About: VACATION in Disneyland!!!

Finally, the highlight of our vacation - DISNEYLAND! We had an afternoon and evening to roam around Dowtown Disney and the hotels - we made sure to stop and grab a map before heading back to the hotels, for planning purposes...

The day has arrived! We were in our matching Mickey Mouse shirts!

It took a little longer than expected to actually get into the parks, so we were maybe 15 minutes after opening, but once inside there were lots of wide open spaces - that's what we like!

And there were ducklings...

Pics with Pluto! We practically walked right up to him - all of the Fab 5 were out, but Mickey and Minnie's lines were pretty long.

We did a baby swap thing so we could all ride on Matterhorn, meanwhile Whit and Liam met Captain Hook...

 and rode on the teacups.

 Next stop, it's a small world. 

We would usually be running from coaster to coaster because lines are shortest in the morning, but being that we had all the little kids too we wanted them to start off the day doing stuff they like. We also went on Alice in Wonderland first thing - such a good little ride.

I ate so. many. churros. They have them in all kinds of flavors now - how could I not try them?!

The Tiki room - another great one for all the littles!

I'm still kind of sad that I only had one of these - Mint Juleps are our favorite beverage in all of Disneyland.

And the strawberry beignets were muy delicioso!

After Alice and Whit had naps we went over to California Adventure and headed straight for CarsLand. Whittaker is a massive fan of Cars (just like Liam was at this age) and we were all so excited to see him, see CarsLand for the first time.

We rode on Luigi's for the first time - so cute! And Whitaker spotted Mater, Lightning McQueen, DJ, and Red at least!

Then we went on Mater's Jamboree - cute details...

Afterwards we headed back to the Magic Kingdom, had some dinner, caught a few rides that we had FastPasses for and found a spot in the Hub for fireworks just in time before it all filled up - it was such a great show! We stayed a little while after, but headed back pretty early for a Disneyland day.

The next day we started out in California Adventure. This park is so pretty - I'm just happy to wander up and down the paths.

We were also really excited to go to the new Pixar Pier area that had only been open for a week!

It's a looker!

Jen and Grant and my four had a reservation at the Blue Bayou, so we park hopped and enjoyed a fancy meal and the best atmosphere around.

Here is where my timeline gets a little fuzzy and my pictures probably aren't in the right order. But look at these cute "Up" balloons!

Our friends Caleb and Melanie happened to be in SoCal at the same time as us and joined us Thursday and Friday - it was so fun to have them along! And yes those are matching shirts - I don't remember who thought up the name, people were coming up with group ideas to be funny, but I liked the "Matterhomies" and made a graphic, Grant got the t-shirts printed just in time!

Back to CarsLand and finally got to ride Radiator Springs Racers - it's got to be my favorite (and apparently everyone else's too because the line is always longest here).

Oh hey, I found another churro! This one had some kind of frosting and cocoa pebbles on it - yum!

It was a super warm day, and thankfully we caught the afternoon showing of Frozen. The musical was an hour long, and it was great! The best was that Whit (who had just seen the movie) sat completely "frozen" and captivated by it all.

Thankfully we managed to get one group picture of the whole family - it's a little light, but still pretty darn cute!

After rides, and meals, and a Babes In Disneyland meet-up, we found a great spot to watch the Paint the Night Parade and camped out - we ended up with coffee, cookies, and slushies while we waited - so you can't complain about that!

This parade is my FAVORITE like favorite favorite - I love the music and floats so much, it's just fun! I love how all of the characters go out of their way to be interactive with the kids along the route.

The final day is always bittersweet, but it arrived. This day was predicted to be the coolest and least crowded, and I think it was. The dilemma is always what do to - do you try and catch all the things you haven't done yet or redo all of your favorite things or relax and just savor your time?

Carolina finally got her ride on the Carousel after two days of begging, it's her fav.

Every day began overcast and cool like this - it really was so nice (especially since the next weekend it got to 114 degrees - ahh!)

Big kids went on a coaster so the grandparents and I took the littles back on 'it's a small world' per Whit's request.

Alice giving Minnie kisses. Oh - and I forgot to mention that this last day was also Alice's 1st birthday! hooray!

One of my favorite things about Disneyland is just being here. Just walking and looking and listening.

We took a ride on the Mark Twain Riverboat and got to see some great views of the Star Wars Land construction that is underway. 

We were also super surprised to find Princess Tiana on the lower deck meeting and greeting. Carolina wanted to meet her but was super shy and quiet when Tiana was trying to talk to her. 

Later, on Big Thunder we caught more views of Star Wars Land... it opens next summer... who's going?! (hint: me)

The kid's got a treat from Nana - is any Disney trip complete without a Mickey Premium ice cream bar?!

We split up at this point - Alice and Whittaker needed to get their silhouettes made and I badly wanted to ride on the Monorail since it had been years - the view was gorgeous.

Our goal for the last day was to see the last nighttime show - Fantasmic. We didn't have the best viewing spot, but we got to see it and I am so glad we did - it had been since Liam was a baby since I'd seen it myself!

Mom and Dad took Alice and Whit back to bed, Jen and Grant ran around doing their own thing, and we went over to Fantasyland to try and get on Peter Pan's Flight, which we almost never get to do since the wait time is always so long for it - we got there just before they dropped the rope to reopen the land (it shuts down during fireworks) and got on Peter with only a 20 minute wait - I was so happy! We were all exhausted, it was the last night and the latest we had stayed, but I got Carolina on her Carousel one last time - she told me she loved me. 

We did our last shopping on the way out of Main Street and said good bye to Walt. I hate leaving that last time. I would stay until they forced me out, but Todd and the kids just couldn't do it - plus we did have to get up at 6 and drive 14 hours home, so I conceded. 

I was worried beforehand, that I had picked a bad time to go, that it would be crazy crowded, way too hot etc. But it turned out pretty great I think! It never reached 80 degrees (although it felt warm enough certainly) and the lines could be long but it never felt really crowded until we were in a parade or fireworks traffic jam. I will say perhaps two things helped - TourPlans.com was where I looked to pick low crowd days. And we purchased a MaxPass every day - which essentially helped us maximize our time and get on more rides - I'm hooked!

We went on loads more rides, ate more treats, and did lots more things than I documented, but memories... they are good ones. I was so glad to go with my family - it's always more fun to be together and experience through the eyes of the kids, and to just be with other people that love Disneyland - to get all silly and excited about things, and feel so carefree. Ahhh. And that's why I'm always ready to go back,