I can’t decide what my favorite part of our vacation to Disneyland was. There were several memorable moments including waiting in line for over an hour to meet two princesses, count them one and two. Or one of my personal favorites: Roy walking into the princess not prince bathroom and watching him come out rather red faced.
I loved watching Elizabeth kiss Stitch and cling to Mickey like he was her best friend. She chased Pluto and hugged Jesse freely. She blew kisses to all of the characters and truly loved Daisy and Minnie.
I really enjoyed hearing the girls laugh and scream on the rides and spending time swimming in the pool.
My favorite night was our first here. We went swimming in the pool and then showered and went to dinner at the Rainforest Café. Because it was so busy we were set on the Terrace. The weather was perfect and a live band was playing in the courtyard below. We were relaxed and the service was fantastic.
On Wednesday night we watched the Parade. The loud music and giant floats were amazing. Emmalyne’s face literally glowed as the floats passed and she got more and more excited watching the different characters pass. When the princesses passed and saw her waving she received waves back. The look on her face when Rapunzel blew her a kiss almost made me cry. She grooved to the music. Literally dancing in the street to the passing music and laughing and waving with such openness I found myself surprised by my own child. I watched her explode with excitement when Tinkerbell came by. I could hear her yelling over the music, “Tinkerbell, Tinkerbell- Hello.”
She drew a picture for Jesse and hurried to make sure it was finished so she could give it to her too. Her eager face searching for approval when she handed it to her tore at my heart. I cannot believe how Disneyland literally brought out the magic in this family. This vacation is the best time we have had together. It’s been a blessing to meet such friendly people and have my children experience magic. I don’t know that I have ever seen my daughters with brighter smiles and it makes me never want to leave!
I am not in the least embarrassed to admit I am already planning our return trip. Even the ten hour drive was entertaining. The drive through Vegas was probably more entertaining for Roy who kept insisting that we should cancel our trip to Disneyland and stop at "Peaches" for the night. (Not a G rated club by the way, not even PG-13). Needless to say his arm may be a tad bruised from the slugs he got every time he mentioned it.
We stopped in a gas station at Ghost Town- will never happen again. Can you say CREEPY. Ick. Never again. We also got to pass through inspection at the border of California, which I found rather entertaining because they basically just made you drive slow and peeked in your car. You could totally hide an illegal watermelon under your seat and they'd never see it.
Every night at dinner Emmalyne wants to talk about all of the rides we got on and all the characters we met. Elizabeth even gets into the discussion yelling "Teacups. Teacups." When they get mentioned.
They still get excited looking at the pictures, a glimmer of that joy from the park seems to have permanently ingrained itself in this house. It's addicting and we are hoping to make this a yearly trek. Yay Disneyland.
