Goodbye Mark!

On Sunday we had to take Mark to LAX so he could head back home to the winter wonderland that awaited him. It was so cool that he was able to join us for a few days! I hope he had as much fun as we did!

Bob and Gail called us from the park and we met them at the Golden Horseshoe for a Billy Hill and the Hillbillies concert. It was so nice to see them and we even enjoyed the music… :o)

the show was even better the second time sitting front and center with Bob and Gail (who know all the band members)!

Sunday was a much slower paced day and we just wandered the shops and went on a few rides… Oh, and enjoyed some yummy treats!

I loved all the retro-Disney displays!

   

My caramel-chocolate covered pretzel was especially yummy!

The Matterhorn is WAY more fun in the dark!

They made the boys sit in the “wild animal” cage on the train… :o)

We all took a spin on King Arthur’s Carousel

 

Everyone gave a valiant effort at pulling the sword from the stone… Better luck next time boys!

We all went to bed all little sad knowing that Monday would be our very last day at Disney… :o( 

Magic Morning Saturday

It is amazing how magical getting up at 6am is when you know you are going to early entry at Disneyland in only an hour! Waking up to a brilliant blue sky doesn’t hurt either…It probably would have seemed MORE magical if we hadn’t been at Disneyland until midnight the night before…

Of course the best part of Magic Mornings at Disneyland is NO LINES!!! This time we decided to do all the Fantasy Land rides since they had been some of the longest lines all week. We just aren’t willing to wait 35 minutes to ride Snow White’s Scary Adventure… :o)

It’s also a great time for taking pictures without people walking in front of you!

Ahhh! That’s so sweet…

 

 Hang on Will! You’re going up!!!

   

Chris just took pics of the rest of us on the Teacups

  

California Adventure doesn’t open until 10. So after 2+ hours at Disneyland, we crossed the way and waited for the opening. We weren’t the only ones who had the same idea… The rope dropped and we all walked as quickly as we possibly could (there were about 50 people to remind us not to run) to the new Toy Story ride at the Pier. Unfortunately the crowd waiting on the other side had a shorter walk and there was already a 30 minute wait by the time we got there… But it is a pretty great ride/game!

  The weather improved even more while we waited!

Game on!!!

After all that waiting, we had worked up an appetite. So we stopped by the tortilla factory for about the 16th time and toured the bread factory, too. The smell of fresh sourdough wafting through the air was too much to resist! In fact it was so hard to resist, that after having our sample we bought an entire loaf!!!

We took a few more pics and then headed back to the hotel for some lunch and a swim…

That evening we went out for supper at the House of Blues at Downtown Disney. We had fantastic food! To make the evening even more perfect, we went back to the room and watched the Packers beat the Falcons!

Mark was tired and Zack didn’t nap with the rest of us, so we left them behind at the hotel while we went to Disneyland once again! While we missed them, we still had a blast!!! :o)   

Another Beautiful Day At Disney

We awoke again on Friday to a beautiful sunny morning in Southern California! God blessed us with better weather than we could have imagined.

As always, we hit the big rides first thing in the morning. Avoiding lines is always good!

Space Mountain is always a sweet ride!

We waited just for Mark to go on this ride because we knew it was his favorite… LOL

It was still all decked out for Christmas!

 

There are so many more things to see at Christmas!

But the best part is that they play more songs! Christmas songs!!!

Then we invaded ToonTown…

I know you can do it! Just keep trying…

Finally these rascals are where they belong. LOL

Despite Will’s last traumatic experience, we went to get our picture taken with Mickey Mouse.

Zack decided to take a breather in Mickey’s chair 

Don’t worry Will… He’s nice!

 

I love this pic!

When Mark saw that Will wasn’t scared and how nice Mickey was, he got in a picture, too! :o)

For the first time since 1995, we finally got to go on the Haunted Mansion ride! It wasn’t nearly as scary as I remembered it…

On the way to the Tiki Room, we stopped to climb up the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. I know it’s Tarzan’s tree house now, but I’m still bitter about that…

The boys have changed a lot since the first time they posed on this bridge, but they’re still cute! :o)

A stop for pineapple ice cream and a show at the Tiki Room was the perfect way to end our morning before lunch.

Now that song gets stuck in your head!

  

There are only a few places in the world that you can get this incredible stuff!

Zack saw one of these floats the day before and just knew he had to have one!

Before heading back for lunch and an afternoon by the pool, we stopped by the lost and found to see if any kind soul had found my lost sunglasses. Someone did find them! Hooray!!! That was an answer to prayer!

Our hotel had a pirate water park and a pool!

 

The salt water made the pool even more refreshing!

Those were our rooms on the top floor!

Waiting patiently at Downtown Disney

Back at the park, we did a few more rides before the fireworks show.

I just loved these caramel apples!

 

Lots of people came to Main Street to watch the show!

But then it’s a pretty amazing fireworks show!!!

Since we still had some midnight oil to burn, we rode a few more rides and then headed back down Main Street to check out some of the shops and stuff there.

Watching old Mickey Mouse movies

Maybe we shouldn’t have stayed out quite so late…