Thankful 11: Disneyland

A few weeks ago we went to Disneyland.  It was awesome!  Here are only a few...yes...a few...of the pictures we took.  I want to preface this photo essay of Disneyland with the following: we needed this trip.  Only the day before we were feeling discouraged and Disneyland...the happiest place on earth...really helped us focus on our family.  We had so much fun together.  Pure fun.  I was reminded of how much I love these little girls and how much Marcus means to me.  I felt blessed.  The entire time we were there (even when my migraine hit), I felt immense love and gratitude.  It was awesome.

At the hotel, waking up and ready to go to Disneyland.  Or, at least Callie is.

Disneyland in October is pretty cool.  They go all out Halloween.

The Haunted Mansion

Quirky Callie

I believe this was the Snow White ride.  Callie's face looked like this almost the entire time we were there...except for the above picture.  That was a moment of weirdness...but then it went right back to the smiles!

By Snow White's wishing well

Patiently waiting in line.

Callie LOVED this ride.

Jungle Cruise.  Samantha was happy.

But Callie just couldn't get enough.  Evey animal she saw went something like this: "An ELEPHANT!!!  LOOK LOOK!  An ELEPHANT!"  "AND LOOK MOMMY, a GIRAFFE!  LOOK LOOK." 

Callie and I battled Splash Mountain together.  I really was no interested in getting wet, but surprisingly she wanted to do it.  Normally Callie doesn't like to be splashed, but she liked it.  She sat in the front seat while I sat behind her.  I didn't like that at first, but I was able to hug her seat and keep her really tight and secure, so it worked out well.  She was such a trooper.  This is her thumbs up.

We used Samantha's handicap pass which got us on the rides pretty quickly.  But for Dumbo, even in the handicap line, we waited about 35 minutes.  It was rough.  Sammy was frustrated, but Callie wanted to go on it so badly.  So, we waited.  And waited.  I felt really spoiled that we were struggling waiting for a ride only a bit over 1/2 hour.  Nonetheless...

Callie with Snow White.

While we were there, we met up with David and Andrea and Sue and John.

It's a Small World.
Samantha was really interested in all the lights and figures.

And though this is horrific, I thought it was so funny.  I mean, you can't plan a picture that looks this bad.  I had to include it.  It makes me laugh.

Yeah for cousins!

I've never been to Disneyland before.  Disney World, yes.  But not Disneyland.  One of the biggest differences Marcus said I'd notice is the castle.  He told me it was smaller.  But holy cow, it's WAY smaller.  But it's still beautiful and magical.

Ready to get on the ride: Space Mountain.  Yes.  We took our 3.5 year old on Space Mountain.  She fit the height requirements and really wanted to go on.  So, we let her.  Little did we know that they had changed it for Halloween, so it was really monster scary-like.  She got off and held on to me so tight.  "Mommy.  That was too scary."  She has since told me that she'd do it again sometime when there weren't monsters.  I felt like such an irresponsible parent when the ride was over and we walked off with her.  ahhhh  I felt so bad!

Samantha was only interested in chewing Marcus' hat for this picture.

John hanging out with Callie while my Excedrin kicked in.

Ohhhhh.  Here's the sign we wished we had seen before taking Callie on Space Mountain.

Leaving the park after the firework show ~ Sammy near comatose and Callie out like a light.

Good night Disneyland.



This night before heading to Disneyland, Bart came by our hotel with his girlfriend Christy.  It was so fun to see Bart ~ we haven't seen him since our wedding.  And we both really like his girlfriend.  I could have stayed up all night talking (how unlike me).  I was happy for the few short hours we did have to catch up.

It was a fantastic trip and worth every penny.  I'm already planning our next trip, maybe next December during Christmas.  How fun would that be?!  Disneyland, I'm sure thankful for you.  It would have been fun no matter what, but it came at a perfect time for us too.