Disneyland

When Oldest Daughter was about to turn three years old, we chose to celebrate this momentous birthday by visiting Disneyland (and yes, I do realise that turning three is not really momentous, but under three means that Disneyland lets you in for free.  If you have seen the Disneyland ticket prices lately, free truly IS momentous!).

As Youngest Daughter is a month away from turning three herself, we thought it only fair to make the trek to California to celebrate it in the same fashion.  So that is exactly what we did.  We rented a mini-van, loaded myself, Handy Hubby and my parents (Grandma K and Grandpa P) into it and off we went!

Ok, let me kibbitz a bit about the mini-van.  I never, ever thought I would say this, but mini-vans rock!!!  I totally want one now! The ease of getting children in and out of the vehicle, the storage, the extra seating - I get it now in a way I never did before.

Anyways, during our journey to Disneyland, we decided to stop for lunch in Blythe.  Public vote was in favour of eating at Popeye's (Oldest Daughter wanted to eat at either Denny's or McDonalds.  So wished we had listened to her!).  Never ate at a Popeye's before and can truthfully say, never will again.  But while in Popeye's, Grandma K was bitten by a mysterious something and her arm, within minutes, was overtaken by a red hot, bumpy, painful rash.  Nice beginnings right.

Once we arrived at our hotel, we had a bit of free time before heading to Downtown Disney (which gave Grandma K plenty of time for a doctor to travel to our hotel, administer a shot in each butt cheek and prescribe two powerful and sleep inducing medications for her arm).  During the wait, the girls burned some energy at the hotels' playground.  Such a simple thing, this playground, but what a wonderful idea to take the edge off of travel weary children!

Downtown Disney.  What can you say about Downtown Disney.  It was full of people, sounds, smells and fun.  Which meant overload for Oldest Daughter.  We had her anxiety barely in-check, and then she saw the Anna and Elsa Boutique.  Pretty sure that was when her head exploded.

While in the Boutique, the girls were lucky enough to meet Olaf.  Youngest Daughter so badly wanted to climb into his lap, but since that was frowned upon by the Boutique staff, she contented herself with shyly giggling as she patted his head.  By far, best part of the night for her.

 

 

Eventually the events of the day caught up to the Littles.  Youngest Daughter asked nicely to be taken back to the hotel because she was tired.  I'll tell ya, it has never been easier to get them into bed. 

 

 

This picture was taken exactly ten minutes after they climbed into bed.  They are not "acting" like they are sleeping.  They are dead-to-the-world asleep.  Quiet snores and all.

 

 

And then they woke up and it was finally the day we would visit Disneyland!  Youngest Daughter chose to dress like her favourite Disney character, Minnie Mouse.  Oldest Daughter felt she was too old to dress up, but by wearing a Tinkerbell shirt, she was still in the spirit of the day.

The girls went on many rides.  Here they are on the Merry-Go-Round.  Oldest Daughter did her first grown-up ride, the Matterhorn.  Scared the bejesus out of her, but she still wanted to go a second time.  Youngest Daughter is the real daredevil.  The faster, the scarier, the better.  Which is a shame for her as there is very little of that in children rides.

The girls got to meet a few celebrities.  For example, Silvermist.

 

 



And Tinkerbell.  She is a particular favourite of Oldest Daughter.

 

 

Pluto even showed up to greet my girls.  Both girls gave Pluto a kiss on the nose.  And did we get a picture of either kiss?  Heck no!  It was so cute, but you will just have to take my word for it.

 

 

And then there was Minnie Mouse.  Youngest Daughter waited all day to meet this special mouse.  And when she finally did meet her, she couldn't stop staring and smiling like a Minnie-Me (get it?).  Meeting Minnie Mouse was the highlight of her day.  Possibly the highlight of the whole trip.

 

 

And because we knew it was extra special for her, Mommy and Daddy had to get in on the action as well.

 

 

Disneyland - what a good day.

 



On our final day in California, the first half of the day was spent at the beach (second half of the day was spent travelling home).  74 degrees, sunny, slight breeze.  The perfect beach day. 

 

Youngest Daughter thought the water temperature would be excellent for swimming, so that is exactly what she did.

 

Grandpa P felt that walking on the beach required athletic shoes, but I'm not judging.  Later that same morning, he felt it necessary to strip off his shirt so that he could get a little sun.  I will spare you the picture of that (mental picture is your own business), and there may have been a bit of judging going on then.  Just a little. 

A sand castle was constructed.  It must have been a fantastic sand castle because I counted no less than three people stopping to take multiple pictures of it.  I'm sure they were sand castle experts. 



These three days made memories.  Youngest Daughter may be too young to remember any of the trip, but we took enough pictures to tell her the full story one day.  It will be the story of how magical it is to turn three.  JCMT