Well, here I am again, completely overwhelmed at the task of preserving our Disneyland Vacation memories. I have over 300 pictures, and just as many sweet stories about how much the girls loved this experience. In the day we've been home, I've been busy making Ella's birthday cake, helping out at school, unpacking, doing laundry, filling our empty fridge with groceries and all the while pondering what to write. I think I'll just jump in and apologize in advance if I ramble...
On our first morning in Disneyland, we arrived early and got to take advantage of "Magical Morning"-- a whole hour of park enjoyment not open to the general public. It was exhilarating to be lined up at the gate, knowing a great day was ahead of us.
One of the first rides we did was Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters, where you ride and play laser tag at the same time. We learned quickly that Delia was not so down with rides that were too dark or noisy. We tried a few others, like the Finding Nemo submarine ride, and realized we needed to just head to Fantasyland and show Delia some of the classic rides.
It's a Small World became a quick favorite of ours. We ended up visiting our little international buddies 4 times in 3 days and the song still plays in my dreams (for real)! One thing nice about doing the park on the last weekdays of the off season was minimal crowds. There were several rides that we walked right on to.
The Dumbo ride was loved by Delia who took great pride in making it fly crazy.
You can't do Disney without a spin on the teacups-- also loved by the girls.
There were lots of places to line up and meet with characters. These lines were major, though, so we just picked one to do. Meeting the fairies in Pixie Hollow ended up being worth the wait. When it was our turn, the girls charged at them and flew into their arms for hugs. It was sweet how the fairies got low to their level and had a nice long chat about how Ella and Delia's day was going. One thing I really loved about Ella's age, in particular, was that she was old/tall/brave enough to ride and love every big ride, but still young enough to be awed at the characters and dazzled by the magic.
We knew Delia just wouldn't do certain rides like Pirates of the Caribbean or The Haunted Mansion, and we didn't want to miss these headliners, so we took advantage of "switching off." We'd all wait in line and then Dave would ride with Ella while I waited with Delia. When the vehicle returned, I would take my turn with Ella. While I waited with Delia for Dave and Ella to finish their long ride on Pirates, we were delighted to find this choir of pirates singing funny drinking songs. Delia shivered at the thought of the dark ride, but absolutely loved dancing with the pirates. She just saw this picture and said, "Hey! There's my nice pirate!" There were a lot of moments of joy for her too, even in spite of her timidity.
The afternoon was the perfect time to let the kids just run around a really cool play area called Pirate's Lair, which we had to get to on a raft since it was on an island. They balanced across shaky bridges, explored caves, climbed ships and eventually found "the gleaming booty"!
We also had to take a little break for some ice cream!
Delia really liked her first roller coaster ride. The pretty tame Matterhorn Bobsleds proved to be just the right amount of wild for her. Except for the abominable snowman (or "white, growling gorilla" as Delia called him) that popped out at us, she gave this ride a thumbs up.
Ella gave me some of my favorite memories when she would randomly hug me and say heartfelt things like, "When I'm a mom and have kids, I'm going to do this exact same trip with them!" or "It's been my dream to go to Disneyland forever and it's even better than I dreamed it would be!"
Dave and I realized that we tend to tackle vacations pretty fiercely. On this first day, we spent all 12 hours in the park and did almost every ride, some several times! Though we pushed the girls, they did so great. I think sheer excitement and adrenaline kept them smiling all day.
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