Disney Trip - Day 3 - Disneyland/California Adventure

I forgot to post these with the last post. On our way out we saw the Fairy Godmother. Emily loved her! They talked for a long time about all the princesses she likes. It was cute.



Okay, back to day 3. We got to wake up at 5:00am once again. Thanks to Chase. But luckily Disneyland opened at 8:00am. When we first walked in we stopped to see these guys. Emily was a little scared of the Queen of Hearts I think.

Then we stopped to say hi to Minnie Mouse. She gave Emily a kiss on the cheek. Emily later told me "I wiped off Minnie's kiss."


We went straight to the princess area once again with hopes of seeing different princesses. We ended up being first in line. Score. While we were waiting for it to open we let Chase walk around. Tethered to a leash of course. We felt a little cruel but it definitely keeps him from getting too far away. He wasn't a fan.

Since we were first in line and we had to wait a little bit for the employees to figure out which ways to weave the line (hilarious!) we actually saw the princesses walk in. I was excited. There was one princess in particular we were really hoping to see....

Belle

Belle really took a lot of time with Emily. I don't know if they could tell that she's REALLY into princesses or if its because she's so young but all of them really took a lot of time and were really great with her. I hope they get paid well because they did a really good job.


Belle held Emily's hand and walked with her to the next princess. When they were walking Ariel said Emily was a little Belle. Emily thought that was the coolest thing.


Ariel
She spent A LOT of time with Emily as well. There were two groups of people waiting behind us because she spent so much time. It was cool.




Tiana


After finishing there we stopped at the princess store to let Emily pick something. She wanted a Snow White doll that turns into the Evil Queen. It's really pretty cool. But then she really wanted to show it to Snow White. Because they're BFF's now.

Everyone went for a ride on the train while I stayed to try to get Chase to sleep. He screamed the whole time they were gone so that was pretty fun. But then we watched the Royal Coronation ceremony thing they do. They have all the kids come down on the floor and teach them to curtsy and bow and then they get to dance with the princesses.

Emily was so excited when they came out! At one point they come down off the stage to do a ribbon pole dance thing. Emily was so upset because Cinderella came down and danced with her and not Snow White. She REALLY wanted to show Snow White her doll. She was very sad!


I love this picture.

I think Emily's favorite thing at Disneyland (besides the princesses) was the Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walkthrough. I think we went through there 12 times.

Chase's favorite thing to do.


After naps and dinner we went to California Adventure to watch the Pixar Parade, ride some rides, and get ear hats.



Chase was thrilled.

Disney Trip - Day 2 - Disneyland

Due to the time change and daylight savings, Chase woke up at 5:00 am. Which, since we were all in the same room, meant we all woke up at 5:00 am. Awesome. Especially since Disneyland didn't open until 10:00am that day. We had to sit around and wait for awhile, eat some Mickey D's, and try to distract Emily. She was a little anxious.

But, we finally made it to Disneyland! We got there a little before it actually opened so we stopped to get the kids their 1st Visit buttons. It was fun to see the park all decorated for Christmas but it was kind of weird to hear Christmas music all day when it was November 10th.

I haven't been to Disneyland since I was in 5th grade even though I've been to southern California probably 15 times since then. For some reason I was surprised how small Disneyland felt. I guess it seemed a little bigger and grander when I was ten!

Emily has known for a long time about Sleeping Beauty's castle. I was really excited for her to see it for the first time. She did not disappoint. As soon as we turned the corner and she saw she yelled "The castle!!" and went running towards it. I think she wanted to move right in.

Once the park actually opened we went directly to the princesses. It was the entire reason for our trip! The princess area didn't open until 30 minutes after the park but we wanted to get in line early. We ended up being about 6 people from the front. Emily was so excited!


I'm not going to lie, I was excited too. I was excited for Emily. This was the moment we had been talking about for months. I was excited to see who the princesses were. There are three princesses that you get to meet but you don't know which ones until its your turn and you turn the corner and see them. We got lucky on our first time and got the princess trifecta.

Snow White


I love this picture. Emily is just talking to Snow White like they're best friends (which Emily really thinks they are) and she just looks so happy.


Cinderella
Emily just went and jumped right on her lap. Not shy at all.



Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)
The worker that is at the front of the line telling you when to go told Emily to curtsy to the princesses and showed her how. Emily really took it to heart, particularly with Aurora. She kept curtsying over and over and over. It was hilarious. Aurora was laughing her head off.


Emily was in heaven and did so great interacting with them. She can be a little shy with people she doesn't know but I really think she believes they're her friends so she wasn't shy at all. Robert and I said that we could leave right then and the trip would have been worth it. There is nothing like seeing pure joy on your child's face.

After that we rode some rides. Emily has never been on anything more than a carousel so I wasn't really sure how she would like them. She had been telling me for weeks that she wanted to ride the teacups. That was our first ride. I really don't think I've ever been on the teacups. Emily had no problems and wanted to go on it again and again. She loved every ride we went on. Even the dark, scary ones.

Waiting in line for Peter Pan. Both the kids loved Peter Pan. Well I assume Chase did because he didn't cry or anything and seemed quite fascinated.


Dumbo



Cute!


Later that afternoon we headed back to the hotel to give the kids naps with plans to come back later. Unfortunately Robert got really sick so we just went to dinner, shopping, and hung out at our hotel for the rest of the night.

We stayed at a hotel that was literally across the street from the entrance to Disneyland. It made it SUPER convenient and we had a great view.

This was the view out our window. We had a completely unobstructed view of the fireworks. It was awesome.

Disney Trip - Day 1 - Travel time

I decided to break down our trip into days, mainly because it would take too long to do it all at once. I don't have that much patience. Or time. So anyway, just warning ya. I'm also doing it for myself so that when I go to scrapbook it (like 3 years from now) I'll remember what we did. :)

About 2 or 3 months before our trip we started talking about how we were going to go to Disneyland. After about two days of Emily asking 12 times a day how many days until we went to Disneyland we decided to make a paper chain countdown. It worked great! She knew when all the rings were gone it was time to go.


Before we left, I stole this idea from our friends Lars and Kate. They recently went to Disneyland and made their kids autograph books. I thought it was a cute idea so I stole it. :) Here's the book I made for Emily.


We were ready to go. Day 1 was nothing super special. Just flying to California. This was Chase's first plane ride. He did pretty good. Cried for maybe five minutes total the whole flight but he was getting really frustrated that he couldn't get down and run around. He was a little exhausting but luckily grandma was there and grandmas seem to always have magic powers.


The rest of the day was spent checking into the hotel, dinner at Mimi's Cafe, and a trip to Target. Pretty exciting.

Chase has never been a really great sleeper so we were terrified of this trip. I knew being in a hotel room where we were all in the same room, not being in his own crib, time change, etc were going to make things difficult. I was right. We first tried to just put him to bed like we do at home. He screamed bloody murder. For a long time. I really don't think I've heard him scream like that. Luckily I am married to McGyver because Robert ghetto rigged some blankets so that he couldn't see the rest of the room, or himself in the mirror, and that worked wonders. He didn't really take naps the whole trip except in the stroller but he at least slept at night. I wish I would have taken a picture because it was quite the sight. I'm sure housekeeping thought we were a little crazy.

We went to bed early and were ready for Disneyland!!

Crazy Mom

Emily said the prayer tonight. In her exact words:

Dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful for this day. Help daddy to feel better. Help mommy to not be crazy. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.


What the?!!