DISNEYLAND - Day 1

How can you beat holding your seven-year-old daughter's hand as she squeezes yours and says "I'm at Disneyland! I'm at Disneyland! I'm at Disneyland!" over and over as you walk through the gates? That's all it takes for it to be worth it for Tyler.

Tuesday was our first morning at Disneyland and we made a lot of mistakes.

We planned to be at the gates when they opened, but we were a little sleepy and sluggish from partying over the weekend.

We made the mistake of allowing the TVs to be on in our suite when we were supposed to be getting ready. Cable is always so fun to have on vacation! 

We arrived 30 minutes later than planned and the boarding passes for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance were already gone, three minutes after they were available for the day. 

We walked right onto Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters...and then right off again because the ride was temporarily closed. 

Just kidding! Come back later.

Just across the way, Space Mountain had a short wait so we tried that. By this time the kids had been dragged around a bit, we hadn't been on one ride, and the excitement was waning.

Until we got on the ride, that is. This is what they had waited for!

Our next mistake: getting caught up on short wait times and not using the FastPasses. We decided to head to Galaxy's Edge to ride Smuggler's Run. There's not a lot to do yet in Galaxy's Edge, but the ambiance is very cool. Emmie REALLY wanted to see Chewbacca and sure enough, he was there! Seeing him from a distance was enough - she didn't want to get up close.

Will anyone else like how they look in this picture? Probably not. But I am hardly ever in front of the camera and I look good in this shot! So I am throwing it on here.

I love that Emmie packed her Minnie Mouse ears and had her first day outfit planned to look just like Minnie.

Seeing all of the details made me think of the repeated line in Jurassic Park - "spared no expense". It was pretty spectacular.

Jacob said we had to try the blue milk. We did. It was kind of gross. One cup was plenty to share and have the experience without committing to the whole thing.

This is about the time we clued in and started mapping out our day better. The kids and I headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Tyler went off to get us FastPasses to the Matterhorn. We had to wait awhile - maybe 20 minutes. The kids got bored and wanted to get out of line and I said no and made them stick it out.

Sorry that your eyes are closed, Jacob - this was my only shot

We met up again in Fantasyland and tried out several of their rides.

Jacob said that we HAD to go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride because that is the only thing he remembered from his last time at Disneyland, and he remembered going on it with Aunt Angie.

We tried out Peter Pan's Flight per April & Natalyn's suggestion. I had never been on it before and it was cute. One thing that we noticed as we went on all of these rides was how few of the Disney movies Emilie has seen! When we got home she had a list that she made her way through, thanks to Disney+.

We also had to sneak in Autopia because I remember that being Jacob's favorite from before. 

Vacation is walking through Disneyland in short sleeves like you own the place when you should be at home, in a cold place, and sitting in school. 

I shared a car with Emilie and everyone else got their own. Poor Camden - we really should have had one of us ride with him. We had been on the go and he REALLY had to go to use the bathroom, which made it extra hard to keep his foot on the gas pedal. He kept stopping and there was quite the queue that formed behind him. I *almost* jumped out to help him, but he managed to figure it out. He did not, however, want to try that ride again. (He did keep his license, though, and months later when he was going through his memory book he found his license from when he had gone on it as a toddler - only happy memories remained!)

The hood of Emmie's and my car, Jacob in the yellow one, and Camden just in front of him

Once we hit our stride, we knocked out the Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, the Jungle Cruise, and I don't remember what else. It was a great day. In addition to their free hot breakfasts, our hotel offered free "snack buffets" that were really a dinner, so we walked back to our hotel to partake. 

Once fed no one was motivated to walk the .7 mile back to the park again. I opted to nap and watch TV, and the kids - now refreshed since there wasn't a long walk in their future - all wanted to go to the pool. Tyler went with them and was rewarded with the sweetest tender mercy. He sat in the hot tub and met a helicopter pilot and her husband from Vancouver Island. She flew for the first season of Alone, Tyler favorite TV show! She gave him all kinds of insider information. They all had a grand time until I decided it was late and we had an early morning ahead of us and waved them all back up to our room (I could see them from our suite). What an amazing day!