Our Adventure at Disneyland

And Oh, what an adventure it was!!  Now let me first say that when Samantha was born, David and I decided that we were not going to take our kids to Disneyland until they asked to go.  We figured that it would be around 4 or 5 years old.  Well, we should've known better with Sammie!  She began asking to go right after Caleb was born, making her about 2 and a half. Part of me thought she was still too young, but the other part thought that it would be fun...that part won!

We took both kids yesterday.  9 days before Sammie turned 3, so we wouldn't have to pay for a ticket. :)  They day started off magical!  Not only did Sammie sleep in until almost 8:00, she also got dresses, brushed her hair, and brushed her teeth all without a fight!  Now if you know Sammie, you know those are her 3 least favorite things to do and she will put up a fight!  Caleb woke up at 6:00, napped at 7:30 and still slept almost the whole car ride.  And when he was awake, you could just hear him playing.  Again, amazing because if you know Caleb, you know he does not like his carseat at all and does not like to fall asleep in it. I just knew this was going to be a good day.........

So we get to Disneyland and I can already tell it may be a little overwhelming for Sammie.  Sammie needs time to process stuff and take it all it.   As I watched Caleb though, I could tell he was gonna have a great time....lights, music, and people makes Caleb a happy boy! Especially when those people pay him any kind of attention.

It took us some convincing, but we finally got Sammie to go on Peter Pan. Sammie was very excited in line and so happy. And Caleb was too.  In fact he was so excited, he grabbed on to some lady's hair and began to pull it. Oh my! Luckily, the lady was really nice.  She was there with her husband celebrating 27 years of marriage.  They looked so happy together.  I love seeing people who have been married so long and are still so happy.  You just don't see that too often any more. Anyway, where was I?? Oh yeah! I don't know about anyone else, but I do not remember it being that dark! To say Sammie didn't like it would be an understatement!  After the ride, Sammie would not get on anything else, but the carousel.  Since she didn't want to ride on anything, we decided to take her to Toon Town.  I mean, what kid doesn't like Toon Town?!?  That would be my kid!  She was ok until she saw Characters and then she was done!  And when Sammie is done, she is done!  There is no talking to her at that point.  You just have to let her work it out on her own. That just also happened to be when we bumped into our friends the Magee's and Bubeck's.  Their kids were having a wonderful time. My kids were screaming!  Well, one was screaming.  Caleb was just a little fussy because he was tired.  Go figure we see people we know at the worst part of our day. :)

Anyway, Somehow we convinced Sammie to get on Roger Rabbit.  Maybe because her friends were also getting on.  Whatever the reason, it was not a good choice!  Sammie would not let go of my hand and kept saying she didn't like it.  David sat with Caleb and apparently Caleb's head kept hitting the bar.  He had to sit by himself and from what David told me, he just looked up at David with tears in his eyes like "Why aren't you holding me? Do you not see me bumping my head?"  I gotta say, that is not a ride for babies...there should be a warning!!  Here we are after the ride..

Well, it took a while of sitting around to get Sammie to try anything again.  For some reason, she didn't trust us anymore.  :)  We let her watch the people on Autopia and finally she wanted to drive!  I got to go with her on this one and it was great to finally see her eyes light up....This is the little girl I know...

After that, Sammie was good.  We got on Small World and both kids loved it.  Sammie was even singing along by the end.  We took her to Tom Saywers Island too or as she called it "Pirate Island." For all those who watch Jake and the Neverland Friends, I think Sammie was really hoping to see Jake (He's her favorite!).  Even though there was no Jake, Sammie had a blast!  It was the perfect place for her.  Not to many people and full of fun places to crawl, climb, run and jump.  I, on the otherhand, was feeling a bit claustrophobic.  She was trying to get me to go through the smallest opening.  Crazy girl!  I am pretty sure Caleb wanted to get down and play too, but he'd have to wait until next time!

 We got on the Jungle Cruise after we finally got Sammie to leave the island...she could have stayed there all day.  She did ok on the cruise, but it wasn't her favorite.  Caleb liked it though.   We decided it was time for ice cream at that point, but while we were in line Sammie fell asleep.  We talked about getting out of line and waiting for her to wake up, but I really wanted ice cream.  So we enjoyed our ice cream as she slept.  I felt a little bad because I knew she really wanted some, but it was sooo good!

Well, after 45 minutes or so Sammie work up and was over Disneyland.  She was grumpy and nothing could make her happy.  We tried a couple rides with no luck...





I'm not sure what exactly happened, but at some point, Sammie was back in a good mood.  We took them on the Nemo ride and she loved it until about the middle part where all the scary fish were.  Again, there should be a warning!!  She had her eyes covered , but would open them every now and then to tell Caleb that it was ok. :)  No need to worry about Caleb though, he was amazed by it all!  Well, we came out of the submarine and Sammie was a whole different kid.  She was full of energy and ready to ride!  She went back on Autopia and wanted to go again and again, but we thought we'd try something else.  And then there it was, the Tea Cups!  Now, I do not like this ride at all!  I get the worst motion sickness just thinking about it.  In fact, I'm getting a little sick now! I was a little nervous for Sammie, but she really wanted to ride because she loves tea cups.  I figured David would just sit with her and not spin. But then as I watched, I noticed they were spinning faster and faster. I took a few pictures, but had to stop, because once again, I was getting sick.  David kept asking her if she wanted him to stop, but she wanted to go faster.  Right then I knew, she was her father's child!  She definitely did not get that from me!  All I know is David is so happy he has someone to go on rides like this with!  I think they go on it 3 times.  Here  they are fake spinning...

We finished off the day with one more ride on the carousel. And by now, Sammie was so happy and wanted to go on everything!  That's right, it took all day, but at least the last 2 hours were fun!

We took the kids into one of the shops before we left so they could each get something to remember their first Disneyland trip.  Caleb got a Mickey Mouse plush doll and Sammie got Minnie Mouse.  Seriously, by now Sammie was so energized.  We told her it was time to go and as we were walking on Main Street, Sammie yells, "Hey!!!  We forgot to get ice cream!"  Haha, I won't tell her we got some without her until she is old enough to read this herself.

And that was our first trip to Disneyland and probably the last for a while.  We'll go again when Caleb asks to go. :) California Adventure is coming up though because we got the 2fer....that should be interesting...