Disneyland Day One continued

Where was I? :) Now that we had successfully met the characters, it was time to head to the park! I had a brief thought of taking Henry back to the hotel for a nap but that thought vanished as soon as I saw the excitement on Henry's face! We thought the best way to go in to the park would be to ride the Monorail in. We made the short walk from the Disneyland Hotel to the Monorail station in Downtown Disney. Once we pointed out the Monorail to Henry, he got so excited to ride it! We tried to sit in the front but they weren't seating in the front that day. So we sat in the second car. 

Me and Lizzie.

 Nana and Em. 

 James and Henry. 

 I think right here, James is telling Henry, we're going to Disneyland! :) 

 Once in the park, we had to decide what to do. I hadn't planned on doing anything big the first day. I felt like meeting the characters and seeing some shows was best for the fist day. But the park didn't seem too crowded so we decided to go ahead and do just a few rides. But which ones? What do we take Henry on first? We had been prepping Henry for Disneyland by showing him Youtube videos of rides and he seemed to really like Pirates of the Caribbean. I was a bit nervous taking him on it because the ride has two fairly big drops right at the beginning. But my mom, who has taken little ones to Disneyland many times, gave me some tips and reassured me that my little dare devil wold love it. So we headed to Pirates!

Henry's first ride! 

 First experience waiting in line. Luckily, this line moves pretty quick so he was ok. 

 Disneyland! 

 Inside Pirates. 

 Henry was just taking it all in :) 

 He was really enjoying the talking parrots :) 

 About to get on our boat. 

 Here we go! 

 I held Henry on my lap the whole time. He did great with the two big drops, didn't cry or anything! He seemed to really enjoy it :) 

Our second ride of the day, we opted for Winnie the Pooh :) Didn't get too many pics of this ride. It's pretty tame and Henry liked it too. 

 Waiting in line... what is that by Henry's foot? James thought for sure he knew what it was. I was not convinced. 

 The only good pic we got on this ride :) 

After this ride, Henry was looking really tired. He had gotten up at around 5:30 that day, had tons of excitement and missed his nap. So while walking to our next ride, Henry conked out in the stroller. Instead of walking all the way back to the hotel, I decided to split off from the group and go chill somewhere quiet and cool while the others went on some big rides. My mom and sisters were eager to check out the newly remodeled Star Tours and James wanted to check out Space Mountain, Ghost Galaxy. Henry and I went to go see Great Moments with Mr Lincoln. It was pretty quiet and nice and cool in there. He didn't sleep too long and when he got up, we decided to go check out California Adventure, the park next door, to see if we could catch Disney Jr. Live on stage. We got there just in time. We couldn't take any pictures inside :( but Henry really enjoyed seeing his favorite characters from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins and Handy Manny. His favorite part was the bubbles and the gold doubloons that fell from the ceiling during the show :) After the show ended we headed for the new Little Mermaid ride. They were just getting ready to shut the ride down for maintenance so we hurried on before they shut it down, thus no pictures of that ride either! We headed for Aladdin afterwards as we had heard the show was amazing (it was!). We waited in line right next to Don Cheadle! Good times :) The show was great but no pics allowed in there either :( It was getting close to dinnertime and we really wanted to check out the new Cars Land so we got a bite to eat at Flo's V8 Cafe. Good eats! I will give it to Disney on Cars Land, it looks just like the movie! It was waaaaay too crowded to ride anything so we just let Henry run around and we took some pics :) 

The moon right after they turned on the neon. 

The Cadillac mountain range. 

Stanley

Mater 

Erin, Henry, me, my mom and Emily in front of the cafe. (Nicole, James did not read your Disney blog about the dang Mickey balloon and he bought it when I wasn't around to warn him! That thing was sooooooo annoying! But Henry loved it :) 

My little family :) 

Lightning McQueen

After Cars Land, we wandered over to Bugs Land since it is usually not as crowded over there and there are little rides for Henry. We went on a bunch of the little rides but Henry's favorite was this ladybug ride that spins. It spun super fast and I HATED it!!! Thankfully it was short :) We were right by the Tower of Terror which auntie Zee Zee hates, so she took Henry while the rest of us went on the ride.

Spooky ;) 

Me and my baby, I think we are on that caterpillar ride? 

It was nearing closing time and we were all super tired so we trucked on back to hotel to catch a few z's before we got up super early for our next Disneyland day :)

Mickey pumpkin at night.

End of day one. 

The view from our room at night. 

Goodnight Disneyland, we'll see you bright and early tomorrow :) 

Henry was asleep the second his head hit the pillow :) 

Disneyland Day One

Disneyland, here we come! We got up extra early to make the trek to Disneyland. We had lots to do, starting with an 11:30 brunch reservation with Chef Goofy :) The drive over was pretty smooth and we arrived at the Disneyland hotel around 10:30. It took us a while to get checked in as it seemed everyone and their mother was checking in at the same time we were. That, and I took pictures of literally every little step we took ;) Giant warning, there are TONS of pictures! 

As soon as we took Henry out of the car, he was off and running! He wanted to explore everything! There was a fountain, statues of characters, plants, chairs, tables, tons of people... etc. Poor thing didn't know which way to go! Eventually he settled on getting up close and personal with a special friend, Mickey Mouse! 

Henry's first encounter with Mickey. 

 Grabbing Mickey's nose.

 Now entering the Disneyland hotel! 

 Hmmm, where should I go first? 

 There were some lovely teacup chairs in the lobby. Henry sat in just about all of them! For about two seconds each. 

 Then he found a TV playing some old school Chip and Dale cartoons. He LOVED it! 

 James was busy checking in while Henry did all his exploring of the lobby. I was prepared to check our bags with the bell desk since check-in wasn't until 4:00 and we were way early. Much to our surprise, the suite was ready for us! Sweet :) We were on the TOP floor of the Frontier tower! The TOP floor!!! That is 14 stories up people! (Well technically, 13 floors up but they didn't have a 13th floor, weird) Anyway, what is the first thing you do when you get to your room on the top floor of the hotel?? You go look at the view!!! And we had a balcony too! Score! I was way nervous to let Henry out there at all but of course, he HAD to get a good look.

Do NOT let go of his hand!! 

 Jeez that is high! 

 Our view down to the amazing pool, complete with water slides!! 

 Can you see that?!? It's Space Mountain over to the right and the Matterhorn to the left! Whoo-hoo!!! :) 

 Who has two thumbs and is super excited to be in Disneyland? That girl! 

 My absolute favorite part of the room, the head board above the beds had Sleeping Beauty castle and at the touch of a button, played music and had fireworks!! Henry must have pressed that button a hundred times while we were there :) 

 Watching the fireworks on the headboard :) 

After we got settled in the room, unpacked a few things and slathered on some sunscreen, it was time for our first stop, Goofy's Kitchen! I was a bit afraid of how Henry would react to seeing his favorite characters so BIG and up close. So I decided that this might be a nice way to ease him into it. Let me tell you, if you are going to Disneyland with little ones, Goofy's Kitchen is a MUST. Yes it is pricey but the food was REALLY good (not that I got to sit and eat much!) and the characters come right to your table, no waiting in lines! Score! And we went for brunch, which is a little less money and I think, better food! When we first walked in, there were not many people waiting, which was great! We got to go right over and meet Goofy! Henry was a little hesitant at first and did NOT want to stand next to Goofy for our picture, which I anticipated and was fine with. As time went on and more characters came up to him, he got MUCH better :) Yay! 

 My little family :) 

 My big family plus one Goofy extra ;) 

Once we got some food, the characters started coming by. Luckily, the first one to come by wasn't scary at all! It was Princess Jasmine :) 

Henry and Jasmine 

 Next up, Dale. Henry is still a bit wary but at least he wasn't pulling away anymore! 

 We just couldn't get him to look away from the characters to take a picture! 

 And now, Chip!

 Getting more comfortable and grabbing his nose! 

 Rafiki and Henry.  

Henry is all chilled out now :)

 Goofy came back for round two, and this time Henry gave Goofy five! 

 And knuckles! :) So cute! 

 Almost looking at the camera! 

 Honk, honk! 

 Let me check out your teeth Goofy! 

 Pluto's turn! 

 Grabbing the nose ;) 

 Pluto is sniffing Henry...

 Henry giggled the whole time! 

 This was my favorite part! As thought Pluto knew what a hard time we were having getting Henry to eat with so much excitement, he decided to let and hand, literally! Pluto picked up a fork, stabbed a chicken nugget and fed it to Henry! And much to everyone's amazement, Henry ate it!!! How cute is that?!? 

 If only Pluto could come to my house every day! 

 Getting a kiss from Pluto. 

 And a high five! 

 Henry had just about finished with the whole sitting thing, so we let him down and who strolls by for a hug? Baloo! Yay! He hugged a character! We did it :) 

 High five! 

 And this is the closest we got to looking at the camera and smiling :) 

Whew! What a terrific start to our trip! A great meal, TONS on characters and now Henry is totally cool with all the characters! Yippee!!! Next up, actually going to Disneyland!!! :)