Disneyland

The Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to Disneyland with all of Ryan's family. I was SO excited to go back since its been 10 years since I've been there and of course I was practically giddy with excitement to see Maddi's face once we got there. That is probably one of the best perks to being a mom- seeing your kids experience the good wonders of life. We woke up early Friday morning and hit the ground running. We didn't really ever stop. As soon as we got there we saw Cruella DeVille and the Queen of Hearts. You could just see Maddi's head spinning as she was trying to take in exactly who she was seeing. And then we saw him...Mickey Mouse. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. I was so glad that we would get a picture right off the bat so we got in a line I got the camera out and my worst nightmare came true. Right there before my eyes was a blinking battery light! How could I have forgotten to charge the camera?!?! (The one MAJOR thing I dislike about my camera is that it doesn't have a battery meter thing that shows me how much is left. I just know its about to die when it starts blinking) So, Ryan went in and bought like $100 disposable cameras and I tried to not beat myself up. We had lots of other cameras between everyone in the family so I knew we would get pictures. And even after we took his parent's camera we didn't use it all that much as we were always on the rides together, holding a baby, and what not. As always though Disneyland was magical!

I have always wanted to go to Disneyland during the Christmas holiday. I was sure they would have it decorated so neat, and it was!

Our first encounter with Mickey!

Maddi, for the most part, really enjoyed seeing all the characters, but she was still true to her stubborn self at times. :) There is evidence a few pictures down. She definitely thought that Lightning McQueen was VERY cool though!

We went to a character dining breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen on Saturday. We were so excited for her to meet a bunch of the characters in a more personal setting, but she kind of had different plans once we got there. We had bought her an autograph book and she wanted Mickey to sign it. (We didn't have it the first time) So, when we got here and there was no mickey she became, well, disappointed. She finally decided to take a picture with Pluto and liked Alice and Snow White. But, Chip, Dale, Baloo, and Goofy she wanted nothing to do with. (Sigh) Oh well.

After the breakfast she wanted to get Mickey's signature, which we did, and see Tinkerbell. That was all she talked about. Well, she fell asleep before we went to Pixie Hollow. So we let her sleep for a bit and then woke her up so we could go. She did not wake up happy and despite our best efforts the entire time we were in line to get her happy this is what the picture turned out like. We figure she'll laugh at it someday. Once we were done though she started crying because she didn't get to see ALL of Tinkerbell's friends. Kids.

Our last event for Saturday was World of Color. It's their new water show in California Adventure and everyone has said you HAVE to see it! Well, it started raining that night for a little bit and then stopped. We got in line, got in our spots, and began the wait before the show started. About 20 minutes before it started raining again and it quickly became a downpour. We knew we couldn't tough it out with the kids so we had to leave. I was so bummed! But, it was seriously raining SO hard! The walkways were rivers in California Adventure and by the time we made it to the parking shuttle we were completely soaked!!! I had taken my coat off and put it over the kids in the stroller trying to keep them dry. Sweet little Brynnley though had fallen asleep earlier around dinner time and slept through the entire storm! She was so tired! So thats how our Disneyland adventure ended-running to the buses. We weren't able to do those last couple things, but we accomplished a lot in the two days. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but so much fun to share with all of Ryan's family!