Disney Day 3

Our last and final day at Disneyland may have been my favorite.  We had promised both the kids we would do something special for them for their birthday's at Disneyland.  We rode a few rides together first thing and then each of us took a kid for their special time.  For Sadi this meant the brand new, just opened Anna and Elsa boutique for a fairy godmother makeover!  I had bought her an Elsa dress to wear this day as her surprise.

These godmothers could not believe how thick her hair was.  She really got the royal treatment having two of them to pamper her.  Just to give you an idea of how much hair this girl has, I saw 4 other girls come and go in the time they did hers...just saying, my job ain't easy.

 Nails painted, and makeup...wasn't sure about this part, but they made it very tasteful. 

 With a wave of her magic glitter wand and some magic words I can't repeat...

 It was time for the reveal.

 As they spin the girls around they all sing "Let it go".  This was her first look at herself.

The end result was amazing.  Shockingly this stayed in for a few days, and I have no idea what kind of magic bottle they used but no tangles!

We skipped around Disneyland just doing what Sadi wanted.  We stopped in the Tiki room for a pineapple whip..yum.

Then we had one special ticket to go meet Elsa!  We kind of ran into the line for this first thing in the morning.  You have to have a fast pass to meet her, and if you aren't in line first thing in the morning you won't see her.  They sell out in about 15 minutes.  Outside her house Olaf talks to you..pretty funny.

I think Sadi was star struck, she thought Elsa was so beautiful.  They both commented on how frozen her hair was.  They really kept in character and made me laugh as they talked about chocolate.

This was a dream come true for her, and she talked all day about how cool it was to meet Elsa.

 They may have given her some magical powers to freeze this place.

 Luckily we have enough love to melt it.

It was especially magical to have so many Disney employees address her as "your Majesty" or say things like "Oh Queen Elsa thank you for traveling all the way from Arendelle to be here with us".  Really made her day.  While we sauntered around we ran into a few characters like Tigger, who was bouncing to see Elsa.

And Rabbit who made fun of the person in front of us for asking where his pumpkins were...silly kid don't you know it's carrot season!

Chase was off with Dad trying to get into the Jedi academy.  He didn't get picked.  I told him it was because he was wearing the dark side shirt...he agreed.  He did get to ride California screaming over and over..no line.  He loved it!

We let the kids set the pace this last day and let them choose which rides they wanted to repeat.  Sadi was insistent we ride Indiana Jones.  Even with Dad driving the jeep Chase still was in the fetal position.  I still haven't figured that one out...1000 miles and hour and upside down?  Okay.  A few fake spiders on the wall.  No way.

 We cruised the river and saw some wildlife.

 Stopped in New Orleans for some Mickey shaped beignets...delicious, and hot!

Pretty sure these two pumpkins of ours had a great time.

We took them to downtown Disney so they could spend their last few bucks then headed back to the hotel.  They stayed up late that night playing with their new treasures.

 Finally it was lights out....

 I'm always so sad when vacation is over.  Back to the grind!

Disney Day 2

Day 2 of vacation we headed to California Adventure for the day.  We hit the park right when it opened and guess who we saw with no line?  Mickey Mouse!

Our first stop was Cars Land.  I couldn't find any shirt for the kids that I really liked so this year I made my own.  Surprisingly they turned out really cute!

I loved how Cars Land was completely detailed to look exactly like the movie, it really made you feel like you were in Radiator Springs.

I had read that if you don't get a fast pass first thing for cars then your kinda outta luck for the ride.  Apparently about 6 million other people read that too and were all in line for one.  We skipped it and decided to see what the line looked like...no line!  After we got off we went back and got a fast pass to do it again later.  I loved this ride, it may be my new favorite.

We also got to go on the Ariel ride (which I somehow didn't get any pictures of) several times.  It was a walk on ride all day.  It was one of Sadi's favorites.  We hit the midway in the afternoon for some Toy Story shootin'.  I actually beat Matt at this game...once, but I'm claiming it.

The parks were busier than either of us expected for this time of year, so we spent more time in lines than in the past.  We skipped anything that wasn't 30 minutes or less, and were still able to do some rides multiple times.  I told  our kids to "not hang on the rope" or to "get down from the rails" more than I liked too.

It was a warm day and we had to find something sweet to eat while we waited for the boys to ride the grizzly river run.  This hit the spot....

Of course Chase had to find something to cool down too.  One thing about Disney....they know how to make it a Large.  This is the tallest I have ever seen someone make a cone.  Well done Mickey, well done.

 We even got a private meet and greet with this polka dot loving gal.  She loved that Sadi was dressed just like her.

Another fun day at the most magical place on earth!

Disney Day 1

We woke fairly early to start our first morning at Disneyland.  Each morning I had a few small surprises for the kids to get them excited (and to avoid the souvenir shop which I think really worked because the never asked to go in them).

 They were both very giddy with anticipation.  We were ready for those gates to open!

We headed first to Adventure land.  We wanted to get them on some big rides in case it got real busy.  One of our first rides was the haunted mansion which was completely themed out to Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas.

Honestly this is one of my favorite rides in the park, and the whole scary Christmas thing ruined it for me...it was a completely different ride.

Sadi wanted to ride anything she even thought might be scary with Daddy.  She remembers riding this before as you can tell by her face.  But, this ended up being one of her favorite rides.

We were so excited that they were tall enough to ride all the rides including one of our favorites Indiana Jones.  We just watched the movie and Chase loved it...the movie.  As soon as we got on the ride and started going, this was his view the entire ride.   Again this was one of Sadi's favorite rides, however I'm not convinced it wasn't because she loved teasing Chase that she was braver than him.

Chase turned the tables on Sadi when we headed to Splash Mt.  He loved this ride, and Sadi well....let's just say if you want your ear drums blown out sit in front of her.  You can tell by her face how much fun she had on this one..NOT. AT. ALL.

We had enough scary for the morning and we lightened it up most of the rest of the day.  We all love Buzz Lightyear astro blasters and all try to beat Daddy at his high scores.  No one has beat him yet.

 Everyone was all smiles on It's a small world...Sadi even sat by Chase on this ride.

 This was my crazy driver for the day...

We took quite a few whirls on the teacups.  Sadi LOVES this.  I still don't get how she can get motion sickness but can whirl forever on these?

Another favorite for Sadi was the carousel.  We rode these horses many times.

Before going to Disney this time, I read all the tips and tricks and things to try.  One thing on our list was these Tigger tails that you can only get in Pooh's corner.  Delicious, but oh my...one is enough for all four of us.  It was so sweet!  Even too sweet for Sadi to finish which is unheard of.

I had read that the purple teacup is the fastest which put to the test is true...notice I am not in there, yeah one spin on the fastest teacup was enough for me.

Chase was big enough to drive Autotopia this year...to be honest I was scared driving with him.  As he ran into the curb he said "hey, I'm doing a pretty good job". 

 As the sun set it was time to get our Mickey ears on.

It was a fun, full, first day of vacation.  These two were troopers!

Vacation

We just returned home from a full week of vacation, and it was a blast!  We left last weekend for a few days with the little ones at Disneyland.  It was a long drive to get there (unless you were lucky enough to sit in the back seat eating snacks and watching movies the whole time), but we finally made it to our hotel!

We checked in and discovered our room had a view...a tortuously amazing view of the pool.  Although we had not planned to go to the pool it was literally calling to these two...

 So we threw on our suits and headed for a quick dip,

 and a big splash at the splash pad.

We were finally able to get them out of the pool and we decided while it was still light we would walk to downtown Disney to walk around and find some dinner.  We didn't find any dinner (unless you count a pretzel), but we did have fun in the shops, especially the Lego store.  These Disney Lego builders know how to build Lego's!  Check out this beauty and the beast..

 and this hulk...

There were so many things to see...but so many people!  We headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before hitting the park the next day.

Think Pink

We have been sporting a lot of pink around here this month.  A few weeks ago our kids school had a day dedicated to cancer awareness.  They were both excited to get their "pink on", even though Sadi was convinced she didn't have enough pink on :)

Also all month our cheer team is sporting their gigantic pink bows, pink socks, and for extra cheer pink pom poms!

We are still cheering for a cure!