DISNEYLAND!!!!

We went to Disneyland last week!!!  The girls had so much fun!  Jeremy and I had fun too but, boy, was it exhausting!  :)  We only went two days and stuck to the magic kingdom.  Maybe next time, when the girls are older, we will try out California Adventures.  The first day we had Kaydee (Jer's sister), Sam, and their kids with us.  Sami went nuts going on rides with her cousins.  It was her first time being big enough to ride everything!  There were a lot of firsts on this trip.  It was Ally and Emmys' first time at Disneyland.  Emmy had her first experience with having to wear a harness the whole time so we could keep track of her (and whenever we let go, she managed to disappear and make us panic for a good few minutes...).  Ally rode her first real roller coaster!

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Ally's favorite thing about Disneyland was definitely the Gadget Coaster!  She rode it the first day and I was so nervous because I had thought I would ride it with her, but then noticed a sign saying that expectant mothers were not allowed to ride. Jeremy had had his fill of roller coasters for the day so I sent Ally with her cousin, Tyler, who is a Senior in High School this year.  She was so excited and so determined, but I worried that once she got high up, she would panic.  When she returned, she was looking serious, but once she was off the roller coaster and standing with me, she was bouncing up and down and telling me all about how fun it was!  She said she got a little scared but "Sami got more scared and screamed the whole way!"  She didn't let Sami live that down for days.  She kept saying, "Sami was scared and I wasn't!"  The second day in the park, she insisted on riding again, this time with Jeremy.  After the ride, she told her dad, "That was SUPER AWESOME!!" 

Sami couldn't decide what part of the trip was her favorite.  When I asked her which was her favorite ride, she said, "Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones and Star Tours and..."  (You get the idea).  The first "Big Kid" ride she went on was Space Mountain.  I was rather jealous that I couldn't ride with her because that has always been my favorite ride at Disneyland.  But she and Jeremy both rode it for the first time and loved it!  The only big-kid rides Sami didn't ride were the Matterhorn (it was closed) and the Rocky Mountain Railroad (she took one look at it and said "not yet").

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MEETING CHARACTERS

The girls met Tinker Bell, Terrance, Rapunzel, Aurora, Mulan, Tiana, and Jesse from Toy Story.  Then Emmy and Ally met Jasmin, Aladdin, Tigger, Pooh and Rosetta while Sami was on rides.  And Ally met Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother, and she said HI to Ariel as she walked by, while Sami was on rides and Emmy was sleeping.  The only one we didn't meet, that Sami was rather bummed about, was Belle.  Sami had dressed like her and really wanted a picture with her but she was nowhere to be found the whole time.  I guess Beast was just being too demanding.  :)

We met Tinkerbell and Terrance the first day but Emmy missed it because she fell asleep in Aunt Kaydee's arms while waiting in line.  So of course, we had to go back the next day so Emmy could meet Tink in person.  We also met Rosetta while we there.

 Emmy surprised me the most when we met Tigger!  She SQUEALED and ran to him and gave him a big hug!!!  I was shocked because 1. I don't think she even really knows who Tigger is, and 2. Sami was terrified of the Pooh characters and Mickey and the gang when we took her to Disneyland at Emmy's age.

I also took a few short videos.  The first two are from when I took Emmy and Ally on It's a Small World.  Jeremy had no desire to do that ride so I went while he and Sami were on Star Tours.

We stayed to watch the parade the first night.  It was actually the best parade I have seen at Disneyland--though it seemed a little short.  Ally was so excited to see the princess float in the middle of the parade that she waved the entire time it passed by.  She didn't stop waiving until it was out of sight.  :)

 Emmy cracked me up when she met anyone, especially characters.  She turned into quite the chatterbox and talked all of Disneys' ears off.  Here they are meeting Tiana and Rosetta.

This last video is my favorite!  The last ride we went on as a family was the Madhatter's Teaparty.  I just love all the laughs!!! 

 WE HAD FUN!!!!