Yes. I know. You don't need to say it. We go a lot. I know. We love it. We can't help ourselves. We want it. We need it. We crave it. I know- it's crazy. We don't care. : ) We are going to keep going anyways.
DISNEYLAND!!!
We decided to take the boys to Disneyland for their Christmas gift from us. My rational is that they have so much stuff- I really don't want to buy more. And they love Disneyland (almost as much as me). We have been saving and hoping to upgrade our tickets to Annual Passes (since I know we are going at least 1 more time this year), Now that Chris has a job we can! With Chris's job- that put a kink in our plans. He was able to schedule himself to work 4 longer days and take off Friday. We adjusted our days and off we went!
I picked the kids up from school early on Thursday and surprised them! The kids and I drove to Disney and checked into the hotel, then went to pick up Chris at the airport. He flew out and met us there! We surprised the kids even further by giving them a "key to the magic", telling them that we were getting APs. They were so excited!
Our first day we spent most of the day at Disneyland. We rode all our favorite rides, ate a special meal at the StoryTeller's Cafe, and saw the World of Color Show. We went all day without a break!
I love all the Christmas Decorations!
Finding Nemo Submarines
Indiana Jones
Tower of Terror
We had the yellow section this time. I didn't like the view as much. We were alot closer and had a rail spot, but I felt like we couldn't see everything. I prefer to be farther back! But the show was amazing! I loved it as much the 2nd time as I did in August! It is really impressive!
Our second day we did an early morning entry at 7am and covered Fantasyland, including It's a Small World (Holiday)...My Favorite ride! It's always nice to be there early. There are no people around that early! It is great to take pictures without tons of people in the background.
We met Mary Poppins and Bert! We have never gotten pictures with them before.
We headed over to Frontierland, did a few rides and then went to see Santa at the Reindeer Roundup.
I only took this one picture! I can't believe how great it is!
We headed back to the hotel at lunchtime for some sandwiches and a nap!
After a few hours of rest, I took the older boys back and we left Ryan and Chris sleeping in the hotel. We got in line for the Candlelight Processional at about 3:15. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Disney this weekend. We had sort of seen the Candlelight Processional last year, but we were so far back that we couldn't see anything. I wanted a good spot this year! And I got one!
The boys played their DS games while we waited.
The Tree Lighting from our spot on Main Street.
This was our view! We could see the whole stage and the narrator. All the seats in front are reserved for "Special Disney Guests". We were about as close as we could have been. The orchestra came out and started playing.
As they played the lights were dark and you could see the choir make their way up to the stage. They carried candles and sang as they came. It was beautiful!
The stage........There had to be several hundred people in the choir. It was just amazing! The lighting was so weird though, my camera really couldn't capture it very well!
The narrator was Tom Skerritt (from Top Gun). He would read part of the Christmas Story from Luke and then the choir would sing a hymn. Then he would read again and so on. It was about a 45 minute show. I absolutely loved it! I was so glad we went! (especially when I learned that the next nights show had been cancelled due to the rain).
After Candlelight we ate dinner at the Pizza Port and then headed out to use up fast passes we had collected. The park was so crowded! Space had a 90 minute walk-on wait...but we had our fastpasses!
We watched the second showing of Fantasmic. We love this show.
We headed back to our hotel and off to bed after midnight!
Our last day, we slept in a bit and then went to IHOP for breakfast. We headed over to California Adventure where we spent most of our day. We rode lots of rides & saw the Aladdin show for the first time.
Ethan thinks this is so funny!
The Aladdin show was hilarious! I laughed so hard at the Genies jokes! It really was well done!
We drew Mickey Mouse and Pluto at the Animation Academy.
Time for a quick Ice cream before we head out to take dad to the airport! This was about the time that it started pouring rain.
Chris flew home and the boys and I came back into the park. We used up our Tower of Terror fast passes (Ryan's favorite ride). And then we rode the monorail into Downtown Disney. We ate at Wetzels Pretzels for dinner. We sat on the floor in the little restaurant to get out of the rain! Then we went to the Lego store so the kids could buy some souvenirs.
The castle in the rain!
Our last ride of the trip! I headed back to the hotel with some cold, wet, very tired little boys!
The next morning, after sleeping in a bit, the boys and I packed up and headed back to Phoenix. We had a great trip and can't wait to go back!!! Gotta use up those APs!!!
Oh my gosh Beth -I LOVE this post! The pictures of the boys are priceless! So fun! Can't wait to go with you veterans this summer!
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