My Birthday and Disneyland

I seriously think I was as excited, if not more, than the kids, to spend my birthday at Disneyland. We went to a hotel, a mile from Disneyland, the night before thinking it would allow us to get more sleep and get to the park bright and early. Well, unfortunately, the getting to the park early worked out well, but the getting more sleep part, not so much. The hotel was SO loud. They had blaring music outside the room. The fireworks at Disney went off at 9:30. I was SO glad it didn't wake up the kids. And the people next to us had probably 15 people in their room and the walls were as thin as paper. I could seriously hear everything they were saying and doing. I was NOT happy. I somehow managed to fall asleep close to 11 though, but was then awoken again by our neighbors who must have had an early flight because they were up getting ready at 4 AM! I slept probably one more hour before Brandon woke up. We put him in bed with us. He was a MAJOR bed hog. I ended up getting maybe 30 more minutes of sleep before getting up at 6 to get ready and be gone by 7. Well, I was tired, but I did it. I wasn't gonna let lack of sleep deter me from my day.

We got to the park, after having to park OFF lot (and be bused in), due to the LARGE number of people expected that day. Bought our tickets and decided if we were gonna really enjoy the day, we should just get season passes so we wouldn't feel rushed, or sad that the park was so full and we didn't get to do that much. It was costly, but I think this is a good year for us to have passes and I'm really excited to use them.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our day. I took A LOT! I didn't want to miss a thing. The park was completely packed. Employees were directing "traffic" and they were blocking walkways making them "entrance" and "exits" only, instead of two way traffic. It was crazy. But we got on a suprisingly good amount of rides and left quite content and EXHAUSTED! We even managed to stay long enough to see the Christmas parade. But definitely couldn't last for the fireworks. Maybe another day. Over all, it was a FANTASTIC birthday. I don't think I've ever been told "Happy Birthday" to SO many times. People were surprisingly patient with the crowds and all the employees were so pleasant. Seriously! It really must be "the happiest place on earth".

Here we go! Off for our fun day at Disneyland. It was a chilly morning.

First ride of the day....Dumbo. Had to get it in before the lines got too crazy. It paid off. We only waited about 10 minutes to get on.

Fairytale boat tour. The girls LOVED seeing all the Princess castles.

Ah....I'm being eaten....

HELP.....
ME......

Whew...I survived.

In line for "It's a Small World".

The kids LOVED this ride. It was so pretty with all the Christmas Decorations. Light and bright and very "happy".

Seriously been dreaming about this Mickey Ice Cream. SO delicious. Even at $4.00 each.

Yup...we got to ride on Princess Tiana's Riverboat. VERY FUN!

My favorite ride. The Haunted Mansion....Tim Burton Style. I loved it. We got Fast Passes for it and literally walked right on. It was awesome!

This is what Ashlyn thought of it. Oops. I'm so mean to make her go.

Snuggling during the Parade. Actually I was holding them up on a fencepost. I thought my back was gonna break. I don't know how I managed to take a picture of it, but I did. Good times!

On the bus ride back to the car. Tired, but happy. It was a great day! Even with Brandon and Leah going at it in the double stroller fighting and crying all the way out of the park. All we could do was laugh. They were exhausted and totally overstimulated. They both crashed in the car.