Friday, March 7, 2008

We heart Disneyland!!

We had so much fun in Disneyland, it truly is a magical place. Everyone was so friendly and we met so many nice people. I was nervous that Sydney would be too young for most things but 2 1/2 is a perfect age. She went on a ton of rides, loved watching the shows, and especially the parades. (Or pa-lades as she's been calling them.) We watched the parades every night. It was great just watching her react to things-everything was so exciting to her and even the smallest things were amazing. We rode a trolley bus to the park each day and riding the "school bus" was one of the highlights. She was so excited anytime she saw Mickey or Minnie and she loved Goofy too.

Here's our trip broken down into days:

Sunday March 2nd Day 1

The big airplane trip! Sydney did great on the plane.
We're here at the park, woo hoo!
The first thing we did was head over to California Adventure. We checked out the "Bugs Life" area and rode the Chew Chew train. Here are Sydney and Anthony in front of one of the bugs.
Here's our delicious $25 McDonald's meal. Disneyland is magically expensive!
Checking out the SS Rustworthy boat
Sydney did this a lot-walked around and just looked up in awe of everything
So excited for the parade!

Daddy bought Sydney a Minnie balloon and she was cheek to cheek with her all night.
The electical parade was awesome! They only have these on weekends so we made sure to catch the lights parade the first night.

All that parade watching works up a cookie appetite! Sydney loved her Mickey cookie.
Cute hats!
Time for night-night with Oscar and Pete! Our bed was so comfy. We stayed at the Anaheim Hilton and it was really nice. We decided to upgrade our room to a brand new room and it was worth the extra $30. The room also had a slider that opened up to the swimming pool decks.

Monday March 3rd Day 2


Main Street, Disneyland. Sydney was sooo excited to see Mickey! She was hopping up and down in the hotel room while we were getting ready-saying, "I ready! I ready!!"
One of the vendors gave Sydney a button that says, "First Visit." She loved it!
Sydney and daddy in front of the castle. Sydney immediately recognized the castle from the Disneyland video we've been watching every day.
The coffee cups! Sydney loved this ride.
Meeting Mickey! Sydney was so excited waiting in line, but became shy when she was next to Mickey. She did say goodbye and blew him a kiss as we left.
Checking out Minnie's house-here's her fun kitchen.
This was the learn to be a Jedi training camp. I read about this a while back and told Anthony he had to do it, it'd be sooo cool! This is what we saw when we walked by, all the kids were ages 4-8 or so. Needless to say, he didn't become a Jedi.
Our fave lunch place at D-land, the Pizza Port. I love the Mickey plates.
Just a little food gets Sydney all hyped up.

The Dumbo ride was one of Sydney's favorites.
We went back to our room so we could take a swim and also a nap before returning to the park. Sydney loves to swim so she had a blast.
Getting ready for the next parade! Could she look anymore like her daddy in this picture?
Sydney's Minnie hat! She picked this one out, even though it was way too big.
The Hilton has awesome escalators. We rode up and down the escalators each night after coming back from the park.
My silly girl loves water fountains.

Tuesday, March 4th Day 3


Ready for the day! Sydney woke up this morning saying, "Let's go, let's go!!!" Today we met up with my old boss and friend Kate, who recently moved down to LA. We went to Downtown Disney which is a great shopping center right next to the parks.
Sydney and daddy at the Rainforest Cafe
Here I am with Kate
I told Kate that Sydney's Minnie ears were too big so she spotted these ears-infant size and they actually stay on her head! She loves these ears.
The Lego store was a ton of fun. Sydney and Kate building something. Sydney enjoyed hanging out with Kate.
The giraffe was so cool!
Anthony is a goofball
We went to Build a Bear where Sydney made her Minnie. She adores this thing! She keeps talking about the heart she put inside Minnie, it's really cute.

Our little cutie pie
Our family!
Train ride around the park!
Back to Toontown to play!
Watching parade #3!



This is how Sydney carries her Minnie... by the tail
We went to one of the hotel restaurants a couple times after Disneyland closed. Here are Sydney and Anthony coloring

More escalator time! Riding the escalators and Anthony helping Sydney with her pants.


Wednesday, March 5th Day 4

We decided to spend the whole day at the park this day. We were wasting too much time taking naps, haha. Sydney actually did pretty well without a nap.


We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. The food was awesome and we got to meet some of the Disney characters. Here is Sydney's yummy breakfast.

Sydney wanted nothing to do with Dale so Anthony had his picture taken with him.
Sydney holding up our picture with Pluto. I accidentally called him Goofy, and I found out later Anthony called him Goofy also-both separately and in front of him. Poor guy. Sorry Goofy, I mean Pluto.
The Mad Hatter-right? haha, I think.
Sydney wasn't a fan of him either.
Sydney loved Goofy from afar. She was calling his name, waving and she was so excited. Then he came over and she clammed up. So I took a picture with him.
Cinderella was so sweet! Sydney was shy at first but she fell in love with Cinderella. Cinderella said she looked just like Sydney when she was a little girl-I guess this means Sydney will grow up to be a princess, right?
I love this picture. Sydney and Cinderella blowing each other kisses. Meeting Cinderella was great, Sydney didn't really know who she was beforehand (remember Dora is her fave) but after meeeting Cinderella she talked about her and was so excited to see her in the parade.
Anthony and Sydney in front of Disney
Sydney's favorite ride, Autopia! She talked about the cars for two days after seeing the ride, so we had to do it. The hat in her eyes did effect her driving a smidge, haha.
She jumped all the way down the ramp after driving the car, she loved it!!!
The Finding Nemo ride, not one of our faves. It was really long and they played parts of Nemo during it, but it was the scary parts of Nemo. Sydney was so ready to get out of the submarine.
The bad part about Disneyland is you wait in line more than you actually ride the rides.
Waiting for the train
The first few days Sydney either walked the park or Anthony carried her. She was getting tired so we decided to get a stroller hoping she'd nap. Didn't work, but she loved the stroller.
One of Anthony's favorites
Waiting for the Winnie the Pooh ride
Sydney carried around her Tigger all day-by it's tail.
Sydney spots Tigger, Eeyore and Pooh!

Winnie the Pooh and our family!
Sydney was scared of Eeyore at first but he wouldn't give up. After a few minutes she adored him and kept smiling at him. He was persistent, and helped her feel less nervous around the characters. Nice work Eeyore! Here's Sydney blowing him a kiss.
Tigger holding baby Tigger with Syd and Anthony
This is what a little food does to Sydney-gives her energy!

Riding Dumbo again!
Waiting for the parade!
So excited!!!
Blowing kisses!

Thursday, March 6th Day 5
Waiting to go back to the park
I love these benches, so cute!
The classic Disneyland shot
Pointing to daddy!
This was fun to see while walking down main street!
Waiting to see who will come down the road next!
Mickey and his band

We went to the Exploratorium and Anthony rode the segway
Sydney loved racing the car
Sydney's first driver's license
Sydney in the driver's seat at Autopia
Anthony drove right behind us
Sydney and I had so much fun driving the cars. I pushed the gas and she did all the steering. The car was on a track but every time you steered off it would snap you back. Sydney and I were laughing so hard because she thought it was the funniest thing each time we were snapped back to the track-which was a lot because really, two year old's can't drive in a straight line so well. haha.
This is how we kept busy while waiting in line-Sydney walked on the railings while Anthony held her up. Oh boy.
One last time on the coffee cups!
The circus train, aka the roller coaster. It really wasn't a roller coaster but there were a couple times where the ride would go fast so we had to teach Sydney the correct way to ride the roller coaster. We were making our way back to our hotel when an on-site photographer told us that the Mary Poppins show would be starting in two minutes and he showed us where to stand for viewing. We had front row seats, it was great.
The barbershop quartet-Sydney blew these guys a kiss on our way out, and the guy in yellow sent a kiss back. Too cute.
Leaving the park for the last time
Our "school bus." She LOVED riding the bus. I think it made leaving the park easier each day because it was so much fun to ride the bus. The transit system at the park is awesome. The shuttles run every 20 minutes, and we were the first stop after leaving the park. There were only three stops on our route. It was $12 for each adult for five days. So convenient.



I had to get a picture of the 4 since Sydney would always remind us of our route number.


This picture is hilarious. Anthony stood Sydney up on this thing at the hotel, she is doing her kissy face. The manager was standing about 15 feet from us and we noticed him when we were done. He just laughed and said it was fine.
Anthony and Sydney dancing in the lobby while waiting for our shuttle
We were so tired and we figured since Sydney now has her driver's license and all that driving experience she should drive home.

Here are some videos of the week-
Here are two at the parade


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Blowing kisses

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Eeyore winning Sydney over

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Tigger giving me hugs

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


So that's our trip in a nutshell! I took hundreds of pictures so it's hard to narrow it down, so I didn't much, haha.
I have to say both Anthony and I had way more fun than we expected, mainly because Sydney had such a great time. She wasn't too young and there were so many things for the toddler age. She is a great age for the "magic" of Disneyland. There were a few things we didn't get to do but we'll cover that next time. We're hoping to go back in the next two years. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing little girl and wonderful husband to enjoy these special memories with.

4 comments:

Wehunthouse said...

That looked awesome. I bet Sydney remembers this trip, it looked like so much fun. Maybe Maddy should go to Disneyland too. Great pictures, again I can't belie e how big she looks. Craziness.

Emily said...

Loved your pictures!! It makes me excited for my trip - I'll be in Disneyworld in just about a week! :)

Kellye said...

I am so glad you guys had such a great trip!!! Isn't it amazing how we as adults can get even more excited by seeing that magic through our children's eyes! Phooey on anyone who says any age is too young to take their kids to Disney! The earlier the better, I say! Instill that love of magic from a very young age and they'll always love it!!!

Anonymous said...

Mama Stacy,
What a wonderful treat, to include so much of your Disney trip for us to enjoy. You did a beautiful job with your memory log.

I Think that there were three Cinderellas there that week. (And an extra Prince Charming!)

Really sweet!
Love you,
Mam-O