This year Brian and I took a week off in March and took the girls to Disneyland! We got off work early Friday and hit the road by 4:30PM, we then drove through the night making stops as needed. Our arrival in Anaheim was about 1:00PM on Saturday and we were lucky to be able to check into our room a few hours early. We took the night off to rest so we could get up early and head to "the happiest place on Earth"! The girls were so excited when they saw what was in store for them, they didn't really understand it until they saw Sleeping Beauty's castle and it was magical! We spent 6 whole days (most of them from opening to an hour or 2 before closing) at Disneyland. The weather was a bit nasty and rainy at times, but being that we are Oregonians, we were used to it.
It is hard for me to recap our trip in a day to day detail as I had planned, as I waited too long to blog about it, but here is the gist of it. We spent about 60% of our time at Disneyland and 40% of our time at California Adventure, both we equally fun and exciting! The girls were most excited about seeing the princesses, which they were able to talk with and have their pictures taken together. I almost forgot to mention that I bought the girls new dresses for the trip, Addison (Rapunzel) and Kennedy (Belle), which they were surprised with upon our arrival. The girls wore their dresses to the park a few times, but they were most excited to wear their dresses to their lunch with the princesses, which we all enjoyed yummy food and good company.
Addison and Kennedy are quite the dare devils, they loved going on all of the "scary" rides that they could. Addison went on Tower of Terror 3 times and both of the girls didn't freak out when we went in the Haunted Mansion! There were a few that Kennedy wasn't quite tall enough for and a few that neither of them were tall enough for, but for the most part they were able to go on most of the rides. We learned that we could do a parent swap, this means that I could go on a ride w/ Addison and then we could swap and Brian could go on the same ride w/ Addison and not have to wait in line. This was quite a treat! We were also thrilled to learn about the single rider pass that we got to use on the Indiana Jones ride that neither of the girls were tall enough to go on, this was great we just basically got to walk to the front of the line! Addison's favorite rides were Space Mountain and Autopia. Kennedy pretty much liked them all! I think my favorite rides were Space Mountain, Soarin Over California, and Tower of Terror. I was bummed that Splash Moutain and Star Tours were closed....I guess we will have to wait until next time.
We learned about "pin trading" at Disneyland. This we discovered when we were perusing the gift shops and looking for souveniers and saw a special on a pin trading set. We couldn't believe we hadn't heard of this before, it was too cool! The girls each got a lanyard with 6 pins and they got to go up to various cast members and trade pins with them. There are a few rules, you can't trade with the same cast member more than 2 times in 1 day, and you can't trade them a pin they already have. This was lots of fun for the girls, plus it was a good distraction when the lines were long and we needed a break. Addison ended up with a Tinkerbell from Disneyland Paris and Kennedy ended up with a Tinkerbell from Disneyworld. Brian and I are thinking we will start pin trading on our next Disneyland trip!
We spent our first evening watching World of Color at California Adventure. This is a show on the water with lots of amazing color effects, music, fire and more! We thought it was pretty amazing, but realized that for us it didn't quite compare to the Fantasmic show, which we watched 2 times on the same evening. We had first attempted to watch the first showing and made a mad dash after the fireworks. Well, our "seats" (it is a standing show) weren't too well, the girls were tired and we were determined to stick it out. So, we suffered through the first show and though it was definitely worth staying at the park later than planned that night to grab a good viewing spot for the second show. It was absolutely worth it! The girls did wake up for parts of it and Kennedy was especially excited that she got to see Beast from Beauty and the Beast (who is her favorite), plus we were able to see many of the characters that you don't see around the park that went by on The Mark Twain boat.
Now I am going to jump back and talk about the fireworks show, how amazing! We first watched the fireworks from the rooftop of our timeshare, but it was nothing in comparison to having perfect seats in front of the castle. They had amazing music for each theme, fireworks shaped like Mikey's ears, smiley faces, etc. They had different lights and shadows that were projected onto the castle, lazers flying through the air (for the Star Wars part), and best of all was Tinkerbell flying around the castle (and yes it is a real person that is zip lining). Addison was yelling to Tinkerbell "I wish for wings" over and over, and it was absolutely aborable (well, until she got upset that she didn't get wings that is). What a way to end the evening!
We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back....in fact, we already scheduled the time off to go next March! It was just amazing to see the magic through the eyes of your children!
If you would like to look at all of our pictures from our trip, you can go to
http://burleighfamily2011.shutterfly.com/
