Disney, Day 1

We arrived in Anaheim on Monday afternoon and promptly headed to the pool with Joel's brother and his wife. After that, we all headed to Downtown Disney, and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. The food was alright, but the surroundings are amazing...it's like dining in the forest, complete with a thunderstorm every 20 minutes.

Outside of the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney:

We started our day bright and early with a character breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel. This was SO MUCH FUN! We met Goofy, Pluto, Balu from The Jungle Book, Chip and Dale, Alice, and Aladdin. Every few minutes, one of the characters would lead the kids in a song and dance. The food was actually pretty good as well!

Emily chowing down on a Mickey waffle:

All of us with Pluto:

Ava and Alice:

After breakfast, we headed over to Disneyland to ride the Fantasyland rides. We started with the carousel and then did Peter Pan and Dumbo. Ava adored the carousel - she rode it 5 or 6 times our whole stay. She also loved Dumbo, and liked Peter Pan, but not the "scary part in the dark." Yep, our kid is afraid of the dark. Joel and Ava also rode the teacups (another favorite of hers)...I watched because the very idea of spinning around that fast is enough to make me nauseous. After Fantasyland, we watched the birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room (one of my all tiem faves) and then we rode the Jungle Cruise. After that, we headed back to our hotel for some much needed naps, and then we retured to have some dinner and ride the Winnie the Pooh ride in Critter Country and Pirates of the Carribean in New Orleans Square. On our way back into the park, we happened on the end of a parade, and Ava got her first glimpse of PRINCESSES! The look on her face was priceless. We ended the day with a fabulous fireworks display, in which Tinkerbelle flew from the Matterhorn Mountain over the castle to bring out the sparkles. Truly amazing.

"Pwincesses, Mama!"

Cinderella, on the float:

Ava and I on the Winnie the Pooh ride:

Ava, Emily, and I in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle:

Ava's first ride at Disneyland:

The happiest baby on earth at the happiest place on earth:

Emily enjoyed the day the most...she thought every ride was amazing and clapped the entire time. She waved at Goofy, and was generally the happiest baby on earth (fittingly at the Happiest Place on Earth!). Ava was pretty overwhelmed by Disney, as we expected. She's not a fan of crowds, and although she loves rides, she is always hesitant to get on them. Once they are in motion, she's fine. I was also suprised to see just how much scary stuff (at least if you think in 3 year old terms) there is at Disney. The Jungle Cruise is a ride that I always thought was boring and tame, but it actually has a lot of scary components. Needless to say, Ava didn't really enjoy it. Oh well...we let her ride the teacups a few times and got her a lollipop to go with!

And finally, a super cute video of Emily and Joel making kissy noises at each other. This is Em's newest trick...you coo, she coos back. You make a kiss noise, she makes one back. We get to have long conversations this way, and let me say how completely adorable it is when it's Ava and Emily making kissy noises at each other in the backseat...

(my apologies about Joel's finger in the shot...silly Daddy!)