Disneyland! Day One

We just got back from an amazing trip to the happiest place on earth. We had such a wonderful time! Nonna and Papa met us down in L.A. along with a few friends from Provo. We all stayed in a huge vacation rental home about 5 minutes from Disney. It was great! We did do other thing on our vacation but I'll get to those later - this is a strictly Disney post. It was Jay and Amaya's first trip to the Magical Kingdom. We spent 3 days there all together - 2 at Disneyland and 1 at California Adventure. Luckily we went during a pretty good time of the year, the crowds were minimal and using the book  The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland made wait times very minimal. I would say the most we ever waited for a ride was 15 minutes and the majority of the time it was 5 or less. Doesn't get much better than that! Our first day at Disneyland we road the Matterhorn twice in about 10 minutes then we headed off to Dumbo - which Jay has declared was his favorite ride at Disneyland.

I had to share this picture from the past. This is my mom with Cory and Amy at Disneyland probably about 28 years ago. I think Cory and Jay look so much alike.

I love this picture of Jay holding his Papa's hand.

It was so fun to have Nonna and Papa with us at Disneyland. They are huge Disney fanatics and they made our trip so fun! This was taken waiting for the Carousel. The smile says it all

Getting excited with daddy. Amaya is SUCH a daddy's girl. She always prefers daddy to hold her over mommy :) Pretty cute. This was her first carousel ride ever.

Another blast from the past... Cory with mom and dad.

After the carousel we headed over to Peter Pan. My cousin Kristin met us there for the day. She lives down in L.A. and has a pass to Disneyland. Lucky!

Then we went to watch our favorite Disneyland band - Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. Unfortunately their normal venue, The Golden Horseshoe, was closed for cleaning but we saw them preform on the street in Adventure Land. Then we found Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore!

This picture reminded me SO much of MyMy with Winnie the Pooh. My mom holding me with Amy next to Minnie. Disneyland is still just as magical as it was 25 years ago.

After snuggling with our favorite Hundred Acre friends we boarded Tom Sawyer's raft and floated over to Pirate Island. Jay and Gabe both loved running through caves, crossing rope bridges, climbing ladders and exploring hidden hideouts. It's a kids fantasy land!

Treasure found!

We went on to do a few more rides like Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain (minus Jay - he would have been terrified since he hated all "dark" rides and big drops on roller coasters). Autopia was fun for him. A little outdated for mom and dad but anything car related is high on Jay's list.

We also road the Finding Nemo Submarine ride - which Jay had a love hate relationship with. Seeing Nemo, Dory, Marlin and their pals was great but going through the volcano scene made him pretty nervous. This boy is definitely convinced by the Disney special effects - except when it comes to the characters. He told me, "Mom, is that really Winnie the Pooh or is there someone inside?" What a smarty.

Of course the day couldn't have been complete without meeting Mickey! Nonna and Papa took Jay and Amaya to Toon Town while mom and dad road some of the bigger rides. Jay got to go in Mickey's REAL HOUSE! And then even meet him. So fun! He also found Goofy hanging around. What a perfect day. There's no place like Disneyland :)