Disney Adventures

I figured it would be good to document a little of our Disney trip. I know I've already shared some pictures, but here's how our little vacation went.


Parks was so excited the day of our flight, he could hardly stand it. We took his fish over to the neighbors so they could watch it for him and he wouldn't take his backpack off. He had to wear that thing everywhere. He had packed some of his very important things in there and I guess he thought if he took it off for one minute, he'd forget it. The backpack was pretty dang heavy, so I was impressed that he could wear it for that long. It was kind of humorous to watch him haul it around everywhere. He was so excited.



The kids did really well on the plane. I thought they'd be awful, but they did OK. I taught Maddie that she couldn't get out of her seat belt when the seat belt light was on. She seemed to understand that for the most part. I think Parks' favorite part of the flight was watching the luggage come off the conveyor belt. However, he has been watching too much Curious George on PBS. So he thought he'd get a toy airplane and little plastic wings just like George did. Hopefully he wasn't too disappointed that all he got from the flight was a cookie and apple juice. Here's Maddie on the plane. this is her face when I tell her to say "cheese":


We made it through the flight and to our hotel without much trouble. The next day we headed over to Disneyland for days of fun. Here's how it went for our family:


Parks: I think overall he really liked the Disney experience. He enjoyed a lot of the rides, but he thought everything was real. I guess that's part of the magic of Disneyland. If you think that all of the characters and rides and shows are real, then it really is a magical experience. But for Parks, thinking everything was real led him to be very afraid of some things. He hated any rides that were in the dark or that had things jump out at you. There was one ride that got really hot at the end, and he really thought we really might be on fire. He couldn't make it through Pirates of the Caribbean, because he thought the pirates might really come out and get us.


But, he really did have a good time. His favorite rides were: Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan, all the Bug's Life rides (especially the bumper cars), Monster's, Inc., Star Tours, Winnie the Pooh, and the Toontown roller coaster.


He also loved meeting the characters. He was enchanted by Aladdin and the Genie in the Aladdin show. He kept repeating things they'd said in the show. He and Maddie also had fun with Goofy while we were stopped on a train one day near Main Street. We saw Goofy at the stop and Parks and Maddie kept yelling, "HEY GOOFY!" We were still on the train, but we could see Goofy down the hill a ways. Goofy kept turning around and waving. Every. single. time. they yelled at him. He probably waved about 6 or 8 times. Finally, he held his finger up to his mouth to try and "shush" them. They loved that.


Parks also loved the parades. We saw 3 parades while we were there. They were really fun. He loved seeing Peter Pan fight Captain Hook in the light parade. He also enjoyed seeing the supers (Incredibles), Lightning McQueen, and Buzz Lightyear in the Pixar parade. Here's Parks and Maddie watching the parade with Grandma:


Some funny things Parks said:
-While riding the Dumbo ride, "This is a perfect day for Dumbo".

-I pointed out the Sword in the Stone to Parks. It was right in front of a carousel we'd ridden the day before. He said, "I didn't see that sword the last day....It's magical!"

-While watching a parade, "This is what I've been waiting for."

I think Parks was just at the right age that the whole experience was really magical. He keeps asking me if we can go back tomorrow. If only it were that easy.

Maddie: I think she enjoyed quite a bit of Disneyland. She was cautiously happy about the whole thing. I could tell this was a whole new experience for her and she didn't really want to jump in with both feet. She was fine watching and enjoying things from a distance, but if she had to get close, she got scared.

Her favorite things were the parades and the carousels. She also liked some of the rides like Dumbo and the rocket ships. She was similar to Parks in that she didn't like any ride that was even remotely scary. She spent a good portion of many rides with a hand over her eyes. Usually it was the hand of the person sitting next to her. The minute she started to get scared she would say, "Gimme your hand". The first time I thought she just wanted to hold my hand. But then she took my hand and placed it over her own eyes, holding it in place. Probably 90% of the rides she went on were spent this way. I guess I can see how some of the rides would be scary. Many of them were dark and had scary witches/monsters/animals jumping out at you. She did pretty well if we kept her in the daylight. What a little goon.

Here she is riding the rocket ships with Dad. I think she was afraid of the Disney guy taking their picture:

She also liked to look at the characters, but not meet them. She would laugh at them from a distance, but the minute you got close, she would try to get as far away as possible. It really was funny to see. Nearly every time I tried to get her to meet a character, she would bury her head in my chest. Maybe we've taught her too well not to talk to strangers. She loves Cinderella at home, but this is what happened when we met her:She also developed some sort of strange phobia of the announcer's voice. Especially around parade time, a man's voice would announce things over loud speakers. For some reason Maddie thought this voice was a pirate. Every time she heard the voice she would cuddle up to whomever she was sitting next to and say, "Pirates, scare me". This could have something to do with the fact that we took her on Pirates of the Caribbean. (What were we thinking?) Granted, she didn't see ANY of the Pirates ride because her little head was buried and her eyes were covered, but I guess the voices still got to her. It was kind of funny in an "oh, you poor thing" sort of way.

Maddie was a little trooper. She lasted a lot longer than I thought she would. Each day we'd try to get her to take a nap around lunchtime, but she just couldn't do it. So each night as we were walking home, she'd fall asleep in the stroller. It made for an easy bedtime, I guess. We'd just transport her to the bed and she wouldn't even move.

Overall, she did really well for a 2-year-old. I think she had more fun watching things than doing things, and I'm sure she'll enjoy it even more the next time.

And the best thing about going with Grandma and Grandpa was that Aaron and I got to enjoy nearly all of the "big kid" rides together. The last time we'd been to Disneyland was on our Honeymoon nearly 9 years ago. A lot has changed since then. We really enjoyed many of the new rides and it was fun to be able to go on them without worrying about the kids. I think my favorite rides were Space Mountain and Soaring over California. I think I'm turning into a bit of a wimp when it comes to thrill rides because I hated Tower of Terror. I don't think someone could pay me to go on that ride again. Something about being dropped from multiple stories high without notice just doesn't sit well with me.

But I think the most fun was seeing the kids experience it all. It was fun to see them get so excited and so enthralled with all of the new experiences. I almost wanted to go on every ride with them so I could talk with them about it and enjoy it with them. What a fun place. We really had a great trip and I'm so glad we actually took the time and expense to do it. Thanks to Grandma, Grandpa, and Bean for sharing the trip with us. It made it so much more enjoyable. So there you have it. Everything you ever wanted to know about our Disney trip- and more. The end.