We originally wanted to do a few days in San Diego and take Lilly to all the zoos but with gas prices being so high and the drive being so long, we opted to stay closer to home. We have annual passes to Disneyland and thought two days at the park and one night at a hotel would be just as fun... and it totally was!
We left for Disneyland Sunday morning and headed to California Adventure. The new Little Mermaid ride opened just a few days earlier and I insisted we ride it. We got into the park just after it opened and walked to the ride. The sign said it was only an hour wait from the entrance and I thought, "Psh. An hour? No problem." We headed toward the end of the line and never found it. All of Anaheim was in on our plan! We finally gave up when we realized the line pretty much wrapped around the entire park. Little Mermaid fail.
Feeling totally disillusioned, we headed to the Hollywood section of California Adventure. It was a total ghosttown! Awesome! Everyone was wasting their time waiting to see Ariel. We ran into our first celebrity and then walked right onto the Monsters, Inc. ride... one of my favorites!
Lilly loved being able to run around by herself. She does this silly power walk thing whenever we ask her if she can run super fast. It's super cute! I think everyone in line behind us agreed. They kept gushing about how adorable she was... and she soaked it all up.
We rode Midway Mania next. This was probably the longest line of our whole trip. Lilly handled it like a champ. She loves to people watch and she gets especially excited when she spots a baby. (She considers infants, toddlers and even small children to be babies. Haha.) Midway Mania is a Toy Story themed ride that is kind of like a whole bunch of 3-D carnival type games. Lilly refused to wear her glasses on the actual ride.
We walked over to Disneyland a little while later. Our first stop was the line to buy a pickle. These things are so over-priced but Disneyland isn't Disneyland without them. Lilly loves them and she's usually the one in charge of deciding who gets a bite.
We spent the next few hours eating Pommes Frites in New Orleans Square and riding Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, The Jungle Cruise and the Disneyland Railroad. Lilly loves trains! She waved to every person we passed. We were all pretty pooped by this time so we decided to go check into our hotel.
Now, one thing about Lilly: this kid loves hotels. This is the second time we've stayed in one as a family and she was super excited about all the cool new stuff she got to play with. She spent about an hour running around our room opening drawers, reading magazines, flushing the toilet and playing with the phone.
We had dinner at PF Chang's and decided to go back to the park afterward. Since we have season passes, we tend to leave the park early whenever we visit. We decided to go back and try to watch a parade or fireworks or whatever it is that happens when the sun goes down.
We spotted Mickey Mouse as soon as we got back inside Disneyland. There's usually an insane line to meet him but this was our night. We hopped in line behind a few families and let Lilly meet him. She thought he was all right. We also met Pluto, but Lilly thought he was terrifying.
We walked to Fantasyland and discovered that pretty much everything was closed in preparation for the firework show. We stopped in front of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and took a breather. (I was in a lot of pain and needed a break. Baby Ronin likes to make herself at home on my sciatic nerve and it kills me.)
Lilly insists on "driving" my car whenever we go out so she was super excited to play on this thing:
We were kicked out of this section of the park because the show was about to start. Apparently, people start staking out spots to watch this thing super early because there wasn't an open bench, a piece of sidewalk or a rock to sit on anywhere in the park. We finally found a tiny square of concrete to squat on near Sleeping Beauty's Castle. I was talking to a park employee about the show (since we are never around to see it) and he informed me that there was a good chance it wasn't going to happen because of the clouds overhead. Sure enough, an announcement was made saying the fireworks show was still up in the air. (Ha!) We toughed it out for another twenty minutes or so and finally decided to head back to the hotel. If the show was to happen, we would be able to see it from our hotel anyway. Just as we got on the tram the show started. I guess it was cut short because it was over by the time we got to our car.
Lilly fell asleep on the way back and she wouldn't wake up for anything. Aaron changed her diaper and put her in pajamas without her even so much as opening an eye... the perfect way to end our first day of vacation.
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