We are getting excited about our upcoming trip to Disney World so we whet our appetite by going to Disneyland this past Wednesday. It was a good day for it; middle of the week and not too crowded. We want to get a good value for our annual passes before Caleb turns 3 in January and needs a pass or ticket too. We left home right after lunch and the boys took a little nap in the car on the way. Of course Daddy couldn’t go in the middle of the week, but Mommy, Micah, & Caleb had a lot of fun.
I was surprised how into the characters they were and that it was Caleb even more than Micah who wanted to meet as many of them as we could. I know sometimes young kids are scared of the characters because they are so big or whatever. There were a bunch of them out just inside the front entrance and the train station. We first saw Goofy and they wanted to stop and look at him for a minute. I asked if they wanted to get in line to meet him and take a picture but Micah said no. Then we saw Mickey and I asked again and Micah said no. Caleb didn’t answer. Then I think Caleb said let’s go find some more, so we looked across the way and saw Pluto. We went over and I asked again about getting in line to meet him and MIcah said no but Caleb said yes. So we got in line (there were only 2 or 3 families ahead of us) and Caleb went up to Pluto and I took a picture. Then Micah decided he wanted to meet Pluto too so he went up and shook his paw and took a photo. Next we met Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, and Chip and Dale and they both went together and took pictures with each of them. (Last time we had been to Disneyland we saw a few characters from a distance but the lines were too long for us to want to wait to take pictures with them. Caleb was really upset when we passed by Tigger without going to meet him.) A little later in ToonTown we saw Goofy walking around, met Mickey in his house, and met Minnie again (in a different dress). This time only Caleb took a picture with Minnie; Micah didn’t want to.
They had lots of fun playing in ToonTown at Goofy’s and Mickey’s and Minnie’s houses and “driving” the cartoon cars. Then we went to the Tiki Room, which they loved. It was so cute how they danced along with the music and even sang along a little. I thought it was funny how, when talking about it later, Micah referred to it as the “Tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room” like they sing in the song. They wanted to go do it again, but I said maybe next trip. I like the Tiki Room fine, but I wanted to get over to the Pixar Play Parade in California Adventure because I knew they would love that.
They did. Lightning McQueen led the parade and they were excited to see him in real life and so big! They kept asking if there were any more cars; I’m sure they would love a parade of all the Cars characters life-size. But they did like the rest of the parade too. They have seen most of the Pixar movies except the Incredibles and Monsters Inc. I think. But they know the Monster’s Inc. characters (Mike and Sully) from the end of the Cars movie. So they liked seeing Lightning, Sully, Mike, Remy, Nemo, Marlin, Dory, Crush, Heimlich, Flik, Princess Atta, Dot, Walking Stick (I can’t recall if he has a name; is it Slim?), Mr. Potato Head, Hamm, Woody, Buzz (I didn’t see Buzz but Micah said he was on top of the float), Rex, Slinky Dog, and Mater. Mater brought up the rear of the parade. They loved it, except for the music from the floats was a little too loud so they would cover their ears, especially Micah. And the “Play” part of the parade included squirting water at spectators from some of the floats which I don’t think Micah liked too much, but he didn’t really complain because he was too into looking at everything. CA Adventure was almost closing by the time the parade was done, but we went over to Flik’s Fun Fair for a few minutes and managed to squeeze in a ride on Tuck ‘N’ Roll’s Bumper Cars. Once we went out we took a few pictures with the giant letters that spell California. I wanted to get Caleb on the C for his name. Of course there’s no M for Micah but they both had fun posing on several letters.
Then we went back into Disneyland and did a few Fantasyland rides before heading home. We rode Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which Micah thought was too loud and they both said afterwards was a little scary. Although when we fist stepped off it they said it was fun. Then we did Dumbo for Caleb because that was his favorite ride from our last trip. Then we rode Casey Jr. in the Monkey cage car. This was their new favorite ride from this trip. Finally we took a spin on the Carousel before heading out to home. We were following the last parade out so it was pretty crowded and took longer to get out and home than I had planned so it was a long day for the boys. Still, they were too excited to fall asleep in the car even though it was their normal bedtime by the time we were in the car leaving. We talked about Disneyland all the way home and told Daddy about some of it when we got home. I know they were tired because even Micah said he was and wanted to go right to bed without even reading a book and he’s the one that always fights going to sleep and tries to stall bedtime.
So we had a great time and now we are even more excited to go to Disney World. We’re leaving in only 8 more days! We’re praying for no hurricanes!