Disneyland (Part 3)

After the character dining experience at Goofy's Kitchen, we decided to head back into the Park as there was still some daylight.  At this point, we have been at Disney for probably 9 hours??!

Instead of walking to the entrance of the Disney Park, we hopped onto the monorail that is within Disney downtown:

A peek at some of the rides we have already done:

The monorail stops at Tomorrowland and the Autopia ride that was shut down earlier is back open again!  So of course, we had to go and try it out. So many people!!! I think it was about a 20-30 min wait:

Charlie was so excited to be able to drive his own car:

So I did sit in the vehicle with him.  Wow, it was not easy!  The steering was terrible and Charlie's feet were too short so I had to step on the gas for him too.  We kept bumping into the track that was in between the tires.  Not a fun experience at all!!!

The boys wanted to get their photos taken on their "drivers license" and of course Daddy said yes:

Happy Graham!

Even happier Charlie!!!

We make our way towards our last attraction of the day - the Tiki Room.  But first, we visit Tinkerbell's fairyland:

Graham and Charlie couldn't really tinker with anything as the objects were mostly stuck together on the table or stuck to each other:

It is getting dark!  Here's one more view of Cinderella's castle at night.  Too bad the fireworks only start at 930pm:

People have already parked themselves in front of the castle for the show and also along the street to watch the fireworks.  Definitely more people now than earlier this afternoon:

We get to the Tiki "house" and have yet to figure out what this show is all about:

But first, some pineapple smoothie - YUM!!! You should have seen this line earlier to get the smoothie and pineapple drink.  Insane!!! Bobby was happy there was hardly any line at this time:

Okay, the show is starting in the Tiki Room.  Oh gosh... singing birds!!!

Okay, I guess that was the best way to end our day.  On the way out, the boys admire the Nemo and Dory shaped treats in downtown Disney:

12 hours later, we are finally off the Park with complaints of "My legs are tired!" and "My feet hurt!!!".  Another hour later, we are home:

This is definitely the sign of a good time!!!

Surprisingly, we still managed to get the boys to shower and brush their teeth at about 10pm and there were no complaints to go to school the next day!!!  What a fun trip to Disneyland :-D

Disneyland (Part 2)

We are at Goofy's kitchen for a Character Dining experience.  Right off the bat, we are able to take photos with Mickey!

I managed to get the photographer to use our camera for the family photo.  Otherwise the restaurant was going to sell us the photos with their fancy "menu" from the restaurant:

The characters soon started walking by our table:

Boys with Goofy - too bad these characters don't talk to you!

Mommy had to get in a photo with Minnie:

And here is Dale??? Or is it Chip?  I think Chip is the one with the chocolate chip colored nose???

Here was a funny moment with the Chip (yes, I just double-checked online :-) who was doing a fist pump with Bobby and completely tricked him! HA HA!!!

Almost looks like Pluto is the boys' favorite!

It was a buffet so it was a no-brainer that Graham and Charlie moved pretty quickly to the dessert after their main meal:

Time to sing and dance - don't forget to wave your napkins!!!

Charlie is dancing with the rest of the kids :-)

Not long after that, our waiter brought over a little cupcake to celebrate Graham's birthday (as if his own dessert wasn't enough!):

The crew of characters came back around one more time and finally we did get both Chip and Dale for a photo op:

Happy birthday Graham!!!

Charlie is getting so cheeky when it comes to photo-taking:

And Daddy gets to take care of the bill.  Yay for Daddy!!! WE LOVE YOU!!! ;-)

Disneyland!!! (Part 1)

I think I use a lot of exclamation marks in a lot of my blog title postings.  This one definitely needs a few more like.... DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

I can't believe it has taken us 8 months to get ourselves to Disneyland.  I thought for sure it would have been by the Christmas holidays last year!  Well, it was Graham's birthday recently (May 22) and instead of hosting a party, we decided to take him to Disney.  Okay, I suppose Mommy and Daddy and Charlie really wanted to go too :-P

I guess we would find it eventually - on Disneyland Drive:

Awwww.... some brotherly love to start the day!

Family we-fie!!!  I think we were walking within Downtown Disney.  Obviously nothing in the background came up.  Ha!

Impressive Lego store!  Charlie already said that he wants to go to Legoland for his birthday (in July).  That is going to be at least a 2 day trip towards San Diego, which is about a couple of hours away:

The decorations are too cute around here and speaking of cute, can these boys get any cuter???!  :-P

Just in case we lose the boys, we make a tag for Charlie.  Graham is already wearing his necklace/tag from our last trip to Disneyworld (in 2014):

Another family we-fie attempt.  I kinda got the tip of Cinderella's castle??!!!

Right off the bat, we are off to Tomorrowland for our first attraction - the Astro Blasters based on the Toy Story theme:

Charlie couldn't get enough of this one - shooting at targets while in a moving vehicle.  How is it that I only scored 9,500???

And Charlie scored 100,100 points??!!!  See, I told you - he really loves this ride!!!

Next is a Star Wars themed 3D ride:

3D glasses on!  This was actually a really fun ride - although I did feel just a bit nausea by the end of the ride.  Perhaps when the simulator started going backwards???

We finally got a free birthday pin for Graham!  He wore it all day and there were so many staff that wished him Happy Birthday.  These people are definitely trained really well here!

Next ride... the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage:

I actually did feel just a bit claustrophobic when I got into the submarine:

Thankfully I survived.  Phew!!!

Charlie insisted on a slushy.  There is something blinking in it.  The slushy is so super sweet.  How can they sell these to kids??!

After lunch, we go to Autopia - where we can drive our own car.  So many people!!!

While we wait in line, we end up in a dark area.  See, there is something blinking in the cup!!!

By the end of the line, we find out that it is actually a light-up Millennium Falcon from Star Wars! Charlie is super excited:

Speaking of Star Wars, we spot random Storm Troopers while we wait for our car:

Unfortunately, by the time it was going to be our turn, the staff of Autopia told us to move toward the exit. WHAAAaaaat?!!?  Yup, looks like there were some technical difficulties.  Boooooo... :-(

We move along and find the Disney Band.  So neat!  And Graham is happily watching the band member play the tuba.  I asked him once "What is your favorite instrument if you had to play one?" and Graham answered "Tuba."  Seriously??!! HA HA!!!

Somehow Bobby and I were a bit disappointed with the castle - a bit smaller compared to the one in DisneyWorld Orlando???

Charlie spots the Churro cart:

Charlie LOVES his churrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrros...!!!

We head over to Frontierland.  Not too much going on here:

We start walking towards Adventureland and spot a steamboat:

And also a pirate ship???  We missed the show at this location.  It was suppose to be a pretty good one. Oh well... next time!

We are off to catch the train:

We end up back towards the entrance of the Park.  Ha!  And there is the Disney band again. They really put on a good show:

Charlie still has his Millennium Falcon.  Amazing!

We start walking towards Adventureland and the boys spot something familiar.  It's Mary Poppins!!!  I love how the boys love Mary Poppins and how they love singing the songs:

Another line to wait in!  Thankfully most of the lines so far have been about 20 minutes or so, with Fast Pass of course!

 We get into a boat on the Jungle Cruise.  I thought this sign was cute :-)

Our tour guide was very funny.  He was telling a lot of jokes which really cracked me up!

Lots of (fake) animals along the way:

The boys had fun!

Once we were done with the ride, it was up to Tarzan's Treehouse:

Here's the view from the top.  Not exactly sure what ride is in that mountain.  We didn't do any roller-coaster rides this time.  I think the boys got quite scared after the one at Yas Waterworld back in Abu Dhabi last year!

Back towards the castle and Mommy and Daddy gets a quick photo op with the castle.  Awww.... so romantic :-D

As you can see, we are sort of going in circles here.  Ha ha!  But we find "It's the Small World":

Not quite yet for that one as we have locked in our time on Fast Pass for Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin:

Graham said he actually liked this one, but Charlie was not happy with this one at all!  He said it was too loud:

A little bit of messing around in Mickey's Toontown:

And there is Goofy hanging around for photo ops!

Some funny things around Toontown:

Goofy Water!

Snack time!  So glad Graham still loves pineapples and Charlie as usual loves watermelon.  Must be all that watermelon I ate while I was pregnant with him!

Hmm... somehow Graham has a bloody lip??? Wow, that was a feisty pineapple!

"It's a Smal World"... here we go!

It's amazing how this song was not stuck in my head all day after this ride :-D

After another snack, we are back to the Astro Blasters in Tomorrowland.  Charlie insisted on playing this game again!

I think Tomorrowland was everyone's favorite!

I can't believe Bobby only mentioned late in the day that we had also signed up for the Memory Maker deal!  This is where the Disney staff takes your photos so that way everyone is included.  The lady takes a few extra of just the boys.  Too cute!

A little while after, we are actually heading towards the park's exit.  It is about 4:30pm and our "Meet the Character" dining experience is at 5:25pm.  We parked our car this morning a little after 9am.  Phew!!!

On the way out, a quick photo with Walt and Mickey:

And Dumbo!

I was so tempted to get a photo op with all those balloons.  I knew I should have turned around to do it.  Too late now!

Ahh... we find the Pandora store.  The boys were busy while Mommy picked out her new charm :-)

Happy Mommy!!! :-)  Bobby says that it is my birthday present, and my Christmas present, and my... etc etc etc... :-P

Moving on towards the exit, we just had to go into the Lego store. HULK SMASH!!!  It's just amazing what people can do with Lego bricks!

"The Force is strong with this one":

Charlie really wanted to see the fish tank when he first walked into Disney downtown.  This is in the Rain Forest Cafe.  Surprisingly, he didn't forget on our way out so we HAD to just go see the fish tank in the restaurant:

We are finally close to the Disneyland Hotel for the "Meet the Characters" dining experience:

A bit torn about this one as our reservations were at 5:25pm and the Disney parade was going to be on at 6pm.  Oh well, I guess if we didn't tell the kids that just means they didn't miss anything???  In any case, I did get a chance for a photo op with Mickey and Minnie :-)

In the meantime, Graham and Charlie are happy with their Lego purchases while we wait to go into Goofy's Kitchen!

To be continued...