DISNEYLAND!!

My friend Leslie had two tickets to Disneyland that she couldn't use before they expired on December 13th, so she asked me if I wanted them. ABSOLUTELY! I've been wanting to take the kids to Disneyland for a while now, so this was just perfect! Samuel was able to take the day off on Wednesday to join us and I called Sarah to see if she Chloe wanted to join us since they had passes. They did so we were all set to meet up there.

The last time we went to Disneyland was before we had Hannah and Sammy was just 18 months old (so Hannah's age now). He HATED it. He cried during every ride and especially during the fireworks that night. So I didn't have too high of expectations for this trip either.

I couldn't get a hold of Sarah on her cell when we first got there (turns out they were on the Peter Pan ride), so we walked around Main Street and over to the castle to the rides over there. We went on the Merry-go-Round which neither one of the kids liked. Oh well. We met up with Sarah at the Merry-go-Round and went to the Pinocchio ride. Big mistake on our part. I didn't know that it was going to be as dark and scary as it was (at least to 2 kids under 4), both kids began crying the moment it began and didn't stop until we got off. After that, they were much more wary about the rides and were unsure whether they wanted to go on any.

Here we are at the front of the park by the giant Christmas tree. I was hoping that this would turn out well and we could use it for our Christmas card. But as you can see, no such luck.

So Sarah, Chloe and I got in line for the Dumbo ride in the hopes that Sammy (and possibly Hannah) would want to go. The line took about 20 minutes, so by the time we got up to the front, Sammy was ready to go on it with me. He had so much fun moving Dumbo up and down--I was glad that he wasn't freaked out by this one.

We walked through the castle and got some churros and went over to Tomorrowland to ride the rockets over there. It was a fairly short wait again and Sammy loved these even more than Dumbo because they went "super fast" and went higher. We saw Buzz Lightyear standing around to take pictures with, so Sam and Sammy got in line to do that while I ran over to Space Mountain to get Fast Passes for Sarah and I to ride Space Mountain (Samuel doesn't like roller coasters, so he volunteered to watch the 3 kids).

Sammy and I on the rocket ride

Samuel and Sammy with Buzz (Sammy looks so little!)

We decided to stake out our place for the snow and the parade, so we found a park bench along the parade route and directly under a snow machine and camped out. Sarah offered to hang out there with Chloe while we walked over to Frontierland to see "Woody's Round-up" where they had live reindeer. It was getting chilly so we stopped for more churros and some hot chocolate. We also found some McDonald's french fries being sold over by Thunder Mountain Railroad, so of course, Sammy (and Sam) wanted to get some, then headed back over to where Sarah was waiting.

The three of us by the live reindeer.
Again, I was hoping this would turn out cute...but no such luck

It was fun to see the castle all decked out for Christmas and with snow. When the snow started in the park, unfortunately, the machine we were under didn't work, so we didn't get the full effect. Oh well. Maybe next time.

We had just enough time between the snow and the parade to go on Space Mountain, so Sarah and I went. Twice. It was great!

The parade was fun and the kids enjoyed it, although Hannah was falling asleep since she didn't take a nap on the drive down to Orange County so it was waaaay past her bedtime. Sammy loved seeing Buzz and Woody in the parade--those are his favorite Disney characters.

We headed back to the tram (along with at least half of the park) to take us back to the parking garage. It was at least a 30 minute wait, but fortunately, they were selling kettle popcorn at Downtown Disney right next to where we were waiting, so that kept everyone happy until the tram arrived. Especially Sammy, it's his favorite.

We had a good time despite the fact that it started out in tears. I remember Disney World being such a magical place as a child (I lived in Florida until I was 7) and then Disneyland as a teen being so much fun and full of great memories and good times. I can't wait to have it be that way for my kids--to have them experience the magic and have us create new memories as a family. Maybe they'll enjoy it more when they are a little older and can appreciate it and have it not be so overwhelming. And with tickets $56.00 for kids and $66.00 for adults, I think I can wait.

Thanks Sarah and Chloe--we had a great time! And thanks Leslie for the tickets!