Our California Vacation--Part 1

Some of you are thinking--FINALLY! I've been bugged by so many family members this week to get our vacation pics up, and while I cannot upload all of them today, I am going to share about our first day in California which is when we visited Disneyland. We have Sienna's 2nd birthday party this afternoon so depending on how exhausted everyone is from the party, I may have some time later tonight to add more photos of our trip.

We were very excited to take our girls to experience Disney and if you recall, we had to go a little later than we wanted to since they were so jet lagged and slept all morning! We still had plenty of time to visit all of the places we wanted to in the park and see many Disney characters.

Right when we walked into the park all of the traditional Mickey Mouse characters were right in the front of the park on Main Street. I quickly hopped into line with Goofy and when nobody else wanted to have their photo taken with him, I got mine!

We loved seeing Sleeping Beauty's castle (which I had called Snow White's for a long time, and I was mistaken--ha!). Jaden wanted to spend as much time in the castle as we could, which wasn't much time at all because on the other side were rides that attracted her attention!

Here are Jaden and Sienna holding their feathers in line for Dumbo. This was my first time riding Dumbo and I felt like a kid myself! I thought it was so cute that they gave the kids a feather to hold in line, and then it's supposed to make Dumbo fly when you get onto the ride.

Next stop: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride & Pinocchio, both of which were a little scary and Jaden hated them! So we looked for the happiest ride we could find nearby and landed on It's a Small World! Jaden was THRILLED and both girls loved the boat ride, the dancing dolls and seeing the Disney characters dispursed throughout the ride.

Right by It's a Small World were the Princesses, a MUST-SEE for these two little girly girls! At any given time, 3 Disney princesses are available for photographs and autographs. Here we are waiting in line...

And then visiting Belle (Beauty and the Beast)...

(I was so disappointed that Jaden shut her eyes! I only took one photo of her with Belle...darn!) Next was Cinderella, who was so much in character. She asked the girls if they got to Disneyland by carriage and where their princes were--ha!

Finally, Jasmine (Aladin)...

We did get to see Ariel from The Little Mermaid as well as she was walking into the princess area and since she is Jaden's favorite princess currently, we said a quick hello. Both girls were so excited to see these princesses in real life!

Next we went to Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy & Pluto's houses. I love how cute their houses are right down to the last detail. On Minnie's fridge is her grocery list--"Bleu, Colby, Sharp Cheddar, etc" and in Mickey's house is a movie theater showing all of his old movies. Jaden got autographs from each of the characters and we took a family photo with Mickey himself!

We wrapped up our day in Tomorrowland where Jaden was chosen to play a guitar of the future on stage in a show! She performed wonderfully to a song from the Lion King. I am so happy my little girl was brave enough to go on that stage and rock out!

In the midst of enjoying the rides and attractions, we made a quick stop into one of the many boutiques filled with Disney themed toys and gifts. We decided the girls could each get one thing in addition to the autograph book and pen (and we picked up a birthday gift for Jaden too--shh!!). They both picked mouse ears. Sienna got the traditional Minnie Mouse ears and Jaden chose a new option (well, new to me!)--"make your own" ears! She chose a shimmery pink hat, rhinestone ears and two patches--one of all the Disney princesses and another of a crown. It was really fun to make her ears with her and she has been enjoying wearing them ever since! Here she is with her custom ears on:

We wrapped up our day with the traditional evening parade which was full of dancing, appearances of every single character you could imagine and many colorful costumes and lights. We all loved the parade and danced right along with the dancers and characters!

Jaden was even chosen to make noise with this hand-held drum. She loved it!

So all in all, we had such a fantastic time at Disneyland. We look forward to taking a trip to Florida to visit Disney World in a year or two when we can stay for a few days. We need to start saving now for that trip because it sure is expensive! But you cannot say it wasn't worth every penny to see the joy our girls had in their faces all day long!

Check back later for Parts 2 and 3 of our California vacation :)