Disneyland Again!

A while back we heard about the volunteer program to earn a day to Disneyland and we jumped on the opportunity. We put together some boxes with teaching supplies to give to local teachers. It was a pretty simple project, we felt good about what we'd contributed and we got 3 free tickets to Disneyland. We decided to go in the middle of April, tax day to be exact. This time instead of leaving Ruby at home with cousin Stephanie, we brought them along. And we all had a blast! We were able to hit every ride we were interested in at least once, we ate at the Blue Bayou for lunch, and we got our pineapple floats. We spent one glorious day there, and Steve and I were glad that it was only one day.

We always start with the Peter Pan ride. I'd say it is for the kids, but its totally not. This is Steve's favorite ride. Here's Steph, Lyda and Kode.


So here's us on the same ride, Ruby's first Disneyland experience. She's looking ahead with terror in her eyes. Meanwhile Steve and I are as giddy as can be. We should have started with an outside ride.


This is the ride we should have started with. The kids love this ride. Ruby still talks about it and in fact thought that her grandma was taking her to "ride an elephant" the other day. She was disappointed when she ended up at the mall carousel.


Disneyland makes me want to jump and click my heels together, so I do.


Steph made this trip a million times more enjoyable. She is a favorite cousin and our kids fought over who got to sit next to her on each ride.


We were so careful to try to take Ruby on some nice easy going rides right at first so she wouldn't freak out. Clearly our Peter Pan choice was a success, she still talks about how scary that ride was. As the day went on we decided she could just deal with some of the creepier rides, like The Haunted Mansion (I know, worst parents ever). Funny thing is that she's never once mentioned that ride. Kode loved this ride. He begged us to take him on it right after we got off. Steve was a trooper and went with him for a second trip.


I think she had fun.


We sort of stumbled upon Mickey near the end of the day. The kids were a little uneasy about going near him at first but really warmed up to him pretty quickly. In fact Ruby even gave him a hug as she walked away. Unfortunately we totally missed that shot. It was the cutest moment of the day! Oh well.


At the end of the day we let our kids pick out one very overpriced toy. This was Ruby's pick. The spinning, light up princess thing. You should know that the batteries are not replaceable. We learned that the hard way.


Rather than wait in line in the morning for the picture in front of Mickey's head, we postponed until we were on our way out. I guess there's a reason why people take it on the way in. At least we got it.


On the way back to the hotel I tried to buckle Kode in the stroller, he is notorious for almost falling out of strollers while sleeping at Disneyland. He argued with me about it but I insisted and thank goodness I did, he was out within 5 minutes.



What a great time we had and we can't wait to go back again!