Disneyland Day 1

Last Thursday we took the kids to DISNEYLAND!!!

We did three FULL (and long) 10-14 hour days in the parks. We had park hopper passes, so we were able to jump between Disneyland and California Adventure the whole time!

We stayed three nights on property at the Disney Grand Californian hotel. Beautiful property!!

And it is on the corner of California Adventure with its own entrance to the park!!

One of the benefits to going to the parks when we did, was all of their Christmas/Holiday decorations were still intact!! Including many of the rides that were transformed inside and out for the Holidays! So it really changed the experience!

Here are the memories from day one, in Disneyland!!

Luckily the girls are older and taller now. So Maddy just made the 40" height requirement for the big rides. The few she was too short for were The Matterhorn & Indiana Jones. Otherwise we took her on EVERYTHING else!!! She fought out of fear, but we talked her into doing everything at least once, and she was a brave trooper!! Abby was just over the 46" requirement and was able to ride everything at Disneyland, and almost everything but a few at California Adventure.

 The girls were THRILLED that our room had bunkbeds!!

It was spacious and had a queen with the bunk beds, even with a third trundle for a 5th person!

Because we stayed on Disneyland property, we were eligible for their "Magic Morning Hour".

With this you get in the park at 7am, an hour before the normal crowds can at 8am.

So we were in line EVERY morning by 6:30am.....yes, we were up before 6 everyday!!!

Then the ticket gates would let us in at 7am, and everyone races to their favorite rides, to take advantage of no lines for 60 minutes!! It was a FANTASTIC benefit!

 So we rushed to DUMBO!! We were the second group on for the morning.

 One of our focuses for this trip, was meeting as many princesses and characters as we could! The girls had an autograph book for signatures/photos!! We ended up with 11 signatures!

These are timely because the waits to see the characters can be 30-60 minutes! So you can only do so many, otherwise you are losing ride time!!

 TEACUPS!!!

 Space Mountain!! We all rode together.....Maddy is next to me in my seat, leaning over so you can't see her!!

 This pretty much captures how she looked in line for all the questionable rides.

She always got off the ride much happier, and often said "I liked that".

 Driving her car at "Autotopia"....of course I had to do the gas!!

 Holiday Parade down Main Street

 Luckily we took the girls last week before Disneyland to see the new movie "FROZEN". The snowman "Olaf" on the roof in the photo was their favorite character!!

 "Its a Small World" all lit up for winter at night

   The castle lit up for winter at night!