A Dream Come True for Our Two Eldest Princesses

The Bug's Life 4-D movie. Need I say more? It was FABULOUS! And, this picture makes me laugh!

That Santa Claus is one BRILLIANT man, if I do say so myself! He really went over the top this year with a vacation to Disneyland. Who knew it would be such a hit with the girls? Honestly, I worried that they might be disappointed on Christmas morning when they got a Minnie Mouse doll and the promise of an upcoming vacation. In the end, this vacation was anything but disappointing.

As much as I dreaded getting everyone packed up and ready to go (not to mention that Tanner and I were seriously ill for three days leading up to our vacation - thanks to my Mom and Grandma Ollie for coming to my rescue...they did laundry, cleaned the bathrooms and anything else that needed to be taken care of while I laid in bed), it was a vacation we'll never forget.

Tanner and I were pumped. After all, the last time each of us went to Disneyland, it looked something like this...

So, maybe it wasn't THAT long ago, but it felt like it! We figured we were in for days of riding in the teacups. After all, our girls (well, at least one of them), just isn't that adventurous. But, oh how they proved us wrong. Lauren's favorite ride ended up being Space Mountain. I never dreamed they'd buy into the "scary rides", but by the last day, nothing would stop them.

We flew out early in the morning. The girls were so excited that they wanted to wear their Minnie Mouse ears to the airport and on the plane. It was the cutest thing ever - the girls in their ears and with their Princess and Dora suitcases in tow. We flew JetBlue for the first time. Let me tell you, I just loved that airline. Each seat has it's own TV/movies. So, the girls watched cartoon channels during the flight, drank Sprite and ate chocolate chip cookies. We could have gone home then and it would have been a fabulous vacation. Seriously, they were in heaven. They've never been lucky enough to indulge in cartoons, pop AND treats at 8:00 in the morning! Anyway, their first flight was a huge success. Here's Laur and Pai in the airport, anxiously awaiting the boarding process.

As soon as we flew into Long Beach (By the way, have you ever seen that airport? It was so small, it put my hometown to shame. Had my friend Alisa not prepared me, I would have thought we were in the wrong place. It seriously consists of a couple of modular trailer-type-things. Very amusing.), we hopped in our rental car and headed to Disneyland. We spent most of the first day at California Adventure and loved it! We saw shows, rode rides and met several characters. It was a perfect day-one.

On day two we spent more time in Disneyland, but went back to California Adventure for the Aladdin show (which was splendid!) and a few other rides we had missed on day one. It was a little rainy, but I really think that worked to our advantage. The parks were empty. There were no waits for rides and, from what I hear, we were very lucky not to wait in lines for hours.