The Reeve Family: Disney Perfection

Friday, November 8, 2013

Disney Perfection

September 20-22, 2013
DISNEYLAND 2013

We returned to Disneyland - our favorite family vacation spot - for two days of Disney bliss! September and May, in my opinion, are the best times to visit the magical kingdom - the weather is neither too hot nor too cold, and the line wait times aren't too bad either. Our kids look forward to this trip at least once a year. As always, the anticipation was a killer! We drove straight from Las Vegas to Disneyland and got there when the park opened. The kids were content to change their clothes and eat breakfast in the car. :) When we got there it was fun to see everything decorated for Halloween. We let Irelynn choose what ride to go on first - the tea cups!

DAY 1

Meeting Mini Mouse was so fun. She spent a lot of time with us and gave Annika and Irelynn like, a zillion kisses.

Annika was loving the Casey Jr. train!

Like a little celebrity, she was waving to all oncoming Storybook Land boaters. The cute thing was that most of them waved back. Annika is pretty irresistible. ;)

Here's Brian, Branson, and Irelynn in one Autopia car.

And here's Natalya driving Annika and I in another Autopia car. She thinks she's ready for her license. I don't think so.

While Brian took the big kids on Indiana Jones, the little girls and I explored the Tarzan tree house and went on the Jungle Cruise. (By the way, Indiana Jones is now one of the top favorite rides of our big kids!)

It's tradition to try to pull the sword from the stone :)

Natalya and Branson trying to act scared before going on Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. They weren't. They LOVED it.

I got to take Branson on the Matterhorn. We couldn't stop laughing! I would laugh, and that would make Branson laugh, then it made me laugh harder, and on and on. I'm not even sure why we were laughing!

Tomorrow Land's Innoventions exhibit was featuring Iron Man! They called it, "Iron Man Tech Presented by Stark Industries". It was seriously cool. We got to see the "Hall of Honor" where all the Iron Man suits and prototypes were on display.

Branson liked this suit (red, on the right) because it had "authentic battle damage". Here he is pretending to be injured.

DAY 2

The kids were anxious for another Disney day! We decided to start at Disney's California Adventure. Irelynn couldn't wait to go on the Little Mermaid ride and Branson wanted to try the Tower of Terror for the first time.

Pretending to be zombies before the park opened. Kids have endless energy, right?!

Annika was disappointed to find the King Arthur Carrousel was closed at Disneyland. So we were sure to go on King Triton's carrousel instead.

Branson not only loved the Tower of Terror, but his new all-time favorite Disney ride is California Screamin! He went on it 3 times in a row!! I didn't know we had such a thrill seeker on our hands.

I wished I had a stroller to cat nap in.

Back at Disneyland...

I'm not sure why we've never taken our kids to Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer's Island. It was surely one of the highlights of our trip!

I have fond memories of running all over Tom Sawyer's Island when I was little. I especially loved the barrel bridge. It was fun reliving my childhood with my own kids.

Brian and I were laughing when we found our kids pretending to lounge on their newly discovered pirate's treasure.

Then Annika wanted in on some of that action...

Haha!! What a crack up!

The best part of Tom Sawyer's Island was having room to run free. They loved exploring the network of caves, playing hide-and-seek, and racing across the bridges. It was a perfect break from the crowds and lines in the rest of the park.

Annika was a little sad to leave. But not that sad. Once she heard we were going to the Winnie the Pooh ride next, she said, "OK!". She always gets to do the Winnie the Pooh ride 2 or 3 times when one of us takes the big kids on Splash Mountain!