Spring Break - Day 2 (Disneyland)

When we woke up Monday morning, it was absolutely pouring.  Like pouring sheets of rain.  And it was SO windy.  It looked miserable and I was nervous about taking all of us out in it.  We had come prepared with umbrellas and ponchos but didn't want to get wet to begin with.  But we got ready and went and had breakfast at the hotel.  By the time we got done eating (we're not fast) and got our stuff together, the rain had stopped.  We just prayed it wouldn't come back that bad again.

Everyone else must have had the same idea as us and took their time getting to the park because there were long lines to get in.  But that was the longest line we waited in all day so we couldn't complain.

Ready to go have some fun!

Mia was really excited and nervous at the same time to meet all the characters.  She REALLY wanted to meet Cinderella and Elsa but she didn't know about the rest of them.  It took a little coaxing the first few times we met a character but she eventually warmed up to them and was ok.  Pluto was just inside when we got in so he was our first character.  We decided to go all out and even get the kids autograph books so they were excited to do that.  I just love this picture of all of us but especially Mia since she's half smiling, half scared to death. :)

Dad was our photographer so he's not in most pics :(

Our first ride was Star Tours.  We pretty much walked right on.  Mia wasn't sure what was even happening.  We kind of just took her in and sat her in a seat and hoped for the best.  I was worried she'd start screaming but she didn't.  She laughed through the whole thing.  When we got off, she asked to do it again. :)  We went to Buzz Lightyear next and actually rode it twice before moving on since the line was so short and that one became the kids new favorite.  Until the next ride.  Every ride after that became their favorite. :)  We didn't really go with a plan so we just picked a place to start and worked our way around riding the rides that had short lines and meeting the characters we found.  It worked out great.

Genie, Jasmin and Aladdin

We got to Splash Mountain around noon and the line was really short so Randy wanted to go.  I was worried that we'd all get soaked and be miserable the rest of the day because even though it wasn't raining, it was overcast and a little chilly so I didn't want anyone freezing.  But it was fine.  Mia was fine on it too until the drop and as you can see in her face, she was a little unsure.  But Alex & Halen were the only ones who got very wet and it wasn't that much so everyone wanted to go again...except Mia.  So Mia and I watched as the boys went again but at least we got Mia on it once.

Meeting Eeyore

Gotta love Pooh

We saw on our app that Princess Tiana would be on the riverboat not long after we were about to walk by so we decided to stop and have a little lunch and wait for her to come.  The lighting was horrible for pictures but Mia was excited to meet her.

We rode a few more rides (Mia didn't like Big Thunder by the way) before going to the Royal Hall where there were a few princess all together.  That was perfect for Mia to check off some of her favorites on her list.  We were hoping Cinderella would be there but she wasn't this time.  The boys humored Mia and took pictures with the princesses too.

Snow White

Ariel - The Little Mermaid

Belle was beautiful - Look at Mia's face :)

Of course we had to ride the carousel.  It's always one of the kids favorites.  Mia wanted to ride a unicorn but this horse was the best we could do.  

She's so happy :)

 

We got a few more rides in before heading over to Toontown to see Mickey and Minnie.  Goofy ended up being a bonus too.

He's definitely Goofy

The line for Mickey was actually quite a bit shorter than the one for Minnie so we saw Mickey first and rode a couple rides before going to Minnie's house.

We love us some Mickey...

...and some Minnie 

We played around in Toontown and rode Small World and got a little something to eat as it was getting dark.  We decided to start heading over to find a spot for the parade and rode a few more rides as we went.  We didn't know where to go for the parade really.  We just followed where everyone else was going and we found a really good spot at the round about so we could see quite a way down and all the way around the turns.  I had heard that the parade was good and they didn't disappoint.  It was amazing!!!  The kids were enthralled with the whole thing.  We tried taking pics of their faces but it was too dark to really see them.  But the looks on their faces made the whole trip and money spent worth it.  We all loved it!

Lightning McQueen & Mac

Belle

The Frozen castle was fabulous

We could have watched the parade all night but it did eventually have to end.  And because of the weather and the wind that was starting to blow, they didn't end up doing the firework show.  We were bummed but at least we knew we'd be back so hopefully we'd see them the next time.  They did do a really cool laser show though so that was fun.

We were all pretty beat so we headed out of the park when the laser show was done.  There were a few rides we had missed but we got to meet most of the characters we wanted to see and rode most of the rides so we considered it a good day.  Obviously it didn't take long for us all to fall asleep when we got back to the hotel.  We couldn't wait to get at it again the next day at California Adventure.