Micaela, Riley, and Aiden, a friend we met in the Bay Area who now lives in MN
Teacups in the hotel lobby!
Our beautiful hotel room: "A dream is a wish your heart makes...when you're fast asleep"
Goofy was in our lobby!
A good view of the end of the parade
Riley's favorite ride was "The Haunted Mansion." We rode it every day
MICKEY MOUSE!!!!!
Family pic with the Mouse
Sleeping Beauty's castle was beautiful all lit up at night
Glowing souvenirs for nighttime
Our walk back to our hotel at night was through downtown Disney and included an impressive Beauty and the Beast made from Legos
We spent our second day at Disney's California Adventure
Mommy and the girls in front of Paradise Pier.
Great views from Mickey's Fun Wheel
Jesse from Toy Story
So fun to soar through the air on the Golden Zephyr
Riley met the 40" height requirement this year
So she and Daddy rode the Jumpin' Jellyfish
A gentle drop but fun
Our friend Selina and her family came down from the Bay Area to have lunch with us and the princesses
Mommy and Miriam had just jump in for a photo op with Ariel
2 little princesses excited to meet the first princess of the trip
Micaela loved watching them walk in the room
Micaela and Riley with Belle
Big hugs for Belle, who Micaela chose to dress as (it was a tough choice!)
Princess Minnie!
Cinderella!
Our little Cinderella with the real thing
They loved Aurora
Then the girls danced around a bit while we finished lunch
Miriam relaxing on a caterpillar ride
Riley loved driving the bumper cars
Especially when she could hit her friend Selina
The walkway to our hotel, it was a fantastic place to stay
Time for the Mad Tea Party
The loved it (and Mommy and Daddy survived)
Hanging out in Cars Land, which had Daddy's favorite ride, Radiator Springs (he definitely benefitted from Riley's increased height and my inability to ride certain rides)
Paradise Pier all lit up before the "World of Color" show
Last week we took a trip to Disneyland. Chad had a conference there and after consulting with my OB, who highly encouraged me to travel and enjoy a vacation at this point in my pregnancy, the girls and I decided to tag along. It was definitely the right decision, we had an amazing vacation.
Because of connection times and prices, we decided to fly out of Minneapolis/St. Paul. One benefit of this was we were able to have dinner with friends from the Bay Area who have since moved to MN. I met Sarah and her son Aiden through a playgroup soon after Riley was born. They moved to the midwest a few months before we did. It was great to catch up with them and hear twin stories; they have twins who will be 2 in July. They had lots of encouraging and happy stories and gave us a double snap-and-go stroller which will be extremely handy in a few months.
We had the first flight to LAX on Sunday morning. The 4 am wake up call was painful for Chad and I but as soon as Riley heard the alarm she popped up and asked "Are we going to Disneyland?" Too bad she's not this easy to get out of bed for school at 7 am! Both girls were very well behaved on the flight and it went smoothly. The advantage of the early flight was we were checked into our hotel by 11 am. Luckily they had a room ready for us so we crashed for a few hours then headed to Disneyland. We let Riley pick the first ride and she chose "The Haunted Mansion." It turned out to be the girls' favorite, they loved being scared. Crazy kids! Other highlights included meeting Mickey Mouse and watching "Fantasmic!" Disney's night show. It was entertaining and I was glad we had a long nap so we could stay in the park late enough to see it.
The next day we hit Disney's California Adventure. One of the perks of staying in a Disney hotel is that you can enter one of the parks early each morning, so we were able to ride Toy Story Mania and a few other rides with no wait at all. We then had reservations at Ariel's Grotto where we had lunch with the princesses and friends from the Bay Area Selina, Miriam and Skiff. We met Selina and Miriam at the same playgroup as Aiden and Sarah, so it was great to connect with all these friends. The girls loved meeting Ariel, Belle, Princess Minnie, Cinderella and Aurora. We've had some disastrous lunches with the princesses so it was great to see them both so happy. After a nap at the hotel we rode a few more rides, including the extremely popular Radiator Springs. Only Chad and Riley rode that one because it had both a height and a "no expectant mothers" requirement. It was a really fast car ride that had a few drops. Both of them loved it, and it was the only ride to make Riley scream. That night we had a great view for "World of Color," the nighttime water show, which we really enjoyed. In our first 2 days we had already experienced some of the best Disneyland rides and shows.
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