Disneyland!

A little over 8 years ago I told Patrick that the only thing I wanted for my birthday was a trip to Disneyland. He had never been and being the indulgent spouse he is we took off for the magical kingdom. So it should come as no surprise to you that taking my child to Disneyland has been one of those (ahem) selfish things I have been waiting to do as a parent. The time finally came this past weekend. About a month ago when Patrick decided to take some time off between his old job and new job and I had a Friday where my class was going to be canceled we decided what they heck, lets just go to Disneyland for a long weekend. Hotel rooms were booked and plans were made. Last Thursday at 7 pm we took off for California and made it as far as the state line before deciding we'd better find a place to sleep. All night driving and sunrise breakfast had been suggested but, alas, both Patrick and I must be too old, or practical... or something, for such craziness, so we settled for a Motel 8 in Quartzite AZ and a late breakfast at McDonald's.


On Friday we made it to Anaheim by noon and set out directly for Huntington Beach. A month ago I decided I needed a new "pregnancy" (aka larger) bathing suit and thought, hey, I'll more likely than not only be large and rather pregnant during swimsuit season once in my life, I mine as well get an offensively inappropriate orange string bikini... and so I did. The weather was warm enough to hang out in said suit but not nearly warm enough to swim in it so it only had a partial christening on this trip. We spent a few hours playing in the sand and watching the waves and then headed to our hotel.


We spent all day Saturday and Sunday at Disneyland with nice long breaks in the afternoon for Evie and Patrick to nap and for me to study (I am getting pretty behind and the end of the semester is nigh... so there may be a blog drought on the horizon). On Saturday Evie got dressed up in her princess dress and we headed out. We were there early enough so there weren't many people and so I proposed we check out Pirates of the Caribbean as our first ride, a personal favorite of mine that I could still go on "in my condition" This turned out to be a poor parenting choice on my part as (duh) Genevieve deemed it too scary about 1/4 way through and proceeded to talk about how much she disliked the pirates off and on for the rest of the trip... oh well. We then spent a good part of the morning with Evie playing on Tom Sawyer's island, hit the carousel then home for a long nap. In the evening we came back for more rides (including another personal favorite, the Jungle Cruise... which wasn't too scary) and a trip in to meet Mickey Mouse. We even made it until the fireworks show at 9:30. In the past 8 years Disneyland has really stepped it up a notch and the fireworks were about the most amazing I have ever seen and, personally, the highlight of my trip. As it turned out the first day of our Disneyland adventure was all about boat rides, all but one ride we went on involved a boat of some sort... Oh and a ridiculously awesome Snow White dress for Evie was purchased at the end of the day (I'm a total sucker... I know)


At the recommendation of some Aussies we chatted with while Evie played on Tom Sawyer's island we booked early morning reservations at the park for breakfast with Minnie... a breakfast where an array of characters come over and visit with you while you eat. This turned out to be a really great tip and was a lot of fun for all of us (as you can see from the pictures of Patrick) Evie prepped for the day by getting all dressed up in her new costume and just looked too cute. Her favorite visitor was definitely the penguin from Mary Poppins who she hugged with a never before seen gusto. Patrick seemed to really dig the Winnie the Pooh characters....


From breakfast we went to ride on the tea-cups for the first of what would be three times that day and then to wait in line and meet with the princesses figuring earlier would be better. There are always three to meet with but you don't know which you will have but Genevieve lucked out and got to see what she deemed her favorite that morning... Ariel. It was really sweet the way they interacted with her and was another really special thing that I (no great surprise) had never experienced at Disneyland. After an extra long afternoon break we went back for one last romp, beginning with the Haunted Mansion. After the Pirates problem I wasn't too sure about it, but made Evie fully aware of what she was getting herself into, and she informed me that she was "Not afraid of ghosts Mommy, I have one in my classroom, I know that ghosties are nice." (A long story...of which I don't quite know all of the details) Anyway, indeed she is not afraid of ghosties, and in fact once we were done proclaimed the Haunted Mansion to be her favorite ride.... Pirates bad, ghosts good.. I guess you just never know. The evening culminated with the fancy Fantasmic show and then back to the room and off to the land of nod...at oh around 11 pm. This morning we packed it up and made the long trek back to AZ, hearts full of happiest place on earth. (Almost full enough to still be joyous after 8+ hours of driving and multiple almost accidents with crazy CA drivers who seem to think it is OK to change lanes 2 or more at a time and not look where they are going)