"I got laid off, so I'm going to Disneyland!"

The title from this blog is a direct quote from Lee. I overheard him on the phone saying this to one of his friends while we were in California. A trip to Disneyland is something we'd been promising the girls. We hadn't planned to go so early in the year, but we realized the week between Lee's jobs was the only time he'd be available to go with us. It was the first trip to Disneyland for Lee, along with the girls. We were disappointed to find out the teacup ride was closed for the day, but we managed to have a wonderful time anyway. Here are a few pictures recapping the trip. There are only two problems: 1) The pictures got all out of order when I uploaded them, so enjoy anyway. 2) I somehow escaped the whole trip without any pictures of my sister Ashley along with her darling son, Marshall, and husband Derek. They came with us and let us stay at their house. Their being at Disneyland was an important part of our trip, so I'll have to see if Ashley has some pictures of them...So here we go:

Sorry, I don't know how to turn pictures the right way. This is a picture of the girls by one of the caves on Tom Sawyer Island. They had a chance to take a picture with Jack Sparrow (is that his last name?), but they didn't want anything to do with him. :) I have fond memories of running through these caves when I was a kid...

This picture was meant to be the last one. This is Lee carrying Brynne to the car at 10:30 p.m. At about 9:30, she told me she wanted to be at Aunt Ashley's house so she could sleep. She was a trooper, though, and didn't fall asleep unti the tram ride back to the parking garage an hour later.

Morgan with Lee on the Flying Dumbo ride. (There is one of Brynne and me further down.) This was one of our longest lines, but the girls loved it.

Speaking of the line for the Dumbo ride, here is a picture of us in the line. I don't think Brynne minded the lines as much because she usually talked Daddy (and sometimes Mommy) into holding her during those times.

The only picture I have of Lee, Morgan and Brynne's first visit to the Disneyland castle. The sun was right in their eyes, so Brynne is looking down. Ashley let us borrow the stroller Brynne is riding in. Let me just say that the stroller was a life saver!! This kid of ours isn't big on walking.

I asked some nice stranger to take this picture of our family just as we were preparing to embark on the Storybook Land Canal Boat. It was already way past bedtime at this point, but you can see that my kids were still having a great time! I think Brynne looks so cute in this picture!

It wasn't all happy faces. Brynne was sad because she wanted to ride in a cage on the Casey Jr. Circus Train. Luckily, there was room in the monkey cage, so Brynne and I went back to the cage. She was very happy after that. In fact, she giggled with delight throughout the whole ride -- one of those precious moments that made the whole thing "magical"!

Brynne waited the whole day to get to meet a princess. Aunt Ashley was nice enough to wait in the long line for us while I took the girls to listen to Snow White tell a story. Then Brynne joined Aunt Ashley in line while Morgan and I attended a Coronation Ceremony where Morgan (along with many other kids, mostly girls) learned how to be princes and princesses. For some reason Morgan wasn't as big on needing to meet the princesses in person.

I love this picture. You can tell that Brynne is trying to get her fingers to cooperate in correctly indicating her age. She must have been successful because "Belle" is correctly indicating the number "four" with her fingers. Brynne was cute giving hugs to the princesses, but was also her shy self. Other than with Belle, whom she warmed up with, she was reluctant to talk to the other two (I think they were the princesses from Mulon and Aladdin). Anytime the princesses asked what Brynne's name was or how old she was, Brynne pointed up to Aunt Ashley and indicated that Ashley should answer the question for her. I'm just glad she enjoyed Belle so much to make Ashley's long wait in line worth it!

One of Morgan's high points was driving the cars at Autopia. There was an unusually short line, so she went twice in a row. First with me, and then with Daddy. I have video of my ride with her. This was my "magical" moment with Morgan. She was so intent and cute. She really played the role well and I loved it. She actually drove well too! Now I just have to figure out how to get video on this blog...

Morgan, Lee and Brynne riding on the carrousel. I sat next to Brynne for the ride but caught this picture before it started.

Here's the one of Brynne and me on the Dumbo ride. There was a little lever you could use to make Dumbo go up and down. Brynne thought that was the greatest thing ever and had so much fun moving us all around.

After dinner, Derek was able to join us. At that point, the adults were able to take turns pairing off to do big-kid rides. I went on a few with Lee, and then he went with Derek on a few. I even changed Marshall's messy diaper while Ash and Derek went on a ride together. It was perfect. Another day would have been nice because we weren't able to do everything, but it was everything I hoped it would be. I kept saying that the girls wouldn't know if they missed out on any rides, we just had to make sure they enjoyed every moment -- and they did!

I was absolutely amazed at how well the girls did. Brynne only whined for a little while, but got over it pretty quickly (that's when she get to meet the princesses). And sweet Morgan never once complained about all the walking until shortly before we left when she started crying because her legs hurt so bad. At that point Ashley held Marshall and let Morgan ride in his stroller. We were actually ready to head home about that time, but then I realized we hadn't ridden on Pirates of the Carribean. That ride is an essential part of going to Disneyland in my mind, so we all went on that together just before leaving. It was a fitting end to a great vacation.