21 November 2005 Early Monday morning, before the sun got up, Mommy and Daddy got up and fed me (I was still asleep but got up enough to drink my milk). Daddy loaded up the car while Mommy got me ready. They we loaded up into Mommy's little blue Subaru and drove 6 1/2 hours to a place called Anaheim. Daddy said that it's where Pooh Bear and Mickey Mouse live. Mommy and Daddy thought it was going to be cold down where Mickey lived so they brought sweaters and lots of blankets. They were very surprised to find out that it was 85 degrees when we got into Orange County! Mommy and Daddy kept thinking that we should have brought shorts! Sheesh, shorts for Thanksgiving?! Anyway, we got in and got into our hotel room which Mommy says was only a few blocks from Disneyland. We brought all of our suitcases into the room and got comfy. After we rested awhile, we went to a place that Daddy called Downtown Disney. I think it's next door to where Pooh Bear lives. There were lots of shops and places to eat. There were lots of people to see. There was a giant giraffe there! We visited a few other shops and ate at a really nice restaurant. Then we went back to the hotel so we could get some rest. After all, Mommy and Daddy got up at 3 and 3:30am so we could drive down in the dark. (Mommy said that we needed to do that so I could stay asleep for most of the trip. It worked. I woke up once when we stopped in the middle of nowhere - literally, it was called "Lost Hills".) So we went back to the hotel room and got ready for resting... I got to play with the remote and push the buttons. Mommy wanted to watch the news so she could figure out how hot it was going to be the next day. They weatherman said that it was going to be 80 degrees! (Mommy just couldn't get over the fact that the weatherman's name was Dallas Raines...she thinks he just made it up for TV but Daddy said he thought that was the guy's real name. hmmmmm. I don't know...). The next day we got up early in the morning. It was about 7am when Daddy got up. There was lots to do because we were also going to check out of our hotel room that morning so we could go straight to Grandma and Grandpa's house after Disneyland. So, we got up, got ready, repacked everything and got dressed up for Disneyland. When we finally walked through the gates it was about 9:30am. Not too bad considering all of what we had to do in the morning. I couldn't believe it...I was at DISNEYLAND!!!
YAY!! So much to see, so much do to, so much to get into! The day was just beginning and my eyes just weren't big enough to see everything I wanted to see. I couldn't decide where I wanted to go. Mommy & Daddy seemed to have something of an agenda but nothing too important. I decided to go this way and then changed and went that way...and when too many people were around Mommy told Daddy to put me up on his shoulders.
But Daddy didn't like keeping me up there because he couldn't see my expression. Just in front of the castle is a statue of Mickey with Walt. Mommy wanted us to take a picture there because I'm little like Mickey and Daddy is taller like Walt. It would have worked but I was just too distracted with all of the people around. Mommy took the pictures anyway and here they are.
Mommy just loves the castle. Actually the castle at Walt Disney World is her favorite because it's Cinderella's. But she really likes Sleeping Beauty's castle, too. Especially because they decorated it!
Epecially for Disney's 50th birthday, the Imagineers at the park have gone in and touched everything with gold. They put very pretty material all over the castle and created a fireworks show that can be seen throughout the park. Here you might notice that the castle also has some crowns on the pointy parks that Mommy called "turrents". She tried really hard to get a picture of me when I was actually looking at the camera. But again...too many interesting things and people to see. Passing through the castle I entered Fantasyland. There were so many people! Mommy said she had never seen so many strollers in her life. I had never seen so many kids my size! We went on a bunch of rides:
Mommy and Daddy still laugh because my expression never changed when I went onto the rides, when I got off of the rides and when we moved to a new thing... "my Disney expression" There were so many things to look at, including the planters. They had pretty flowers in them and the fence things were just my height. I just loved wandering around a place that felt build for people my size. Here is a picture of me enjoying of those planter things that were my height.
Then we got hungry and ate at Pinocchio's restaurant. We never made it onto Peter Pan or Mister Toad's Wild Ride because the lines were just too long. When after all of the excitement of the Fantasyland rides, I got tired so Mommy fed me a bottle or two of food and then I drank some milk and took my first nap. Actually, I was in the process of eating a Kix and passed out in my stroller for 2 hours. Mommy said that while I was asleep we went all over the park to look at things and I just didn't wake up at all because I was so tired. While I slept, Mommy and Daddy walked around. They wanted to go and see a special display for the 50th but that required them to take me out of my stroller. Since I'd just fallen asleep that obviously wasn't going to work so Mommy never got to see that thing either. Instead, Mommy and Daddy strolled around the New Orleans area and took some pictures.
The last picture just above is a sign they posted on the railroad bridge near Splash Mountain in Critter County, cool huh? The train passed just as Mommy snapped the picture. When I did wake up we went to more rides, this time they were bigger rides for bigger people. Pirates of the Caribbean
After those rides we walked all over the park again. we wandered back to Critter County and went on the POOH BEAR RIDE!! It was so cool! Pooh Bear, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga & Roo were everywhere! It was sunset when we got to the Pooh Bear ride. Mommy liked the lighting so much that she took this picture of me.
Mommy was sad because she couldn't go on the new version of Space Mountain or on Indiana Jones because I'm not big enough to ride. But she seemed to enjoy the rides we did go on. Just outside of the Pooh Bear ride, Pooh Bear, Eeyore and Tigger were visiting all of the little kids. I was so excited to see Tigger. He was so bright and big and soft and huggable that I just kept running to him. But Mommy and Daddy kept telling me that I had to wait my turn before visiting with Tigger. I don't even know what that means. All I knew was that Tigger was there waiting for me and I couldn't go and visit. Instead I had to wait in another line and visit with Pooh Bear and Eeyore first.
After we visited with Pooh and his friends, it started getting dark and colder. It was about 80 degrees all day long. At least that's what Mommy and Daddy said. I don't really know what temperature is yet. When it got darker, all the lights in the park started turning on and I just loved it! I love lights. We left Critter County and started walking around again. I took another nap and I think that's when Mommy and Daddy had dinner at some soup place in New Orleans square. When I woke up it was really dark. We decided to go on the Haunted Mansion ride. I wasn't so sure I'd like it but I was kind of along for the ride. When things got kind of scary, Mommy would cover my eyes but I wouldn't really let her.
It's sort of hard to tell but the Mansion was decorated for Christmas in the style of "A Nightmare Before Christmas". The whole thing had jack-o-lanterns and candles and the characters from the movie. I've never seen the movie but Mommy and Daddy seemed to like it a lot. At 9:30pm the entire park started getting ready for a big show. We walked towards the back side of Fantasyland where Mommy said the Small World ride was. We sat down for a while and waited. And we waited. What were we waiting for? We'd spent all day walking and eating and seeing and doing. Here we were and just waiting? Then I saw what we were waiting for: FIREWORKS. Daddy explained that there was a special fireworks show that Disney made for the 50th anniversary of the park. It last 20 minutes and they had all kinds of stuff going on. They projected a movie on the face of the Small World ride while people did some talking over the park speakers. Then in the sky was a huge fireworks display. I've never seen anything like that. The lights were timed with the music. It was beautiful. At the end of the fireworks and the music and the talking, the speakers began playing this pretty song Mommy told me is called "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Then it began to snow. Well, not literally. The light poles began spraying these bubble things that looked like snow and it was so pretty. All of the kids had 'snow' in their hair. All of the big 'kids' had 'snow' in their hair. Everyone was a kid for that part. It was really cool. Can you see the snow? I'm trying
to catch it. After the music and fireworks were all over, there was the biggest exit I've ever seen. Mommy calls it an 'exodus' because all of the people who were watching the show picked up their stuff and their strollers and began moving towards the front gates. The Conveys on the other hand moved closer to the rides so we could finish up our night riding away. Since we were near the Small World ride, we went there first. The entire ride was decorated in lights. It was soooo pretty.
Let me just share with you how much I enjoyed this ride. I just got that Disney expression and pointed and stared and then I actually started waving my hands. This ride is the BEST. It has music, little kids like me who are dancing (the dolls), and so many colors and lights. It's the most amazing ride.
After that ride, I started getting tired again. We decided to start making our way to the main gates. We took a few more pictures...
As we walked through Fantasyland, we noticed the line to Dumbo was short. We went on and I enjoyed my flight on the little elephant. Daddy showed me how to use the controller and Mommy helped me push.
After that we saw that the line to Alice in Wonderland was short so we decided to go on. I think I was too tired to appreciate this ride. Actually, I think Mommy and Daddy were pretty tired, too. We didn't even take pictures. After that ride we began the long walk back to the gate and the tram ride back to the car. It was a looong day. I almost 'closed the park'. We were about 1/2 a hour away from the close of the park. But we estimate that by the time we got to the car, got everything in and got goig it was about midnight, when the park closed. We needed to gas up before taking the long drive out to Grandma & Grandpa's house in the sticks. It was a very very good day. It was a magical day at Disneyland. I really enjoyed my first visit!
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