The Day We Went to Disneyland

For our first full day at Disneyland, we decided to start off our morning with "Breakfast with Minnie & Friends at the Plaza Inn." We knew Katelyn would love spending time with the characters and she was especially excited to meet Minnie. But with Brooke being 15 months old we knew it could go either way. She is a very easy going kid, but I was fully prepared for her to cry at the very sight of them. I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only did they not make her cry, she absolutely loved them. She wanted to hug and snuggle every single one of them and the only time they made her cry was when they had to leave. Katelyn loved meeting Minnie and thought it was great that she came to our table three different times. Both girls loved the Mickey shaped waffles and fresh fruit. Kyle loved the "all you can eat" aspect to the meal.
Brooke really loved Eeyore, Chip & Dale and Tigger. She loved kissing them all on the nose. I tried to tell my inner germ-a-phobe that she was the first little kid that had been anywhere near that nose since it was last cleaned. Then I faced the facts and gagged a little.

Then this cute little penguin came to see us but we weren't sure who he was until after he signed Katelyn's autograph book. Apparently it was Pip the Penguin - I didn't know he was a Disney character - maybe he was vacationing too. The best part about his visit is that as he walked away from our table, my mom noticed a perfect Brookie shaped hand-print on the back of his soft black costume. She'd been loving him and I guess we didn't get both hands cleaned off before he arrived. It was so funny to watch as he walked away.
Katelyn was really excited to see Fairy Godmother. My favorite part of her visit was when Fairy Godmother asked Katelyn who her favorite princess was... Katelyn said "Well, I think I'll have to go with Cinderella just for you." Even Fairy Godmother commented on what a little diplomat she is and encouraged her to run for public office someday. I sure hope not. Here is some video footage of the fun:<

After breakfast, we headed to Fantasyland for the first ride of the day. Katelyn picked the "Mad Tea Party" (aka the Teacups & Saucers), so that became Brooke's first ride at Disneyland. The music was an instant hit with Brooke and even though she wasn't too sure about the ride at first, she loved it and we went on it about a million more times after that. Here is some video footage of the fun:

Next we headed to Tomorrowland. Brooke hung out with Kyle while Katelyn rode some of the big kid rides. Then, we all headed over to Autopia - always a kid favorite. Brooke loved the car but didn't really get to drive since she couldn't reach the steering wheel because of the seat belt.
Katelyn loved driving Gram around and Pop drove the chase car behind them. During this time, Kyle went on a dessert safari... he hit the jackpot in Critter Country and found the best cookies and brownies we'd ever tasted.







Next up was Frontierland and the Big Thunder Ranch. The girls had a great time petting the animals and as you can see in the video, Brooke decided to pet anyone that looked soft and one of the goats started eating Kyle's jacket.

We also ran into Woody and Jessie on our way to Critter Country. Brooke really loved hanging out with Pooh Bear and his friends too. There were several moments where we thought Brooke was going to go right to sleep on Eeyore. The nice part is that since she was being to cute, the Disneyland photographer wanted to keep shooting pictures so the girls had an extra long visit.
After all that excitement Brooke and Kyle were both ready for a nap, so they headed back to the room while we made our way over to California Adventure for the "Aladdin Musical Spectacular." Thanks to our priority seating from Costco (evil geniuses), we had front row seats. We all really enjoyed the show - it was great! After the show we rode some more rides before meeting up with Brooke and Kyle for dinner at the "Wine Country Trattoria." We had some great Italian food and finished up the day with a few more rides before bed time. To be continued...