The Happiest Place on Earth
We woke up extra early on Tuesday morning, because we had plans to use our Magic Morning early entry passes to meet Elsa and Anna in Disneyland. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea! This is all of the people in line an hour before the park opened. You can see in the second picture that it wrapped all the way around the back of the cottages. At one point, they were telling people that they thought it was a four hour wait, but they couldn't be sure, because no one could see the end of the line. Cuh-razy!
I started at about this point (no way would I have stayed if it was any longer than this). Isaac took the girls on the merry-go-round and the Pinnochio ride while I waited.
When they came back, Isaac held our spot while the girls and I went to snag a quick picture with Peter Pan.
We only ended up waiting about one hour and ten minutes total, and it was totally worth seeing the girls faces inside. They got to tell Elsa and Anna all about their friends, their favorite toys, and Char even played hide-and-go-seek with Anna!
After our Frozen accomplishment, we were all starving and headed to the Plaza Inn for breakfast.
We had no idea when we got there, but apparently they were having a breakfast buffet with Minnie and friends that morning. Score!
(Grace couldn't wait to show Tigger her Eeyore.)
When Minnie Mouse came around, Charley was so excited. Chip walked up behind them, and Charley gave Minnie a kiss on the cheek. They had so much fun. Eeyore never made it to our area, so Gracie and I went inside to say "hello" and give him a big hug before we left. She just had to show him her Eeyore stuffed animal!
After breakfast, we ran in to Daisy as she was leaving. I don't remember ever seeing her out and about before, so that was pretty cool.
After that, we headed back over to California Adventure. Everyone must take their kids to Disneyland, because it wasn't busy anywhere in California Adventure. We headed to the Monster's Inc. ride where the girls had a blast pretending to be monsters in the two minute line.
Next up was the Toy Story ride. Char loved watching Mr. Potato Head talk to everyone.
At the end of the ride is a Toy Story store. Charley wanted a Buzz Lightyear action figure and light up gun. Gracie said, "if I don't get something here, can I go to the princess store later?". Girl knows how to get what she wants.
We went to the boardwalk games next door, and Charley had fun shooting at everyone that walked by while we played games.
There was one game kind of like skee ball, where you had to roll balls up the ramp. If you made it in the far holes, your horse would run. The closer holes made them walk, and so on. The game was full of boys and girls of all ages. We never really told Grace what to do, and I played next to her. I watched my horse killing all of the other kids, but I didn't care, because I wanted to win Grace a prize. As my horse was nearing the finish line, the buzzer went off, and I thought, "how the heck did I lose, and to who?" It turns out, Grace face is amazing at skee ball and blew the rest of us away with her skills. She won herself a Woody doll and couldn't have been more proud.
At this point, Charley was pooped and totally ready for a nap. We had lunch reservations at the Wine Country Trattoria soon, so we took the long way through Cars Land to kill some time. Grace took a picture of Mom and Daddy, and Charley snoozed away.
When we arrived at lunch, both girls were passed out, which made for a quiet hour long lunch for Isaac and I. They had the best Italian Wedding Soup I've ever had and we got the best desserts. Of course, the girls woke up as soon as the desserts came out.
When we were all finished, we checked out the vineyard and enjoyed the nice breeze.
Since the girls were ready to go again, we made our way to a bug's land.
We started on Flik's Flyers, and the girls loved being up so high. Char kept pointing to everything she saw.
Grace took some pictures with the big camera while we waiting in line for Francis' Ladybug Boogie. They had even more fun on this ride and were giggling the whole time.
Char was too short, so Daddy waited with her, while Gracie and I went on Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies. She drove and crashed into everything, but we had so much fun.
It took us forever to get to Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, because Charley insisted that Woody walk the whole way there.
On our way from a bug's land to Hollywood Land, we ran into Flik and Doc McStuffins.
We went inside The Disney Animation Building to watch Turtle Talk with Crush before the parade.
Charley talked Daddy into more cotton candy, and we grabbed a spot to watch the Pixar Play Parade.
We decided to move to a spot a little further down the parade path, and there happened to be an ice cream place right there. We couldn't resist. The girls also spotted a balloon vendor. They had been asking for these $8.00 (seriously?) balloons for three days, so we finally gave in and got them each one. It was our last day, after all.
We found a new spot and enjoyed our ice cream while we waited for the parade to start.
Charley made friends with the sweetest Japanese lady and kept giving her toys and talking to her about them. It was so adorable!
Soon it was time for the parade to start. The day before, Char was mesmerized by the parade. This one was more up her alley, so she jumped, clapped, and waved to everyone.
(Char wasn't a big fan of getting squirted by the giant water guns.)
When Woody came by, Charley kept holding out Grace's doll and shaking it to show him. We thought that was pretty cool, because she did it all on her own. He said, "that toy is me" and waved to Char and gave her a big thumbs up. I'm pretty sure that made her whole trip!
After the parade was over, we took the girls to the princess store as we had promised Grace earlier. She got an Ariel wedding play set, and Charley picked out a stuffed Ariel doll. Then she gave me dirty looks when I tried to take a picture of her with it.
We ate dinner and relaxed for a bit as the sun was going down. It got chilly, so the girls got to wear their awesome monster hoodies one more time.
We found our reserved spot for the World of Color show and couldn't wait to see it.
As usual, it didn't disappoint. Grace loved it, and Charley hung in for a while. We were so close, that we were getting misted the whole time. Once she was pretty wet, she wanted to sit in the stroller with her blanky and passed out.
We had such a great vacation in California. From Newport Beach to Disneyland, every day was such a blast. We are so lucky to have such great kiddos that make taking them to these fun places such a wonderful experience. We made so many new memories together and had so much fun spending four full days together in the happiest place on earth. I honestly don't think we could have asked for a better trip!
