Disneyland

Disneyland certainly lived up to the anticipation we all had. We drove down to Anaheim on Thursday, hit some pretty bad LA traffic, but finally got to our hotel.  Since we weren’t going to the park that night we decided not to tell Ellie we were near Disneyland, but that didn’t matter.  With so many banners, posters and pictures, she knew we were close.

We went to Downtown Disney for some dinner that night, and watched the fireworks from between Disneyland and CA Adventure.

Friday was a full day at Disneyland and Ellie just loved everything.  She loved meeting the characters, loved going on the rides, especially the Tea Cups and Buzz Lightyear, everything worked out well.

Sunday was Katelyn’s regional gymnastics competition in Long Beach.  Girls from Utah, Arizona, California and Nevada all competed.  After a rough start on the floor, she recovered and did really well on the bars, vault and beam.

Sunday afternoon we met up with Nicolle Dunn (Dietrich) and her family. So Ellie and Nicolle’s oldest daughter, Emma, were quick friends and enjoyed handing out for the afternoon.

Later on that night we meet up with Bryan Branco and his family.  So once again Ellie had friends, and she really enjoyed hanging out with Sam.

When everything was said and done we were able to hit every ride in both parks and all the shows we wanted to see.  The only rides that Ellie wasn’t a big fan of was Snow White and Pinnochio, mainly because they were dark and you couldn’t see where you were going.  She also didn’t like the beginning of the Haunted Mansion because when you go down the elevator all the lights go out and that’s the sign for people to scream.  She wasn’t a fan of the screaming.  The ride was good, the people screaming, not so much.

Katelyn had a great time too, she was able to double-up on the big-kid rides. Riding once with me and once with Steph.  So she was able to get a lot of rides in.

This was also the first time I went on Toy Story Mania, a 3-D ride in CA Adventure.  And that was really cool.  Tower of Terror is also a ton of fun, and the classics like Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain still are a lot of fun.

We also ate at Goofy’s Kitchen one night, and that was good.  It’s a buffet at the Disneyland Hotel and characters walk around to your table.  Goofy, Minny, Snow White and Chip all came around to our table.  And every 20 minutes or so they do dances in the aisle with the kids.