Disneyland Days: 1

Finally! I was so excited that the chain was done, that I forgot to take a picture! But trust me, all that was left was a beautiful little Mikey Mouse shaped paper loop, which means.....It's time to go to DISNEYLAND!!

The perks of flying with an adorable 4 year-old

this too. 

 We flew to Annaheim on Sunday, rented a car, then headed to the Carousel Inn. The trip was great, Elliott's ear started hurting him a bit on the plane, and his throat was sore that night, but he woke up ready to go on Monday morning! The last time we went to Disneyland, Lucy was 3, and Elliott was not quite 2, so the kids don't remember anything. We went in February then too, so we were hoping for no lines, and great weather. Well, to start us off, we touched-down during a coastal wind and rain storm. Our flight crew and pilots were champs, so it wasn't as traumatic as it could have been. Luckily, the rain was supposed to stop on Sunday, and it was going to be 60s and windy on Monday. After a quick trip to the grocery store for food, we found our hotel; the same one we'd stayed at two other times.

Monday came, and the kids woke up at 6 AM out of pure excitement. Now we're all crowded in a motel room with no wifi for 4 hours waiting for the park to open; things got hostile pretty fast, so we headed to Trader Joes for some groceries, then to the park a little early.

It's a good thing we did too, because the security line was pretty long, and then, of course, it IS Disneyland after all, there was another line to get in. At this point, after a rough morning of anticipation and lines, our older kids were wondering why this was supposed to be "fun". We kept telling them it was going to be great, but they weren't feeling it for the first little bit. 

Archie, however, got right into the fun.  Being 4 years old, even waiting in line can be an adventure, so he didn't see a problem. Once we rode the Buzz Lightyear ride, and headed towards Pirates, we found our first character to hug: Woody.

 Archie played high-5 keep away with him for a while, then we headed to my favorite ride...

 Pirates of the Caribbean! I assured Archie that it wasn't scary and after no wait, we all boarded our boat.

 Mom-Fail, I forgot about the 3 big drops. Archie was not happy, and would remain traumatized for the next 3 days, not trusting my judgement on ride-scariness any more. We had to convince him it was a "soft" ride, not a dark ride, or like the Ariel ride.
The older kids were still not convinced of Disney's magic, so, after having lunch with my parents (didn't I mention they joined us there for 3 days!?!?!?) we decided to try California Adventures.
Immediately Archie found a few more friends to hug.

Papa, Lucy and I watned to scare the "pee-woddle" out of ourselves, so we went to the Tower of Terror because Mike's awesome app that we would rely on the entire trip, told us there was no wait, and the others went to the Disney Jr. Live show. 

Archie loved the show, and Elliott still was wondering what was so great about this "Disneyland". 

Meanwhile, Lucy and Papa and I had a 3-genenration adventure. We decide Papa needs to make an "I survived the Tower of Terror at 70" shirt. 

We wandered over the to river raft ride and found the Wilderness Explorer park. Elliott, Archie, Lucy and I climbed the rope course several times, and Elliott found the magic! From there, he and Lucy rode the river raft repeatedly while Archie and I continued to explore. This would become a  common scene for us; the kids loved the rafts, and Archie loved to explore the rope course. 

 We left Papa and Gramma for some rest, and we continued to explore the pier.

 Archie's favorite ride (and the only one he would try for a few days) was the Ariel ride. Outside the ride, we found the green, plastic soldier street-show. This picture made me smile because somewhere, we have one like this of Elliott on Habi's shoulders at Disneyland.

 The kids were wet from the raft ride, there were 50 mph winds and the sun was setting. We decided to wait for the Parade, warm-up with hot chocolate and churros, then call it an early day.

Turns out,
Disneyland is pretty magical after all.