Disneyland in the Fall

We went to Disneyland again a few weeks ago.  Ryan's brother and his family go this time every year, so we decided to tag along.  We were surprised that Disneyland already had all the fall decorations out and the Halloween rides going.  I think they've started doing it earlier to get more people to come in those first few weeks of September when no one usually visits.  The park was still pretty empty though, and we got to go on lots of rides with not a lot of waiting.  Every time we've been to Disneyland as a family the park hasn't been too busy.  I think we've gotten to be a little spoiled and feel like anything over 30 minutes is a long wait.  We are really getting to be good at this whole Disneyland with kids thing - at least with our kids.  We had little to no break downs the whole time, and both kids seemed to have a blast, and I don't think Ryan or I got too grumpy either.  Success!!

Now on to the pictures.  There's a lot.  Here's a picture of Paige reading books in the car.  Having a minivan makes our road trips a whole lot easier.  Being able to climb back and entertain the kids, makes a big difference.

Lucas is almost as excited about the pools at our hotels than he is about the places we're visiting.  We went for a swim in the pool almost every night. 

Here we are on the bus to Disneyland our first day there.  They both liked riding without a car seat.  Paige liked being able to look out the window.

The first day we spent in California Adventures.  We especially love Cars Land and Mater!

Here's Dash, Annabel, and Lucas riding Luigi's Flying Tires.  These three had a fun time riding all the rides together.

We didn't let Lucas ride Tower of Terror in May because... it's Tower of Terror and we're not terrible parents.  But Lucas has begged and begged us over the last few months to let him ride it next time we go to Disneyland, so we decided to let him go.  You can see him at the back clinging on to Ryan for dear life.

He didn't scream bloody murder the entire time like I thought he would, but he had a death grip on Ryan and was shaking and said he never wanted to ride it again.  Fine by me.  He hasn't had any nightmares about it, which is what I was most worried about, so that's good.  You can see Mike and Annabel next to them.  Annabel loves this ride, which I think is hilarious!  

I tried to get a picture of us on the Monsters Inc ride.  I'm not very good at taking pictures of myself, and it was a little too dark.  Oh well.

Here's Lucas trying on hats in the gift shop.  There's lot of fun Cars stuff to look at.

The next day we spent the whole day in Disneyland.  Here's our family in front of a big pumpkin Mickey.  The fall decorations were fun.

Saying hi to Mickey.  (We got a better picture later)

Here's Ryan, Lucas, and Dash in line for the Matterhorn.  Lucas wasn't tall enough for the Matterhorn in May so he was pretty excited to get to ride it this time.

Lucas's two favorite rides are the Buzz Lightyear Ride, and Splash Mountain.

Lucas put his hands up and screamed when we went down the hills on Splash Mountain.  He's starting to get really into it.

We bought an autograph book at the Disney Store, so this time around we took time to get autographs and pictures with the characters.  Tigger was pretty funny.  Here's all the cousins in one picture.

Lucas liked Pooh too.  He got hugs from a lot of the characters.  He was very into the whole character thing.

The last day we spent the first little bit in the park getting autographs.  We must have gotten there at just the right time because we were first in line for 3 different characters, and waiting just a few minutes for the rest.  We were first in line for Mickey...

And Pluto...

We caught Donald Duck coming out onto Main Street and he held hands with me and Lucas while we walked to where he was supposed to stand for autographs.

We got to see Goofy...

 And last we saw Minnie.

 Lucas wasn't super impressed by Minnie, but Paige is wearing a shirt that has Minnie on it so we wanted to get a picture.

After saying hi to all the characters, we went to ride more rides.  Paige took a nap every morning around 10 or 11.  All we had to do to get her to go to sleep, was have Ryan hold her.  I don't know what it is about daddy, but Paige falls asleep in no time when her daddy is holding her.

 Lucas loves the Iron Man Exhibit so we went to see that for a bit.

 Then we stopped for lunch at our favorite lunch spot.  We packed a lunch everyday.  I make a pretty mean packed lunch, so we had plenty of yummy food the whole time.  This is our favorite spot to eat because there are tables, it's in the shade, and it's quiet, peaceful, and pretty.  It's over by the It's a Small World ride and there's almost never anyone there.  There's one of those food carts that sells turkey legs over there, and I think I might have to get one next time.  I've always wanted to try a turkey leg!

 There's a pond around the little eating area, and there's ducks in the pond.  The kids always have fun throwing their crusts to the ducks.  Paige was especially mesmerized.

 Speaking of food, we got Dole Pineapple whips twice while we were there.  They are delicious!

 Paige was a huge fan!

 Paige liked playing with her cousins almost as much as Lucas did.  She and Annabel were pretty cute together.

 Another ride that Lucas was too small for last time was the Grizzly River Run.  He rode it with me once, and with Ryan twice.  The last time they got pretty wet.

 After a shirt change for Lucas, we hopped on the carousel.  Both Paige and Lucas loved this one.

 Last we rode the Ferris wheel.  We've never ridden the Ferris wheel before because the line is always super long, and who wants to wait 30 minutes to ride a Ferris wheel when there are so many other cool rides to ride.  This time there was a 5 minute wait so we decided to go for it.  It was fun and we stopped and had a little snack on the ride.

 We always have a really fun time at Disneyland, but I think Lucas is really starting to get old enough to appreciate it.  We love spending time as a family!