The Happiest Place on Earth

We've returned and unpacked and looked at pictures and remembered almost every part of our Disneyland/California Adventure trip possible. It was such a fabulous trip in every sense of the word! The drive there was comfortable and speedy, especially in our new van! Our hotel was a short walk to Disneyland with a great complimentary waffle breakfast included. The beds were super comfortable! We were all pretty healthy for the entire trip, and we were at the happiest place on earth! With the exception of the 100 degree heat, it was absolutely perfect!

We left Phoenix Saturday morning and after a quick 5+ hour drive, we checked into our hotel, grabbed some dinner and started our first night at Disneyland! Kylie was so excited to be there and we went straight to Mickey's Toontown. Unfortunately, it was too late to see any of the characters, but we got to ride a few coasters and see the fireworks show.

We awoke bright and early Sunday morning on Eric's birthday, ate breakfast at our hotel, and were at the Disneyland gates just after opening. We started out meeting all the characters and Kylie loved each one, with the exception of Goofy. I think he was just a little too big and crazy for her. We spent most of day 2 in Fantasyland where Kylie fell in love with Dumbo and the carousel, which kid doesn't do this?! We headed back shortly before dinner and all went to sleep pretty early that night.

Monday, we all visited California Adventure for the first time. We had never been there and honestly I didn't anticipate much for Kylie to do there. I was proven incorrect immediately! They have so much for kids! We watched a live production of Disney Playhouse with Handy Manny, The Little Einsteins, and Tigger & Pooh. Kylie wakes up to watch this every morning so she loved seeing them live! We also spent a long time in Bug's Life Land, a great place for kids. It was all dedicated to kids and Kylie instantly fell in love with the ladybug spinners (a kids version of the spinning tea cups) Kylie laughed so hard all through the ride and enjoyed herself so much! I love to see that she's just like her mommy, part adrenaline junkie :) Another great part of this trip is that Kylie is exactly 40 inches. That is the cut-off height for 95% of the rides, which meant that she could ride almost anything. We gave her the option of choosing which rides to go on and she was quite adventurous. She chose to ride the giant orange swings which gave even my stomach quite the ride! She even rode Star Tours back at Disneyland and loved every moment of that too!

On our last day, Tuesday, we entered the park an hour early since we had a multi-day pass. We rode our favorites for a second and third time, watched some parades, visited Mickey & Minnie's house, ate some great clam chowder in a bread bowl, got wet in the waterland at Bug's Life and tried to stay cool in the 101 degree temperature. And Eric and I finally had the chance to ride Indiana Jones and Splash Mountain. We were pretty close to letting Kylie ride Splash Mountain with us, but decided not to run the risk of scaring her too much :) Looking back, I'm so grateful we bought the tickets we did because it made the entire trip less stressful and more enjoyable without having to worry about seeing everything in 1 day.

Kylie will be 3 next month and I think this was the perfect time for her first visit. She was able to enjoy all the characters and knew who they were, she was tall enough to ride what she wanted, and she did great waiting in the lines! I'm so grateful that we were able to share this vacation together as a family and we will cherish these memories forever. And to top everything off, my body cooperated perfectly and I had more energy that I've had in a long time! Both Eric and I came home with a chest cold and nasty cough, but we felt great while we were there. Here is a slideshow of our trip which I hope gives you a small glimpse into the fun we had and the great memories we will remember forever!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com