Disneyland 2011

We have been waiting for the perfect time to take Lydia to Disneyland.  We wanted to wait until she would get it all and really enjoy herself because of a love for rides and a knowledge of who the characters (it always more fun when they are excited to see a character instead of her asking "who's that", you know?). Well, she's definitely in the princess stage so last fall we decided that we would take her sometime the first part of 2011!  

The time finally came last week and we thought it would be fun to have some friends there with us so we invited the Newell's to join us and luckily they could come.  Going to places like this is always more fun with someone to share it with and since Lydia doesn't have a sibling old enough, she got to share this  experience with her good buddy Brielle!

Day One

Manhatten Beach

 The kids loved being on the pier, running, watching the ocean and chasing the birds.

 They had a free admission aquarium at the end of the pier that the kids really enjoyed.

 I think this will be the first and only cuddle picture Nate will EVER take.  He's never been a cuddly guy (too busy, always moving) and I don't think he'll start now.  He was already just so tired from the flight that he had to rest his head on daddy's shoulder...so precious!

Then we headed down to the beach where the kids ran around, the daddy's played volleyball and the mammas took pictures!

This was Nate's first time on the beach and feeling the sand.  He loved touching it and he really loved eating it!

I finally got my updated beach pictures for my bathroom.  Hopefully they'll look good in B&W.

We went to dinner at a local pizza joint then headed back to the hotel to get ready for Disneyland!

Day Two

Disneyland

I wanted to do Magic Morning on the first day and get as much done as possible so we didn't feel rushed on day three but that didn't happen.  Why?  Jake got in a car accident.  Nate woke up at 4:30am and would not go back to sleep so Jake took him for a ride in the car to lull him back to sleep.  He had been asleep for about 45 minutes and  some lady suddenly slammed into the side of our rental car. Totally her fault but by the time the cops came and the reports were all filed, we didn't get to Disneyland until 10ish.  But hey, Nate and Jake were ok so that's all that mattered.  Now let's move on to the fun!!!!

 I was so proud of Lydia this trip.  She was SO brave and did every ride we asked her to.  I suggested we start her off slow but Jake wanted to go all out so her first ride was a roller coaster, "The Matterhorn"!

 As you can see on her face, she wasn't too terribly thrilled after the ride was over but she did say she liked it and it didn't hamper her feelings about riding any other coasters this trip so that was good!!!  My baby girl is big enough to ride roller coasters!  The lines weren't bad at all...I guess it was still early enough.

We let Lydia pick out any Minnie ears she wanted and these were the ones she chose.  We told her to pick some out for baby brother and she wanted to get him a Mickey Mouse doll instead!

We had to go on the teacups!

Of all the rides, this is the one we had to talk her into getting onto the most.  Silly girl!  She refused to go into the whales mouth......but we finally talked her into it while we were waiting in line.

We went on Pirate' of the Caribbean and Nate slept through the whole ride.  He didn't even wake up for the huge hill.  Funny kid.  Lydia wasn't so sure about that ride.

After that, the Newell's met up with us and we spent the rest of the day hanging out!  The girls' were so excited to play all day together!

Here's where the lines got crazy.  We waited in line for the Peter Pan ride for almost an hour.  But it was worth it.  Without getting too cheesy, it was magical.  It looked like you were flying so high above the city.  It was so fun.  Here are the Newell's getting ready to go!

 Nate's first time on a carrousel...King Arthur's Carrousel no less!!!

They didn't ride the Dumbo ride (line was WAY too long and not worth it) so they just sat in the picture taking Dumbo instead.  They didn't seem to mind!

Then we were off to Toontown to meet the most famous mouse, Mickey.  Lydia was so excited to meet her very first character, MICKEY MOUSE!!!

 I love how much Lydia loves her brother.  While we were waiting for Jake and Joe to do a ride together, Lydia was laughing at her brother!

"The Jungle Cruise" was fun for us all.  Nate was for sure a happy boy!

Day Two

California Adventure

We loved meeting Minnie Mouse!  She was so sweet to Lydia and spent a lot of time with her!  Most all of the other characters rushed you through so it was nice that Minnie was so sweet to our little princess'.

Anabel thought it would be fun to do breakfast with the princess' at Ariel's Grotto!  It was a good thing we did, otherwise Lydia would not have met one princess this whole trip.  She met Ariel, Snow White, Arora, Cinderella and Belle.

Snow White was my favorite.  She spent the most time with us and also took the time to say hi to my baby boy!  What a ladies man he already is!!!!  He smiled at her the whole time!

 After breakfast the girls' danced around the dining area until it was time to go!

Then we headed out for more characters and some rides!

We headed to Disney Junior-Live on Stage.  Lydia loved it.  The show had a ton of her favorite character (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, etc.)  It was such a cute show.  The girls' danced the whole time.  Nate crawled around in the back eating all the confetti that was thrown around!

We went into A Bug's Land and what a cute area for little kids.  We waited the longest in lines there, oddly enough.

We took turns riding Tower of Terror and this was definitely in my top three favorite rides this trip!  So much fun!  We got fast passes to Soarin' Over California!  Awesome ride!  A must do if you come to CA Adventure!

The Toy Story ride was so much fun.  4D is definitely the way to go!  The kids had a blast too!

We got fast passes in the morning so we'd get good seats for World of Color so later that evening we saw the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail which was basically a huge park with fun things to do.  So we hung out there until it was time to go stand and wait for World of Color to start.

Here's what we stared at for an hour and a half while we waited for the show to start.

And WOW!!!  World of Color was amazing!  I had to stand on my tippy toes the whole time though and I still couldn't see everything.  So if you're going I recommend you stand on the stairs.  They definitely need to invest in some stadium seating so everyone has a good seat.  But from what I saw, I was blown away! Lydia was on daddy's shoulders so she had the perfect seat.  She said she loved it so that made me happy that she had a good time!

I did take a short video so you can get an idea of what the show is all about.  Film projected on spraying water moving to music...very cool.  The video is just below this post!

We most definitely made some memories today!  Thank goodness for fast passes.  We only had a couple of long waits!

Day Four

Leftovers: 

Disneyland &

California Adventure

I'm so glad we did the third day.  If we hadn't I would have felt like we missed out on a lot.  This trip was about Lydia and her first trip to Disneyland so on this day we hit everything we missed the first two days!  That way we didn't feel rushed on the first two days!  Good call honey!

I looked at the map and was very organized with what we still needed to do.  We went to Disneyland first.  I realized that we didn't even step foot into Tomorrowland so that's what we did first.  We got in line for the Buzz Lightyear then headed to the Finding Nemo Submarine ride and I guess that was too much for Nate because he conked out!  The Nemo ride was so much fun.  Lydia loved it!

 Then Lydia and I did the Autopia ride.  So much fun.  Lydia loved driving.

I love the concentration on her face and the tongue sticking out is classic!

 We met Pluto and Lydia FINALLY got to meet her Goofy!  She's been wanting to meet him forever!  Don't ask my why he's her favorite!  I just knew that I had to get a picture of them together!

She had to go through Minnie's house again and see what was in her fridge...a lot of cheese.

We stopped to eat lunch and we saw Rapunzel walk by with her prince.  Too bad we didn't meet her!  The wait was over an hour....no thanks!

We did Pirate's again and Nate was awake this time so when we went down the hill it was hilarious to feel his reaction.  It's pitch black so I could only feel what he did.  When we went down, all of his extremities just tensed up and spread out as far as they could go.  I couldn't stop laughing.  I guess that's the reaction of a ten month old!

We did a fast pass to Roger Rabbit's ride. Thank goodness we did because our 10 minute wait could have been over an hour!

We thought it would be fun to have Lydia see the princess show where they teach you how to be a princess and also how to dance like one.  All the little girls' can go on the floor and dance with the princess' but of course Lydia was too shy.  Oh well, at least she got to see Aurora, Snow White and Cinderella again!

 We took the Disneyland Railroad and saw the big mountain and also you go into this tunnel and they show you the Grand Canyon!  It was cute.

Then we headed back over to California Adventure.  Jake and Joe did the California Screamin' Coaster the day before and Jake insisted that I do it.  I'm glad I did!  It was so much fun.  I did the single rider line and it only took 10 minutes! 

Oddly enough, the lines on this day (Saturday) were the shortest and the park was the emptiest!  I'll take it!  We thought this day would be the worst so we were pleasantly surprised!  Hard to tell but I'm the third from the back on the left!

We did their awesome ferris wheel.  They loved it...I was cold and I hate ferris wheels!  But there were some cool views!

Nate LOVED it.  He was smiling the whole time!

We did the swings (she's not tall enough for the one at Lagoon), the rocket ship ride and the jelly fish.  When we were done for the day we asked Lydia what her absolute favorite ride was and every time she would say the swings or the merry go round.  I'm glad we came this far for those rides to be her favorite!  I think the other rides were just too scary for her.  

I didn't realize how scary they actually are.  There's a villian in every ride that scared the crap out of her.  She never cried; just covered her ears.  Poor thing.  She was so brave so when it came down to choosing a favorite, she went with the classics....nothing fancy!  I guess she likes the rides that she can see what's ahead, not the ones that go into all the dark places and you have a whole experience.  Oh well, maybe next time!

Then we went back to Disneyland to watch the "Fantasmic" show.  We talked to some people at the World of Color show and they said this was a must see so we had to do it!  They also told us the best spot to stand so we went there and we had the perfect seats and saw everything!  This show did not disappoint.  

It was like World of Color for the fact that they also projected film on the spraying water.  But they also had Peter Pan fighting Captain Hook on the ship, fireworks, fire on the water, fighting dragons, the princess' came out on boats and danced with their princes!  It was such a good show.  At the end all the characters were on the boat waving at everyone!  I'm so glad we didn't miss it!

On our way out of the park, the fireworks were going off so I stopped to watch for a minute and take pics!

It was such a fun experience to take Lydia for the the first time!  She loved it and loved watching her face hearing the joy in her voice.  Priceless moments were had for sure!

I'm so glad the Newell's could join us!  Thanks for coming with us.  It would not have been the same for Lydia without her best buddy Brielle!  It was such a fun family vacation....can't wait to go back!

Click "Older Posts" to view the World of Color clip!