We took the kids to Disneyland — for my birthday. Because who doesn’t want to go to the happiest place on earth on their birthday? As you can see, Marion was super excited to go visit Disneyland!
The last time we came Elora really really wanted to meet the princesses, but there was a 1.5 hour wait. So this time we headed there first thing because that was what Elora wanted to do most of all. We still had to wait an hour… but Elora was soooo excited as you can see!
Oliver was a little more excited when it was time to meet Cinderella. He is a big fan of hers. Elora just loves any princess, so she was happy to pose with them all. Oliver was feeling a little shy around Cinderella and wouldn’t talk to her, which is unusual for him. I think he has a crush on that fancy princess.
He was much more chatty with Snow White and even let her know how old he is.
This was our best princess picture of the day. It is funny because neither of our kids have even seen Snow White, but they both know who she is for some reason. I think that movie is a little too scary (okay, the queen and the forest are totally freaky!) so we have put the movie up for the kids to watch when they are a little older…
Of course Oliver wanted to see Mickey most of all. We saw the line and it looked totally long, so we sent Marion with Grandma and Grandpa to ride It’s a Small World. Grandma said that she loved it. So much that she was asleep by the time it ended. We waited in line and it seemed like it was moving so slow. Usually you have to wait in a line that goes through Mickey’s entire house, so by the time we were close to the house and it had already been twenty minutes, we thought we were in for the long haul. But then there was Mickey right inside the front door! We were so surprised we didn’t even have the camera out. The kids ran up and hugged Mickey and were already heading away by the time we got out the camera! So we made them go back and managed to get one picture.
Minnie was not at home, and Oliver was kind of sad about it… As we were trying to convince the kids to go on some rides instead of waiting in lines to meet characters all day, we ran into Pluto. Also a very exciting moment for the kids.
After meeting Pluto we finally started heading out to go on Buzz Lightyear, and Elora saw Alice. She was soooo excited. Alice walked and talked with Elora for a long time, holding her hand. It was really sweet and I am glad that the characters at Disneyland are so good with kids. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised! Elora had a great time chatting with Alice until we got to Tomorrowland, and we took a picture before parting ways!
We took Oliver and cousin Jessie over to watch the Jedi show. Oliver was so excited. He wanted to go up on the stage to go fight Darth Vader. Here is Oliver and Jessie jumping up and down trying to get chosen for the show. Jessie was chosen, and Oliver thought he was too, so he started to head out… only to be stopped and the Disney worker told me that he was too young. It was sooo sad. We had pictures of his sad little face when he didn’t get to go, but we couldn’t post them, they make us too sad. We liked watching Jessie fight Darth Maul, and Oliver has been using his light saber and singing the Darth Vader theme ever since. I hope they still have the show when he is a little older! Poor little guy.
Here is Marion’s look of amazement when we were on the Jungle Cruise. She liked seeing all the animals. We headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean next, only to find it closed! What?!?!?! Poor Ollie, that is the ride he had wanted to go on. We headed off to go on Winnie the Pooh instead.
Lisa, Chris, and I all went on Splash Mountain. We tried to convince Elora that the ride is fun, but once she saw the people going down the big drop screaming she tried to run out of the line! We let her go with Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma, Marion, and Oliver on Winnie the Pooh. They rode three times and loved it. Then Marion saw Tigger and started barking and meowing. She was so excited to see them. We waited in line to meet Tigger and Eeyore. Oliver loves Winnie the Pooh, so he was really happy to meet Tigger and Eeyore, but a little sad that Pooh Bear was not there. Marion was super happy and tried petting Eeyore when she got up close. I guess she is not shy at all!
Jessie really wanted to ride the big Mark Twain steamboat, so we all got on to ride. Here Jessie and Elora are showing off how excited they are.
Next it was off to the pirate shop for little Ollie. He loved all the pirate stuff. The hardest part was deciding what he wanted to buy!
Elora looks a little crazy in this picture… She also liked the pirate stuff, but she bought herself a beautiful rhinestone ring for her souvenir.
Chris’ favorite place to visit as a kid was the Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop because they had really great wood guns that looked pretty real and were cool for a young boy. He is pretty disappointed that now the guns look like this… he thinks it is lame that apparently people were worried that small children would point black powder muskets at cops and get shot or something so now the pirate toy quality has gone downhill quite a bit. Oliver’s pirate gun had a little flashlight in it though, and that is kind of cool.
The most popular ride of the day was It’s a Small World. I think we rode it three times. The kids all love it. This is Marion on the ride. She really loved watching everything going on around her. And Elora likes the addition of movie characters to the ride. She gets really happy every time she spots a familiar character.
My friend Mandee came to meet us at Disneyland for a little while. For some reason I don’t have any pictures of her, but she was a big favorite with Elora. Lucky for me, because I don’t like the teacups and she took Elora on while Chris rode with Oliver. Everyone had a really great time (including me, because I got to watch everyone’s happy faces instead of spinning and feeling sick). Oliver was giggling the whole time, it was so fun to watch.
Next it was off to the rocket ships. Oliver is waving bye to me just before lift off. He had been wanting to ride the rockets all day, so this was very exciting for him.
Elora got to ride with Grandpa, and everyone had fun going up high.
Our last ride of the day was the Nemo ride. I love this picture because not only is Oliver excited, but you can see how excited my dad is too. I love going to Disneyland with him, because you can always tell that he loves it just as much or maybe more than the kids! Oliver loved this ride though, he was so excited every time he saw a starfish or bubbles. My great grandfather helped build the original submarine ride, so that is pretty cool too.
We headed over to watch the parade. Elora LOVED it. Here she is pointing out what is coming next. She would get excited and turn around to tell us about everything she saw. Oliver just sat watching intently and waving when he saw characters he likes. It was very sweet.
And of course, Elora hitched a ride on Great Grandma’s wheelchair on the way out. It was fun celebrating my birthday with my family in such a fun place. That being said, Disneyland is getting so expensive! We might need to save up for awhile before we go back…
