The Happiest Place on Earth!!

We had originally planned on going to Disneyworld in Florida to see my brother and his family, along with my Dad and Darrin, but since my dad's kidney surgery was only 10 days prior to our flight we changed plans and decided to drive up do Disneyland.

When we told Madi that we would take her to Disneyland, that was all she could talk about, think about and dream about. She would ask every morning, "How many days until we leave Mom?" Then the day would be filled with a variety of questions like how long will we be in the car, who will we see there, what kinds of rides do they have, what will our hotel be like, how many days are we there, where will we eat, is it a big place or a small place....etc. And the questions went on and on until we actually arrived at our hotel in Disneyland. So grab a snack, sit back, relax and if you dare to read it all and gaze at all the pictures, enjoy our Disneyland Adventure. Seriously.....it's really long.

FRIDAY, June 26th

We headed out of town in the late morning...decided after a couple hours of driving to stop and get some lunch, to Madi's surprise we were still in Arizona. But we ate at Johnny Rockets (a fav of hers) so I think we were able to buy a few more hours with that surprise. Madi really did fantastic on her first road trip (i know sad that she's 5 and never really been away from town). She had snacks, listened to music, told stories, slept, watched High School Musical (all 3). I would have to say it really was lots of fun for the 3 of us. The highlight of our drive there were these - they were everywhere for a bit and actually a bit creepy too, Madi and I thought they were a bit alien-ish. They had all sizes but non the less they were super huge!!

We finally get to Paradise Pier, our new home for the next 3 days. For those of you who don't know...one of my guilty pleasures is hotels - I love staying in hotels :) It is pretty clear that I have passed that fun one on to Madi. She was so excited to get in and see what our room was like she could hardly wait for the door to open. This was the view from our room - we loved it since we could see right into California Adventure. It was dinner time and we didn't want to get to crazy the first night so we ate at the restaurant in our hotel, PCH Grill. Madi chose the 'make your own pizza' and she loved making it. I thought for sure she would be exhausted but what was I thinking - after she was done eating she decided to jump up on the little stage in the place and dance it up, very entertaining and cute.

Saturday, June 27th

We were up and ready and heading over to the park by 7:30am. I have to plug http://www.ridemax.com/ really quick - my Aunt had let me in on this delicious little secret. If you are heading to Disneyland or Disneyworld I would highly highly recommend this site. We just plugged in what rides when wanted to go on and when, how often we wanted a break like for eating and/or napping and it shot us out a plan so we wouldn't be having to wait in any ride line. Sure enough we never waited longer than 5 minutes at the most - it was crazy, we couldn't believe it!!.....okay so back to the day...

We walked into the park and who was standing right around the corner - Mickey Mouse!!! I think I was visibly jumping with excitement...Madi on the other hand was a little more cautious. There was only one family getting their pictures with him so we hurried right over and waited. Mean while Brady and I were trying to tell Madi how great this was that Mickey was her first character to see here and this and that, but she really wasn't buying any of it. She actually said she didn't want to get her picture with him but of course I made her :) Then off to the rides: Peter Pan then Dumbo, the Madderhorn Bobsled (fun water log ride). Madi had been telling us from the very beginning that she wanted to make sure and go on the teacup ride so she and Brady headed there next while I went off to get our fast passes for Splash Mountain (the teacups make me dizzy), then we met at Pirates of the Caribbean....Madi was scared when she went inside to get on the boats because it was so dark and she didn't know what to expect so her and I opted out and waited for Brady on the other side. He said it was a good thing she didn't go. Then to Splash Mountain, Madi seemed a little hesitant and first, she was really quite and holding tightly to my hand. After the ride she did say she was a little scared but wanted to do the water ride and ended up really liking it.

We decided to do a little exploring on Pirates Island. The tree house and all the little caves were a big hit. That was a nice little break to just be at our own pace and cool down a little. Now back to the main land :) and we headed for Winnie the Pooh's adventure ride. Madi seemed to like this ride, slower paced and not too dark inside. We did climb up and go through Tarzan's Tree house but wasn't quite as much fun. Then on to It's a Small World, Madi was so very excited to see because my mom had informed her prior to our trip that it was my favorite ride when I was a little girl. Afterwards, Madi told us that it was her favorite ride thus far on the trip too.
We went up to Toon Town and toured the whole area where Madi was able to get some more character autographs and pics. Madi and I went on Donald's rollercoaster. It was very short but we had fun going on it together while Brady was waiting by the exit. We then realized we were starving and decided to eat in Downtown Disney @ LaBrea (they have yummy bread in grocery stores :) After lunch we were exhausted and extremely hot so we headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and ride the water slide there. After swimming we all took a short nap, well Brady some how go a longer one. Then we had to get ready for dinner, Madi had to get all glamorized in her new Cinderella dress for dinner @ Ariel's Grotto with the princesses.

It was such a fun dinner, where all the princesses walked around to each table, talked to the kids, signed autographs and took pictures with them. And the food was pretty good too. On our way back to the hotel to change we hoped on the golden zeplen boats for a nice breezy ride. We got changed and headed back over to Disneyland to find a seat for the Electrical Light Parade - and this was absolutely amazing! We loved it and Madi seemed to get lots of attention from all the characters - Prince Charming even asked her if the glass slipper he was holding was hers!!

Madi and I decided that we were beat and headed back to our room to get some much anticipated sleep/rest after our very long and exciting 1st day. However Brady decided that since he got a pretty good nap he wasn't too tired and wanted to go on a few more 'grown-up' rides so off he went and hit Indiana Jones Adventure, Star tours, Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. He helped close the park down and was forced to retire back and go to sleep at about 12:30 am.

Sunday, June 28th

We actually were able to sleep in a little since it was Sunday and the parks didn't open their gates until a little later. We waited very impatiently at this little bistro on Main St. in Disneyland, we had passed by it the day before and it looked fun. When we finally got seated and got our food we were more than satisfied with the food but the service was very poor and we wouldn't recommend it (i'll find the name). Then we headed over to California Adventure: Brady went off to get our fast passes to Grizzly River Run while Madi and I went searching for the Aladdin show, on our way we saw so many characters and were lucky that their lines were very small and were able to get some more great autographs and pictures. We had preferred seating for the Aladdin show and so we were able to get magnificent seats inside. I think out of the 3 of us I was actually the most excited as Aladdin is my favorite Disney movie. We sat 4th row right in the middle - and it was wonderful! The genie was absolutely hilarious - even Madi was laughing her socks off!

Enough sitting in a nice cool auditorium and back to the heat outside - We rode on Soaring over California - this was very cool. Madi had no fear on this ride and I have to say that I was a little nervous with my feet not touch the ground, just dangling....I found myself holding them very stiff and still for the first couple minutes. Madi was leaning forward and pointing and saying how cool it would be if could really fly in the sky like this as I'm thinking to myself ,"seems like we've been on here for a while, I hope it's almost over" But it really was a different experience. Right next to the ride was the Hanger restaurant and we ate lunch there and then headed over to scope out a great spot for the High School Musical 3 singing show. Madi was wearing her HSM shirt so she go high 5's, waves, pointed and and winks from the cast members and they sang and danced by her. Yes even 'Troy' came up to her - she may have even blushed.

We decided that since it was so blazing hot we would get some ice cream. Bad idea....it did taste good, but melted way too fast all over everything, but since it wasn't too far from where the HSM show was going past we got to see it again and Madi was really excited about that. We then headed over to use our fast passes for the Grizzly River. I just need to say that fast passes are the way to go when you can get them, because we walked right in and only waited about 3 minutes to get on our raft. The waiting line was forever long and we were so grateful not to be standing in it. As we were about 1/2 way through the ride, Madi leaned over and whispered to me that she doesn't think she would like to go on this ride again, but then we went down the steep river drop and we all screamed and I got soaked, Madi then leaned over and said, "I would definitely go on this ride again!" We had to head back to the hotel and changed since we all were wet, well I was drenched.

Then back out again, this time off to Disneyland. We rode the train around the park, that was nice and relaxing and we could check everything out. We decided popcorn sounded like a good dinner, rode tea cups again, Fantasmic show (this one I actually remembered from when I was little and still just as awesome as I remembered).

Madi had the best spot in the house, on Brady's shoulders, it was all standing room and quite crowded. We tried to beat the crowds back tot he exit gates - there were a zillion more people watching the fireworks over the castle - we actually ran out of the park. As soon as we were in our room we all 3 dove into bed.

These two pictures are of our everyday occurances. Each time we walked to Downtown Disney to get to either of the parks we walked passed this window with these beautiful wedding dresses on display advertising a Disney wedding and one of Madi's most favorite things to do was push the walk button to cross the street. Simple things but fun!

Monday, June 29th

We had no time schedule today so we slept in and get ready leisurely then headed down to Newport Beach. When we got out of the car it was very cold, windy, overcast and foggy - this was 11:30 in the morning. We were greatly disappointed but kept walking up the pier. Since we were there around lunch time we decided to eat at the little restaurant at the end of the pier - pretty good food. By the time we had finished up eating it had cleared up a bit and warmed up some too so we decided to go down to the beach and let Madi walk and play around for a while since it was her first time at the beach. I know, no fun parents for not taking her sooner. She absolutely loved it. She was having a blast running in the water, finding sea shells, then burring them, then running all along the shore, she also like standing in one place while the water went back and forth and made her feel like she was sinking in the sand - she called it the sinking game. I was able to take some really cute pictures (or at least I think so).

After we returned to our hotel from the beach, Brady and Madi went down to the pool while I was able to stay back and relax for about 30 minutes and read - awwww quite. My little mini vacation during our vacation. :)When they were back we all had to get ready for dinner at Goofy's Kitchen over at the Disneyland Hotel. Madi was able to get more autographs and pictures with the characters.

It was very good food and even better desserts, I actually think there were more desserts to choose from than any of the other food, and of course since we were on vacation I let Madi choose as many as she wanted to try.

After we were stuffed we decided to go do a little shopping in Downtown Disney. We found some really fun souvenirs and then headed back to our hotel for our last fireworks show. We liked it so much fir the first time that we wanted to capture it on video. After the spectacular show we headed back to the room, packed up our clothes and such then off to bed. Our hotel tv had these really cute 'bedtime stories' on around bedtime. Madi loved watching them, they were stories told by a different princess each night. Pretty cute.

Tuesday, June 30th

This was our travel day home but we weren't quite finished with Disneyland yet. We packed up the car and then walked over to the Grand Californian Hotel for a Critter Breakfast in the Storyland Cafe. Madi was able to get a few more autographs and pics there too. It was a wonderful breakfast and a really nice ending to our 1st trip as a family to the happiest place on earth. We all were very very happy!

Back on the road headed home....we had passed the outlets on the way in so I begged Brady to stop on our way home and what a sweetie - he did. That was really fun, we ended up staying for 2 hours which wasn't what we had originally planned but we got some really great deals for all of us. Shortly after we were back on the road again, we were stuck in a 36 mile back up for a couple hours. Ended up that it was a dump truck had turned over, uggggg.....that wasn't so fun but we survived got passed it and sailed on home.

I really don't think we could have fit anymore into our trip and we wouldn't have changed a thing (except it being so hot). We all had a great time and made memories to last forever...well at least long enough until we head back to Disneyland again!