Disney Trip Day 2

Our second day was spent at Disneyland.  We used out Extra Magic Morning Hour this day to get into the park one hour before it opened!  BEST THING EVER!  We were able to ride on all the rides in Fantasy land before they got crowded.  Here are some of the highlights from the day...

 The famous picture in front of Disneyland!  Because we were there early, we don't have a million people in our picture with us!

 Lily was very excited whens he saw Sleeping Beauty's castle!  I think she wanted to move in!

 TJ rode with Logan, who is too short to be seen in the photo, on the Dumbo ride

 My Monkey's on the Casey Jr. Train from Dumbo.  Lily thought this train was a lot of fun.

 We got to meet Wendy from Peter Pan.  Logan wasn't so sure about the "human" characters.  He did however, love the "animated" characters. 

 We rode the Buzz Lightyear ride and then looked around the gift store.  Lily found this Jessy hat to try on.  I have to say that we all thought the Toy Story Mania ride at California Adventure was WAY better than the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland. 

 We knew that Rapunzel was coming out at 11am.  We made sure we were there 20 minutes before 11am and we still had to wait 30 minutes after she came to meet her and Flynn.  It was the longest line we stood in, but it was worth it to see Lily meet some of her favorite characters.  Flynn told Lily to tell Merida that it wasn't cold outside.  When she met Merida and told her, she laughed and said Flynn is always teasing her!

 We went over to Critter Country to ride Winnie the Pooh ride and meet the characters.  Because we were there early, we got to ride the ride two time times without getting off the ride.  Later that day we walked past the line and it was a 40 minute wait.  Pooh was Logan's favorite ride we went on.  He still asks to ride it.  He also LOVED meeting Tigger and Pooh. 

 While we were at Disney they were celebrating Mardi Gras.  In New Orleans square, they had special performances by Tiana, Prince Naveen, and Louis.  After they would greet people and we were able to meet Tiana.  During the celebration we also got to see some Jazz performers and have lunch at Cafe New Orleans, which was really good!

We got to meet Jasmine and the Genie

 While we waited for the Disney Parade we had some yummy treats! 

 During the parade, Turk came up and gave Lily a hi-5!   Lily thought that was pretty cool!  We really enjoyed the parade and all the characters! 

We had a really good time at Disneyland.  The kids were both so excited the whole time we were there and talked like crazy!  This trip was really good for Logan.  Before we left for Disney, he would talk a little, but while we were there, he started to talk like crazy!

Disney Trip Day 1

We were so lucky to get to go to Disneyland and California Adventure for a family vacation!  We left Denver Thursday morning.  When we got to California, we went to the hotel and checked in and then headed to Downtown Disney to walk around.  We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and enjoyed walking around.  We played at the Lego store for a while and watched a bird show.  Then we headed back to the hotel and hung out and got ready for our first big day at Disney.  I had pictures, but the memory card had problems. 

Before we left for Disneyland, I had a friend help me make these cute shirts for the kids to wear.  I think they turned out super cute!

 I also made cards to have the characters autograph.  We got some great comments from the characters about the cards!  These are just a few of the ones I made.

 Onto day one of Disney.  We started our trip at California Adventure.  We had a great time!  We were going to start our day in Carsland riding the Radiator Springs Racers, but the ride was down.  So we decided to go over and ride Toy story Mania, but it was down as well.  So we ended up riding the Mickey Mouse Fun wheel.  We ended up riding on a swinging cart.  BAD IDEA!  Lily and Logan were both a little a lot scared!  After the Fun wheel, we decided to go on the Carousel to help the kids get excited about rides again.  We also went on the Ariel ride and met Donald Duck before we headed off to our Princess lunch.  We had reservations at Ariel's Grotto for lunch. This was Lily's favorite part of the whole trip!  She couldn't wait to put her Merida dress on and meet some of the Princesses.  The lunch was well worth the cost!  Lily was in heaven meeting all her favorite princesses! 

 Meeting Ariel

 Belle

 Cinderella

 Aurora

 And Snow White

A few other fun highlights from day one...

We had a great time in Carsland and we even got to meet Mater and McQueen!  Logan was in pure heaven!  Every morning after he saw Carsland, he woke up and immediately started requesting to see Carsland! 

 Logan was also completely smitten by Woody, Buzz and Jessy!  Lily and Logan both enjoyed meeting all the characters!  It was pure joy watching them get so excited and interact with the characters we love so much!  Woody was by far the best character!  He was so much fun and made the kids laugh so hard! 

 While we were there, they were celebrating Chinese New Year, the year of the Snake.  Because of the celebration, Mulan did a special presentation with Mushu.  We were able to see the show and Lily got a hug from Mulan, but we were unable to get her autograph or a picture with her.

We got to meet Doug from the movie UP.  Logan loved Doug! 

 Lily got to be part of a couple of the street shows we saw.  She got to dance with the Five and Dime singer.  I have a video that I will try to get up soon! 

 The kids both loved meeting Jake!

 And Handy Manny

 Disney did a great job at wearing the kids out!  Many times while waiting for something or riding in the stroller, the kids would fall asleep. 

 The Pixar Parade was fun!  The kids had so much fun waving to all the characters.  They had smiles on their faces the whole time!

 Carsland looks amazing all aglow in lights! 

To end day one, we stayed to watch World of Color.  They do a show over the water.  Both the kids slept through the show but TJ and I enjoyed it!  We had a great first day! 

Tamales!

Back in January, we were invited by our friends to come celebrate the Three Wise men.  In Mexico they celebrate the Three Wise men on January 6th.  One of the traditions is a special bread that has a little figure of baby Jesus inside.  The person that has the baby Jesus in their piece has to make tamales by February 2nd for everyone.  Lily's piece had the baby Jesus in it so we had to provide tamales.  I mentioned this to another friend, also from Mexico, and she volunteered to help me make tamales.  It was an ALL DAY PROCESS!  It was well worth the end result!  They were delicious! 

 I cooked the meet all night so it would be ready by 9am when my friend Eugenia came.  Then the real fun began! 

 Aleida also came over and helped us!  It was her first time making tamales as well!

 My life saver!  Eugenia is so kind and so talented!  She also made us some amazing Mexican rice to go with our tamales for dinner!

 Eugenia let me use the tortilla press to cheat a little!  I think we would have been there a lot longer if she hadn't had me cheat! 

 After we made 16 dozen tamales, we were ready to steam them!  It takes two hours from the time the water starts to boil to steam the tamales. 

 Since we had so many, we needed an industrial sized pot to steam them in.  So we set up a camp stove in the garage and let them cook on that.  

 After a hard days work, we enjoyed some delicious tamales!  The next day we took them to Valeria's birthday party to share with all the people that were at the Three Wise men celebration.  It was a great experience!  Thank you Eugenia for helping me make these!