Can we live at Disneyland?

Brynn's Highlight:

This Cinderella had us all convinced she was the real one.



Bryce's Highlight:

Hugging,

smooching,

patting,

and snuggling Winnie the Pooh until we finally had to break Bryce away. We couldn't get him to turn around to smile for the camera, but this is probably better. I wasn't sure he even knew who Winnie the Pooh was, but this is the only character he ever really cared about at Disneyland. Guess 18 months of listening to Mommy sing "The House at Pooh Corner" leaves an impression.

More Highlights:

Parades:

Main Street Evening Parade

The Pixar Play Parade

We did this the first day we were there, and I guess getting up at 4:00 in the morning has an effect on kids. We tried so hard to wake her up, but she slept through quite a bit of it.

We came back with Grandma and Grandpa. It was way better than we were expecting. See on the upper right hand corner, there were Woody and Jesse doing gymnastics on the bars.

Rides:

Brynn and Grandpa are in the pink Dumbo on the left.

Everyone loved the tea cups...

...but I think especially Brynnie and I did.

Huh. And Marty got pretty into it, too. He can really get those tea cups going.

Flik's Fliers.

Hiemlich's Chew Chew Train

More tea cups.The very first ride we went on was Small World. It was a GREAT first ride, because I think Brynn was a little worried they'd be scary.

Characters:

Minnie...

the Witch. Brynn was a witch for Halloween, and whenever anyone said anything about her being a witch, she'd say, "No, I'm MINNIE the witch. Ok, give me a hug...now look at the camera...smile! Ok, you're done."

Brynn gave Eeyore a red balloon to help make him happy (it's a story from the House at Pooh Corner).

Smiles:

Grandma and Grandpa time:

The kid's anticipation as we were getting closer to the park on that first day was THE BEST!!!

Lesser Highlights: :)

Getting there, although the kids were SO good. Bryce slept and my oh my, Brynn can entertain herself well (those close to her refer to it as "Brynn World"). And really it isn't a long drive from Queen Creek. Especially compared to the UT dirve. And we polished off an entire bag of wafer cookies (I don't want to hear it, wafer-haters). So...maybe it wasn't a lowlight?

Going home. Grandma tried to pack Bryce, but I caught her and made her fork him over.Lines.

Here is my #1 piece of Disneyland advice for anyone going anytime soon!!!

One word: "Ridemax." It's a program you pay 15 bucks for online, but it is totally worth it. You list everything you want to ride on that day, and it will schedule your day for you to minimize wait time. I know not everyone likes to vacation on a schedule, but it's a Marty&Em style vacation - cram cram cram the fun fun fun. It was a very busy weekend (UEA - don't go during UEA if you can avoid it) and the longest we ever waited for a ride was a half hour, and that hardly happened. We were especially grateful for Ridemax when we saw people waiting in 90 minute lines for rides that we had walked right on to. One more thing about it...

It's hard to see in this picture, but what I was trying to photograph was the line WALL of people right behind us. Ridemax taught us how to be the first people to enter the park, walk on three of the most popular rides, and come out of the ride to see a half hour line had already formed. By the way, to be the first in the park: When they let you into Main Street, but no farther, go through the stores - they are all connected. Go to the very last store, it's the Kodak Store. They open those doors the same time they open the wall of people, and voila. You are ahead of the crowd and any ride is your choice (pick Peter Pan). See how much I love you? I just wrote more on my tip than I did about the trip - I'll probably have to go back and write more about everything else now. :)

Food and Shopping:

mmmmm, chuuuuurros....

Playing:

Just hangin' out.

More "Brynn World" with her new souvenier princesses from G&G.

Soaking up Autumn at Big Thunder Mountain Ranch.

My mom and I loooove Autumn.

Here's Brynn singing, "I'm Wishing" at Snow White's wishing well.

Sigh. I miss that castle...

...and that pumpkin.

The Beach

Exciting and unfortunate all in one. We got there way later than we were expecting so we had to play in the dark. Plus it took half of our time to get our little worrier to come near the water and have fun (Brynn), PLUS a dislocated shoulder from Bryce.

Six Flags!!! FINALLY!!!!!

If there is one thing Marty and I love, it is being parents. But if there's ANOTHER thing we love it is ROLLER COASTERS!!! The BIGGER, FASTER, and CRAZIER, the better! Five years ago on our honeymoon we were planning to go to Six Flags, but that day I woke up with strep throat, darn it. Ever since, we've been trying to get back there, because have you SEEN Goliath? Awesomest drop in the universe! Although it was Heimlich's Chew Chew Train compared to X2. I quite sure I never stopped screaming for the entire 2 minutes. You never have a clue if you are backwards, or forwards, bla bla bla. ANYWAY, it was a great day spent with Marty's brother Greg and some of his friends (my parents took the kids to Disneyland that day). I had a very sad "first" that day, too. At the end of the night I had to opt out of the three best coasters in the park for motion sickness. Sad, sad, sad day. But I had already ridden them many, many times just fine, so I'm not getting THAT old.

The Redlands Temple

Wherever Marty and I travel, we try to find the closest temple we haven't been to before and visit it and take a picture. Last night we were trying to count them up, and we figure we probably have 20 or so together. It's a fun tradition/goal.