Disneyland!!

  After a long 3.5 years we finally made it back to Disneyland as a family!!  Well not quite all of the family, we did leave our 1 year old Ryder home with my sister in law Jackie (great decision in case you were wondering :) ).  We had so much fun!  Best vacation ever!!!  We even got to fly to Disneyland thanks to sky miles Ryan has been accumulating through frequent business trips to Las Vegas.  Yay for that!  Flying was fabulous!!  It was Brooks’ first time on an airplane and he loved it (look at that face in the pic below!).  This was on the airplane going to LA.  

It was a splurge but we stayed at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel right in California Adventure park.  It was awesome.  I don’t think we can stay anywhere else ever again! LOL :)  The kids loved the bunk beds.  It was like a dream come true for them to sleep in them every night.  The rooms were plenty big for a pack and play that Brooks slept in too so it was perfect!  The kids also got so excited when our rooms got made up because they would leave little Disney chocolate coins on the pillows every time.  The Hotel was really nice and I loved the little rockers they had for the kids to watch Disney movies in the Lobby. 

We arrived late Wednesday afternoon so we had a half day to relax, swim, eat dinner and explore Downtown Disney a little bit.  It ended up being such a fun day!  It was close to 90 degrees when we got there so we decided to go swimming first.  We had a blast.  The kids were loving the water slide!  Even Brooks went down all by himself and wanted to go again and again!    

Nice hair Ash!! 

  

  After swimming we ate dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe in Downtown Disney.  It was sooo good!  The food was seriously yummy and the atmosphere was really cool.  It was like a rain forest(ha ha) with realistic looking animals everywhere you looked and then every 30 minutes or so a rain and thunder storm would go on throughout the restaurant.  The kids loved it.  Brooks spent the whole dinner looking around at all the different animals and stuff.  We had some chimpanzees right by us and some elephants that he was completely fascinated with.  They would move and make sounds every so often.  It was pretty cool.  It is a huge restaurant.  Downstairs they have a shop and a large fish aquarium along with more seating.  We ate upstairs where a lot of the animals were.   We loved it here. 

After dinner we walked around Downtown Disney.  Our favorite was the Lego store.  It was incredible!  Right outside the store they have these different Disney displays made entirely of legos!!  So cool!  Inside the store they also have a station were you can create your very own lego guys to take home with you.   They had a lot of fun with that.Another thing the kids loved at the lego store was building their own lego car then getting to race it.  Dalton’s car won the first 3 races, he was so excited.      

After shopping and looking around some more we ate some ice cream and headed back to our hotel.  The next morning we got up early to use our magic morning our first day at Disneyland!  Everyone was sooo excited.  I think Ryan and I may have even been more excited than the kids. :)

All the kids loved Buzz Lightyear ride, especially Brooks!  He had so much fun shooting Zurg!!

 After we rode on a few rides in the morning we knew we wanted to do the Jedi Training show in Tomorrow land.  All our kids LOVE Star Wars and they really wanted to try and get chosen for the show.  Lucky for us both kids got picked to participate (we actually went two times, the first show just Ashby got picked(and Dalton was soo bummed so we knew we had to try again), then the second show both Ashby and Dalton were chosen. Phew!  We sat them right up front and they were jumping up and down like crazy to get picked.  They were both so excited to be padawans in the Jedi Training.

 The show is awesome!  The kids get to practice using a lightsaber and wear a jedi robe.  Then after practicing awhile suddenly Darth Vader comes out of the ground along with his friend Darth Maul!!  All the padawans run over to the side and take turns fighting either Darth Vader or Darth Maul face to face!  The Jedi Master is really cute and funny with all the kids.  He teaches them a series of moves to use against the dark side.   The kids took it very seriously. Dalton got to got to fight Darth Vader!! Ashby got to fight Darth Maul!  

In the end all the younglings are presented with Jedi Certificates as they waved to the crowd.  So fun!   

Next we hit up Toon Town to meet Mickey Mouse!  It was Brooks first time meeting Mickey and he was just thrilled!  He smiled so big and gave  him a big hug.  He couldn’t believe it was actually Mickey Mouse.  He was so excited.  We loved going on the little toon town roller coaster.  Too bad the line was so long or we would have gone a couple more times.  The kids had fun playing around in Goofy, Donald, and Chip and Dales houses.

 

Next we headed over to Frontier land.  We were bummed Indiana Jones was closed but we loved going on Jungle Cruise and playing in Tarzan’s tree house and of course Pirates of the Caribbean.  Pirates was one of the kids favorite rides (including Brooks). :)

 

Next up was the parade.  We love the Disneyland parades!  We saved our spot right on the curb with white towels we brought from our hotel.  It worked perfect to save enough seats so we weren’t too squished.  We had great seats to see the parade up close! 

 

Waiting for the parade to come . . .

   Brooks was soo excited during the parade!  He thought it was the greatest thing in the whole world.  He loved seeing everything so up close and personal.  He was waving and smiling at everything he saw.  He was especially excited to see all the characters.  It was so fun to watch the excitement in his eyes.  Ashby and Dalton loved the parade too.

 After hitting Disneyland hard until it closed we decided to hop over to California Adventure and watch the new water and lights show called World of Color.  We didn’t know what to expect and heard we should try to get fast passes to see it, but we didn’t have time so we ended up just going by the pier to see if there were any good spots left.  Well we ended up getting some great spots with amazing views.  We were so excited! 

The show was amazing!!  We LOVED it!!  They use lights and water to create this really cool musical show from a bunch of different Disney movies.  It was so neat.  I loved all the songs and movies they did.

 So the next day we had our Magic Morning early entry into California Adventure.  We had it all planned out to spend the day there, and hit Cars Land first thing.  Ryan was going to get the fast passes to Radiator Racers while I would go see what the line was like to wait.  So we were like the first ones there and the fast passes don’t open until 8:00.  I get to the ride and it is shut down and they don’t know when it will be back up again.  We were so disappointed!!   It ended up working out though, we did all the other Cars Land rides with little or no lines.  We also got to see Mater and Lightning with no wait.  The best part was instead of waiting in line for fast passes we used our Rider Switch Passes for Radiator Racers because Brooks was too short (barely!) to ride.  We took turns taking Ashby and Dalton separately.  It was an awesome ride!  Loved it.  I wish we could have done it again.

   

We loved the Tow Mater ride.  It was a lot of fun.

   

We heard Luigi’s tire ride wasn’t the greatest so we weren’t expecting much, but it was pretty fun.  You definitely have to use your body weight to move it back and forth.  I think it helps to have an adult with the kids because there is more weight and you go faster.  Ashby and I had so much fun trying to steer and bump into Ryan, Brooks and Dalton.

  

Cars Land is just plain awesome!!  We came back at night to look around too.  It is just like you stepped into Radiator Springs in the movie.  It is so cool.  I love all the red rock and little details with all the little stores and shops. We actually had lunch at Flo’s Cafe and it was delicious.  Such a cool atmosphere in Cars Land.  I could have stayed there all day!    Ashby and me on Radiator Racers!!  Love that ride.  It was soo much fun!!

 Toy Story Mania!!  It was a LONG wait but well worth it. LOVE this ride.  

I took Brooks and Dalton on the carousel while Ryan took Ashby on California Screamin.  Dalton wasn’t tall enough to ride or he would have gone too.  Ashby loved it!!

The new Ariel ride is a fun one.  We all loved this ride.  Another favorite ride in California Adventure was Soarin over California and Grizzly Bear River Run. 

New mouse ears and ice cream later that night.  The kids were in heaven. :)

   

Our last day at Disneyland we used our Magic morning early entrance again.  It was awesome!!  The park was nearly empty.  Ryan, Ashby and Dalton headed off to Matterhorn first thing while Brooks and I went on Peter Pan, Dumbo, and more rides in Fantasy land with no lines!   We also did Buzz Lightyear again.  It is one of their favorites.  I loved hanging out with this little guy! 

It started to rain a lot so we decided to stop by Pixie Hollow and meet Tinker Bell.  We also met her sister Periwinkle from the new movie “Secret  of the Wings”.  Tinker Bell was so cute.  When she met the kids the first thing she did was fix Brooks’ rain poncho.  All the kids thought that was so cool.  Brooks was so excited to meet Tinker Bell.   One thing I LOVE about Disneyland is they don’t rush you when you meet the characters.  They really try to make it special for the kids.

     

Dalton loved how Tinker Bell wanted them to fold their arms in front of their chests for the picture.  

Brooks LOVED jungle cruise!  He was yelling and pointing to every animal he saw with such excitement.  He was cracking us up the whole boat ride.  The rain worked out perfect for us because we were able to go on Splash Mountain several times with no lines and our rain ponchos kept us nice and dry!  Perfect!! :) 

 We also met Merida!  She was beautiful!  Look at her hair.  Wow!! 

Next on our list to meet was Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.  We waited in a LONG line to meet these two but it was totally worth it!!  They were so cute with the kids.  Ashby gave her a flower and Rapunzel put it in her hair, then they talked about which weapons were more effective light sabers or frying pans.  Both kids were loving it seriously!   

 

After taking an absurd amount of pictures in front of Disneyland we headed over to California Adventure to watch some shows we wanted to see.  We saw Bug’s life little movie with Flick that was great.  Then we went to Aladdin.  We loved it!  The best part was because we were staying at a Disneyland Hotel we got reserved seating right up front close to the stage!  I didn’t take any pics but it was such a good show.  The kids thought it was amazing.  Aladdin is one of their favorite movies ever.  So glad we decided to watch this one.

We also went to the Disney Junior Live on Stage.  It was a lot of fun.  It was a great interactive show that all the kids really got into.

After the show we ran into Mickey Mouse by chance and took some pics with him.  The kids were always so excited to see the characters around especially Mickey.

    

 

While we were in California Adventure we saw the green army men from Toy Story put on a performance with drums that was really cool.  They even let all the kids participate and play some games with them.  Ashby and Dalton had a great time with it.

  I have to mention that Brooks was a champ at Disneyland!  For a 2.5 year old it was a lot of waiting in long lines, endless rides in the stroller, no naps, having to hold going to the bathroom at times until we were done with a ride, etc. and he did so great!  Love this little guy.    

Brooks is slightly obsessed with Toy Story(notice Zurg is in his hands) and all the things Woody so we couldn’t resist these mouse ears for him.  Too cute!!

 

We ate dinner at a great little spot in Downtown Disney before the parade and fireworks.  The kids were excited to wear their new hats. 

We saw the parade again on Saturday night!  The kids loved it just as much the second time around.  Then we stayed for the fireworks.  Ryan scoped out a good spot to watch from while I took the kids on some more rides.  We had great seats right near the castle. The show was amazing!!  It was a lot longer than I thought it would be and it was so cool to see Tinker Bell fly through the sky over the castle!! I wasn’t expecting that. We loved the music that went with the firework show too.  So awesome!!!

  Brooks finally fell asleep after staying awake all day right before the show started and missed the whole thing!  Classic.  Ashby and Dalton really loved the show.

The kids slept so great the whole time we were there.  We all pretty much passed out every night we were so tired!!  It was such a fun vacation.  I already want to go back so bad.  We missed our little Ryder and loved seeing his cute face when we got home.  He did good with Jackie so we were grateful for that.  We can’t wait to take the whole family in maybe another year or so.  Our last day we enjoyed a room service breakfast including Mickey waffles.  Too cute.  BEST. VACATION. EVER.  Until next time Disneyland!!