Disneyland!

Disneyland was a dream come true for our kids! We had a blast and my favorite part was seeing the excitement, anticipation and amazement on my kiddo's faces when we got there. It was awesome...

The Princess' were a huge deal for Lilly. She was beyond excited to see them. Her and I bought tickets for Ariel's Grotto. It' s the coolest restaurant where you get to sit down and eat and the princesses come out one by one to greet each visiting guest. They talk to you and take plenty of time for pictures.

Lilly was speechless...for the first time ever! She was literally shaking with anticipation. When the first princess came out, she took a huge, deep breath and looked at me with big fat tears in her eyes. I got teary-eyed just watching her! It was a great moment. I know that she will remember it forever.

I know this is funny picture below, but Lilly was even amazed at our dessert dish that was brought out. Everything was edible, even the sea shell and the Ariel decor on brownie. Lilly said it was her "bestest day ever!" She was so sweet and saved most of the desserts for Mac and Pat.

If you go to Disneyland and have a little princess that wants to meet all of the Disney Princesses, I highly recommend this place. You get most of the princesses done all at one time and you don't have to stand in line for HOURS to meet them out in the park!!! The picture below is of Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder from Tangled. She wasn't at the restaurant, so we had to grit our teeth and wait in line for over almost 2 hours to see them. It was crazy, but Lilly did not complain one time. She stood in that line like a pro!

We completely lucked out with seeing Princess Jasmine. She always had a very long line and we had passed it up a few times. We suddenly saw her walking through the park and she stopped to take a quick photo with Lilly!!! I was so relieved!

The next set of pictures are from Fairy Land where Tinkerbell and the other fairies live. We waited almost an hour to see her, but it was worth it.

Mickey's Toon Town was a big hit with the kids as well. They loved seeing Mickey and Minnie's houses and we ran into Pluto, Minnie, Goofy and Dale. We didn't have any wait time with them. We just happened to be there at the right time!

Lilly wants a house just like Minnie's when she grows up...

Mickey's house was really cool!

OH MY GOODNESS...Lilly spotted SANTA there too. He was taking a much needed vacation! We saw him at the "It's a Small World Castle" of all places-

I told Pat that I would like to have a moose just like this one in our yard...

Mac was a great sport about riding some of the "kiddie" rides with Lilly. He was very patient. He got to ride all of the big rides plenty, but we had told him he would have to do some rides with Lilly. He did great. They came out the Mr. Toad ride and Lilly was flipped out. It was a dark and kind of spooky ride, but I was still a little bit surprised that it scared her so badly. I was also surprised at how many of the kids rides in Fantasy-land were actually dark and spooky. They are suppose to be for young kids, but they are just a tad scary. We just let her ride what she wanted and left it at that. She did all the roller coasters and other big rides without blinking an eye...I guess because most of them were not in the dark.

We got a front row seat to their new Mickey's Sound-Sational Parade. It was awesome! The floats were beautiful and all the characters were there!

Lilly was hilarious...every time a new float or character came by she was screaming like we were at a rock concert or something! Her scream is very loud...but it worked in her favor- the characters would look directly at her and smile, wave and even blow her kisses!

We even spotted Mary Poppins!

We took a few days off from Disneyland (thank goodness) and fully enjoyed the California Beaches. Pat and I both had "Disneyland Hangovers" after three full days of it. AHHHH, the beach was just what we needed. It was warm and just down right relaxing! It was really a good idea to take a break from the parks for a day or two.

Pat and Mac worked hard at learning how to body surf on boogie boards...

...Lilly and I enjoyed making castles, walking a long the beach front and even some shopping!

We spotted this little crab...the kids wanted to keep him, but he was having no part of it!

The whole trip was just incredible. Our drive down there and back home went as smooth as it could have possibly gone. I had a few rough days missing Griff, but I did OK and he was very well taken care of.