Be Merciful to me Blogger Photo Uploader...Day 1 of Disney!

Day one of our trip was Disneyland herself. Or himself...whatever. The plan was to get in as many rides as we could before dinner. Not being a fan of amusement park food, but alas a lover of food, I planned our day around meals. (It's pure craziness to be me, I tell you. Craziness!) Thankfully, we planned our trip during a very slow part of the year for Disney, as well as going in the middle of the week, so this was totally doable. The only downside to this was that there would be no parades or fireworks on this day. The upside: We were out by DINNER TIME. I ate at a normal restaurant, and didn't flinch when the bill came because I actually ENJOYED MY MEAL. There is just something so hurtful about paying big bucks for nasty food. It just plain stings. Also, it got pretty cool at night, and do you know that I don't really get along well with the cool?

So we soaked up our daylight hours and pretty much walked onto whatever we wanted to ride. I am not exaggerating when I say that we literally stood in maybe five or six lines the WHOLE TRIP. The kids were rock stars and much more brave than I expected. They rode every ride we suggested to them, and loved it.

This is when I realized the blissful stage that we were in. First, we traveled (for the first time) with no diapers or bottles. HELLO! Enough said. Second, no one needed naps. OK, I TOTALLY could have snoozed several times on this trip, but what I mean is we weren't scheduling our riding and park time around nap time so we could avoid a cranky toddler as we have in trips past. Third, even though The Girl wasn't too into The Princesses, The Little Man was totally into his characters, and it was so fun to have a change of pace in the characters we were interested in seeing. Since The Girl was over The Princesses, she willingly went along wherever The Little Man wanted to go. Fourth (and maybe last, I'm not sure I could come up with something else just as blissful), the kids were both tall enough to ride all the rides except for two. That meant we weren't child swapping the whole day. We ALL rode the same rides TOGETHER. It really made for a nice time together.

Then, when it was all over, and we were starting to get hungry and tired of all the walking, we LEFT AND ATE DINNER SOMEWHERE ELSE.

(I'm crazy)

Now onto the pics:

The kids in the magical mini-van:

For some reason the kids LOVED this mini-van. They had so much fun with this car, I thought that Disney was going to just be a side note. They have been begging us to get one since we got home, and even had an *almost* tearful goodbye.

The craziness has been passed down to the next generation.

Speaking of crazy, it was right after that last picture was taken that I realized that there was a high probability that there may not be any pictures of me taken on the entire trip, you know, because I am the only one that seems to takes pictures. So I decided a self portrait was in order just in case later on in life we wondered where mom was.

Here I am:

Fabulous.

Then I got excited as we neared Disney, and I loved the line of Palm Trees:


And the fact that the street name was Disneyland Drive:


Heading into the park (and starting the day off with crazy hair...it's not like it was going to look great all day anyway):


Waiting for the tram with Grandma. (I think the key to having a successful Disney trip is bringing along the grandparents. We LOVE having them come with):


Right inside the door, we got to meet up with Goofy!


Then right around the corner, was the Big Guy himself!


I was attempting to get the kids with the castle in the background here.

However.

However, the kids really wanted nothing to do with having their picture taken at the entrance of the park, and really just wanted to get INTO THE PARK ALREADY! Also, The Little Man was complaining about the sun burning out his eyes when he looked at me.

Whatever.

So not exactly the photo I was hoping for:


A little snip-it of Frontier Land:


Waiting for Big Thunder Mountain to come and pick us up:


What a ride!


(Hey! I did make an appearance!)


Now we come to the highlight of the day. It could also have been the highlight of the whole trip for me. In Tomorrow Land, there is a place where your kids can be apart of a Jedi training show. With The Little Man's love for Star Wars running VERY deep, this show was a MUST see for us. I also desperately wanted The Little Man to get picked to be part of the show so he could get "trained" as a Jedi Knight and also "fight" Darth himself. Here the kids are, front row, waiting for the show to start:


Then, the best possible outcome that could have happened, happened. BOTH kids were picked to be part of the show. I guess, if I were being TOTALLY truthful, The Little Man was picked, and The Girl followed him up and made herself a part of the show as well. I really don't know who was more excited, the kids or The Hubs and I. I was literally shaking with excitement.

Again, the crazy is uncontrollable at times.

Here's The Girl getting her Jedi robe thing-y and finding her spot:


Of course, The Little Man, he found a spot where I couldn't see him well. Arg.

The Girl practicing her moves:


The Little Man learning how to duck:


The Young Jedi Knights with their certificates of completion:

So, you know, it's totally official now.

Let me tell you, The Little Man, he used those moves on pretty much anyone he came across all day. Other kids would try to make friends with him, and in return, he would fight them off with an imaginary light saber. So, we looked like really awesome parents. We figured the only thing left to do was to totally continue to encourage the behavior, and we bought him a light-up light saber to use for the rest of the night/trip.

Awesome.

Here's the kids and The Hubs at the entrance/exit of Tomorrow Land:


In Tomorrow Land, they have a ride called Autotopia. Basically, it allows children to think that they are driving cars around. It was always a ride that we have avoided in the past because A) There is a height requirement B) The line is usually ridiculously long and C) It just doesn't seem that interesting to us adults because we do enough driving in our real lives.

With no lines and children that were tall enough to drive their own cars (with adult companions), we pretty much had no reason at all to skip it this time around. The kids really loved this ride! They had a great time "driving" around the course. I made The Little Man look at me for a picture when he was driving. He flashed me a quick smile and then sternly told me, "Mom, don't distract me while I am trying to watch the road."

I have no clue where he's ever heard that before:


Thankfully, The Hubs got the same picture of The Girl in their vehicle.


The next ride was my favorite of the day. It was the Nemo submarine ride. It wasn't that the ride was so fantastic that I could barely stand it, but it was way more than I expected it to be, and also the kids were in total awe as we went around in a submarine and looked for Nemo in an underwater world. Here's one of my favorite pics of just awe:


Of course we took in some 3D action with the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience movie. Thumbs down for the movie, thumbs up for wearing 3D glasses:


We got crazy and let the kids ride the Matterhorn together instead of making each one of them ride with an adult. When we got off and looked at them they had fun smeared all over their faces and also, I think they were close to falling out of the car a couple of times. The Girl will say over and over that this was her favorite ride:


And even though we traveled without diapers, bottles, or naps, we were still smart enough to make sure we rented a stroller for the whole day. Truth be told, if we go again and our children are teenagers, we will still probably rent a stroller. If the kids don't ride in them that's fine because they are perfect for carting around all of the stuff you bring into the park with you.

And, alas, at the end of the day, even big kids get tired of walking:




Tired, cold, and hungry we called it quits for day one in the parks and headed somewhere to get dinner and then hit the hay a bit early so we could do day two at California Adventure in the morning.

To be continued...