Disneyland 2008

So as many of you probably know, we are kind of Disneyland fanatics. We hold annual passes and go a few times a year. We just got back and had such a great trip. We spent a day with Marc's sister Meggin on our way there, who lives halfway to Anaheim. Meg and I went outlet shopping while our Marc(k)'s golfed. It was definitely a fun day! We spent the night and woke up very early to drive to the park. We checked into the Disneyland hotel and headed into the park. This is our first picture of the trip...right off of the monorail, heading to Fantasyland. What a GORGEOUS sunny day it was!

Our very first ride of the trip was on Dumbo... or as Montana would soon call it, the "ephants" (elephants). You'd think Dumbo would be easier to say...but hey, what can we say? Our kid likes to challenge herself! :) Waiting in line, then a pic with mommy and Tana in our "ephant" and then all three of us getting ready for lift off.

Just as we expected, the carousel is still her favorite ride. She called it the "hawsey's" (horsey's). She would scream bloody murder everytime it came to a stop and we started unlatching her belt.

Montana pulling the sword from the stone...and driving Mr. Toad's car!

This next picture takes a little bit of explaining. In Fantasyland there are a bunch of original rides like Snow White, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, etc. They are very cute rides, but a lot of them have some very dark and scary moments. I think at the time this particular picture was taken, we were riding our first one like this, Pinocchio. It was dark and I couldn't see Montana's reaction, so I decided to snap a picture to see if she liked it. This is what we found...

Happiest place on earth??? She looks terrified! :) She warmed up to it.

Waiting to ride one of our favorites, Pirates of the Caribbean.

We knew she would love the Winnie the Pooh ride, because she loves to watch My Friends Tigger and Pooh on Playhouse Disney. Of course, she did love it. And again at the finish of the ride, the screaming commenced for having to get off. Here are some pictures of her and Pooh's honey.

These pictures were just too cute not to share. This was waiting in line for Haunted Mansion, which she did surprisingly well on by the way.

Princess Mommy and Fairy Tana Belle...

I really believe this was Montana's true fairy godmother...within minutes of her visit, Montana konked out for a much needed nap.

Montana and mommy on Main Street U.S.A.

Us with Pluto... and us in front of the train station at the front gates...

When we were in Downtown Disney, we taught Tana how to throw her money away...er, make wishes with pennies. :) She loved it! After that, everytime we saw a fountain, she wanted pennies to throw in.

Montana in front of the star at the Disneyland hotel...she then chased Goofy all around the hotel lobby saying "Goopy, goopy". I've never seen her run so fast. We finally caught up to him and got a picture. Montana likes the characters better from afar.

Here is the view from our hotel room...California Adventure, and then half of Downtown Disney and all of that big palm tree....hmmm, that palm tree wasn't in the brochure... :)jk

Some of the beautiful scenery at our hotel...

We ate dinner at a wonderful sushi restaurant in the Paradise Pier Hotel called Yamabuki. We for sure are sushi lovers and wanted to find a place to enjoy our favorite food in the world (sushi) at our favorite place in the world, (Disneyland). We reccommend it...it was wonderful. It doesn't get the business it should because of the location, but its awesome. Get the crunchy roll and the maguro (but if you get maguro, be careful if you don't like wasabi, that's how they paste it on the rice). Then we came back to the hotel, and sat in the spa and swam in the Neverland Pool. Here's Tana and Daddy enjoying the 85 degree water...

It was a perfect day...it would have been nice if everyday was as perfect weather as Wednesday.

Thursday morning we woke up and went early to the park to get into Minnie's Character Breakfast. We love the buffet style food and of course seeing all the characters. Her first character was Dale...who she was afraid of, and had no idea who he was.

My friends Tigger and Pooh is one of her favorite Disney Channel shows. She even says "tigger"...yet, this was her reaction upon meeting the "stripedy bouncy one"...

Brer Fox tried two different times to talk to Montana. She wasn't feelin' it.

Not such a "Zippidee Do Dah" time for Tana.

Gepetto just stood back and got the hint, waved and walked away. :)

Her Fairy godmother came back. She loves Fairy godmother. They played a fun game of "Get Your Nose".

She truly is Tana's Fairy godmother...Tana ate so well at breakfast... and not just pancakes and whipped cream. But eggs, and bacon, and hash browns and fruit. Big girl!

Minnie was the ONLY masked character that Montana would talk to. In fact, she honked her nose and gave her kisses. (Minnie kissed Daddy too...hmmm??) She loves Minnie.

All in all it was a great breakfast...AND Montana got a free balloon.

I met a friend through blogging, Summer. She has a daughter named Montana as well and is LDS, so we started emailing almost a year ago. She lives in So Cal, about 20 min from Disneyland so we made plans to meet up for a few hours. We have so much in common, which we could tell from our crazy emails back and forth, but in person I just realized how awesome she is. Wish we lived closer, but definitely I'm glad I've made friends with her. This is a picture of us and our Tana's.

She's totally a trooper bearing the rainy weather with a two year old and 5 months pregnant. Thank you for sitting with Montana while we rode Space Mountain together. That was really fun!

After hanging out with Summer and Tana for a few hours, we went over to California Adventure, and Tana and I stood in the rain while waiting for Playhouse Disney Live on Stage and Daddy rode Soarin' Over California. It was definitely worth the wait!!!! We only got one picture and no video of Montana, which I totally regret, because it was the highlight of Disneyland. The show was all puppets of her four favorite shows, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and Little Einsteins. I thought she was going to have a heart attack she was so excited. She called out all their names and danced when their songs came on. Marc and I looked at each other and both wanted to cry. It was seriously so fulfilling to see the joy through your child of a place like Disneyland. The whole trip was about Montana, and it was the best trip because of that reason. We were totally filled with joy because she was. She was mesmorized!

After the show, we went over and warmed up with soup and sandwiches at a little place on "Fisherman's Warf". Here's Tana and Daddy...definitely my record catch! (Montana was busy throwing yet another penny into the water...too busy to look up and smile)

After lunch we decided to take Montana back for a nap, to dry off and clean up from a messy lunch (Montana ate macaroni and cheese...by herself.) So we headed back to the hotel room, and at a perfect time because that was when it really poured down rain. We all napped for a little while and woke up a little depressed to see it still raining outside. We decided not to let it ruin our trip, went out and bought panchos and a new sweatshirt for Montana and headed back to Disneyland for the evening.

We rode the Pooh ride again...definitely a favorite!

And with that, we called it a night for Day #2!

The next morning we ate our favorite breakfast at the Carnation Cafe. I tried the Crossaint Benedict and it was fabulous. Marc of course had the Cinnamon French Toast. Yummy. Montana ate great that morning too. She loves breakfast. We realized that we hadn't gone to Toon Town yet, so we headed over there for the morning.

We stopped on our way to say hi to the White Rabbit. It was a pretty quick visit, he seemed rushed, like he was late for something really important...? :)

We went crazy with the picture taking in toon town...here's a bunch of pics from Montana's time there. She loved it!!

We spent some more time in California Adventure where Daddy rode California Screamin'.

Montana loved playing and dancing on the "Boardwalk".

We had a nice lunch at our favorite nice restaurant, The Blue Bayou. It's inside Pirates of the Caribbean, and its got amazing food. Our favorite is the Monte Cristo sandwich. It was so nice to meet up with one of Marc's agents, Tom and his beautiful family. We celebrated his son's 13th birthday and they treated us by paying for our meals, which they really didn't have to do! :) But it was so nice. They are great people and we are really grateful we got to spend some time with their family.

After our late lunch, we decided to call it an evening and get started on our drive down to San Diego to stay in Marc's Uncle Dee and Aunt Karen's beautiful Carlsbad home.

We stayed Friday night, and woke up Saturday to go to this amazing donut shoppe...Leucadia Donuts. Then we drove up 101 to Oceanside just to see all the shops. We then went to the Carlsbad outlets for a few hours and tried really hard not to spend more money! :) Then we went to the beach. It definitely was cold, so we just rolled up our pant legs to dance in the tide, but it was definitely worth it. Montana LOVED it! She called it the bath, and would say, "Coming...coming..." every time the tide would come in to "get our feet".

Beach pics and video...listen closely, she points to the ocean and calls it "bath".

We ate dinner at a GREAT authentic Mexican restaurant by the beach called Norte. Definitely worth the wait, thanks for the referral Rach! Wish you guys could have come to share in your favorite restaurant. I couldn't eat my whole tostada alone! :)

We left Sunday morning to drive home, and had a great memorial day relaxing with family here at home.

It was an amazing vacation, despite any weather set backs. We love our little family so much it was just such a great bonding experience. It couldn't have been more perfect. We can't wait to go back!

P.S. This may have been my longest post ever...by a long shot! :) Thanks for those who stuck along for the ride! :)