I heart Disneyland. Sean hearts Disneyland. Ethan hearts Disneyland. And we are lucky enough to have family in Southern California, sooo..... we went to Disneyland!! I'm old enough now that I can actually sleep the night before but young enough [at heart, at least!] that I still get a huge smile on my face and super excited when we walk through the front gates. It is magical!! :)
We lucked out with some beautiful, sunny weather the day we went {
which was the Monday after Christmas and it was way more crowded than I like - I don't recommend going on the first weekday after Christmas!} and all wore our Oregon Duck t-shirts. I remembered to bring Ethan's ears this year and he humored me by wearing them off and on most of the day. Such a nice boy! Our group was the three of us, Blake and Alysha [baby Wyatt stayed home with Nana and Papa], Cassie, Ashley and then Todd, Muffy and Spencer met up with us later.
This was an exciting year for us to visit because Ethan is officially over 40 inches tall! Just barely, but he still hit the minimum height requirement for every ride but Indiana Jones {
which is 46 inches}. It was so nice to only have to do the stroller swap once {
well, in theory at least - we had to do it for Space Mountain too because Ethan was dead asleep}.
We started the day on the left side of the park and went straight for Jungle Cruise while we sent someone over to get Fast Passes for Indy.
I think we did Haunted Mansion next {
the line was already insane for Pirates} and then maybe the stroller swap for Indy and then headed over to Splash Mountain - Ethan's first over 40-inch ride of the day. Wahoo!! We prepped him a little about the drop and he loved everything about the ride.... being in a log, floating in water, all the animals singing.... and then there was the drop. Oh, if looks could kill!!
Though, later in the day he did say the log ride was his favorite... except for the "big drop"!
Took this picture while waiting in line... Sad day when someone loses a balloon early in the morning at Disneyland!I'm having a hard time remembering the exact order of the day, but I think lunch at the Hungry Bear in Critter Country was next. Lunch from home for Ethan, turkey sandwich for me and a burger for Sean. I always like to get a sandwich for lunch at D-land so I don't feel like I'm just eating junk all day.
This is Ethan sitting on Sean's shoulders while we waited in line for lunch. In D-land, there's a line for everything.Next up was Big Thunder Mountain, one of my favorites and Ethan's second over 40-inch ride of the day.
Cassie waiting with us for Big Thunder Mountain. Love the pink shades and Perry the Platypus tee!We tried to build up the hype by pointing out that we would be riding in a TRAIN! So cool, right? We all survived, but Ethan had wide eyes that said, "Holy crap!" through pretty much all of the high-speed twists, turns and drops.
He he he!! I sure hope we didn't scar him for life. After that semi-traumatic experience we headed over to Fantasyland to take a break on some of the slow rides. Ethan kept reminding me how much he likes the "slow rides".
We rode on the Peter Pan flight, the King Arthur Carrousel and then headed over to Small World.
Love that picture of Ethan on his horse. And that's cousin Spencer in the upper right picture.
I lost some of the Disney magic waiting in line for Small World. I really don't like that ride. And I hate to waste time waiting in a long line for a ride I don't even like. But Ethan wanted to go, so I sacrificed. With gritted teeth. Don't let the above picture of our smiling family fool you. That smile was me happy to finally be on the dang ride!
Todd's enthusiasm was a bit much, I thought!! ;)
But the boys loved it! And it was fun to look for some of the Disney characters they've added. For instance, you will find Mulan in the China section and I think Peter Pan was in London, that sorta thing. We played "I Spy" and it made the never-ending boat-ride-of-happiness slightly more enjoyable. Oh, and the hippo picture is for Sean and the frog picture is for Ethan - their Southworth animal names.
Next on the agenda was disappointing my dad.... again. Every year he reminds [begs] us to go do the Lincoln Experience and every year we forget or run out of time or find a rollercoaster we would rather ride. Nothing personal, dad. We did actually make an attempt a couple years ago. We went all the way to the front of the park and were all set to go in when we found out that the Lincoln Experience had been replaced and was not showing that year and they were unsure of when it would be back. It was there this year, though. And we chose to do the 3-D Michael Jackson "Captain EO" show instead.
What can I say? We were distracted by the coolness of the 3-D glasses.
We got dinner in Tomorrowland next and as we were finishing our meal rocked out to some 80s music from a live band. Fun, fun!! This was followed by... Matterhorn at night!! I don't remember the last time I rode it during the day and it's a well-known fact that they run it faster at night!
Ethan rode with me and Sean and his brother squeezed into a bobsled together!
We got caught in a slow shuffle crossing the soon-to-be parade route as we headed toward Rivers of America for Fantasmic! As we slowly made our way, I snapped this picture of the castle all lit-up at night. Beautiful!
We opted out of the first showing of Fantasmic! and instead took advantage of the line for Pirates finally being a big shorter. It had been one of the longest lines for any ride all day!
Somewhere in there we had parked our strollers so they were out of the way and while the others snagged front row seats and waited for the next showing of Fantasmic! I went off to do a little shopping. As I walked back to meet everyone else for the show I noticed something off about where we had parked our strollers... Spencer's was still there, but ours {
a D-land rental} was gone! I tried not to panic and sat down with everyone to watch the show, which was delayed {
and we worried they would cancel it} but after about 10 minutes the show started and we sat back and enjoyed our front-row seats while our bums got super-sore sitting on the ground!
The search for the stroller was on. We looked all around, hoping it had just been moved. We got Disney "cast members" involved but had no luck. Who steals someone else's stroller at Disneyland?! Really?! How rude. Our name was even on it. Luckily, the only thing we lost was Ethan's {
brand-new!} sweatshirt. What really bugged me, though, was that Ethan was REALLY tired at that point and falling asleep and also complaining that his tummy hurt and had no stroller to sit and rest in. Not cool. Our last stop for the night was Space Mountain. Another long, long line. With Ethan asleep and 30+lbs. of dead weight for whoever was carrying him. But Sean and I sat front row and I screamed and tried to keep my hands in the air. Good times.
We did our usual last-minute shopping on main street at midnight and were bummed that we missed the last call for ice cream! I was so looking forward to my peppermint ice cream in a waffle cone {
with the top dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed peppermint!} but I guess that is a treat I will have to get next year... after the Lincoln Experience. Now THAT will be some serious motivation to go!
Oh, and here was my splurge for Ethan at Disneyland. I didn't find him any shirts that I was really in love with, so I decided to bag the idea {
knowing I had a 4T vintage Mickey shirt that I got him at Target on clearance a couple years ago} and spent the shirt money on these....
matchbox size cars in the shapes of the rollercoaster cars! A rocket for Astro Orbitor, a bobsled for Matterhorn, a jeep for Indiana Jones, a log for Splash Mountain and a train for Big Thunder Mountain. By far, one of the coolest, random souvenirs I have ever purchased at D-land. $18 for the 5. Ugh. But I justified it with the thinking that the CARS movie cars we buy are at least $3 a piece... that and I didn't buy him a t-shirt!
Petting the animals.
Meeting Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.
Stirring barley.
I can't wait for Ethan to be a big brother... someday!
I love those blue eyes and he is freakin' adorable in that shirt! :)
Ethan got a set of walkie-talkies for Christmas from Nana and Papa and he had lots of fun playing with them with whoever was willing to pick up the other one! In this picture, he is in bed listening as Papa sings him the Angel song from upstairs. :)
And this is how I found Ethan one evening... At some point during most days, Ethan liked to play in our room and kinda do his own thing for a while. On this particular day that meant watching a movie... with his blankie... on his head!! Silly kid! He did not even flinch when I came in the room. Or when I took the above picture. Or when I took the video below!
