As a former Disney employee nothing could make me happier than to take my one and only son to the happiest place on Earth for the first time!! And to make it even better, it was a
total surprise! My good friend Bo had an extra 2 tickets he gave to me so I could take Logan (for free)!! Are you freaking kidding?!! I couldn't believe it when he sent me the news! So here is a big Blogger hug to my awesome pal who made this day happen: Thank you Bodacious!!!! Now keep in mind that Disneyland has changed quite a bit in the 12 years since I worked there (and even more in the 20+ years since I went there as a kid). In the place where I used to work lies California Adventure, and great new park (that we decided not to visit) and on top of that no one and I mean
NO one visits the park for 1 day! They sell passes for many days at a time at totally reasonable prices so you can really enjoy each day and take your time. Now since we only we only had one day, and I am from the olden days (the 1980's gasp) I made the decision to get there the second the park opened and stay until we couldn't walk. I also viewed the map ahead of time so we could be as
efficient as possible ( I learned this from my Dad, thanks
Timmer!!) with our route. I also decided that it would be fun to invite Aunt Ellie and
Mumi for the adventure, and luck us, they both said YES...
Here is Lo and Ellie at our first stop in Fantasy Land. When Aunt Ellie was little her favorite move was Sword in the Stone, and Logan
loves too! So here they both are trying to start the day with a little magic...
And then off to the ride that tributes my most favorite Disney movie of all time: DUMBO! As an adult I still get teary when Jumbo rocks her baby while she is in jail (sniff, sniff), I just adore this movie, so it was so fun to see Lo hold the magic feather and make Dumbo fly.
Now we did hit all the favorites (without any lines) Peter Pan, Snow White,
Pinocchio, Mr Toads Wild Ride, Sleeping Beauty's Castle, Alice, but the one ride we missed (perhaps on purpose) was the teacups. Funny
that's the only one we
captured a picture of...
And one of the best parts of Fantasy Land is that everything is
Lo's size, here he is at a
little Lo sized house, right next to the Alice ride.
And then we walked over to New Orleans square, and much to Logan's joy and surprise we say Woody on the way there...
New Orleans square houses two of mine and I am pretty sure Logan's favorite rides; Pirates of the
Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately I did not get photos of either of these rides (but as
everyone know flash photography scares the ghosts), but I did get a shot of Logan enjoying a frozen Mickey ice cream sandwich that he shared with his
Mumi.
After all that is was time for a ride on Aunt
Ellie's shoulders, what a lucky kiddo!!
Then it was time to spend some time in Frontier Land, we shot guns at the
Ol' Saloon and then headed for a boat ride on the Mark Twain. Here is Logan shooting a cannon at the bad guys.
The off to Pirate Island, where Lo scored!! Seriously look at that loot!
Now this island seriously has so much fun stuff to do, here we are pumping water to see a pirate skeleton!
Now as a kid we never went on the canoes at Disneyland, and that was
because "you can canoe anywhere" and that makes perfect sense. But I'm not sure if its
because I never canoed at Disneyland before or if the sun and moon were in the right alignment, but this was one of my most FAVORITE things we did all day. I even wanted to go again....
Silly
Mommy!
Now I never expected as we planned this trip that any roller coasters would be in our plans, but much to my
pleasant surprise Logan was tall enough to ride the Matterhorn!! Can you believe it?!?
AND he had a blast! Here we are after the ride was over and he was
smiling and ready to go again.
That's my boy!!
And then after a relaxing ride on the train, we hit Tomorrow Land, where Logan is old enough for a drivers licence!!
And here he is just barely peeking over the steering wheel, ready to drive!
And there is a new ride in Tomorrow Land , the Buzz
Lightyear ride, and I honestly
believe that I liked this one more than Lo (if that is even possible). It was so fun, you got to shoot the bad guys with the gun in your buggy and got a score at the end. Absolutely Awesome!
After visiting "tomorrow" we hit Adventure Land, where we got to see the Flowers sing in the
Tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room! And then off to the Jungle Cruise where we saw
Elephants, hippos and natives, and the tour guide was campy and fun!
And our trip would not be complete without a ride on Its a Small World (and a snuggle with
Mumi)
Now I thought if you have seen one set of fireworks, you have seen most of them all. BUT man was I wrong!! We were on the way to the car when we got caught up in the fireworks show, it was absolutely amazing. Not only are the fireworks set to music, but then Dumbo flew across the sky and so did Tinkerbell. It is a show not to be missed!
Here is
Mumi and Lo
snuggled up on the tram ride back to the car. Logan is not only lucky enough to have three ladies accompany him to Disneyland but he has a Daddy who made sure he could buy the sorcerer hat he wanted and a Disney Character
gummy candy. Thank you Daddy!
in the water at Bonita Cove. It looks yucky out, but it really was warm and lovely.
See, the sun came out, and so did the cheetos. I love these cheeto faces.
And a nice game of catch with Kaian, after a snack of course.
Then we headed to breakers. I adore this beach, it is on the Naval base (thanks Will for being an Army reservist) And there is always tons of parking, its not crowded and there are bathrooms!! Could these three be any cuter??
There are so many ways to enjoy the beach: Here is my very muscular boy jumping over the waves...
and body surfing....
and nothing beats trucks in the sand...
and of course fetching water...
and round out the day by collecting seashells.
