Disneyland day 2

We stayed at the best hotel ever on this trip--right across the street from the entrance to Disneyland, and a free super yummy, hot breakfast. Each day we loaded up on breakfast, which was so filling we only ever ate one meal a day in the park. It really saved us time and money. Our second day there was our magic morning, so we of course started the day out in Fantasyland.

We rode all of our favorites, and even our not quite favorites, like Pinocchio and Snow White. The little girls opted out of those two, however, and grandma and Pete took them on the Carousel. Finley was thrilled to ride Jingles again.

I took their picture as they went around.

Winter and Pete were right behind them.

Keeley and I sat in Mr. Toad's car.

And we all had fun riding Mr. Toad as well.

I guess I must have handed off the camera to Keith and told him to take a picture of each car. Because usually I am one doing that. We road Alice in Wonderland.

And the girls knocked on the White Rabbit's door.

And apparently we rode Pinocchio again.

Finley and I were in front of Grandma and Keeley.

Then we headed to Toontown and rode Roger Rabbit.

We played around a little. Keith had Keeley pick up these heavy weights.

She glommed onto them and wouldn't let go. She got quite angry when Sareny and Finley tried to help her, so they had to just sit on the weights instead.

The kids busted out of the Toontown jail.

And we met Pluto. Sareny went right up and gave him a big hug.

Then the other kids joined in.

Then she helped Keeley meet Pluto. It was the silliest thing I've ever seen! KeeKee was squealing and screaming in delight and saying "Doggie!" That look on her face is excited and possibly a little bit scared. Because hey, who wouldn't be scared of a dog three times your size, no matter how friendly he was?!

Really, I just loved watching them.

But eventually we had to tear her away from the doggie.

The kids sat in this car.

And then we rode Gadget's Go Coaster. This ride is extremely short, and if you are older than 12, extremely lame! But it seems to have just the right amount of excitement for kids, because they always love it.

I took a couple of action shots.

Then we went to Minnie's house.

Although Isaac wasn't too happy, because Pete took Revan and Secret off to ride Buzz Lightyear, and I made Isaac stay with us. He was a pretty good sport though.

They all liked the kitchen best.

Outside, there was a short line to meet Minnie, so I took the kids' picture in Minnie's garden.

And then we met Minnie Mouse! Very exciting. I also have to point out here that this was our blue day--other than Keeley, who wore pink every day, we all wore blue.

We let the kids run around a little bit at Goofy's House.

Then we met back up with the boys and rode the train in a loop around the park. Half of our group.

The other half of our group.

And me and Keith.

I got off the train at the Toontown station with the Daniels, while Keith and the kids rode up to Main Street station. I stacked one of our strollers on top of the other, and pushed them both down and met them there. I beat them there, and while I was waiting I went into City Hall to get a copy of smashed penny locations. We had so much fun finding the machines and choosing which pennies to smash. Before we went, I had collected a bunch of pennies and quarters so we would be prepared.
Anyway, at this point, the we went to California Adventures, and the Daniel's stayed in Disneyland. We rode some of our favorite attractions.

Tower of Terror and Soarin' Over California. This was Finley's first time on Soarin' (she didn't ride Tower) and she quite liked it.

We can't walk past a Carousel without this girl wanting to ride it!

I love her pretty smile!

Then we took turns riding new Car's ride. We had to wait in a very long line, but it was a really fun ride. Also, is it just me, or do you keep looking at this picture to check if that is someone wearing an ape mask sitting next to me?? Especially when the picture is small like on my phone, it just throws me.

Finley's new favorite ride was Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.

While Sareny and Isaac re-rode Cars with Keith, Grandma, Keeley, Finley, and I rode Mater over and over. There wasn't much of a line, so we got a few rides in while we waited. Keeley liked it too and giggled while we rode.

Then the other kids joined us and we all rode it again.

They all posed outside the ride by this tractor. It was a pretty fun little ride.

And that was the end of our second, fun-filled day.

Disneyland--Day 1 with a Secret!

In November, we took a trip with Grandma Nancy and went to Disneyland! We had such a great time and had been planning and looking forward to the trip for months. Imagine my surprise when, the very day we were leaving for our trip, our friends the Daniel's said they were tired of hearing us talk about Disneyland and had decided to just pack their things and come with us. And they meant it! I couldn't believe they pulled it off--all the planning and packing we had been doing for months, and they did it all in one day! We decided to surprise the kids and not tell them our friends were coming until we were actually there. Our first morning, when we got to breakfast the kids got a surprise!

The surprise was Secret! Haha, that never gets old!

Isaac was so excited to see his friends Revan and Secret.

And the girls were excited to see Winter.

We started our first morning off in Disneyland, of course,

We had some time waiting at the end of Main Street before the rope drop, so we took a few pictures. Keeley doing her classic face!

And a pretty smile.

Because Isaac has gotten lost at crowded places before and had anxiety about it, we decided to dress him in fluorescent shirts each day. We also had the kids wear color-coordinated outfits. The first day was pink and orange day. Isaac's shirt was way more bright than it looks in this picture. And I must say, that was probably the best idea ever! He worried a lot less, and it really was easier to keep track of him!

First off, we headed to Peter Pan's Flight. You can see from the above photo that we were really at the very front of the rope, so we had a straight shot through the castle to the ride. Which is a good thing, because the line for that ride forms shortly after the park opens and it never lets up. Before we left for Disneyland, we asked each kid what was something they really hoped that we would be able to do on this trip. Finley said that she wanted to ride Jingles on the Carousel. Since she had a very specific horse she wanted to sit on, we had to race to her horse. But thankfully, we were able to acquisition Jingles just for her.

Here are a few shots of her on the prized horse.

Sareny wasn't so picky about which horse she sat on.

Keeley rode with Daddy, and you can see Sareny behind them.

Isaac rode by Secret, of course.

The kids tried really hard to pull the sword out of the stone. Also, looking at these pictures reminds me how hot we were that first day! I guess we're used to that sort of November weather, considering that we live in Phoenix, but I just didn't realize we would be sweating!

Keeley and I rode Buzz Lightyear and the Astro Orbiters while the rest of the group rode Star Tours.

Then I rode Star Tours with the boys.

We took the little girls to see the fairies while the others rode Buzz Lightyear.

Finley and Winter were so cute!

I love that Finley wore the Minnie Mouse ears I made a few year ago! They just look so cute.

This has to be one of my favorite pictures from the trip!

Then some of us rode Space Mountain. Finley neither loved nor hated it, which I think you can tell from her rather bland expression. Aubrey and Revan are sitting behind us.

And in the next car up, Sareny and Daddy held their hands in the air, and Isaac and Secret were in front of them. Love the look on Isaac's face!

We stopped for a photo in front of Tom Sawyer's Island.

And Grandma took our photo in line for the Haunted Mansion.

After that, we headed over to Critter Country and rode Splash Mountain and Winnie the Pooh.

The quality is not so great, but here we are on the ride!

 And the Daniel's.

Sareny somehow convinced Coach Pete to carry her on his back for a while.

We rode the teacups at night.

Above: Grandma Nancy, Keeley, Keith. Below: Aubrey, Winter, Finley.

And our car: Isaac, Secret, Sareny, and me. These cuties wanted to spin fast, and I think I was the only one who was willing to get in with them.

KeeKee peeking over her teacup.

And the spinning starts!

I love this action shot and the happiness on their faces!

Our teacup after the ride was over--and we are all still smiling!

After the ride, we posed the kids in the teacup out front. For some reason, a few of them pretended to be asleep. And Revan really was asleep in the stroller while the evening carried on.

Then they perked up.

We rode other things this first day, like Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones. It was Isaac's first time riding Indiana Jones, and he sat right next to me with Secret on the other side of him.Partway into the ride, I looked over to see how he was doing, and I saw that he was covering his eyes. In the pre-boarding area, they show a silly video about making sure to cover your eyes and not look into the eyes of Mara, and apparently Isaac took that quite literally! He was not going to uncover his eyes and risk turning into a skeleton like the lady in the video. He and Secret were pretty cute, clinging to each other and screaming.

After we left the park, we stopped at the Cold Stone that was connected to our hotel to use the gift cards Grandma Nancy had given each of us. It was a fun end to a super fun day!