A Dream Come True

About 6 months ago, Jeff informed us that he had four tickets to Disneyland that he would give us.  Bailee had been talking about going to Disneyland for many months before that, and Ben and I had decided that we would try to make that dream a reality next year.  When Jeff told us that he had some tickets and that they would be going in October, we decided that we would push that date up to October.  We didn't tell the girls though for numerous reasons, not the least of which was that I really didn't want to hear about Disneyland for six whole months any more than I already was.  So we secretly planned out our trip and finally told the girls our plans at the beginning of October.  To say they were excited would be an understatement.  Bailee leaped out of her chair with the biggest grin I've ever seen and started jumping up and down.  Morgan's reaction was a bit more subdued, but she did have the stomach flu at the time so that was understandable.  Our trip would be a total of 8 days.  We planned for two days in Disneyland and one day in California Adventure.  The other days would be spent playing at the beach, exploring, and going to SeaWorld.

DAY 1

All our planning and dreaming finally became a reality on October 27 when we walking into Disneyland.

We're finally here!!!

Our first ride of the day was the teacups.  I love this picture of my littlest girl with her Daddy.  Her face looks so grown up in this picture.

Teacup fun!

Riding the Merry-Go-Round

Can you tell she was excited??

They weren't able to pull out the sword.

Morgan wanted to see Tinkerbell and friends, so she and I waited in line while Bailee and Ben went to check out some bigger rides.

We ran into Ariel.  The girls enjoyed talking with her, and I enjoyed listening.  These are amazing actors!

Morgan had been dreaming of getting some mouse ears since she knew we were going to Disneyland, so Ben told the girls that we would buy those for them.  Little did we know that they were $25 each!!  But they sure did love those ears!

In front of the Walt Disney statue.

Notice the coffee in our hands.  That is what kept us going.  We consumed a lot of that stuff while we were there!

Sleeping Beauty's castle

Goofy!!

They had a really neat Marvel exhibit.  Ben channeled his inner Iron Man.

The end of day one.  We were hungry and tired.  Can you tell by Bailee's face?

DAY 2

 We went back to Disneyland for day 2.  This was another fun day, and we prioritized our day a bit better since there were a few things that we hadn't done in day 1 that we wanted to make sure got done in day 2, and there were a few rides that the girls really wanted to go on again.

The Mad Hatter!

Bailee was excited to meet Alice.  She had decided that Alice in Wonderland was her favorite movie, so seeing Alice was something she was really hoping for.

Standing in line for the Jungle Cruise

This was fun because we could all go together.  But Rocco fell asleep just before we got to the ride, so Trudy decided to let him sleep.  Jeff looks thrilled to be here.

Bailee was concerned that this ride would be a bit scary for her, but she decided later that this was her favorite ride of our trip.

It took three tries to finally get to ride this one because it kept breaking down.  But we were finally able to ride it!

Waiting in line for Pirates.

Still waiting

The Halloween decorations were so much fun!

Pure exhaustion.  She had no idea I even took this picture.

Frozen lemonade while we wait for the parade to start.

It felt so good to sit for awhile.

The sunset was so pretty!

Cousins!

Maggie enjoyed that lollipop!

Still waiting for the parade.

Group shot

Day 3

Day 3 was spent at California Adventure.  We could have easily spent another half a day here.  The girls loved all the Pixar stuff.  Ben and I thought that there was definitely a different feel to this park than to Disneyland, but it was a lot of fun too.

Getting ready to go inside.

Minnie Mouse!!

Playing with the Green Army Men from Toy Story.

Dancing with Phineas and Ferb.

The oldest and youngest cousins.

All of them together.  What fun!

Maggie loved Morgan's ears.

So of course I had to buy her some.  These are the ones that she picked out.

See that ferris wheel back there?  That was one scary ride!  And no, I'm not kidding.  I was pretty sure I might die.

The girls each had some money to spend.  Morgan decided that she MUST get her face painted.  She felt beautiful.  :)

Waiting for the guys so that we could watch the Aladdin show which was awesome, by the way.

I told you it took a lot of caffeine to survive.  This day in particular.  We were there for almost 15 hours.

One of our favorite rides.  So fun!

We got to see World of Color which was awesome.  I didn't really have high hopes for it because honestly it sounded a little boring to me.  But once it started, Ben and I both looked at each other and said, "Wow!"  Totally worth the wait.  And that's good because by this point I was tired, cranky, and my body hurt. But a little coffee and World of Color put me back on track for the last couple hours.

Here's one of my favorite pics from our Disney days and for some reason I can't put it up with the other pictures, so I'll post it here all by itself.

So that's the Disney part of our trip.  I'll post the pics from the other parts of our trip later.