Disneyland Day #4 & 5

Thursday morning we got up early because we had "Extra Morning Magic Hours." Poor Anna, she was asleep before the bus even got there to take us to the park.

We took a quick family picture in front of the castle.

Devin stopped to say "hello" to his friend with big ears, just like his.

And then made a B-line straight for Peter Pan. Anna of course woke up for that.

We then went on Dumbo. Anna was way excited.

Sadie would just point to the elephants and say, "WEEEEEE." Anna tried, she knew those things flying around would be fun.

When they handed us our "magic feather" Anna stuck it right in her mouth. I know, SICK!!! How many children do you think have done that? And how many parents have let them keep chewing on it so they could get a picture?

We then went on the Carrousel. It was closed the first day we were there and I was delighted that it was open. I knew Anna would love it. She loved holding on the the pole.

We had to stop and see if she could pull the sword out of the stone. Maybe next time Anna.

After that we headed over to go on the Matterhorn. It is no Expedition Everest like at Animal Kingdom in Florida, but going on any ride with Mark, Tommy, and Spencer is a riot! I still can't believe that Spencer really is tall enough.

Then we went on the Finding Nemo ride. Surprise! Anna slept through it.

Sadie had fun riding on Devin's shoulders while Anna was snoozing.

Everyone who was tall enough went on the Indiana Jones ride. After that we decided to split up. That way Anna could take her time eating and we could go on more of the "little kid" rides and the boys could go do Jedi Training.
Anna took a really good nap.

So mom and dad had a really good snack! What would Disneyland be without a trip to the ice cream store.

We went and did some shopping and got Anna her Mickey ears.

We then went on the Winnie the Pooh ride.

We had some time, when there weren't a million people around, to take some good family pictures in front of the castle.

Anna met her Fairy Godmother.

We then went on a bunch of the Fantasyland rides.
Casey Jr. Circus Train

The Storybook Land Canal Boats. (Sorry just a waiting in line picture.)

We went over to "It's a Small World." But it wasn't a small line so we decided to skip that one. I must say I love watching the clock outside the ride. It is pretty amazing!

We then stopped to feed Anna. Devin thinks I look funny feeding her. Someday I'll catch him in a little of the "father" action and he will look just as silly.

After meeting up with Dave and Marthe's family we went over to Downtown Disney. I can't get over how close everything is. But they don't have the space like they do in Florida so everything has to be close. We took one quick family shot in front of California Adventure since we missed taking one the day before.

And that was about it. We had a great time! Anna loved her hat and her little Mickey.

We were all exhausted! It is quite the adventure going to Disneyland with a little baby. Anna was so good! The next day (day #5) she pretty much slept the entire way home, no joke!

I guess that means she had fun too. We made tracks as fast as we could and made it home in just under 12 hours. We look forward to going back. Anyone want to go???

Disneyland Day #3 (California Adventure)

Devin is at a Young Men's meeting so I've challenged myself to finish blogging about our Disneyland trip before he gets back. So on to day three.

The last time I went to Disneyland was back in 1997. All that was there was Disneyland and a very big parking lot and two Disney hotels. Since then things have changed a lot! California Adventure is now where the parking lot use to be. I was excited to go to a "new" theme park. It has been years since I have gone to a "new" theme park. Because California Adventure doesn't open until 10am we went over to Disneyland for a bit to kill some time. We took the traditional "In front of the flower Mickey" picture at the entrance to Disneyland.

Then one of the funniest things happened. We thought we would go on the Indiana Jones ride, but the line was really long. So we decided to go on the Jungle Cruise. A side note before I continue,... This is Devin's first time to Disneyland. We went to Disney World on our Honeymoon. In Florida they have Animal Kingdom which is like a really big zoo type park with REAL animals. Ok, so we were getting in line for the Jungle Cruise and Devin goes to hand me Anna.
D-"You hold her so I can take pictures."
J-"Why? What are you going to take pictures of?"
D-"The animals of course!"
J-"Devin, they are all fake! There are no real animals on the jungle cruise, well maybe some birds and bugs."
D-"But I thought this was the Jungle Cruise?"
Poor Devin, I didn't realized that we skipped the Jungle Cruise on our Honeymoon. He was all excited for a REAL Jungle Cruise. We still had a good time.

Spencer LOVED it!

I am happy to report that the Jungle Cruise Guide's jokes are still the same and still as corny as ever. I love the Jungle Cruise!
We then decided to head over to California Adventure for some Tower of Terror action. Thanks to fast passes and stroller passes and just short lines in general we were all able to go on it several times.
After that we went on the Monsters Inc. ride. Then we went to Muppet Vision 3-D.

Funny how Anna loved things like Pirates and the Haunted Mansion, but she really didn't like the Muppet 3-D show. I think not being in motion had something to do with it.
After that the brave people went on the Grizzly River Run. Maybe "brave" isn't the right word, the people who were not cold and didn't mind getting wet and possibly staying cold all day.
After lunch we waited in probably the longest line of our trip for the new Toy Story Midway Mania ride. IT WAS WORTH IT!!!! We actually went on it twice because we liked it so much.

Anna was smart and slept through the line and woke up just in time to get on the ride both times. If you have been on the Buzz Lightyear ride where you get to try and shoot stuff, this is very similar but WAY better. You are spun around to face these big screens that look like different midway games. You pop balloons with darts, shoot ducks, ....so many fun things. Sometimes when you hit the right target stuff happens too. A puff of air when you pop a balloon, a spray of water, all sorts of fun stuff. It was FANTASTIC!!!! It is even more challenging holding Anna and trying to shoot the gun at the same time.
In the afternoon we went over to "a bugs land" so the little kids could have fun going on rides. Anna liked Heimlich's Chew Chew Train.

David was brave and let Tommy drive the bumper car so he could video the family trying to "bump" each other.

I took the boys on the Ladybug Boogie ride. I kept trying to tell them that it wasn't like the Teacups, but they spent the whole ride trying to make it spin and ended up just falling all over.

We got to go on lots of rides. California Screamin' was excellent. It will be fun to see the park when it isn't under so much construction. The lake is drained right now because they are putting in a water/light show like Fantasmic. And they are adding new stuff all over. I guess they always give you a reason to go back again.
When California Adventure closed we headed over to Disneyland to see the fireworks. Anna was way tired and slept for the rest of the night. That includes sleeping through the whole fireworks show.

The boys had fun sword fighting with one of the park employees. She was outnumbered 3 to 1, but she held off the three boys pretty well.

Sadie even joined in a little bit.

Poor Spencer he had such a fun time he wore himself out and slept through the whole fireworks show. I think it was the next morning, really early morning, when he woke up crying, "I didn't get to see the fireworks show!" Poor kid!

Because Anna was sleeping, and because we actually found a bench to sit on, I sat on the bench with Anna before the fireworks started and Devin played with his camera. He even got some great shots during the show. I wish he had more chances to play with all the buttons on his camera that make it do different things.

We then joined the masses of people and went back to our hotel.

Can I Get My Tickets Yet? PLEASE!!!