Our First Family Disneyland Adventure

30 years ago (I am so old) I celebrated my 4th birthday at Disneyland. It is one of my earliest memories... Specifically, I remember watching a big orchestra play, and they announced, "Is it anyone's birthday today?" Of course my parents yelled from the back that it was my 4th birthday and they played Happy Birthday just for me. I also remember getting on to the submarine ride, and the Disneyland employee helping me on the boat said, "Welcome, Stacey!" I was SO thrilled and exclaimed to my parents, "He knows my name!" Maybe it was because I was wearing a shirt that had STACEY spelled across the front in giant letters...So now that Scott is 4 1/2, we figured it was time to take him for his first Disneyland experience. We have been talking up the trip for a while, and although I don't think Scott and Charlotte really knew what they were in for, they were excited about going. And we were especially lucky to have 13168 Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) and Aunt Shannon along for the party!

Scott and Charlotte walking to Disneyland the first day, not quite sure what to expect: The highlight for Scott was the Buzz Lightyear ride. We called it the Zurg ride since (if you haven't been on it) it is like a laser tag game where you are shooting at targets all marked with a "Z". I think we went on it about 6 times during the 2 days. Fortunately the ride is also fun for adults, so nobody minded going over and over. And just ask Scott -- his high score was 80,600. And as you exit the ride, they of course have you walk directly through a store filled with Toy Story and Cars stuff. The first time after the ride, Scott desperately wanted another Lightning McQueen shirt. The second we bought it, he took off the Lightning McQueen shirt he was wearing at the time to replace it with the new one. And as of today (6 days later) he has worn it every single day.

Scott with Aunt Shannon: Scott's follow-up note to Zach about his favorite ride:Scott also thought the tea cups ride was hilarious, and really liked driving the cars in Autopia. He did go on the Matterhorn, but that was a little too scary.Charlotte did fine on all of the rides she went on. When she was scared, she just would cling to whoever was holding her, rather than scream. That was fine with me. She did say, "That was fun!" after the Alice in Wonderland ride... I think her favorite part of the trip was the parade and the princesses. At one point we went into the all-princess store and she was in HEAVEN. She spent a while picking out her crown and her Sleeping Beauty sunglasses.Doesn't she look spectacular? I haven't been able to convince her that the crown is not supposed to be warn like a headband, but I guess when you are a princess you can do whatever you want. And while Charlotte was getting decked out in all things princess, here is a picture of Scott, totally bored to tears while being surrounded with all this lame girly stuff. It took about 5 minutes before he was out cold:Both kids were NOT excited at all about seeing the Disney characters in person. We did the character breakfast in the park, and Minnie, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Chip and Dale all came to our table while we were eating. Scott hid his face anytime one of them showed up. Charlotte did sort of warm up to Minnie and gave her a high-five and a tiny hug. But when we saw Buzz Lightyear and Woody in the park, neither kid wanted anything do to with them.My favorite part was the parade and fireworks. I have never been to Disneyland when it was dark, so those two events were brand new to me. We saw the parade both days and we all loved it! And the fireworks were absolutely spectacular.

Watching the parade:Needless to say, we had 2 tired kids and exhausted parents and grandparents at the end of each day. 2 days was just the right amount of time and December is definitely a great time of the year to go because of the Christmas stuff and the short lines. It was all magical...