The Happiest Place on Earth!

While we were in California, we decided to take a trip to the “Happiest Place on Earth”, Disneyland. Kimball visited Disneyland for the first time when she was 6 months old, so needless to say, she wouldn’t remember much. She stayed in her stroller most of the time. Now that she is 2 1/2, she understands so much more and loves so many Disney things. I kept telling her where we were going and who we would see and she would get so excited every time I mentioned Disneyland.

Eating a big breakfast & healthy snack before we headed out! She is going to need every ounce of energy to make it through the day :)

Kimball took a nap on the way up there which was only 45 minutes long and at 9:30 in the morning (usually she naps between 1 & 2).

Entering the park. It was pretty busy, so we snapped what pictures we could.

 

Making our way down Main Street. The Christmas tree & all the decorations were already up, which made everything so much better :)

  

Waiting in line for the carousel. Kimball was scoping out what color horse she wanted to go on. She decided that she wanted the purple horse, so I was praying that one would be available come our turn to get on. The day started out with me, Kimball, Grandma, Aunt Lindsay & Uncle Sam!

 

Grandpa joined us after lunch and took over the responsibility of walking (with) Kimball :) I was a little embarrassed about getting one of these, but it comes in handy when you have a toddler who likes to be independent :)

Waiting in line for Autopia!

Waiting for our car to pull up.

Clearly, I couldn’t let Kimball drive since she can’t even see over the bar.

 

We caught the Christmas parade and Kimball was LOVING it. She knew most of the characters and would do the gasp that she does when she gets overly excited!

  

Small World. Kimball was taking everything in. I have a ton of videos, so I will post them at a later time.

We went to Toon Town and visited Goofy, Minnie & Mickey’s house. Minnie was “sleeping”, so we just walked by her house and waved. Kimball was excited to give the characters hugs & high fives, but she didn’t want to take a picture with them. If you ask her what she did at Disneyland, the first thing she will say is, “give Goofy hug & mickey hug!”.

Sitting on Pluto’s bed in Mickey’s house.

They took small groups in to see Mickey and we were at the end of our group, so we got a few minutes with him. Kimball was pretty excited. He even autographed Kimball’s princess notebook. It was Mickey’s 83rd birthday, I think, so we wished him a happy birthday. He doesn’t look that old, does he? I need to get his beauty secrets :)

 

We had dinner and then my parents had to take off for a business party. So we hit a couple more attractions after they left. Kimball started getting clingy (tired) after dinner, so she wanted me to hold her. We hopped in line at the Haunted Mansion, which was a 30 minute wait. That was a long time to hold a 35 pound toddler. Lindsay and Sam would try to hold her to give me a break, but she just wanted mommy, until Lindsay offered her phone to play with. Suddenly, she became Lindsay’s best friend. Thanks for the break Lindsay & Sam! The theme was the "Nightmare Before Christmas”, so it wasn’t too scary. Kimball was so exhausted that she was falling asleep half way through.

We put her in the stroller & within minutes, she was OUT! We walked on over to the Tiki Room where they have birds singing & talking and thunder sounds. Sam was holding her and Kimball did not flinch during any of it.

   

My original plan was to stay for the fireworks show at 8:45, so Kimball could see them, but we decided to leave, since Kimball was not moving and waking up for anything. One last picture of her in front of the Christmas tree before we left the park.

I bought her a souvenir hat with her name embroidered on it, since I will never be able to find a souvenir with her name on it already. It was such a great day and Kimball was quite the trooper the whole day, she just took everything in and LOVED it all! There is something magical about watching the Disneyland adventure through a child’s eyes. She didn’t fuss once even though she was so exhausted. The only thing that would have made it better, is if Kevin were there with us. Thanks grandma, grandpa, aunt Lindsay & Uncle Sam for going with us and helping me out with Kimball.