DisneyLand Adventure, Part 1

A week's worth of travel, rides, attractions, rain and revelry can't be summarized easily or quickly, so I'll be taking a few posts to get to everything. To get started, let me say this - We had a wonderful time. I can't say enough good things about Disneyland and how absolutely perfect it is for kids. Oh yeah, and the adults had a great time too. This trip is one my mom has been wanting to take for years. She finally decided about 6 months ago to make her dream a reality. She and my dad arranged for all three of their kids and spouses (we're sad Christina couldn't come, but medical school isn't very Disney friendly) and all the grandkids to fly to Anaheim for a week of family fun and togetherness.

Have you ever been to Disneyland? I have, when I was six and Dan went when he was four. We were definitely overdue and very excited for Lana to get this experience. We got there Tuesday morning just as the park was opening and we came into the courtyard at Main Street USA. At City Hall all the first-timers got a special pin. The air was filled with happy music and kids were laughing and smiling all around. I felt a little cheesy getting so caught up in the atmosphere until I caught my sister, Jen's eye and she was just as giddy as I was.

We saw a group of kids gathering near the center of the courtyard and quickly figured out why. There was the lovely Minnie Mouse, greeting little ones and posing for pictures. We hopped in line and Lana officially met her first Disney celebrity.

My parents took Clint and Sandy over to the Mad Hatter shoppe for their official mouse ears. Clint proudly wore his most of the trip (even on the airplane ride home) and Sandy was a "pwetty pwetty pwincess" in her pink ears and tiara.

Once we took the requisite family pictures (all the family from my Mom's side were there too. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and kids.) we headed for the rides. The Jungle Cruise was a fun, easy way to get started and even the babies could ride. Indiana Jones was fast and action-packed and one of my top-two rides, and Pirates of the Caribbean is a pleasant boat ride through pirate-infested waters. Next up was Tarzan's Treehouse which was great for the kids to climb and run through. We made our way through the Haunted Mansion and took a ferry over to Tom Sawyer Island. The island was great for everyone to relax and explore for a bit. Lana liked the wobbly suspension bridge, but didn't like to hold Dan's hand as they walked across.

We hit other rides in Adventure Land and Frontier Land before heading over to Fantasy Land. The weather was certainly less than cooperative and it rained on us pretty hard, but that made the lines short, so we got to a lot of rides.

Highlights of Disney Land, Day 1:
Shelle and Dan - Indiana Jones - awesome ride, very short line, but worth it even if the line is long.
Lana - Winnie the Pooh- very colorful ride with happy music, perfect for the little ones.

More posts about or trip to follow....