Disney Days Part 1

Our Disneyland trip has come and gone and it's like the let down after Christmas is over. You anticipate it for so long, and countdown, and prep and pack and plan, and then it flies by in a whirlwind and is over. Sigh. It was another successful, near perfect Disney trip. We hit wonderful weather, small crowds, and saw and did everything we wanted to.
I was so excited to go that I forgot to dread the 12 hour drive down to Anaheim, but come to find out, I didn't need to. It was a breeze! My kids were amazing in the car. There was a two hour stretch where Bentley made constant noise, albeit happy noise, but noise none the less. Just moaning/singing/talking/babbling. I thought I would lose my mind once or twice during those two hours. We were down to our final binky and it was lost for that entire car ride. Luckily she wasn't crying or screaming. The kids watched movies, played on their tablets, did homework, read books, and went through their little backpacks of craft/coloring/snacks/surprises that I packed for each of them. I crocheted, read, and enjoyed chatting with my hubby.
When we got in to our hotel we grabbed a bite to eat and hit the pool. I forgot how much all my kids love to swim. It was Beckett's first time in a pool. He wasn't impressed. Then we unpacked and settled in and got ready for our first day at Disneyland.

Day1:
We decided to spend the whole day at Disneyland. We thought for sure it would be crowded since it was a weekend day, but the crowds were so small! The longest line we waited on was probably 15 minutes. We started with Pirates of the Caribbean as per our family tradition and it did not set Taytum off on the right foot. I thought maybe being a couple years older she would enjoy rides more, but she is just not a ride lover... yet. I am still bound and determined for her to enjoy rides some day. I think of all the rides we made Andi go on the last time (which she mostly loved) when she was the same age as Taytum this time, and there is no way in heaven I would even think about Tay going on any of those rides.

 We did find a ride that Taytum finally loved. It's a Small World. We found that we didn't mind this ride as much as we thought. Not only did my kids find it fascinating and loved to look for different characters throughout it (Lilo and Stitch, Ariel, Peter Pan, etc), but it was nice and cool when we hit some super high heat at the end of the week. And did I mention there was never a line for it?

We saw about ten different characters that first day and managed to hit every "line" right when the characters appeared, so really didn't have to wait if we wanted to see them. Mickey came out right as we entered the park and we were probably third in line to see him. It was the perfect start to the day. At one point we ran into the Fairy Godmother and she insisted on walking my girls to the castle. She didn't grant any wishes, but they still thought they were pretty special.

 While we were juggling kids and switching riders for different "bigger" rides, the girls and I made a stop into Pixie Hollow.

First we ran into Fawn, who would be the fairy Taytum would be if she could be one; the animal fairy.
Then on to Tinkerbell.

Bentley was good with just looking at Tinkerbell. 









Enough with the fairies and princesses, Carter wanted to see something manly! We went and checked out the display of all the Ironman suits in Tomorrowland. They were really cool to see.

Lunch at the Cantina was delicious and not so "park food" tasting.

 

 We went on pretty much every ride in Disneyland that first day, at least once. Carter and Andi went on Splash Mountain more times than I can count. Lucky for us it was right next to Winnie the Pooh, which Taytum loved. We went on over 20 rides and managed to catch a piece of Fantasmic and the fireworks. We debated and debated on staying for fireworks since it would be the only day to watch them of our trip. They were a little late after a long first day and the kids were sopping wet from going on Splash Mountain about five times and it was getting a little cool (to be wet). But we timed it perfectly and ended up walking into the perfect spot to see the fireworks from, so we decided to sit and enjoy the show. I have seen the show from our hotel before, but I don't ever remember watching them from Main Street with the music. It was really magical. I wish I had a picture of Andi's face when Tinkerbell came flying out of the Matterhorn. She loved it. It was so magical. Taytum panicked when the music from "Pirate's of the Caribbean" came on and we had to assure her that we were not going on the ride.We headed down Main Street to leave the park a few minutes before the fireworks were over and Jefferson was carrying Taytum. I  was walking behind them and I absolutely loved seeing Taytum's face lit up by the fireworks and see her "ooh" and "aaah" over them. It was so sweet and she was so happy. I wish I could have captured that moment on camera.

It was the perfect first day and I could have left happy after that day... but I'm glad that we didn't.