DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is that too many exclamation points?  I'm just so in love with Disneyland that I can't help but use them.  It is literally the happiest place on earth.  I can't believe it has taken me this long to go, but I feel so thankful I finally made it!

So, I should also mention that it was my first time in California as well.  Lots of firsts this trip.  First time I put my feet into the ocean and walked in the sand.  More on that later. 

So, the drive was not as long as I expected and since we drove at night, there wasn't too many cars on the road with us.  We got to the hotel and you could see the Tower of Terror (which is a completely accurate name), Mickey's Fun Wheel, and California Screamin' from our rooms.  It was so weird, not only to be in California, but to be so close to Disneyland.  It felt so surreal.  I hardly slept that night.  I was so excited.  I couldn't wait to meet Minnie Mouse, to make Donald Duck mad, and to watch the famous parade on Disney's Main Street.

Beginning of day one!
And yes, my Elf shirt does say, "I'm sorry I ruined your lives and crammed eleven cookies into the VCR."

First day:  We went to California Adventure.  AWESOME.  My friend stood in line for fast passes to the Cars ride (which is totally worth the fast pass) while I went and got us lanyards and pins and of course, Minnie Mouse ears with a bow.  OH! And a "first visit" badge.  Adorable.  I went back to the line where a man changed my life.  His name was Kevin from Denver and I said how this trip, I was going to be brave.  Nothing would scare me.  I told him how I normally hate roller coasters because they make my tummy sick.  He said that it is proven if you scream as much as possible, you won't get sick.  He said that when you don't scream, you hold in all of your adrenaline and then your body is crazy because there is no release from the stress.  I'm not joking when I say he changed my life.  I only got sick once on a godforsaken ride called the Tower of Terror.  (More on that in a few.)  So, my advice to you if you get sick on rides, SCREAM.  It truly does help.

MINNIE EARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first ride we went on was the Bug's Life bumper cars.  Then we went of Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.  Seriously, I thought it looked like a kiddie ride, but it was my favorite ride in the park.  I laughed and laughed until I had no voice left.  LOVE that one.  We went to explore Cars Land which is so cool because it looks exactly like the movie.  You feel like you just walked into Cars.  So cool.

So skip forward to the Tower of Terror.  If Hell was on earth, it would be called the Tower of Terror.  This is a picture of us pretending to be scared before we went in:

We are idiots.  If we knew how scary it really was, some of us would have left at that point.  So once we passed the front gate guy and started getting in farther into it, my friends little boy, Jackson grabbed my hand and put them on his chest and held onto them for dear life.  I kept saying, "Its all pretend.  Its just a joke.  Its just silly," over and over again to help him and his brother feel better.  After watching the pre-video about the ride and hearing the Twilight Zone music and getting super close to the elevators, I looked at their mom after making sure they were distracting and mouthed, "I AM SO SCARED!"  She agreed.  One of the kids bailed out on the ride at the last minute because he was scared so his dad stayed with him.  We got in and Jackson started holding his mom's hands.  In pure desperation, I said, "Will you please hold my hand because I am all alone?" (and TERRIFIED but I didn't want to freak him out) and he did hold my hand.  The lady that sent us on the ride said, "No flash photography because it disturbs our permanent residents."  I looked to Morgan and said, "PERMANENT?"  She said, "Ghosts!"  Gross.  The lady ended her speech by saying, "Please scream if you need anything."  Ha....ha...then you get taken rather quickly to the Twilight Zone and pure hell ensues.  You get taken straight up really fast, then down, then up, then Satan shows himself in the form of little drops that are like "we are going to pretend to drop you again, but then bring you up a little so you don't know what the hell is happening", then back up and down some more.  I doubt the whole ride is more than a couple of minutes, but it feels like it will NEVER END.  When it ended, I got unbuckled, ran out and stood against the wall so I could recover.  Poor Jackson came and grabbed my hands the same way he had before.  I said, "I wanted to cry at the end of that ride."  He said, "Me too.  Me too.  Me too.  Me too.  Me too."  Then I said, "Never again" when we got outside.  He said, "Ever ever ever never do that again, Janalee!"  It was awful.  That was the only ride that made me sick even though I screamed the whole time.



Moving on to MUCH happier things, We ate at Flo's Diner for lunch and it was delicious.  And I met a more attractive version of that guy who plays Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games...Josh Hutcherson or whatever.  No joke, the guy was beautiful and kind and he told me exactly what to get and then he got me and all the kids a pin that has Flo on it.  If I lived there, I would mate with, I mean date him.  So kind and handsome.  And though he gave me no bread, he gave me a pin.  Same thing really.

OOOH!  I almost forgot.  After Tower of Terror, we went on the Monster's Inc ride, and at the end the secretary is there to say things to you before you exit.  I figured she just said the same stuff to each car, but no, no she does not!  She talks to each car!!!!  She said, "Hey pretty lady in the third row with the red hair.  I like your glasses.  Wanna trade?"  OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!  I giggled so much at that!  And Jeff said, "Why is everyone always hitting on you?"  So funny.

Another cool thing was the smells.  I loved walking past the bakery and having the smell of bread come out of a vent.  I loved the part of Soarin' over California when you could smell oranges and pine.  I loved Radiator Springs Racers and the pictures from it were funny.  I also loved the Little Mermaid ride.  It was adorable.  The Grizzly River Run was a favorite.  We got soaked, but it was so worth it!

Ruby didn't love Goofy, but GARSH

World of Color.  Super super super cute, but really hard to see.  I wish they would have mentioned that you are standing in a huge group of people making it IMPOSSIBLE for children to see.  I could see it really well, but they couldn't.  It was really cool.  I had some friends on the other side of the water who said you could see it better there and I would strongly recommend not wasting your time waiting for a place when you can't see anything anyway.  It was really cute though.

For dinner we went to the Cozy Cone in Cars Land and had HUGE ice cream cones.  No joke, the cone was as tall as my head!  And deeeelicious.  This is who we saw there:

Ka-Chow!

Mater!

View from the bench

 We rode on Mater's ride again and then headed home.  Long day, but oh so fun!  Mater's ride made me lose my voice from laughing.

One of my favorite things ever happened this day.  We were taking bathroom breaks and saw Donald Duck being escorted somewhere.  I was SOOOO excited and yelled, "HEY DONALD!!!  Mickey is #1!!!  He is the best!!!"  HAHAHAHAHA.  Oh my gosh.  Best response ever.  He walked directly over while staring at me and pushed his bill up against the side of my cheek.  I giggled like a little girl.  The kids were LOVING it.  Then after a really weird 30 seconds or so, he turned to leave.  When he was about six feet away, I said, "Oh, hey!  Donald, guess what we are eating for dinner tonight?  DUCK!!!"  He threw a fit.  It was hilarious.  Totally worth finding him to see him react.  I did it see him again the next day and said, "Mickey's #1!"  And he took two fingers pointed them at his eyes and then at me.  Super funny.

Total steps walked today:  24961.



Second day:  Disneyland.  Now, you may wonder, can dreams really come true?  Yes.  Yes they can.  That is why Walt Disney lived, to make dreams come true.  I loved walking into Disneyland, hearing music everywhere, watching people, and taking in all the things I've seen in photos but not in real life.

I absolutely loved Pirates and Haunted Mansion!  So fun!  I loved the corn dog I had for lunch.  I looked for Minnie everywhere we went.  No dice.  We went on the Snow White ride and yes, I did make the witch cackle!  We went on Mr. Toad's and Peter Pan and the Toon Town roller coaster and carousel and many others.  I loved Pinocchio's ride.  The Matterhorn was a little too jerky for me, but was fun.  I loved Space Mountain, but I LOVED Splash Mountain most.

Innoventions.   Now this is where I say, a girl could not ask for more:

 

Me + IronMan = True Love

I was like...Hey RDJ, want dinner?  At first he was all:

What?

Dinner?  I will eat your food and kill anyone who gets in our way.

 And then he was like:

That was the best food I've ever had so Imma just sit here and savor you and your food.

 HAHA.  But seriously.  I love that man.

Back to Disneyland:  the parade.  Wow.  I have never had such nostalgia in my life.  We were a little far back and about 5 minutes into the parade, a man on the front row came and got me and my friend's little boy who was with me (everyone else was on the Matterhorn).  He said, "I have seen this thousands of times and I have never seen anyone as excited and happy as you are.  You and your little boy come take my spot on the front row."  I'm not kidding.  I was SO THRILLED.  The best part is at first, I thought he was mad at me for being excited. Haha.  He was so kind.  And he literally changed my life.  Watching all of the Princesses, elves, Minnie and Mickey, Donald and Daisy and all the other characters was absolutely a dream come true.  I had tears, I know this is silly, tears streaming down my face because I was so happy.  It was complete magic.  It really is the happiest place on earth.  Here are some of the photos from the parade:

And yes, I did say, "Santa!!! I KNOW HIM!!!!!!"

Okay.  So later that day they had another parade and we crossed the street during the parade.  I started waving at people and so did my friend Deb, and blowing kisses and saying, "Happy Holidays!"  I don't know why we are so awesome.  We just are.

I met Mickey Mouse at his home in Toon Town.  I told him just what I had told Donald.  That Mickey was number one and Donald was nothing compared to Mickey. How handsome Mickey is and so on.  He gave me three kisses and blew five kisses to me when I was leaving.  He liked me.

Before meeting him, I went to Minnie's, of course, to meet her.  I hadn't found her at all the whole day and tried there.  No dice.  Her shopping list did crack me up though ;)

So I went to the entrance to find her again...NOTHING.  I was getting so sad.  All I truly planned on was meeting her.  I went to Disneyland Emporium on Main Street and this lovely, helpful girl named Jasmine (no joke, her sisters named her after Princess Jasmine from Aladdin) who tried to help me track down Minnie.  After waiting for quite a while, they could not get Minnie.  I was so sad.  However, Jasmine did something really nice, along with her managers.  They went to Toon Town and woke up Mickey and Minnie to have them sign a black and white photo of them in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle, all especially for me.  It has my name on it and a personal message.  It was incredibly sweet of Jasmine to go the extra mile.  I had said, "I know I'm old and this might be dumb and childish, but it is all I wanted and came all this way after all this time."  She stopped me and said, "Dreams are not childish or dumb!  Dreams are what make life worth living.  That is why Disneyland exists."  She was definitely exactly who I needed to talk to about it and she even gave me a really cool pin that says "Happily Ever After" since I was leaving.  She said to come back really soon so that Minnie would get to meet me.  What a doll.  I love Jasmine, and though I will probably never see her again, I will never forget how sweet she was to me.

This is my favorite picture of us:

One really fun thing we did the entire trip was look for Hidden Mickeys.  Here’s the definition of an official Hidden Mickey: a partial or complete impression of Mickey Mouse placed by the Imagineers and artists to blend into the designs of Disney attractions, hotels, restaurants, and other areas.  We found tons of them.  My friend, Nan, gave me a book on how to find them, where to look and such.  The kids got really into it and it made waiting in line a breeze.  There were some I was too afraid to focus so I missed them, but next time I go, I'll get those ones.  The cool thing was that even after we left Disneyland, the kids looked for Hidden Mickeys everywhere else.  Its pretty cool to find one in an aquarium or at the dinner table.  That was one of my favorite things, just looking for them and having the kids super excited to find them.  

Oh gosh.  I forgot to say, this was Thanksgiving day, so we HAD to have some turkey.  And any seasoned Disney veteran will know what I mean by that.  I wish I had a photo to show just how freaking HUGE a huge turkey leg is in real life.  I bought one for me and one for my friend, and carrying them both was insane.  I felt like a caveman.  So deliciously disgusting.  Delicious taste, but disgusting because of the grease!!!  But I do not regret one bit of eating that and I would do it again.

Total steps walked today: 23732

On Friday, we went to Brunch at Goofy's Kitchen.  It was AWESOME.  Characters all over and great food.  I loved their potatoes.  And they had excellent pasta and ice cream too.  They had peanut butter and jelly pizza, but I didn't have a hankerin.  Maybe next time.  This is where I met, Chip (who is a baby pants) and Dale (who is totally the better dancer, friend, and chipmunk), Baloo, Alice in Wonderland (who talked so fast I was reeling to keep up with her), Goofy, Pluto, and CINDERELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was so excited to meet her.  She is a favorite of mine.  I asked to see her glass slippers and she showed them and she said, "Fairy Godmother had to put straps on them because Prince Charming can't follow me EVERYWHERE I go!"  I loved it.  She talked to me just like she was a princess.  And she hugged me before she left.  I loved it so much.  So much.

Here are some pictures of brunch:

Cinderella is so nice!

OUR SHOES!!!!!!!!!

The dream that you wish will come true!

Dale is better than Chip!

After this, we went to Long Beach to a really cool aquarium.  I could basically sit and listen to seals talk all day long.  It was super fun.

I had a really bad ear ache and sore throat, so these were really awesome because even though I didn't feel well, I had fun and enjoyed the day.

Total steps walked today: 12511 (significantly less)

Saturday was our last full day in California.  I woke up with no ear ache, but still a very sore throat.  Lame.  We spent it well, going to the beach...Laguna Beach  Now, this was a huge first for me.  I have been to the ocean in Alaska (super cold) and Oregon to go crabbing (super cold) but I had never been to a sandy beach area and I had never put my feet in the water.  I was totally shocked because I always thought the sand meeting the water would be soft, like mud, but it is not!  It is super firm and way easier to walk on than the dry sand.  I always was super surprised that the water sucks out the sand under your feet when it is going back out.  Super super cool.  I touched an anemone, which felt like scotch tape and closed up really fast, thus it scared me.  I also saw hermit crabs and collected some sea shells.  Miah fed 25 birds at the same time and literally had them eating out of her hands.  It was creepy and hilarious all in one.  I loved sitting on a blanket and reading under an umbrella there.  It was fun.  Side note:  I hate being covered in sand.  That was the only downside.  Oh and that I look gross in these pictures, but I didn't feel well and I was exhausted, so whatever.

I could not get enough pictures...and this isn't even half!  But I loved the sunset.  It was one of the best ones I've seen.


Total steps walked today: 11669

This is by far the longest blog post that ever will come from me, but it was all so much fun, so I went all out.

Disneyland is amazing.  If you haven't gone yet, do it.  If you have gone, go again.

This is Ammon and me sleeping on the drive back home.  We were tuckered out!

Happy Holidays!

janalee