DIS.NEYLAND - California Adventure, Take 1

Dis.neyland brought HUGE smiles to us all!

Wow, I have been such a blog slacker this week! I have been planning all week (can't believe we've been back one week now from CA) to start posting pics from our trip. For some reason, the prospect of sorting through over 400 photos from the CA trip has been somewhat daunting. I keep putting it off. So, even though I *really* should be asleep already (have to be up at 6:30 tomorrow morning), I am ready to post part 1 of our trip...

We arrived in Los Ang.eles on Sunday night, rented our car and went to Uncle Joey/(soon-to-be) Aunt Hillary's new house (beautiful!). On Monday morning, we (Adam, Steven, Mom, Uncle Joey and I) drove (only 1 hour away) to Dis.neyland! Adam will be 3 at the end of March so he was free and he seemed to really enjoy himself! He was cranky when we first got there (as he was woken from a much-needed nap) but perked up pretty quickly once the "Magic of Dis.ney" took over him as you'll see in (most) of the pictures below. As always, double-click on each picture that you want to see bigger. Enjoy...

Posing with Daddy outside the Mickey Mouse poinsetta plants. Since we went on 12/28, the park was still dressed in full holiday glamour. Gorgeous! As you can see, our Little Love was definitely still cranky at this point.

Outside Cinder.ella's Castle (LL was still cranky -- fortunately, once he passed through the castle, he was all smiles).

The "fake" Dumbo chair outside the ride. The ride itself was too long so this photo opp. with Uncle Joey had to do!

Of course, Adam loved the duckies...

Posing in a saucer cup... unfortunately, the line was ridiculously long for this ride, too. Guess this is why there are "staged photo opps" everywhere?!?

Watching the afternoon parade with Grammy...

Adam LOVED Goo.fy's house. He still talks about playing on Goo.fy's piano!

The Mick.ey Mouse fountain was also a hit (water usually is with LL)!

One ride that we (painfully) waited in line for was the canals through Storyland Island (or something like that). Adam LOVED LOVED LOVED it... esp. going through the big whale and seeing the Big Bad Wo.lf!

Adam's face during the canal ride... talk about seeing things all over again through the eyes of a child! As Walt D., would say... Magical!

The last "ride" we took was the train through Dis.neyland. It was a pretty awesome 20 minute train ride through the park... so great that Adam insisted on going on it 2x in a row! His favorite part was "the dinosaurs" which you can kinda/sorta see here. He is still talking about the "huge Daddy dinosaur" and all the other animals.

What a happy little love, sitting on the train!

However, this very happy little boy refused to smile for a picture with Mama... and believe me, I tried!!!

Last ride for the evening... the carousel ride with Daddy, Mama, Grammy and Uncle Joey!

The "It's a Sm.all Wo.rld" ride completely lit up -- stunning!

Holiday festivities in full force -- so festive -- too bad we were too jet-lagged to stay late for the 9:30 holiday fireworks/snow show!

Of course, no trip to Dis.neyland is complete without a little shopping trip! Adam is clutching on sleeptime Mick.ey and Min.nie here -- but they were totally overpriced. Grammy bought him an adorable Mic.key and T-shirt instead!

As you can see, it was a really wonderful day (Thanks, Grammy!)... one that Adam still talks about to this day! Wish we were still there... =) Part 2 of our CA Adventure coming up -- hopefully soon! Have a great week, everyone! =)