brent and i have been wanting to go to disneyland for quite some time now...actually i believe since march of this year. we've had to postpone going to disneyland at least two times that i can think of just because things came up in the last minute. however, we were finally able to go the beginning of this month.
brent's not much into disney, but i am. i grew up on this stuff. as you may know, disneyland is known to be one of the "happiest places on earth" right? well, as some of you may know, when you walk through the gates sometimes it is not the happiest place on earth because there are children screaming and crying. i think of disneyland more of a grown up amusement park. as children i'm pretty sure we didn't appreciate the ambiance of disneyland as much as we do when we are adults. i think one of the reasons why disneyland is so successful is that it allows adults (like me) to feel and act like children again.
another reason why i love disneyland so much is because when i was a child my parents (when they were still married-they are now divorced for those of you who do not know), used to take myself and my sisters and brother there. it was the one place that i can think of when everybody is happy. any time i walk through the gates i get a sense of deja vu. the smell of caramel popcorn and churros bring memories back of when my dad would buy one bag of popcorn and one churro for four kids to share. good times. my parents used to also take us at least once a year when they were still married. back then it didn't cost as much as it does now. you have to pay and arm and a leg for parking and for the entrance fee. luckily due to us having a disney credit card we were able to accrue points that totalled a ticket and a half for us to enter....it only took us over seven years to accrue that.
anyways...we left on a friday afternoon and actually had my in-laws dog sit charlie, bauer and layla for the weekend. my in-laws were on grandparent dog control, but i think it was mostly my brother-in-law jordan who did most of the work. thanks jordan! we basically took our time getting out of town and i hate to admit it, but i did do homework during this weekend trip. i did it in the car and in the motel room. yes, i know, i know, i'm a nerd, but i can't help it. i hate to waste time. regardless, i got some much needed homework done.
before heading to anaheim, we actually visited the la temple and bought some stuff at the distribution center. i had never been to the la temple before and it was just absolutely beautiful. it was a lot smaller than i thought. any time brent and i are on the 101 we always look for the temple.
because we took our time earlier in the day, we actually hit 5 o'clock traffic in la...good times. we were in traffic for two hours. luckily we made it to our motel...yes, i said motel...room with enough time to spare to visit downtown disney near disneyland. we stayed at a cheapy economy lodge in buena park which was like $50 cheaper than staying in anaheim which was only 5 minutes away.
after cleaning ourselves up, we headed to downtown disney. it was our first time there. i would have to say that it was basically a disney riverpark. we did our christmas shopping there instead of inside the park so we wouldn't have to carry stuff with us. they had the biggest disney store i had ever been to. i was too overwhelmed to even see everything that they had there. they had anything and everything. i was like a kid in a candy store. due to time constraints because we had a reservation at espn restaurant (per brent's request of course), we had to hurry and shop. we ended up buying my niece hailey and nephew cooper some cute little disney figures and my new baby nephew victor a baby mickey. i bought myself a cute minnie mouse cap (which you can see in some of the pictures below) because i was starting to get an ear infection and didn't want it to get any worse. brent bought a really nice mickey shirt too which you will also see below. funny story is that when we were in line to buy these items our pager started going off. now the disney store was a good quarter mile from the restaurant and we were surprised that the pager signal could even go that far. so what did i have to do??? i ran. yes, i ran as hard as i could through the heavy crowd so we could make our reservation. i had never ran so hard in my life (recently). i haven't been working out, but i can tell you that i was so out of shape that my chest hurt and i just wanted to give up on even trying to eat there, but i didn't. i made it just in time. of course, 10 minutes after i arrived at the restaurant brent shows up nice, clean and not sweaty like i was. regardness, the food was good. i had ordered a really good chicken tortilla soup and brent (the meat eater that he is) ordered ribs. while we were eating we were actually able to watch the fresno state game on the screen. it was a little strange watching it considering the fact that brent had a ticket to go to that game and thinking that friends were there as well.
here we are at disneyland on saturday. we usually try to be the first ones in the park, but again this was one of those times that we decided to take our time. we didn't get into the park until after noon. you cannot miss the opportunity to take a picture (well kind of) in front of the mickey garden.
brent is really into abraham lincoln so we actually visited the "opera house" and watched "great moments with abraham lincoln". below is a picture of us inside the opera house. it is a very beautiful building. very new england colonial. i loved it. i don't think abraham is very "disney" like but i let brent do his thing. i actually remember watching the show when i was a kid too. it was a neat show but i would rather do other things.
here's another thing brent wanted to do. i don't know if you can really tell what the tv screen says, but it says "captain eo tribute". some of you may know what this is, and some of you may not. i remember watching this show as a kid too and it freaked me out. it's basically a 3d short movie starring michael jackson (yes, you heard me say michael jackson). it's really cheesy and stupid but again i went along with it. here's brent 'trying' to be cool with his 3d glasses.
ahhhh, this is more like it. here i am visit a theater set near fantasyland. we didn't get to watch the show, but i did like the set. it was absolutely beautiful.
and the princess.
now, you cannot go to disneyland and not go on the pirates of the caribbean ride. this is my absolute favorite ride ever! i love the pirates of the caribbean ride (and not just because of the movie with johnny depp). i loved this ride even before that movie came out. i love that you get to ride in a little boat, the fact that you get to go down two waterfalls, the whole thing.
here we are taking a much needed break at new orleans square trying to figure out what our next move will be.
i thought this could have been a really cute christmas picture, but i just didn't get around to it. this was also at new orleans square. it was right after we got off pirates of the caribbean. i would have to say that new orleans square is my favorite place in disneyland.
okay, so i have to tell you guys a funny story (it wasn't funny back then but it is now). as you may or may not notice, brent isn't wearing the same sweatshirt as he had been in the pictures above and i'm not wearing the same things either. so, in trying to kill time in order to get on rides as indicated on our fast pass, we decided to wait in line to take pictures with winnie the pooh, eeyore and tiger. the line wasn't very long, but as we were waiting we could see that there was no line at splash mountain which was right next to the location where pictures of pooh, etc., were being taken. about 30 minutes before we got in line to take pictures we had asked some disney employees of splash mountain was open. they said that it was closed due to some "technical difficulties". i thought no big deal. i didn't want to get on the ride anyways. it just wasn't part of my agenda. so while we were still waiting in line for some reason i got too excited at the fact that the ride to splash mountain was open again and that there was no line. brent and i made a rash decision and bolted out of the line to take pictures to get on the ride. big mistake. we got too excited at the fact that this was the ride that had no line. all day long there were lines everywhere. so what do we do...we get on the ride. we only had to wait five minutes. again, big mistake. then, out of excitment we decide to take the front two rows. again, big mistake. after getting buckled in a couple behind us said that we would regret being in the front. after three waterfalls, we indeed regretted even getting on the ride. we were soaked...completely and utterly soaked. brent was upset that i let him get on. i was upset that brent let me get on. we were upset with each other. (this were the "happiest place on earth" doesn't fit in). i was so upset. My coat was soaked my purse was soaked. i couldn't even get my glasses dried. not only that, but this happened at like 6 o'clock at night and it was cold. being wet and cold isn't fun! i immediately wanted to leave and not come back (but i really couldn't do that). brent had to calm me down. i could not believe how stupid i was. i had wished that we stayed in line to take those pictures instead of getting wet...i mean soaked.
after a while of pouting, brent had reminded me that we were due to get on the nightmare before christmas haunted mansion ride. i was very tempted not to get on because i was wet but i sucked it up and got on. for those of you who have been on the haunted mansion ride, you may recall that it very cold and breezy inside. so, to be wet and cold in a breezy room doesn't make the ride very much fun. regardless i got on and tried to have fun. i had never seen the actual nightmare before christmas ride at the haunted mansion. it was very cool. it felt like you were in the movie.
afterwards was when we bolted out of the park and drove back to the motel to change into our pj's, which actually more comfortable than the clothes that we wore earlier that day. we did go back to the park at night and stayed there until after midnight.
here's brent eating a turkey leg. we didn't eat dinner when we left the park so we ate inside the park.
it's hard to believe that as many times as i have been to disneyland, i had never gotten on the teacups ride or the storyland ride. here we are about ready to dizzy ourselves on the teacup. we also were able to watch some of the fireworks over sleeping beauty's castle. it was so beautiful. I also got on space mountain. brent wasn't able to get on it so i went by myself. i actually didn't hold onto to anything while on the ride. i just held my hands up in the air the entire time. it was such a rush.
here i am waiting for the main street train to come pick us up from new orleans square. i'm eating a mickey mouse shaped benyay. it's basically a fried donut. it was so good and fluffy. it was perfect to watch fantasmic, eat benyays, drink hot chocolate and be with my hubby at the happiest place on earth.
right below this picture is me in front of sleeping beauty's castle. it is lit by thousands of white lights. it's much prettier in person than this picture.
here i am in front of mr. toad's wild ride inside fantasyland. i love this ride too, but didn't have a chance to get on. i'm just being silly here and trying to depict mr. toad.
here's brent trying to take the sword out of the stone inside fantasyland. sadly, he couldn't take it out.
