Our first day we had ideal Disneyland weather. It was 70 and overcast all day! Here we are with our little princess outside Sleeping Beauty's castle.
Ella was asleep in the stroller for this picture. I loved Disneyland all decorated for Halloween. Disney goes all out, and it looked amazing. Here's one happy boy with his huge lollypop. He called it lollypop moon for some reason and he had it for most of the trip. I left it in a ziploc bag in the glove compartment of the car so it ended up being a multi-use sucker.
This was Ella's first character experience. She wasn't so sure about him. Jack didn't know who he was either. We'll have to go back in a few years after Jack has watched Star Wars and knows what a storm trooper is. Jack's first major Disneyland ride was Space Mountain. I guess I didn't remember what it was, and Steve hadn't been on it before, but needless to say it was a bad choice! It's basically a real roller coaster in the pitch dark, that had scary ghosts screaming at you since it was Halloween ghost edition. He was traumatized! After he said that he felt like he wanted to scream, yell, and throw up! We later saw a warning sign that said it was scary and not for young children. Disneyland tip: just because your child is tall enough to ride the ride, doesn't mean they should!
My kids loved petting the goats. It felt a little funny to go see farm animals that they've seen a dozen times with our precious Disney time, but we tried to let the kids do and see what they wanted to, with our forced agenda every now and then.
Ella in the goat pen. She loved petting the goats! I love how clean Disneyland is, even in the goat pen. They had a sweeper in the pen following the goats around waiting for any imminent droppings.
Our first day at Disneyland was Friday, so it was open late. We took an afternoon break and then went back for some night fun. Steve and the kids road the Astro Orbiter, which after Jack's earlier scary ride experience, he had to be bribed to ride. He had his eye on a mickey light up sword, and the promise of it was enough to get him on the ride. We were going to watch Fanstasmic, but it seemed to hard with the kids, so we settled for watching the fireworks and going on a few more rides.
We spend day 2 at California Adventure. We loved it over there. Disneyland is great, but I think some of the rides are there because they are nostalgic. Since Steve and I don't remember going on Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan as kids, they just seem like outdated rides with cardboard cutouts to us. But California Adventure is new, and high tech, and amazing. That, and the fact that Jack was more into the Pixar characters, and since Ella was too little for a vote, we mostly did what he wanted. I definitely want to go back when Ella is older and into princesses. Then I'm sure we will spend more time over at Disneyland. I love this picture of Steve and Jack at Paradise Pier.
Ella meeting her one princess for the trip, Princess Sophia. She was wearing a Sophia shirt which made it extra cool to her. She wasn't sure about any of the characters while we were there. She wanted to look at them and touch them, but not hug them or anything crazy like that. Now that we're home, she absolutely loves looking at the pictures with herself and the characters. Just seeing them makes her laugh.
The girls with Sophia. I just couldn't bring myself to wait in line for 75 minutes to see the princesses at the Royal Hall. Not with my 21 month old that doesn't even care if we see them, hence our only princess shot. One of my kids very favorite things we saw was Disney Junior live on stage. It was so fun for them, and had the characters they really know like Jake, Sophia, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Doc McStuffins. Jack loved singing along with the show. He also loved the things falling from the sky like the snow, and the gold doubloons. It was too cute to watch, and a nice air conditioned break for the kids.
Cars land was our favorite. Radiator Springs is so much fun. You can barely see Jack in the back middle. He liked/disliked this ride. He loved the slow part at the beginning with all of the cool "Cars" references, and he like the fact that you were racing another car, but he did not like the fast part.
He said he felt like he was going to fall out. Despite being nervous, he was a good sport and rode it 4 times total (the last two took a little bribing). Watching this video makes me feel a little guilty. He was genuinely scared. Good thing he trusts his Daddy.
Jack wanted to meet Buzz Lightyear above any other character. Some of the characters had pretty long lines and we would skip over meeting them, so that made Jack a little nervous. I told him when we saw Buzz I would wait in the longest line ever so we could meet him. Jack kept reminding me through the day, "remember your promise, Mom?" Luckily, when we tracked Buzz down, the line wasn't even long. He was a little nervous to meet his life sized hero in person, but still talks about when he met the real Buzz Lightyear. He's assured me that his toy Buzz can't fly, but the real Buzz can. The Disney magic was alive for Jack.
Jack playing with his new Buzz toy after the Pixar Parade (it was the bribe to get him on Radiator Springs again). He has loved that toy and it was worth every penny. We watched the Pixar parade both days we were in DCA. It was one of my kids favorite things. It was so well done with the music and the bubbles. It was a good chance to see all their favorite characters up close. The dancers were so fun and interactive. My kids got at least 5 "high fives" from the performers during the parade which made them feel like a million bucks. Another thing Jack loved was the Phineus and Ferb dance party. He loves that theme song so it was fun to see him watch it. I didn't get a picture of it, but at the end of our DCA day we went to World of Color. It was amazing and we all really enjoyed it. Jack could name almost every movie that the video clips were from, which surprised me. It was super hard with the kids, though. We had to wait in a crowded spot, standing for 45 minutes. About half way through the show Jack said he needed to go potty. About 5 seconds after that he said, "I'm going". I can count on one hand the number of potty accidents he's had since he's been potty trained, so the poor kid must have really had to go. Steve was holding him, so his world of color experience was less than he had hoped!!
Ella got a new toy too, a Rapunzel doll. Here she is loving her new toy and jumping on the bed at the hotel. The kids were such troopers. The Disney days were long with tons of walking and no naps. At the end of the day Steve and I were exhausted, so I know the kids had to be too.
Day 3 we spent at DCA with a couple of hours back at Disneyland. Jack loved this bumper car ride in Bugs Land. There's something so fun about being able to drive a car by yourself when you're a kid!
Dad and Ella riding Ella's favorite ride, The Little Mermaid. She lost her shoe on this ride, but an employee was able to retrieve it for us. She loved all the music and the colorful scenes. This ride never had a wait so we went on it 5 or 6 times. By the end she could sing the song where Ariel looses her voice (the ahh ahh ahh one).
Jack and Ella getting ready to ride Toy Story Mania. They did awesome with the waiting in lines. It's a hard thing for young kids to wait in line for 30 minutes. Steve and I decided that if either of us ever has a minor foot injury requiring a walking boot, that would be the perfect time to go to Disneyland. You can rent a "Jazzy" and go to the front of all the lines. I'm just saying :)
Toy Story Mania was Jack's favorite ride. It had one of the longer wait times, but we went on it a couple of times for Jack Jack. He loved trying to shoot the targets and score a lot of points. It was one of Steve's favorites too. He was proud of his high score.
