The Happiest Place on Earth

Thanks to the fact that my mom has been wanting to run the Disneyland 5K that they have over Labor Day Weekend, we took a family trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. We left on Wednesday, stayed the night in Primm, NV, and arrived just before lunchtime on Thursday.

(Yes- my eyes are totally closed in the picture. Oh well.)

We strapped both kids in the jogging stroller we borrowed from my sister (thanks a million Michelle) and, together with my parents, decided to brave the crowds on the Thursday and Friday before Labor Day.

Fortunately, the crowds were nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. We walked into the park, and the first character we met was Pluto. Josh wasn't sure what to think, but we dragged him up to take a picture anyway. He will thank me later, right?

We had a great time. Josh really enjoyed the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. Steve enjoyed it too! This picture doesn't show Josh's enthusiasm, but he was too busy looking at all the pictures of Buzz and the "green guys" to smile for the camera. He rode on the "laser" ride 4 times!

We were worried about how Abby would hold up at the park, but we didn't need to. She was happy as could be.

 Day 2 we started at the park right at opening. We met Goofy and decided to snap a picture, even if the kids weren't very into it. Again, they will thank us later.

My sister also loaned us a Tinkerbell costume for Abby and gave us instructions to find Tinkerbell first thing so the lines wouldn't be too long to take a picture with her.

Next we headed to Fantasyland, and Josh absolutely loved the Dumbo ride. He was grinning the whole time, and when he got off he kept saying "I was flying Mommy!"

On a sidenote: I am SO glad my parents were with us. We were able to do the Baby Swap- which means that 2 of us would go on a "grown up" ride and the other 2 would stay with the kids. Then you could get a Baby Swap pass that lets the 2 who stayed with the kids skip ahead in line. Pretty sweet deal. It meant we didn't stand in lines very long, which was great.

 Anyway- we took Josh on the Teacup ride and he loved it. He just kept looking around at everything with this same look:

 I think that look is called "wonder".

A few more stops. The Small World ride (Josh calls it the Dancing Kids Boat Ride), which- by the way- they have updated to included several Disney characters in "Small World" style. Pretty fun.

 Then we stopped by Toon Town and Josh looked around for a while. He got to drive Goofy's car, which was pretty exciting.

After Toon Town, we watched the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies Show, which is a MUST SEE if you are in Disneyland. I don't have pictures, and I can't describe it well enough to do it justice. It is four guys playing bluegrass music on fiddles, banjos, etc. And it is Hilarious.

Then we headed to California Adventureland. And of course, we took pictures with Lightning McQueen. Josh was pretty excited. He really wanted to ride in the McQueen car. I can't wait for the Radiator Springs part of the park to be finished. Next time we go, Josh will just plain freak out.

 Another highlight of the trip, of course, was the corndogs. My sister described them as "heavenly" and she was absolutely right. I'm going to have to wait at least a couple weeks before I eat a microwaved corndog again.

 One of the best sights to see during the second day was this:

 Josh napping in the stroller! Yay! The kids were both really good. Of course they had their moments where they were sad and tired. But that is expected of a three-year-old and a one-year-old!

Saturday morning, Steve and my mom participated in the Disneyland 5K. There will be a whole separate blog for that one.

I am so glad we had the chance to go as a family. That is what really makes Disneyland the happiest place on earth- being there with your family and seeing the look of wonder and pure joy on your kids faces. I know you can get that look in other places, but we are glad we made the trip.