A Delightful Disneyland Day

Disneyland! Monday was the long-awaited day - at least, long-awaited for me and my mom. We kept it a surprise for the girls. Days like this are ALWAYS best as a surprise, we've found. You don't want the supreme disappointment of building up the anticipation and then someone's sick/the freeway is closed/insert any other reason the trip couldn't take place here.

Partly as a Christmas gift for our family, my parents wanted to renew Cora's annual pass and buy Violet her first-ever pass. We timed the visit for a day my mom's pass wasn't blacked out over Christmas, the Christmas decorations and parade were still happening, and we had no other plans.

Unfortunately, a lot of other people had the same idea, and it took two hours from the time we drove into the parking structure to the moment we entered Disneyland Park. We had the parking line, the security line, the annual-pass/ticket line, and then the actual entrance line.

After all that, our first stop was picking up fast passes for Space Mountain, Cora's favorite Disneyland ride. You can see her carrying her bear around in a back carrier, which used to be Melanie's toy.

Then we watched the Captain EO show from 1986 - that was a trip, Michael Jackson in his mid-80s glory. Cora insisted he must be a girl.

After that, we took a ride on nearby Autopia. It was a crowded enough day that we did some of the little rides that we normally might skip in favor of the "bigger" rides.

Violet and Cora both enjoyed driving, but neither was very good at steering. It was a very bumpy (but laugh-filled) ride.

Then, we met up with Juliana, Maya and Natalia. They also have passes, and came for a few hours, partly to meet up with us. We did the Winnie the Pooh ride together - you know it's a crowded day when you have to wait 20 minutes for Pooh!

I didn't get any great posed shots in front of the landmark Disney photo spots, or the incredible Christmas tree, but I thought this Christmas-laden wagon was pretty sweet. Disney does such an amazing job with decorations, everywhere.

After saying goodbye to Juliana and her girls - Maya returned to school on Tuesday so they couldn't stay late - we headed over to Dumbo. That was Violet's choice, and here, she's very excited to be operating the lift/lower button.

Toward the end of our night, we went on Space Mountain. That's such a fun ride.

We also went on the Casey Junior train ride, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the teacups and the Buzz Lightyear ride. So, despite the crowds, we fit in a lot.

Violet didn't fall asleep until we rested our aching legs in the theater showing "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln," the animatronic show that's been redone in recent years. Cora was amazed at the life-like talking Lincoln robot, and she learned a lot of history.

We left the park a bit after 9, and after grabbing Wendy's for a late dinner/snack, we were homeward bound a little after 10. We had an amazing day together; thanks, Mom! The only thing that would have made it better would have been Dad and Stacey being there - they both had to work.