Disneyland

One early, rainy morning at seminary some friends and I decided that it was a perfect day to ditch school and go to Disneyland. We went to a friends house where his mom made us pancakes and called home to let the padres in on the plan. With our season passes this was an easy thing to negotiate, as long as we were back in time for softball practice. That was our only stipulation. Easy enough, so off we went. Of course, it wasn't rainy at the happiest place on earth and we spent the day going on the best rides over and over again. I'm pretty sure that was the last time I was at Disneyland, I was a senior in high school.

It's since been almost 10 years and finally I was going back to Disneyland. This time I felt like a little girl before Christmas. I was so excited to see Gabriella experience this wonderful world she knew little to nothing about. We don't watch a whole lot of Mickey Mouse around here, so I wasn't sure how she'd react to the Disney characters. But if I knew one thing, it was that she would love the princesses.

My mom, dad, and Bryn's cute family were all there with us when it opened and stayed until closing time. Gabs loved the roller coaster in Toon Town, the rockets and Peter Pan. Gwen had so much fun on the carousel and I could hear her squealing with delight on Dumbo.
We saw many characters out and about. First was Pluto, which she liked, but after him we couldn't get her to talk to Aladdin, Woody, Goofy, or Mickey. She really doesn't even know who they are. But there was one person I was sure she would love. That would be Ariel.

We waited for Ariel to show up in Triton's Garden. Worried that she might be scarred I asked her what she might want to ask Ariel when she saw her, just so she could make conversation with her idol and not get starstruck. When it was her turn she walked right up and asked "Where go Flounder?" After that she was golden-talking about turning three after her birthday, how old her sister was, her sisters name. She held Ariel's hand in her two hands the whole time. She would have stood there all day, but people were starting to shake their heads at this long conversation so we had to say goodbye. At that point, my day at Disneyland was perfect. The look in her eyes when she was talking to Ariel, the one and only Little Mermaid, with complete admiration made me the happiest mom ever. For me, Disneyland had been a total success and as far as I was concerned our business there was done.

We did stay however and enjoyed a few big rides, meeting up with friends and spending grandma and grandpa's Disney Dollars on, what else, Ariel goodies, and a Dumbo for Gwen Gwen.

It was everything I remembered it being at 17, but even more wonderful this time around with my little girls. Thanks mom and dad for letting me ditch and thanks for taking our family... I promise to let my children ditch school to go back to Disneyland one day.