Disneyland

Joseph and I decided now would be the best time to go to Disneyland, right before Carly turned 3 because then we'd only have to pay for the 3 of us and Carly would be free. So we went as a birthday/Christmas present to the girls. (This was our Christmas gift to the girls but Santa still came so trust me...they were all but barren on Christmas morning) We kept Disney a secret for about 3 1/2 months! It was so hard to do (especially for Joseph who kept slipping right in front of the girls) We waited up until we pulled up to Disneyland before we told them what it was. I'm not sure it was the best idea for them. I think for Ella it was a little overwhelming and she was a embarrassed to have everyone staring at her and a video camera in her face. We have it on video but it went a little something like this: Me:"ok, we're going to go get your present now."
Ella: "can we unwrap our present now?"
Me: "Well, it's too big to wrap so we didn't wrap it. You'll have to just look outside and tell me when you see it."
Ella: "Is it like as big as a sign?"
Me: "Bigger"
Ella: "like as big as a car??"
Me: "Bigger"
Ella: "Like a building??"
Me: "Nope, even bigger! Just look out your window and tell me what you see"
We finally pull up to Disneyland and stop. We asked her, "so what do you see?" and she looked out the wrong window and says in the most excited voice ever, "IHOP!!!!" She was bouncing up and down in her seat with the biggest smile on her face. We were thinking, "uhhh, err....no." I told her to look out her other window and she sees Disneyland (and you can totally tell it was Disneyland). She got real quiet and you could tell she didn't really know how to react. So she folds her arms across her chest and says, "I didn't ask for this ya know." Wha Wha Wha??? You mean we didn't have to spend over $1000 to take her to Disneyland we could've just gone to IHOP??? Nice. But after telling her, "oh, ok. Lets go back home" she came around and said, "no no no, I would like to go here it will be fun." We ended up having a great time. It rained the whole time, we were freezing most of the time, we didn't get as much in as we wanted too and we are in Ponchos for most of the pictures but we still had a lot of fun. It must be the happiest place on earth if we can have fun in the rain and cold. Although we only hit about 1/4 of the parks, it was nice to have some leisurely fun and not have to rush from place to place. But we'll definitely have to go back so we can see the rest of the park.



First thing we did was make our way into Sleeping Beauty's castel. I think this was one of Carly's top 3 favorite things. She wanted to go in it over and over.






Our camera man.





Dumbo Ride. A lot cooler than I thought.







RAPUNZEL! I Loved her! This was the first character we met. She was just so sweet and cute with Carly. Ella was way to shy to want to talk to her. She threw a fit about just going in the same room with her until she found out that she could hide behind Daddy's legs off in the corner. Carly was a little bashful but wasn't going to let that get in the way. I don't know what it was about her but I kind of wanted to give her my very own hug and squeeze her so tight. Maybe it was the fact that she made my child's day magical and that made my day magical. I will not deny or confirm if I got a little teary eyed.









































Flynn Rider- He really makes a good Flynn! He was so cute with Carly as well. As we were walking out after finishing with a good 5 min with Rapunzel he knelt down by her and pulled Rapunzel's crown out of his satchel. Carly's eyes lit up and she says, "Wepunzal's Cwown!" Then he tells her, "Yes, she asked me to keep it safe for her" It was really sweet.




Participating in Princess story time. I think they saw about 3 different princesses tell their stories. We pretty much spent most of our time in "Fairytale Land".







Princess Coronation program.


They let all the kids come down and help participate. Ella would do this as long as she had a good safe distance from her and the princesses.



Joseph and I on the It's a Small World ride. It was really cool how they got everything ready for Christmas. Ella took the picture. She did pretty good.




I liked this picture of Ella on the It's A Small World ride. Her eyes just lit up at everything around her and all the characters she recognized. Both girls loved it.






The one picture we got with the Castle before leaving the park for the night. Day 1 of Disneyland down...2 more to go.