Day One At Disney

The whole bunch of us was up and ready for our first day at Disney! Thankfully the park opens at 10:00 on the weekdays, which gave us a chance to catch up on our sleep.

Walking by the pool

We could see the top of the Matterhorn in front of our hotel!

The eight minute walk to the park entrance seemed like a mere jaunt when one is riding on the “we’re going to Disneyland” high. Since the boys were 5, 7 and 8 in 2002, it was like going for the very first time!

We went through security (well, most of us did… Andy had to go back to the hotel because he had his knife on him), got our tickets and bee-lined straight for Indiana Jones…

  Walking down Main Street towards…

Adventure Land and the Indiana Jones ride!

As you can tell, anticipation was running high!

All buckled in and ready to ride!

What’s the best part of Disneyland? Watching your kids experience the magic for the first time! (Well, I guess it’s technically the second time…)

We kind of have a system of doing all the big rides in a loop as soon as the park opens. It served us well again this trip and we managed to stay ahead of the crowds. Next stop… Pirates and then… Critter Country and Splash Mountain!

Will got pretty wet sitting in the front of the log!

 

As you can see, it was a pretty big drop!

The next best part was walking right up to all of the best rides in the park with no wait!!!

Everyone but Chris enjoyed our ride on the tea cups! He’s still scarred by his spin in 1978…

    

All ready for our undersea adventure to find Nemo!

This ride has been closed since our first trip in 1995!

Driving the Autopia!

 

Hey, no ramming! And we know you can see over the steering wheel this time!

The classic Space Mountain is the BEST!!!

Andy ROCKED at Astro Blasters! He scored 322,500 points his very first mission!!!

With all the big rides under our belt, we headed across the way to check out California Adventure! It was the first time the boys had been there and there were some changes since Chris and I had been there, too. The first ride had to be Soarin’ Over California!

With the gorgeous weather, it was kind of disappointed that the river run was closed. :o( But we got our picture taken anyway… 

Will and Chris both tried the rock wall. Chris did it with no feet for an extra challenge!

  

Then we headed over to Paradise Pier

Zack, Will and I rode the carousel while Chris and Andy rode California Screamin’ THREE times! (I just couldn’t bring myself to ride it again after an unfortunate incident in 2007. It was fun, but not fun enough to ruin a whole day…)

It was Andy’s favorite ride!

The view from the top of Mickey’s Fun Wheel is breathtaking!

The pier is beautiful at night!

After doing some more rides on the waterfront, we went to the “Tower of Terror”! I have to admit that I was more than a little nervous about riding this one. Chris had been on it on our last visit and LOVED it. After my unfortunate incident on the Screamin’, opted not to ride with him. But I didn’t want to be a chicken in front of my teenage sons, who were so excited to ride it, so I gritted my teeth and did it!

I don’t want to ruin the surprise for those of you who haven’t done it… But let’s just say, it gets your heart beatin’!!! I liked it so much and was so proud of myself that I even bought a t-shirt! :o) 

Then it was back to the pier for The World of Color show. Unfortunately, we didn’t know you needed a FastPass for good seats. Even from the back, it was amazing! But we got tickets for the next night…

  We packed a whole lotta stuff in before 8:00 pm!