disneyland day 1

We arrived in Anaheim around 6:30 and checked into our hotel. Then we headed to Downtown Disney to eat and look around.
First stop was the Lego store. It was really cool. It had a bunch of life sized objects made completely out of legos.


Tom bows to Lego Vadar

Standing under Mr. Lego Giraffe



Being silly at the Disney Store

Hugs for Mickey!

Rainforrest Cafe for dinner. Mae was really scared of a life sized gorilla near our table that would move around and make loud monkey noises every so often. It reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants when I was little called King Kwongs. They had a HUGE (to me anyways) gorilla that was anamatronic, and whenever I walked by it, the lady at the front desk turned it on and scared me to death.
They also had a "rainstorm" every 20 minutes, and that also scared her. Which was weird, because she loved the haunted mansion, but the rainstorm here and the rainstorm in the Tiki room both made her cry.


It's MICKEY! Even as an adult, it still excites me to see Disney characters.

Mae's first ride was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. She was nervous at first, but then she got into it and started shooting at everything. Before we went on, I told Tom, "I'm thinking she'll be nervous on all the rides, but afterwards she'll say she wants to go again" I totally called it. After every ride she said "I wanna go again!"


Waiting for the Finding Nemo Ride

Mae loved it! And so did we. It was awesome

Autotopia. Mae couldn't even see over the dashboard! But I let her steer, and she was pretty happy about that.



At our favorite restaurant, the Blue Bayou. We get the same thing every time to share: the Monte Cristo sandwich and crab cakes.
We went on the Pirates ride before our reservation and Mae didn't like it at all. She kept putting my hand over her eyes.



Mae was nervous around the characters at first, but then she warmed up and gave Winnie the Pooh a hug. For some reason, the person playing Rabbit seemed drunk...or really old. It was weird.

Daddy and Mae on Dumbo! I was feeling motion sickness pretty easily for some reason, so I just took pictures of this one.


Mae LOVED it. She was so distraught when we took her off the ride.
Here she is, looking through the gate longingly at Dumbo.

And here she is telling us how she really feels about it

Tom and I got to go on all the big rides, but by ourselves. It was nice though, because you just got a switch pass and they pretty much put you right on the ride. No waiting. I got off Splash Mountain, and there was Mae, still fast asleep.

Balloons! I'm surprised that the cast members that were carrying these didn't get carried away Curious George style. There were so many.

Mae LOVED Toon Town! It's such a cool place. Disney continues to amaze me with their creativity. I would love to be a part of that company.















This was cool. We went into Mickey's house and when we got to the very back, we found ourselves and about eight other people in a line. It turns out we were about to meet Mickey Mouse! So we went "backstage" to his dressing room, and we were the last ones to go in. So there we were, all alone with Mickey Mouse and a cast member. It was awesome! He even blew Mae a kiss with a kissy noise, which made me so happy, because one of my best memories of my first trip to Disneyland was when Donald Duck gave me a big kiss on my cheek and made the same noise. I was so ecstatic, and talked about it the entire trip, according to my mom. I still love that story.

This was the Go Gadget Rollercoaster in toontown. And it wasn't a kiddie coaster. It was pretty dang fast, and Mae BARELY made the height requirements. According to Tom, she screamed her head off the entire time and he thought for sure she'd be crying when we got off. Guess what she said? "I wanna go again!"