We took Clara to Disneyland for her 4th birthday this year. We hadn't been in 2 1/2 years and I was dying to go. We took her when she was 17 months old and she was scared of everything. So I was so excited to take her on a trip that she would be able to enjoy. She knows all the movies and characters, so to see her recognize and get excited was beyond awesome! We bought annual passes so we can go back more this year. We were planning to go for 2 days and for $60 more we were able to upgrade to passes, so of course it was totally worth it!
The drive down was rough!! It is only about 2.5 hours to Disneyland from Bakersfield, but we went the back way on the I-14 bc we took the boys to stay with my parents. A big rig had tipped over across the freeway and we sat for 2 hours. It took 5 hours to get to there, and it was only because Mike being the map reader extraordinaire that he is, took a weird road through a neighborhood and got us out of the way of the big rig. Clara began crying to go home as we sat in traffic. It was so crazy!! We left our house at 5:30am and didn't arrive to Disneyland until almost 1pm! We pulled into the hotel parking lot and as we were getting unloaded Clara said "Awe I hear the mermaids". I was dying laughing bc she could hear housekeeping talking and she thought it was the mermaids.
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| Crossing the street at our hotel. |
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| Waiting to go in!! |
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| We are HERE!!!! |
Once we were in the park, we headed straight to City Hall to get her a birthday button. She was told "Happy Birthday Clara" at least hundred times. It was awesome!! And then we needed food ASAP bc we were starving from the long drive. We headed to straight over to Tomorrowland to grab some pizza at Pizza Port. We ate expensive, cold, terrible pizza but we didn't care because we were at Disneyland!!!
In Tomorrowland we rode Buzzlight Year (she cried and hated it again). She was excited to see the Star Wars show. She's obsessed with Darth Vadar. We grabbed Autotopia fastpasses and headed towards Fantasyland when I saw the Tinkerbell & Fairies Magical Nook. I ran towards the line with Clara and Mike was like "byeeeeee"! He was not about to stand in line for it haha! He took off back towards Tomorrowland while Clara and I waited to meet Tinkerbell. He met up with us when we were closer in the line. It was about a 40 minute wait.
Rosetta was adorable and asked Clara if her pigtails were her wings, and Clara went into this in depth conversation about how "Mommy wouldn't let me bring my wings, they are at home". It was so cute!! She loved Tinkerbell too! Then we ran into Peter Pan right outside the Magical Nook the next day. It was awesome!!!
Then we headed straight towards the the Mad Hatter to get Clara some ears and ride the Tea Cups. She was starting to get tired and a little cranky but the tea cups spun it out of her. She was a happy camper after that.
Already tired of mom making her pose for pictures, haha! Picking her hat was quite the ordeal.
Tea Cups were her favorite ride!!
Then we headed back to use our fastpasses and Autotopia was terrible. I remember it being easy to drive and super fun, but I was terrible at it.
Then we headed to the Fantasy Faire, that's new since we had been to Disneyland. It's to the side of the castle and you can stand in line and meet 3 princesses. It was Ariel, Aurora, & Cinderella. It was a 45 minute wait, and once again Mike ditched us haha. We had a lot of quality mommy and daughter time. It was SO worth the wait. She was so excited to meet all the princesses. Mike was off checking out penny squishing machines. He was on a mission to learn all about it bc we never knew there was a whole bunch of machines, and penny books to buy, and a map about them, and that they move them all around the park. It's pretty cool.
She was just in awe of all the princesses. She just stared at them blankly lol.
She was very particular about her autograph book and had to know where it was at all times.
She loved Cinderella, and was very disturbed that she didn't have on her dress, and that I wouldn't let her take it. Next time I promised she could wear it.
Mike met up with us as we were leaving the Fantasy Faire and as we were walking off we spotted Snow White walking with one of the character people. I FREAKED out and start running, and yelling "Snow White", like a crazy mom!! She stopped right in front of her wishing well and we were second in line to meet her. It was the most perfect timing. And seriously she was GORGEOUS!! And her sweet little voice was dead on! Clara was smitten with her, and told her that she was her favorite.
Then we headed over towards Small World to meet Princess Merida. She was beautiful!!! Clara was so excited to meet her bc she knows it's Jack's favorite movie.
My friend Ernie works at DCA and I haven't seen him in 7 years. He text me that he could meet at 5ish, so it was time for us to head over to California Adventure.
It was so great to see him. I have missed him so much all these years. He is a performer at DCA, so he was able sit with us during the parade and because they are his friends, they came right up to us. We got splashed a lot and Clara was LOVING it!!! The Pixar Parade is awesome!!
After that, Clara was starving, so we grabbed her a hot dog. Her favorite meal, so gross. She ate the whole thing! And then we decided to stay at DCA for a while and see Cars Land since we hadn't seen it before.
As we were coming around the corner, we see all these people running towards the Racers ride. We couldn't figure out what it was. Well, it had been broken down for a couple hours and it had just opened up and apparently it's usually a 90 minute wait. So we started running towards it too. We weaved all through the ride and were really close to the front when Clara had to pee so bad, she was about to burst. I was soooo bummed. So we had to get out of line and take her to pee. We never did get to ride it. Cars Land is so cool!!
Gotta have a yummy Mickey cookie, while Mommy eats her favorite meal of all time, veggie chili bowl. Daddy had beer, and Clam Chowder.
Then we headed back to Disneyland and caught the very end of the parade. Next time we go I really want to watch this parade!
Princess & the Frog float. Clara loves this movie.
She was passed out asleep in the stroller on the way to the hotel.
This picture makes me laugh so hard every time I see it!! It's just too funny!!
Our first day was a success and we were exhausted!!
On the second day we made sure to get up early and be there when the park was opening, since we had missed half the day yesterday. It was a bit chilly, which was so nice. We headed straight for Peter Pan, grandma's favorite ride. We had only rode Snow White's Scary Adventure in Fantasyland, the night before, which was a mistake haha. It scared her to death.
Every kid has to try to get the sword.
Then we all rode Dumbo together. I was so relieved we all fit!! She loved it, and we let her move us up and down.
Shooting with Daddy!!
Squishing Pennies
So we took her on Pirates of the Caribbean. I had showed her You Tube video's of it before we went to give her a heads up. She seemed very excited about it, but once we were in there, NOPE!! She started to get scared and we talked her into it. She did okay and then started to cry a little on the first drop, and then on the second drop she screamed a scream I had never heard before lol. She was so upset. Every tunnel that we would approach she would freak out. I felt really bad after.
But then as we were leaving we spotted Princess Tiana. She watches Princess in the Frog all the time and loves this movie. She was so excited ot meet her. She even spoke with a Creole accent. She was so neat and beautiful!
Traditional staircase photo.
Winnie the Pooh, her second favorite ride. She was getting grumpy at this point, and did not want to stand in line to meet Tigger and Pooh. I was bummed. There's only so much picture time I can force on a 4 year old.
We stood in line to meet Princess Rapunzel for a long time. Totally worth it!! She was so cute and her hair was amazing!!!
Then we went to eat at the Village Haus. Clara wanted a cheeseburger and of course ate one bite of the whole thing.
Gotta get a picture in front of Clarabelle's!
I made her pose in front of everything in Mickey's house. The girl was a pro by the second day.
We waited about 40 minutes to meet Mickey.
She loved meeting Mickey!!
As we were leaving the park, we spotted Minnie!! She had waited the whole time to see her. She was so happy!
We headed over to DCA for the remainder of our time there.
She rode Monster's Inc with Daddy
Bug's Land with Daddy
We saw Red as we were walking into Cars Land and we stopped for a picture. He honked the beginning of Happy Birthday to Clara. It was so adorable!! She was so excited.
She got to meet Lightening McQueen and he also said Happy Birthday to her.
Then we ran into Donald Duck. SOOOOO awesome!! I was looking everywhere for him and finally got lucky.
Here he is giving Clara a kiss for her birthday.
We saw Buzz Lightyear and ran over to get in line to meet him but he was leaving. Woody was on his way. So she was just as excited to meet him!
I had heard there was a Little Mermaid ride but I didn't know where it was. We happened to walk by and it said 5 minute wait, so we decided to get in line and actually walked right onto it. It was awesome!! It's my new favorite ride at DCA. It was beautiful, fun, and just awesome.
Then we saw Doug from Up. He was so cute!!
After that, we decided to head home bc we still had to go get the boys from my parents. But it was right at rush hour, so we headed to Downtown Disney to get something to eat and kill some time.
And of course some vanilla ice cream with sprinkles.
We basically stood in line to meet characters the entire time, which was so exciting for me. I truly enjoyed watching her get to meet everyone. It made me so happy to see her get excited. She was such a good girl, listened, never sassed us the entire time. The only sucky thing this trip was that I had to pump throughout the day. But the Child Care Center was great for me to be able to pump and charge my phone! I hope she is able to remember moments from this trip. She's a Disney expert now, and couldn't wait to tell brother all about it. I LOVE this girl more than anything. Best Disney trip I've ever had. Nothing better than going with your children. It was a completely different experience. Can't wait to go back!!
