Summer Vacation Week 2 (part 3)

A 10pm donation from an anonymous person = blog post. Thanks for keeping us going.

Yep - back to the summer vacation pictures. Anybody bored of these yet? This is why it's taken me so long to post...a LOT of pictures to go through. Definitely worth posting...just very time consuming.

So we pick up our vacation at Disneyland. We just finished meeting Rapunzel and Flynn...just as the sun was finally coming out.

The rest of the day was spent going from ride to ride and meeting as many princesses as possible!

Thumbs up and curls...a good thing.

So we had heard of this relatively new attraction called the Princess Fantasy Faire. As a father, I had my doubts but this was pretty cool. If I was a little girl, I would have been in heaven...and it was obvious my girls were.

So Aunt Christin took another one for the team and stood in line to meet the princesses while we went into the theater to see what was going on. It quickly became apparent this was a good stop. Initially, the girls were a little unsure.

But then the princess parade began.

...and I think the girls liked it.

Total disbelief.

Then the princesses came out to interact with the kids. Again, the girls got a little shy.

So after the theater experience, we joined Christin back in line. This picture was strategic because I wanted to capture the d-bag that was standing behind us. ...and I think he knew what I was doing. Christin had a little run-in while holding our spot.

Time to meet some more princesses! Ariel again..

Belle.

Tiana from the Frog Princess.

Second half of the day, we went over to Disney California Adventure Park (I think that's what it's called). It has more of a grown-up theme if you haven't been there. Christin had set up a lunch with the princesses which turned out to be another top notch experience. We got this great shot of Lisa and I right before we went in to eat.

The girls anxiously waiting for another parade of princesses.

Let the parade begin!! And...guess who was in the booth right next to us? The triplets we met earlier in the day!

Snow White.

Not sure which princess this is....

Cinderella. Notice how Alyssa crown had just fallen over her eyes.

Cinderella thought it was funny.

Big hugs from everyone.

Sleeping Beauty.

Belle made the trip with us too.

My cousin who lives nearby came out and we spent most of the afternoon hanging out with him and his family.

I think all of the shyness had disappeared until we met Mr. Incredible. Suddenly the girls wouldn't go near him. Kind of funny to see them hiding behind Lisa.

Thanks Walt for having an amazing vision.

As it was getting later, we toured Sleeping Beauty's castle, had dinner, took on a few more rides and then positioned ourselves for the fireworks.

Awesome...

So the fireworks go off at 9:30 (I think). The girls are usually in bed between 8 and 8:30 every night so we knew we were already pushing our luck but it was pretty much the best day ever so we went all out. After the fireworks were over, there was a massive stampede towards the parking garage but Christin knew better. She suggested we wait it out and head back IN toward the rides and have a little more fun before heading out. She was right! While we knew the girls were tired, they still had their Disney game face on!

I'm thinking everybody had a good day.

To finish up the story, we stood in line for about 20 minutes for Peter Pan and then started to head back toward the tram to get us to the garage. I think the girls were asleep within a minute of getting off the ride. We had to turn in our strollers which meant Lisa and I had to carry the girls all the way back. Problem was that we had promised the girls on the way out that they could choose one thing at the store. Nothing we could do would wake them up! So I ended up carrying both girls while Lisa picked something out. I finally gave up holding them and sat down on the ground outside the store. Both girls were laying on the concrete with their heads in my lap...dead asleep. We made it back home, got the girls in bed, and they never moved a muscle.

I mentioned in an earlier post how each day the girls got to their breaking point and would have a meltdown. This was the only day (and by far the longest) that never happened. The girls were in heaven ALL day long! It was truly a phenomenal day and really made me a believer in the magic of Disney.