Disneyland

The kids got a week off from school, Thanksgiving week. We drove down to Brian's mom's Sunday afternoon, then went to Disneyland that Monday (11/22). It wasn't terribly crowded when we first arrived. Though the carousel was the only ride we didn't have to wait in line for the entire day!

Caroline loved the carousel, but the three older kids like the faster rides best! Lauren was so happy to get to go on Big Thunder Mountain, and that she could drive her Autopia car, not have someone bigger push the pedal. ;)


Picture 1: It's A Small World was totally decorated for Christmas. Caroline said, about the Peter Pan, Snow White, and Pirates rides, "I so scared... I so scared..." Indeed she did seem a little uncertain in the dark. Even on Small World she covered her eyes, but Brian took her hands away, and she ended up loving the singing dolls. :)

Picture 2: We ate lunch at the Plaza Inn restaurant. It had many, many pinkish-red poinsettias in front. So pretty!


Jungle Cruise ride... Caroline and Lauren thought the animals were real.

Lauren took this while we waited for the parade to start.

The parade was Christmasy too.

I think that was Caroline's favorite part of the day! She was smiling and waving to the characters--I'm sure she thought they were real.

Buzz Lightyear!

Caroline didn't want to cooperated for pictures the entire day! LOL 2nd picture is the castle all lit up with Christmas lights. It was soooo beautiful! I liked the pink, lavender, pale blue, and cool white (not yellowish) lights.

The Christmas tree on Main St. during the day...and at night. That kid in the hood is Lauren. :)

It was a fun day, though 2-3 hours into it, the park got sooooo crowded! Brian later heard that Disney closed it for awhile, to not let anyone in, b/c there were soooo many people. We heard two possible reasons why: other kids had the whole week off from school, or maybe, since it had rained over the weekend, people decided to go on Monday instead. We even saw two families from church, and then one of Brian's friends from Santa Barbara. Funny!

Whatever, we both said it would have been pretty disappointing had you come from Montana or something and waited all year to go to Disneyland for one day, and you didn't get to do everything. There were so many people, there was no way there would be time to do everything, with all the lines. As for us, we decided months ago that we'd get annual passes, as they pay for themselves after 2 visits. But hopefully next time we go, everyone else stays home! Ha ha ;)