"Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world." --Walt Disney

We got to spend three days at Disneyland/California Adventure, and we had a wonderful time! It was a total night and day difference for Sofia: instead of screaming and crying, most of the time, she was fascinated by characters and loved the music. I was really glad that I had been to Universal Studios first so that I could truly appreciate how much better Disneyland was for our kids.

Buzz Lightyear was the first character we met, and I was really excited for Ryan to meet him, since he is one of Ryan's current favorites (the only thing better would have been meeting Emperor Zurg!). However, he was still intimidated after the Simpsons experience, so it took all the courage that he could summon to walk up to him, touch his leg briefly, and then run.

Sofia loved meeting characters. Here we are meeting Alice. She also loved the Queen of Hearts, grabbing her white gloves and trying to suck her fingers.

Here is Sofia as Minnie!
Sofia also loved Mickey . . . she kept grabbing his nose!

We met Pooh and all his friends. Ryan by this time was completely comfortable with the characters again and gave them all lots of hugs.



The second day, Nate's dad finally joined us, as did his grandparents. Grandpa Ted was in a wheelchair, and Ryan was absolutely insistent that he be the one to push, even though he could see over or around him. :D Ah, my little independent helper!

Some characters we met that morning included Pluto and Cruella de Vil. She was Nate's favorite because she sneered so well and asked if the autograph book was for "it," looking at Ryan. Speaking of the autograph book, I actually made it before we went to California. We had all the characters we met sign it, and then when we got home, I turned it into a mini scrapbook, complete with pictures of each of the characters and other favorite Disneyland picture. It was the first scrapbook I was able to do so quickly.


Captain Jack was at the Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer's Island. He was amazing; he had all the mannerisms from the movie, and he was quick on his feet with very clever responses to everything that people said.

At California Adventure, they have King Triton's Carousel. They often pick a girl or boy to be the prince or princess for the ride. Ryan was chosen once to be "Prince Ryan" (even though he kept calling himself "princess"), so he got to say it was time to start the ride and wear a gold paper crown.

We also watched the Pixar Play Parade, which had floats with characters from every Pixar movie. We all enjoyed it, but Ryan was in seventh heaven because those are his favorite movies. Plus he loved that the characters would spray water at the crowds and bubbles blew over us. It was great fun.



Because Nate has a convention in LA at the end of July and we could put our admission tickets toward an annual pass that would cost less than a day's admission, we now have annual passes so that I can take the kids while Nate's at his convention.

Ryan's already started planning our next trip: flying boats of Peter Pan, the Main Street Electrical Parade (so he can see Pete's Dragon, one of his other favorites), Dumbo, the rockets, Buzz, Pirates of the Carribean, Tarzan's Treehouse, the train with the dinosaurs, Autopia, the Playhouse Disney puppet show (he loved dancing with Mickey, Pooh, Handy Manny, and the Little Einsteins), the Monsters Inc. ride.