An Unexpected Trip to Disneyland And A Visit With Aunt Tania & Uncle Nick

A while back we found out that Mr. H's sister Tania, and her husband Nick were going to be chaperoning the high school band (Nick is the band director) on a trip to California from Boise.  They were only going to be here throughout the weekend and the only day we maybe could have seen them was Saturday.
But that day they would be chaperoning the kids at Disneyland from 9am-10pm,  and since we don't have Disney passes, and we are about to move into our new house in 13 days (!!!!!), we just couldn't justify spending the money on tickets to the park for the day.  We were so bummed that Tania and Nick were going to be so close and hated to miss them.  And then days before they told us they had 4 extra tickets and we could use them if we wanted.

We were thrilled.  We didn't tell the girls until that morning because they were out a little later the night before at their Father/Daughter Dance and we wanted them to get as much rest the night before as they possibly could.  Sunday we knew Hannah and I had to leave the house by 8:30am to be in LA all day with her Daisy Troop, and we did not want to push our luck adding Disneyland into the mix on Saturday.  

Needless to say, the girls were thrilled when we told them our plans Saturday morning.
We got ready quick, packed up some snacks, and left the house without any expectations...

We got there about 9:30am and Tania and Nick met us at the gate.

Poor Nick was at the hospital the night before with one of the students who fainted after getting dehydrated.  He didn't get back to his hotel room until 4:30am!!  And they were woken up at 6am.  He didn't complain once and I said he certainly earned trooper of the year award!!!

There was definitely a lot of people at the park, and I was worried going on a Saturday that it might be just craziness, but for whatever reason we had no trouble with long lines or crowds.  We can't believe how smoothly the day went at Disney, again!

We tried to do the popular things right away before lines got too long.
Nick and Tania hadn't been to Disneyland since 1999! So we let them lead the way and they wanted to hop onto Pirates of the Carribean.

Next we did Big Thunder Mountain since that was closed the day we came in November.
Claire was just barely tall enough to ride it,
and she DID NOT LIKE IT.
Hannah was not really a fan either.

This was right after.  Poor Clairey was still trying to recover.  ;)

Watching the Star Wars show while Mr. H and Tania and Nick grabbed a Fast Pass for Space Mountain.

Next up was Jungle Cruise.

Then we all climbed up Tarzan's treehouse.

And then it was time for lunch.
We ate just after noon at this little cafe right next to Pirates.
The food was pretty good.  Mr. H had black bean cakes and I had a yummy salad with artichoke hearts and feta and pecans and other yummy stuff.  The girls split a kids meal and we had lots of pickles. Because who doesn't like pickles?
After lunch we went to The Haunted Mansion.  
We waited in line for about 20 minutes and that was the longest line we stood in all day.  

Tea cups after lunch anyone?  hahaha.

We tried the line to see the Frozen princesses a couple of times but it was always at least a two hour wait.  No way.  Maybe in a few months when the hype has calmed down a bit.

At 2:30 Mr. H and Tania and Nick headed back to Space Mt. to use their Fast Pass, and I took the girls to sit down at a theater to see a show.  They loved it.

Next up was Dole Whips in the Tikki Room.  

Those things are so delicious.

Mr. H and his sis.  

Oh and I was there too, in case you needed to see for yourself.  :)

It was getting close to 5pm, and we decided to head towards the exit since Hannah and I had such an early/busy day on Sunday.

When we got to Main St. we realized the Parade was about to start, and we just so happened to be standing in the perfect place for the girls to see.  So we stuck around for that.

I'm so glad we did, because just like last time, the girls LOVED it.

Claire was in heaven after Ariel waved and blew kisses at her.

And they couldn't get enough of the dancing princesses right in front of them.

And they giggled with excitement when Rapunzel came floating by with her tower.

So glad the timing worked out for that!

We said our goodbyes to Aunt Tania and Uncle Nick and started to make our way toward the exit when we were all drawn in to this neat American patriotic ceremony that was taking place.

First they were asking any US Service Men and Women to come forward when they called out their division, and then the Nationial Anthem was sung.  

Then the lowered the flag until later that night and we watched it come down, and watched as the men and women stood and saluted.

And then we got to watch the folding of the flags.

So very cool!

What a neat thing to get to watch.

And on that patriotic note, we decided to head into the Lincoln Memorial theater since Mr. H nor I had ever been in there before.

The girls were impressed looking at The Capitol building.

We only had to wait a few minutes before the next 15 minute showing of the tribute to President Lincoln.

It was neat, and we were glad to stop in to see it.

It even held the girls attention the whole time.  

What a fun and perfect day we unexpectedly got to spend with family.
We got home around 6:30, drove thru our favorite Miguel's for dinner and then got the girls showered and in bed for another busy day to come.

Disneyland Part 2

After refueling with a little lunch, the girls were ready to get back out there!
They had been eyeing the carousel each time we passed by it, so we got on that next.

They loved it.

Next up was the tea cups.

And if you follow me on instagram, you probably saw that I opted out of the tea cups because Mama don't play that game. ;)

I guess while they were on it Claire said to Mr. H, "I'm getting dizzzzyyyyyyy."  But other than that, they liked the cups.

The girls spotted the cotton candy cart, and then the cotton candy cart employee wished both my girls a happy birthday by name, and then they begged for cotton candy, so, how do you say no to that?
I read the ingredients on the bag while they ate it.  Don't do that.  Sucralose and artificial food dye.  That was it.  Gross!  But as they say, ignorance is bliss, so they happily scarfed down that nasty stuff while we were in line for the Storybook ride.

Claire was reluctant to try this ride because of the huge whale mouth that the boat goes into.  But we told her it wasn't scary and she really loved it.  It was fun to watch the girls try so many new things and realize that they weren't scary after all.

Next we convinced them to try Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
Claire was not a fan.  And truth be told, this one doesn't really do it for me either.  Kind of jerky and loud and dark and we decided that wasn't our cup of tea.  Hannah seemed to like it much better.

The next show time for the Beauty & the Beast inside The Royal Theater was starting soon so we decided to make our way to it and find a seat.

It was SO darn cute.
It was also nice to just sit and rest with some fun entertainment for a bit too.
And in case I forget to mention it later, I must say that we really really lucked out with the weather all day.
In the morning it was cool but not cold, and during the day the sun felt good but not too hot.  
It just seemed like except for that darn cold of mine, everything else just cooperated with us so perfectly.

After the play we made our way into Tomorrowland.
We were just sort of taking our time, walking slow, trying to figure out our next move...
when all of a sudden Hannah yells "Mickey!!! Minnie!!! Donald!!! Look, over there!!!"... and she and Claire took off running!

Hannah made a beeline for Minnie, calling her name and waving with her arms out until Minnie noticed her.

This was a major highlight of the day.

Once Hannah had Minnie's attention she exclaimed to her, "Minnieeee!!!!! Hiiiiiiii!!!  I'm such a big fan! Look I'm even wearing your shirt!" 

That's when Minnie placed her hand up to her mouth and it was THE CUTEST THING I've ever seen. 

It was so cute.
And it totally surprised us.
I didn't think that my kids would be much into the characters.
Especially because Hannah didn't seem super excited about the princesses we met in the morning. 
But Minnie was a different story!

I was bummed Claire wouldn't look up for this picture.  The sun was right in their eyes though.

After Minnie they ran over to Mickey and said hello.
Then Claire was over it but Hannah chased after Pluto until he stopped to say hello to her.

It was so cute to see how excited she was.
That was definitely one of the highlights of the day for me.
I'll never forget Hannah first spotting them, and sprinting up to say hello with such excitement!

Autopia cars were next for us.
Mr. H and Hannah and C and me.
We kept asking if Claire wanted to ride a few rides with Dad and Hannah with me, and nope.  They did not want to switch it up.
After Autopia we hopped on the train and rode it back to ToonTown.

Apparently they really loved ToonTown and wanted to go explore it some more.

The girls both really enjoyed having a little birthday money to spend too.
They wanted to check out the gift shop in ToonTown and that is where they bought their Mouse ears headbands, and Hannah found a Minnie Mouse diary and pen that she had to have.  And C got a Minnie pen too.

After roaming around ToonTown we were ready to make our way back towards Main Street to check in for our dinner reservation.
As we were walking the girls spotted Rapunzel and a Prince walking by!
I couldn't believe the luck.  I was hoping for the girls to get to meet Rapunzel, but I couldn't remember where it was that my friend said to find her, and I knew at this point in the day they wouldn't be up for standing in a long line to meet her, and here she was just walking right in front of us!

A crowd started to form around her right away.  And the girls got a bit shy, but I just kept saying walk right up to her, and say hello.
And finally Hannah did, and she asked her to sign her new Minnie diary.  So cute!

And then Claire got in there.  But she was still being a little shy so we got this smile.  ;)
That made their day again though.
I think Claire asked if this is where Rapunzel lives and Hannah told her that they all live in the castle together.
Oh the innocence!!!
If only that lasted forever...

When we got to the Carnation Cafe, even though we had a reservation, we had to specify that we wanted a patio table where we could see the parade.
They said no problem, but then seated us a little ways back, and there was a table right in the front that was against Main St, the people seated there were just leaving, and I asked our server if we could move to that table so our birthday girls could enjoy the parade better.
He said it was no problem, and I was fist pumping in my head.  Yesss!  Again, I couldn't believe how smoothly the whole day seemed to be going.  

Our server was great and very helpful.  We ordered for the girls first and then for ourselves.
Of course right as my hot plate of food was delivered both girls began whining that they were freeeeeezing.
It wasn't freezing, but the sun was completely gone and it did cool off quite a bit.  Luckily I brought a change of comfy pants for them both, so we made our way to the bathroom which was conveniently located on the patio by our table.
And right when we came back, our server and several others, were approaching our table with huge scoops of ice cream and sprinkles and candles to sing happy birthday to our girls!

Talk about special!

They were in heaven!

Wearing their Mouse ears, with their light up Mouse necklaces, eating their birthday ice cream sundaes!

Heaven I tell you.

And moments later, the first float of the parade went by and the girls jumped up and down and yelled "It's starting! It's starting!!!"

The second highlight of the day for me was sitting back in my chair, sipping some hot tea for my throat (and it was keeping me warm), and watching my girls standing on the railing with their arms out, waving at every character that came by in the parade.

They were smiling, and talking to each other, and laughing, and just having the best time.

At one point Cinderella floated by and the girls both lost it.  They were SO excited to see her in the parade and they were waving like crazy.  She waved back and it just made their nights.  And you might laugh at this, but I suddenly had tears streaming down my face.  It was just so neat to see them enjoy the magic of it all so much.  And it made me a bit sad to realize that one day it won't be as magical to them.  So that moment on the patio watching the Christmas parade at Disneyland, celebrating their 7th and 5th birthdays, is a moment that I will never ever forget.  

Santa sealed the deal at the end and they loved seeing him too.
They were so sad that the parade was done, but we told them that now we can go see what the castle looks like all lit up and they seemed to be happy about that and forgot about the end of the parade.
We settled our bill, and left our server a hefty tip for helping us to get that awesome table and letting us squat in his table for the whole parade, and then we were back at it.

I think it was close to 7pm at this point, and we had been going since 7am.
We found out that the fireworks were at 9:25pm and Fantasmic show was at 9pm.  We really would have liked to have seen one of them, but we just weren't certain how much longer we would hold up.
We made our way to the tiki room to see the show and get a whipped dole pineapple soft serve.

And a big thank you to my friend Shelbie who told me the trick with the soft serves.  She said that it is so good and there is always a line of 50 people long to get one, but that if you go inside where the tiki room is, you can also purchase from that side of the bar and it was so helpful because there was just one other person in front of me on that side!  And by this point my medicine had all worn off, my body was telling me to call it a night, and my throat was on fire, so the whipped pineapple soft serve felt so good on my throat.

I had never seen the tiki room show before and it was cute.
It's a nice place to sit for a few minutes too.  There's all sorts of talking/singing birds, and talking tikis.  The girls loved it.

We made our way back to The Haunted House because Hannah wanted to do that again but the line was just way too long.

We were all hoping to ride It's a Small World again after dark too, but the line for that was 90 minutes long!  So we just stood outside it for a few minutes and enjoyed the light show.  It really is beautiful all lit up.

The carousel didn't have a long line, so we hopped on that again.

And then we started to have a couple meltdowns and we decided we were all tired and cold and ready to call it a night.

Right before we left was probably the most crowded we had seen it all day!
I think because it was a Friday night, lots of locals have passes and maybe came for the Christmas Parade, or Fantasmic, or Friday night fireworks, etc.
But we decided to end on a good note and we were ready.

Hannah had hit her wall.
Claire was still going pretty strong.
Claire knows how to pace herself much better than Hannah.
I hope Hannah will learn that soon.
She just gets so excited and goes full steam until she crashes.
And when she crashes, well, I'll just say it ain't pretty.
But that's ok because the day was beautiful.
We wound up getting home at 10pm.
So many firsts.
So much fun.
So many memories that I will cherish forever.
Happy Birthday Hannah and Claire.
I hope this one goes down in the books!