Family: Disneyland and California Adventures!!!

Disneyland Day 1

Finally, after months of anticipation, we finally arrived at Disneyland. We had a 3 day park hopper pass, and we wanted to fit in as much as possible. The kids were so excited. It sure had changed a lot from the last time I was there. I think I was in 8th grade. California Adventures was just a parking lot back then. Now there is a nice parking structure and trams that take you right there. It was so fun looking around and seeing everyone so excited. Especially all the little kids.

Blue skies and only a light jacket. It was such a beautiful day. So different then the weather back home. It was really nice to get away from the cold for a while.

One of the first rides we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain. We quickly learned the best way to utilize fast pass tickets and we were able to get on a lot of rides that first day. The girls really liked Splash Mountain. (Well, at least Autumn did) It was one of the rides that we went on more then once. It was so fun watching Autumn's personality come out. She is such a quiet child (except at home) and seeing this new "roller coaster junkie" as Brian called her, was a lot of fun. There wasn't any ride she didn't dare try. From Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Railroad, Space Mountain, to the Matterhorn, she loved them all. After each new ride, that one became her new favorite. She usually road with Brian. He teased her saying she sounded like a little mouse squealing on the ride. So when she would ride with me she asked if she did. I didn't think she did, but then she decided to ride with me on the Matterhorn for the first time. I could not stop laughing!!!! She did squeal just like a little mouse on every hill and quick bend. The best was when we would pass the Abominable Snowmen!!! Funniest thing I've heard!!

It took a lot of convincing to get Brooklyn to ride Splash Mountain with us. I had gotten Fast Passes to it so it didn't take very long to get on the ride. Of course, Autumn loved it and said it was her favorite ride at that moment. Brooklyn enjoyed everything before and after the "big drop." She must not have hated the ride so too bad, because she rode on it again with us. Autumn got soaked the first time. She wanted to sit right in the very front. She was a good sport and sat there again the next time.

The Haunted Mansion was completely different from when I was little. The had it decorated with Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas. It is what happens when Christmas and Halloween collide. Hunter really liked this ride. Maybe it was because it was one of the few rides he COULD ride.

I think the longest line we stood in was It's a Small World. It took forever!! The line wrapped in, out and around everything around it. This was one of my favorite rides when I was little. This time everything was decorated for Christmas. It was worth the wait. and I was happy to be in the beautiful warm weather.

There was a giant coo coo clock on the front that had cute little characters that came out. It took a lot of effort to get Hunter to look at the camera to get a picture in front of it.

We hit Toon Town tog see if we could see Mickey. It was terribly busy there!!! We decided we would try another day. But Hunter had to get his picture taken in one of the toon cars.

We left Toon Town to go get a good spot for the Disney Parade. Hunter was so tired that he fell asleep. He was pretty tuckered out. He slept the whole time while we waited for the parade to start.

While waiting for the parade, we were able to see some fun Disney characters. They had a little Mary Poppins show going on and then we saw some of the characters on Alice and Wonderland. We got the girls a book for signatures and pictures.

California Adventures

The weather had been very nice, but we did get rained on one day. It started as a down pour. We all got soaked. We got some bags and put them over the kids to help keep them dry. There feet still got really wet and Autumn was pretty bummed out. We stuck it out for a little while and the ducked into some of the different shows. Brian and Autumn headed over to go on Tower of Terror. I took Hunter and Brooklyn to Playhouse Disney. It was nice inside, but most of all, dry! Hunter loved it. I was sad that Brian had my camera. It was so fun watching Hunter interact with what the characters were doing. After, I headed over to meet Brian and Autumn to ride Tower of Terror. Once again, it was a ride that we had to ride at least twice. It was so funny watching all these kids who were too afraid to ride react to seeing Autumn WANTING to ride it. She did admit that she was kind of scared of the story behind it, whether it lightning could really do that to a building, but she still enjoyed the ride. They snap a picture of you when the open the doors at the top. I snapped a picture of it with my camera, so it isn't the best, but still some good memories!!

There wasn't a lot of rides Hunter could ride. Many of the rides he wanted to go on, he was just a little too short.

Just like Disneyland has a parade with the Disney characters, California Adventures has a Pixar Parade. We got a really good spot at the front of the parade route. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be a good spot for taking pictures. So I tried my best but not many turned out very good. Oh well...it was still fun.

Last Day at Disneyland

We stared the day early with Magic Morning. It is when people with special passes get to enter the park 1 hour before general admission. We got Southern California City Passes and it included one magic morning. It was a little cold due to the rain storm the day before. But it still warmed up really nice.

We got to see a lot more characters this day and get some more pictures. We decided to go in Splash Mountain again. After we ran into Brar Bear. We also saw a Tigger, Eeyore, and a glimpse of Pooh Bear

If you notice, Hunter was not too happy while visiting Eeyore. He wanted his daddy to hold him so he was being really grumpy! Eeyore began playing with him and making kissing noises at him and soon had him smiling. It was really cute how some of the characters would interact with the kids.

Well, we couldn't go Disneyland without seeing Mickey. So we stood in the long line to see him. Actually, it didn't take as long as we had thought it would.

The kids got to learn how to become Princesses and Princes. They even got to dance with Snow white, Cinderella and Bell. If you look carefully, you can see all 3 kids doing the maypole with Snow White.

Hunter was so excited to be able to ride Autotopia and drive a car. He fell asleep just before we got there. But we woke him up so that he could ride it. He was so happy when he was given a little licence to drive. We still have it for him. He was so cute. He couldn't even see over the car. He did really good. Of course there was a cement block that prevented you from driving off course. Every once in a while he would run into it and hit would sent him flying from one side to the other. But he enjoyed every minute!!

Disneyland was so much fun. It was going to be hard heading home. It is fun to hear the kids talk about their trip. I love listening to Hunter talk about his favorite ride Buzz Lightyear and how scary it was going down the big hill on Pirates.

Worlds of Color at California Adventure

We ended our trip with the Worlds of Color show. It was really good, but I think I enjoyed the Fantasmic show better. It was kind of hard to see. We ended up behind a gazebo and it blocked a good portion of the show. I was amazed how high the water would spray up and the scenes that we watched on it.
If you look closely, you can see a part from Pocahontas.