Da Da DISNEYLAND!!!!!

Yippppeeeeee! We had our first family vacation to Disneyland. WHEW- what a great adventure! Let me 1st start by saying the only poopy part of our trip was that LA had the highest record breaking temperatures ever recorded! 113 + humidity was NO BUENO... But, other than melting and sweating away to nothing- it was a super time!

We actually started the trip off at my cousins' house in Hermosa Beach. We enjoyed spending time with Dian, Scott, Kohlton and Riley (and their 2 HUGE dogs Harry and Oscar). We spent 2 days at the beach, just playing in the sand and enjoying the quiet time as a little family. It was great. We are always spoiled rotten by my cousins. It was great. My car did get broken into the 1st night, but it must have been a stupid kid, because they only stole $3 and a small flashlight from my center console. We actually had a DVD player in the trunk which luckily they didn't apparently check in.

Thursday we checked into Paradise Pier Disney Hotel. This was the 1st time I've ever stayed at a Disney property. They really do make everything magical! There was a bunch of balloons for Ashlyn waiting when we checked in. My parents met us at the hotel that night. I will have to admit that when we walked into Disneyland Friday morning, walking up to where they have it roped off on Main Street with 5 minutes til opening time. I started crying. I dreamt about having a baby for a long time- and I dreamt about taking my child to Disneyland for a long time. This might sound stupid to some people, but, I have so many great memories of Disney as I was growing up. But, the last time I was there was for my 18th birthday, and that trip I said, I won't come back until I'm bringing my baby. So, do your math folks- thats been 10 years!

Ashlyn was so cute dressed in her Cinderella dress and glass slippers- it was priceless. Her 1st experience was WAY more than I ever would have got when I was younger, but it was probably as special or more to me than even to her. Seeing her eyes light up while we sat on the boat in a Small World. She was totally mesmorized (sp?). She was actually singing the song for hours after the ride. She was a little nervous about the characters at first. After we met Mickey and left his house, she said Mom- he was nice to me, I like him, I'm not even scared. Wait Mom, we forgot to meet Minnie... so obviously she got the hang of it within a few hours!

Her favorite things about the whole experience were meeting the Princesses... we met Jazmine, Ariel, Tiana, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Pocahontas, and Mulan. We never tracked down Snow White, but we will do that next trip. She also loved driving on Autopia. She was screaming and cracking up as she whipped the steering wheel from left to right. She couldn't even see over it- but she knew she was driving it, bonking us from side to side. Hearing her giggle and scream with excitement, was the best gift ever!!!

We also got to meet Tink and some of her fairy friends. Our favorite was Vidia. I admit that I didn't know her name prior to the meeting, but she was totally in character- a little Sass Pot! She loved Ash (because she was also wearing purple) and told me that I could leave her there with her if I really wanted.

It was so cute seeing her walk up to each character and I told her to ask, May I have your autograph.. So she would repeat exactly that way, Hi may I have MY autograph! It was super funny to see everyone chuckle when she said that. She did good too! I think the ending tally of autographs she got was 26!

7 of them alone were from our dinner at Goofy's kitchen. That is something that I think EVERYONE with small children should do at least once. It was definately a pricey dinner- but, it was a full buffet, there was something for everyone and the characters take turns and come right to your table to interact and take pictures with. It was a great experience. 2 thumbs up!

My brother Justin and his wife met us all on Saturday morning. So, everyone got to be part of this visit. It was awesome. We stayed until Tuesday. Which I have to say 4 days in the parks, were still not enough time for us to see every single thing that we wanted. But, it was a good amount of time. Another awesome thing that we found out was that you can apply your days full admission price towards an annual pass. Which if you go for more than a day or 2 is not that big of a price difference. So, we ended up swapping our 5 day park hopper ticket in for a season pass and just paid the difference. Now we will all go back and get to do all the little things we might have missed over the next 12 months.

I know we will never have as extravagent of a time as this 1st trip- but, the memories and pictures totally made it all worth it. Ashlyn is still talking about it. Even though we got back a week ago. Just this morning she had to put on her Sleeping Beauty dress so we could watch the movie in her room.

I'm posting some pictures, but I have to admit the photo upload on this blog makes me go crazy- so I'm going to post a follow up post solely for pics!