The Happiest Place on Earth

I know it's been awhile, but a few weeks ago the kids and I were blessed with a wonderful vacation with my parents.  Where to?  The Happiest Place on Earth of course, Disneyland!

I thought the kids were still a bit on the young side to enjoy it fully, but I was sure wrong!  Miss Em loved it and wanted to do it all!  McGee is usually pretty cautious and I wasn't sure if we'd be able to get him on many rides, but he surprised me and wanted to go on everything too!  His favorite he said was the "cars" (Autopia) where he and Papa were able to drive a car around a set course, but he also loved the Buzz Lightyear ride where he was able to "zap" everything with his laser gun.  We went on that ride a couple of times and he loved it.

The only ride neither of the kids liked was "Pirates of the Caribbean", but who could blame them?  It was pretty scary, darker and scarier than I remembered and I can't imagine how scared I would have been at their age.

I brought along their personalized Mickey & Minnie hats that Uncle Gordon and Aunt Julie got each of them when they were born.  They were so cute wearing them all over Disneyland.  Once when we were waiting outside the Buzz Lightyear ride there were a group of Asians all looking at us, specifically Miss Em and one lady just came up, squatted next to Em, threw her arm around her and had her picture taken - with my daughter!  It happened so fast I was just so stunned and we didn't know what to do.  I guess somewhere out there is a picture of Miss Em with a smiley Asian gal.  All I can figure is Miss Em must have looked like the quintessential American girl at Disneyland in her Minnie Mouse shirt and ears.  It was strange and a little creepy, but I suppose maybe we should be flattered.

Can't you just hear the, "Cheeeeese!" from McGee?

The kids were so excited to see the marching band and cast of characters marching by!

Grandma & Grandpa - thank you for this AWESOME and FUN day and amazing vacation!

Waiting in line to see Goofy

Again McGee surprised me.  I thought he might be afraid of the characters and shy away, but he went right up to Goofy and Pluto and was very excited to meet them!  Miss Em?  Well she surprised me and WAS a little unsure about meeting all of the big, scary characters.

We stopped to use the restrooms and were excited when all of the characters came walking past!

Miss Em and I on the Buzz Lightyear ride

Papa and the kids on the teacups

We stood in line and met Minnie Mouse on her front porch then explored her fun house!  The kids LOVED her kitchen with the dancing spoons, deflating cake in the oven and ocean-like dishwasher.  Miss Em was enjoying pretending to have "tea" with Minnie.  She loved Minnie's house SO much that the top right picture is of her on the ground throwing a FIT because she didn't want to leave Minnie's house.  Yes, if you saw a mom at Disneyland letting her daughter scream and flail on the concrete, that was ME.  Grandma & Grandpa sure had their eyes opened on this vacation to Miss Em's...shall I say "spirited" side?

This was she and I after her first tantrum of the day.  I think it had something to do with her NOT wanting to ride in the stroller.  In fact, we had a few tantrums about that this day and Mommy's arms were very sore the next day because Miss Em did not end up spending as much time in the stroller as I had hoped.

I got to meet Minnie too!

McGee LOVE, LOVE, LOVED Disneyland!  Just yesterday he said, "Mommy, Grandma said we were going to Disneyland for two weeks, so when are we going back?"  Not very soon my boy, you have LOTS of change you need to save before we can afford to go back to Disneyland. :)

The biggest surprise of the day came when McGee wanted to go on the Toontown roller coaster, not once, but TWO times!  It went fast, it dropped off steep and was not your typical "fluff" kiddie roller coaster, but my boy LOVED it!  First he went on it with Papa and then he asked his Mommy to go on it.  I'm excited thinking I may have a partner for future roller coaster rides now (Daddy doesn't like roller coasters much)!

Waiting in line and for the roller coaster to take off!

Soooo strong, but not strong enough to free the Sword in the Stone

Papa and McGee enjoyed the rockin' parade

Miss Em skipped nap time and enjoyed the parade from inside the ice cream parlor where we awaited our ice cream sundae dinners.  Don't judge, they were good. :)

We closed the place down, an 11 hour day of amazing, Disney-filled fun!

Main Street

I loved how McGee sang the whole time through "It's a Small World" and the joy and wonder that was in each of my childrens' eyes throughout the day.  I was sad their Daddy couldn't be there to witness it as well, but he was home working instead.  I don't know when we'll go back to Disneyland again, but this was an incredible first trip there.  I didn't think I was a big Disneyland fan, I didn't buy the cheap season passes when I lived down there for college (like many of my classmates), but boy, seeing it, experiencing it with and through my children's eyes, made me realize why it is The Happiest Place on Earth!