Disneyland Day 3 (out of 4)

We saw Pluto just as we were walking in.
Rylee is obsessed with dogs right now, so she really liked him!

We waited about 45 minutes for Tinker Bell- this is her friend.
I don't know her name, I'll have to ask Cory!

And here's Tinker Bell.
She talked to Rylee for a few minutes
which made the wait worth it!

Rylee did not want to drive the car- she told me she wasn't old enough. I said at Disneyland kids get to drive, so she got in the driver's seat and started driving. She got very frustrated though when she couldn't really control it, so I had to drive. She was almost in tears. I told her it was hard for me to drive it too!

This is Space Mountain- I wasn't sure how she would like it, but she seemed to enjoy it! She would hear people screaming on the big rides and ask me why they were screaming. I told her they were happy screams and that the people were having fun! There was never a ride she wouldn't go on!

Taking a break watching the big ship.

Winnie the Pooh.
We saw Tigger and Eeyore too,
but for some reason she didn't want to see them.

I had never been on the canoes before. I've been going to Disneyland since I was 5 (more than 25 years) and I've never been on or wanted to go on this ride. But I thought Rylee might like it so I did it for her! I don't think anybody in my family has even been on this one! Unless Rylee or Ashlyn wants to go, I don't care if I ever go on it again!!

Rylee really liked these flowers on Minnie's gate.
She hugged and kissed them- funny girl!

I was just going to take Rylee's picture with Minnie,
but I waited a long time so I wanted my picture taken too-
Minnie is my favorite!!!

Just as we were leaving for the day.

This is between Disneyland and California Adventure.
You can see that the letters of California
are different than they were just a couple of days before.
They changed them fast!

Back at the hotel- I was glad to see Ashlyn and Matt again!
They had so much fun swimming at Salt Lake of course.
But Rylee didn't like that the pool was outside.

We bought 5-day passes (it was 5 days for the price of 3) but we weren't planning on going 5 days. So we weren't going to go on Wednesday and just take it easy. But I couldn't let a day just go by without going, so I decided to take Rylee by myself. I was a little nervous being on my own, but it turned out perfect. We took our little umbrella stroller too just in case and so I took Rylee in that. I was able to get around much better and faster with that thing. And I got to go and do whatever I wanted!!!

We took the free shuttle from our hotel that left at 9:30 and came back at 6.

So we went on the rides that Ashlyn couldn't go on- Space Mountain, Star Tours, the Matterhorn, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain (my favorite). We did other rides too like Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh, Autopia. I think I wore Rylee out though because in between rides when we were walking to the stroller, Rylee would just stop and sit in the middle of the street and say she couldn't walk anymore. She did that a few times. But she was a trooper- Grandma should be so proud of this little Disneyland girl!

We also saw a lot of the characters that Ashlyn wouldn't have liked anyway. Those were longer than lines for the rides! But I think Rylee was excited to see them all. We had a good day together!

Disneyland Day 2 (out of 4)

We were waiting in line to see Minnie right here, but a few minutes before it was our turn she had to go and Goofy came out instead. I was a little disappointed, but Goofy's great too!

Here's Ashlyn's first smile eating her churro.
This is at California Adventure.
We did go on the Mickey ferris wheel-
both kids really liked that one.
Maybe Ashlyn liked it even more than Rylee.

And here's Mickey!

This is Ashlyn just chillin' on the trolley at ToonTown.

Snow White's wishing well.
Ashlyn really liked anything with water!

So we slept in a little Tuesday morning and didn't get to Disneyland until around 10 or so. We rode a few rides at California Adventure. Matt bought a churro which Ashlyn loved- it made her smile for the first time! Matt went with Rylee on Soarin' and then I went with her. She loved it- she calls it the airplane ride. I think I was a little more scared than she was on that one!

Then we went to Toon Town. We went to Minnie's house, but she wasn't there so we just walked inside and played around. Then we went to Mickey's and saw Mickey. Ashlyn did not like the characters up close. She still thought Disneyland was torture at this point. Toon Town has a few places where the kids can just play like Goofy's house and Chip and Dale's treehouse. They also have a trolley that Ashlyn loved playing on. She liked anything that had open spaces. She hated lines and being so close to a bunch of people- but who can blame her?!

Matt wanted an ice cream cone from Main Street so I took the kids to Snow White's wishing well next to the castle. They both seemed to enjoy that too. We left Disneyland for naps this day too, came back, and then we left for the night around 8:00. So the second day wasn't as long. Ashlyn was a little happier the second day, but still not too happy. Rylee was loving every second though. It was worth the trip just seeing how much Rylee liked it.

Disneyland Day 1 (out of 4)

We're on our way!
This was the tram from the parking lot to the park.
It was the longest wait of anything at Disneyland,
but it was also the girls' favorite ride!
They called it the choo-choo.

We're here!!!

Our first ride- Snow White.

Now isn't that a happy child?!

Ashlyn loved Dumbo-
Rylee said it was her favorite ride of all.

Rylee, Ashlyn, and I all have names
that start with one of the letters from California
at the entrance to California Adventure.

Here's the A's!

Our first character- Stitch.
Rylee was too scared and
Ashlyn didn't have a choice because I was carrying her!
She didn't like him too much though!

Rylee has quite the imagination-
she used this strap, pen lid, and socks to become a rhino!
(She actually tried it on Matt first!)
The things you do when you're bored in a hotel room!

The traditional picture at Disneyland.

We saw the best parade I have ever seen at Disneyland. A whole bunch of characters ride out and they walk around and you get to dance with them and get close. We had the perfect seat. We saw a lot of characters right in front of us, but Woody seemed to like us the most. And Jessie too. Woody gave Rylee a hug and a high-five. Jessie also high-fived her. Jessie is Rylee's very favorite character. So it was so fun to see her enjoy it so much. They let the little kids go up and dance and Rylee did that too- it was the highlight of the whole trip.

Dancing in the parade.

Rylee's doing the conga around one of the floats.
(She's right in front of the dancer in the purple dress)

Riding It's a Small World- both girls loved that one too!


We got to Disneyland around 9:00 and then left for naps around 1:00. We came back at 4:30 and stayed until about 10:30- what a day! Ashlyn was not liking it much. We had the double stroller, but Matt or I ended up carrying her most of the time. We later realized that not only was she over-stimulated and sleep-deprived, but she was also teething. Poor thing! She is the most miserable baby when she's teething and then added to everything else, she was not happy! But we did see Fantasmic (which Ashlyn fell asleep during) and the fireworks. We had planned on using our magic morning (early admission) the next day, but after all we had done we just couldn't do it. So we decided to stay an extra day and use it on Thursday instead.

Day 2 of our Trip

This was Ashlyn's favorite ride of the whole vacation!
She could have played on this the whole time and had fun!

This was Ashlyn's first time seeing the ocean.
It was Rylee's first time at a California beach.
She has been to the beach in Hawaii.

Poor Rylee got sunscreen in her eye so that wasn't any fun,
but she still wanted to go swimming!

The pool was a little cold (for me!) so we just hung out in the hot tub!
Rylee kept saying she wanted to go in the real pool-
the hot tub was just "bubble gum."
(That's what she called it because of the bubbles!)

We got to our hotel not far from Disneyland in the afternoon so we had time to relax for a while. We headed down to Seal Beach, but it was cool and windy so we didn't stay too long. We were too tired for anything by now- we were running on very little sleep. We didn't get to Heidi's house until late that first night so we didn't get to bed until after midnight- and Ashlyn never really did catch up on sleep. Rylee, Ashlyn, and I did go back to the hotel and swim for a little bit while Matt watched the Laker game. Then we went to bed so we could get up nice and early for Mickey!

The whole time Rylee referred to the hotel as Salt Lake. She thinks that anytime you go to a hotel and swim it's Salt Lake. We kept trying to tell her where we were, but finally just gave up and let her think we were in Salt Lake!

1st Day of Our Trip

Ashlyn was having fun playing with Jerika (bottom middle)
and Rylee liked Jerika's chair (bottom right) at Heidi's house.

Then we had fun playing with Lilli
and on the stairs at Nicole's house (the rest).

Rylee, me, and my cousin, Nicole

The original reason for our trip was to go to my cousin, Nicole's, temple sealing in Draper. At the last minute (the Tuesday before) we decided to keep going to Disneyland. So we drove down to Provo with Helma Friday night. She wanted to surprise Heidi, Vance, and Jerika with a visit. So we stayed with them that night and then went to the temple. We went to Nicole and Pat's for a luncheon and then we kept going south. Helma rode home with my mom and grandparents.

We stayed the night in St. George with my uncle and aunt. It was 104 degrees!! We're so not used to that. But we did some shopping and ate at In N Out. Sunday morning we got up and drove down to California.

Thank you so much Heidi and Vance and Eric and Phoebe for letting us stay with you on the way- it helped us out a lot and was very much appreciated! We enjoyed visiting with you.

The Happiest Place on Earth

We got back from our vacation to Disneyland this morning at 1:30. We drove all the way from California yesterday. We had a wonderful time, but we're glad to be home too! Rylee absolutely loved every minute; Ashlyn didn't enjoy it quite so much. She started to love it the last day we were there though! I took over 850 pictures, so I will blog with pictures when I get those organized. It might take a while! Matt was getting a little annoyed with all the pictures, but I think there's some good ones in there!

Reading with Daddy

Matt was reading his book so Ashlyn found her own book and got up on the couch to read it next to him- so, so cute!!

She loves books- she usually just likes to look at them herself. I try to read to her, but she would rather hold the book and "read" it on her own. I don't know how interesting the dictionary is, but she seems to like it!