Disneyland Adventures: Exploring the Park

We're back from our first family trip to Disneyland! So many pictures and stories to share, I'll have to break up the posts. We left for D-land on Mon afternoon right at naptime, hoping they would both nap in the car and be ready for fun when we got there. Well...Sean slept the whole way. Yay! But Caityn never even looked sleepy. She must have been too excited to sleep. After checking into the hotel, it was close to 3pm, so we headed into the park.

We decided to get the Southern Calif Annual pass since it was cheaper than buying two single day tickets, but the wait to process the passes was crazy long. Abel waited in the line while I took the kids for a stroll down Main Street and into Fantasyland.

On the way, we spotted Chip and Dale. Neither of the kids were too excited about seeing the chipmunk duo.

The sight of the castle brought a few more smiles!

Caityn tried for several minutes to try and open this little door marked "Mr. Rabbit".

If I had known it was going to take 45 min!!! to process the annual pass, I would have taken them on a ride, but we waited for Daddy before going on the first ride. It seemed really crowded in the park, but according to workers, there was hardly anyone there. I'd hate to go on a crowded day! We went on the Pinnochio ride first, because it had the shortest line, but I think that was a mistake. Caityn hated it!!! It was was too scary for her, and then she didn't want to go on any ride that was indoors. She only liked the outdoor rides, like Dumbo and the roller coaster in Toon Town.

Here she is waiting for her very first roller coaster ride. She looks a bit nervous, but she loved the ride!

It was freezing (by So Cal standards) that evening, so we didn't stay very long. As we headed out, we saw Minnie Mouse, and the line to take pictures with her was surprisingly short, so we got a few quick photos with her. Caityn liked her quite a bit more than some of the other characters we saw that day.

Jumping on the hotel beds was just as much fun as a Disneyland ride. Sean thought his sister was just hilarious!

The next morning, Aunt Abbey and Uncle Tore joined us as we headed back for more fun. That was a pretty rough morning. Everyone was kind of in a grumpy mood. Caityn didn't want to go on many of the rides. Maybe it was the lack of quality sleep? Those hotel beds were great for jumping, but not so great for sleeping!

Caityn with Aunt Abbey and Daddy on the spinning teacup ride.

Caityn and Mommy on the Dumbo ride.

It was meltdown city as it got closer to lunchtime. Caityn didn't want to leave the park, but we had decided to go to Denny's for lunch. I ended up leaving Denny's before the food arrived with two cranky kids, while Abel stayed and got the food to go. Apparently it was naptime! After a good long rest, they were refreshed and ready to play some more. That evening we had a lot more fun than the morning. More photos and stories to come...