California Trip: Part 2

On Monday morning we headed to Disneyland with Nate's family. After the headache of finding parking, waiting for the shuttle to take hundreds of us to the gates, waiting in line FOREVER just to buy the tickets, and then witnessing the madhouse of people at the park on a NON-busy day--I could see why my parents had no desire to come. But I'm glad we stuck it out because it was a magical day!

We got very lucky and met a very nice local woman in line. Because she was local, she got a "buy one day, get a second free" pass that was only available to residents of California. She was so nice, that she went with me to the ticket window and got us the same deal! So now our second day (we had been planning already to go to California Adventure on Friday anyway) was free! Hurray for nice strangers!

We went on all sorts of rides, and the lines weren't too bad. The kids loved Toon Town where they saw Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey! I hope this picture isn't indictive of Gavin's potential future! :)This is the kids driving Goofy's car while Josiah did one of his favorite activities--NAP! Thank goodness for comfy strollers....
Emma and Owen are relaxing on Mickey's front porch.Emma took a tour of Mickey's house only to find that he was home and she got to visit with him! It was her favorite part of Disneyland.

After leaving Toon Town, we passed the It's a Small World ride and were making plans to ride it when we just happened to run into my cousin Ken and his family, talk about a small world!

Josiah and Olivia spent a lot of time watching everyone else--this time the others are on the teacup rides...

...which Emma and Gavin really loved.

Josiah actually got to go on the Dumbo ride.

For all it's hype, there really is something magical about Disneyland. I personally feel that everyone needs to go at some point in their life, just for the pure joy of the experience. But frankly, it doesn't need to happen until the kids are older. I can't see us spending the money again until the kids can go on all the rides and remember it!