He would run up to them and give them a snuggle and play with them. I think we had the hardest time getting him away from Tigger, we did have to intervene on that one.