Disneyland Again

Rather than try to travel during the Christmas holidays, we decided that this year, we'd go visit Dan's parents in January. We wanted to go back to Disneyland, and the plan was to go when everyone had gone back to school and when the park would be practically vacant. According to my book, anytime after January 4 is a good time, so we picked January 5 so that we could make it in time to see all the Christmas decorations. We picked wrong. The park was even more crowded than when we went in June. The weather was beautiful, which is probably part of the reason why it was so crowded, but in the middle of the day, we could hardly move through the park, it was so packed.

 But when we got on the tram to ride it into the park, we didn't yet know how crowded it was going to be.

 Anna holding her black feather for Dumbo. It's a mix of strategy and tradition to hit Dumbo first. As usual I tried to get everyone to the park by 7:30 so that we could be ready to enter when the gates opened at 8, but once again, things didn't go exactly as planned. Still, we made it back to Dumbo by 8:20 or so.

 When the girls talk about going back to Disneyland, Evie always asks, "Can we ride the horses? Can we ride Dumbo?" Sometimes she asks about the carwasel. So of course, that's where we headed right after Dumbo.

 Casey Jr. Circus Train: This one was under repair last time, so we made sure to ride it this time.

 And there was no way we were skipping the Tea Cups.

Grandma and Grandpa wanted to buy the girls mouse ears, so after the Tea Cups we had to stop at the Mad Hatters and try on some hats.

 Evie ultimately decided on these pink ones with the princess crown in the middle.

 Anna's final ear selection.

 Storybook Land Canal Boats

After we got off the boats, Anna started asking about the Roger Rabbit ride over in Toon Town. I was surprised that she remembered it from last time since she refused to go on it. This time she insisted that she wanted to go on it, so Grandpa took Anna and I took Evie. It was loud enough just waiting in line that Anna talked about leaving a few times, but whenever we asked her about it, she said she wanted to stay in line. Grandpa said she hid her head the entire ride, but I'm proud of her for not letting that ride get the best of her.

 After lunch we went to the Enchanted Tiki Room and ended up over by the Haunted Mansion. Evie fell asleep almost as soon as we sat down in the Tiki Room, so we put her in the stroller and let her nap while Dan's parents took Anna on the train around the park.

Although I dislike a crowded park, Anna really likes the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes, and according to my book the canoes only run when the park is crowded. Since we only seem to go when the park is crowded, I'm not certain if this is true or not. This time, we took Evie. I was sure that we were going to lose one or two paddles, but the kids did okay even if they didn't help much with the actual paddling.

After the canoes, we stopped over at the petting zoo area to see the reindeer. I guess Santa was also doing visits, but he was away for some milk and cookies, so we only saw Mrs. Clause. There was just about no line to get a photo with Mrs. Clause, so I think she was probably much cooler to see than Santa.

 Pluto also stopped by while we were there. Anna refused to get close enough for a photo and she wasn't even too sure about standing by Mrs. Clause. Evie wasn't too sure herself, but with Grandpa's help we got a few photos.

We couldn't visit Disneyland without stopping by Fantasy Faire to see the princesses.

 I'm not sure what Dan's rolling his eyes about, but the guy next to him sure seems interested in his story.

 Evie was our pre-parade entertainment.

 After the parade, we went back to our favorite rides. The lines were long even for the carousel. Right after we got in line for the Mad Tea Party, Anna announced that she had to go potty. So I took her to the bathroom. We hurried and made it back in time to find Dan waiting in the holding area with those that were next to ride. I found a way to hand Anna over to him, then I figured I could make it too if I climbed over a few short fences. Even though we sat in the same tea cup with Dan, I felt so guilty. I was sure park security was going to throw me out for line jumping. I mentioned this fear to Dan after we had been standing in the Dumbo line for a good twenty to thirty minutes and he said, "I almost hope they do. I'm ready to burn you just to get you to leave."

Anna had been asking about the rockets or Astro Orbitor since our last visit, so after Dumbo, I talked Dan into just checking out the line. At first glance it looked short, but then when we tried to find the end, we realized the line was longer than we thought. But the kids wanted to ride it--and I admit it--I did too. Dan was tired of sitting in line, so he waited for us. Anna loved it.

We ate a late dinner while the fireworks were going off and I think I talked Dan into one last ride on Autopia before we finally headed home. Of course, we can't wait to go back and the kids are constantly asking about it. Despite all the crowds, we had fun, but next time we're going on a rainy day in the middle of February when there isn't a school holiday in sight.

Snapshots from the end of 2011

September 8, 2011

We went to the firm's summer party at the beginning of September and Anna had her face painted like a butterfly. She also added a little chocolate brownie to her makeup.

September 11

September 11

Costco had several Disney princess costumes this past October and I figured they'd make a good costume for Anna. I decided to take her with me to pick one out. She found the Barbie costume and picked that one, much to my chagrin. Don't ask me why I'm okay with the Disney Princesses but not Barbie. I'm sure it's not rational. I decided to buy an Ariel costume on the off chance that I could talk Anna out of Barbie. We tried the costumes on and Anna was even more convinced that she loved the Barbie costume and so the Ariel costume became part of the Christmas dress up present.

September 23

October 1

October 26

After lots of research and many hours of negotiating with Dan, we finally got a park for our backyard. I payed for delivery and assembly and so the girls had their faces glued to the backdoor while it was being constructed in our backyard. They were so excited when they finally got to play on it.

The very next week it snowed, and I thought we would be done playing on our swing set, for the season, but we've had plenty of nice weather and the kids like playing on it in the snow as well as the sunshine.

November 5

first snowfall

Speaking of nice weather, the very next week I decided to potty train Evie and in the middle of it all, she begged to go swing. So I sent her outside in her panties. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should also confess that Evie is now back in diapers. Around the first of the year, when it became obvious that she could care less whether her panties were wet and I cared very much, I decided to stop the fight and put her back in diapers. 

November 11

November 14

We decided to meet up with Heather the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I thought the girls might enjoy exploring Temple Square, so we decided to meet there. It was so nice to be there when it was so empty. I'm sure everyone else was waiting to go after Thanksgiving to enjoy the lights. 

November 19

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I wanted to go scope out Toys R Us to see if it would be worth going back for their Black Friday sale. Evie kept saying, "I love it!" She especially loved the Furr Real cats and I had a hard time dragging her away.

November 23

December 19

Phew! I think these are the last of the photos from 2011. I hope I didn't have too many repeats. Now if I can just catch up to March, then I will make a resolution to stay on top of blogging this year. I'll keep my fingers crossed.