Marathon Monday!

We arrived at the park gates before 7 am. Being a guest on Disney property gets you in to extra magic hours, an hour before the park opens exclusively for you and the other hotel guests. Too bad the park wasn’t opening till 9 am, making the extra magic hour starting at 8 AM. No worries though, Zack and Kayla quickly made fiends with some kids from the OC and the hour passed by quickly enough. We were the first through the gate at 8. And then like all smart disneyites we headed right for the finding Nemo sub adventure, a ride which boasts an up to 4 hour wait! We waited only 10 minutes (if you exclude the hour at the front gate.) Then we managed to ride Space Mountain, the materhorn, Astro orbiters, the Alice coaster and get in to Toontown Morning madness ALL BEFORE 930. We were off to a heck of a start. We met Mickey and his pals in toontown, rode the roger rabbit cabs and took a third ride on small world when we realized we were hungry (the early start was fueled only by the breakfast foods we had assembled in the room.) So we thought we would see if we could get in to Minnie Mouse’s breakfast at the plaza inn, we didn’t have a ressy, but you never know. Well it must have been our day…. Walked right in, sat down and a parade of characters came to greet us as we feasted on the best French toast with strawberries and whip cream. Dale of Chip and Dale gave me a new hair-do, the fairy Godmother sat with Kayla and Zack – telling Zack he looks just like Prince Philip (Auroras man) and telling Kayla she looks like all the princesses in one. Alice came over and had a lovely chat with Kayla and Zack, followed by the Mad Hatter, Tiger and Rafiki from the Lion King. It was fantastic, Kayla only has one page left in her autograph book!

I Now what more could a day bring, well just wait! Cousins Erika and Karly with Uncle Kevin came and met us at the park. Erika and Karly came with a princess Minnie hat for Kayla, and a glowing necklace for Zack. Erike quickly assumed mom duty riding the dumbos, autotopia and the teacups with Kayla who just adores her big cousin while Zack and Karly raced from ride to ride in an attempt to get front row. We managed to pack in Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Star Tours before we headed out to Catal for a lovely dinner in Downtown Disney. The kids got along so well and really enjoyed each other and it had been many years since I had a chance to hang out with Kev. I carried sweet Kayla home asleep one more night! We have one last night with hopes of her making it to see the fireworks….. perhaps a secret weapon NAPTIME is in order.

Sunday we took on Disney's newer park, California Adventure. It is filled with amusment rides and shows. You can see Zack and Kayla in the Hollywood Studios back lot, yes that is a back drop not a real city.


A lot of the fun was to be had on daring rides, such as California Screaming, which Zack rode twice, once with Mom, once with Dad as Princess Kayla is not quite 42 inches yet, and I don't think she would care for this one. You can see Zack and Alex in the FRONT car on the left, and you can see them upside down in the front car on the right. But the good news is that you certaibly get value out of California Adventure, I had my lunch twice!

We did see an amazing Aladdin show! I can't believe they do this show 4 times a day. And can't forget the High School Musical 2 mobile stage show! What time is it? It's our vacation.

You can see by the end of the day, the cherubs are getting tired, ready to grab a hand full of honey and dream about Heffalumps.

Wish me luck, we go to the early hours of extra magic tomorrow in hopes of getting on the finding Nemo subs.

Surfs up. Well not really…

Saturday we headed the advice of the travel books and took a day off from the park and took the opportunity to catch up with Southern California friends and relatives. So by 830 AM we were on our way to the Kelly house (aka Lambertsen house) to see Dawn, Brian and baby Sandy. They have an awesome little house in Hermosa Beach with ocean views from the front yard! You can feel the California cool oozing in the beach barrio. We headed down to Manhattan Beach to catch the waves, but none were to be caught for the big surfers. Zack, on the other hand, was quite the master boogie board man, heading out to face the breaks on his own…. He just looks like a California surf kid.

It was great to see Dawn, had not seen her since she and Brian were married back in Long Island in ’99. And Sandy, their ten-month-old baby girl is ADORABLE. Kayla soon asserted she would be the babysitter and was very attentive to Sandy’s every need…. Even if it was to eat shells…

In the afternoon my cousins Kevin, Terry and their girls Erika and Karly joined us at the beach. Everyone was healthy and happy and Zack and Kayla very much enjoyed their cousins, so much so that the girls are going to come join us at the park Monday. Erika makes a great babysitter in training…. I really wish she lived closer.
I have to admit, the California beach, sun and surf is mighty nice! Perhaps I could get used to this.

That evening we headed back to the Kelly house for a great bbq with some of Dawn and Brians friends, including a four year old who gets up on a surf board and rides the waves (big boy style) Dawn and I took a photo together with our children, I think we should frame this one side by side one of the Spring Break Mexico photos..... no one would have guessed it.

“A place where dreams come true” that is what is said Walt Disney himself imagined when he hatched the idea of Disneyland back in the 1950’s. While I knew Zack would have a great time at Disney, my honest motivations were to fulfill my sweet Kayla’s dreams about meeting her girls, aka the Disney Princesses.

So we arrived plenty early, 730 AM for an 8 AM open, needless to say we were in line with thousands of other Disney tourists of all ages, genders, races and well sizes. And off we got to the start of the day.

After enjoying a few rides in Fantasyland we headed to the Princess Fantasy Faire for it’s 9 AM opening! We qued up for our moment to go through the receiving line and greet the Royal gals. Snow White, Cinderella and Princess Aurora were waiting for us when we came in. In his recently typical Zack “guy” style, he kept the girls and their “girly smells” at a safe distance. This didn’t stop Snow White and Aurora from coming right over for a little tag team princess action!

Kayla rather apprehensively greeted each girl with hugs and small chat. THEN we left only to notice the next stop in the fantasy Faire, the Bibbedy Bobbedy Boutique! And Kayla proclaimed at the top of her lungs, “I need to go get my style on “ And so Zack and Alex went off to ride Buzz Lightyears astroblasters and Kayla and I set into the salon to get her hair and face painting.

Well, Kayla came out of there with a DO! Her hair was clad full of roses and her face decorated with hearts and sparkles all over! We went to the Jedi Knight training to meet up with Alex and Zack, then to see Buzz Lightyear and then some lunch when we realized (after two failed attempts to get K on the “big rides” that we should divide and take separate ways for a bit.)

Kayla and I headed to Ariel’s Grotto to meet Ariel! WELL! Talk about dreams. I often talk about “authentic moments” or “living in the moment” or in college, my less articulate years it was “BOOM moment”. There was a moment here, Kayla, decked out in her new hair do and having changed into a skirt when it got warmer walked up to Ariel with her autograph book and pen in hand and these two girls just started talking’! I asked if I could get a picture of them together, they posed, then Ariel announced, “we’re just going to talk for another minute here mom” OK, no problem with me and with that Kayla GLOWED, she was telling Ariel all about… breakfast? But it was so sweet. Then Ariel said hold on have something for you…. And she turned into her chair and came up with a sequin from her tail, AKA a “wishing scale” which she ceremoniously presented Kayla with. Kayla and Ariel hugged and kissed and now, well lets just say I think the Barbie Beach Party will be by the wayside and it will be all about Ariel in part of our world!

Later, on the pirates of the Caribbean ride, Zack had his Boom Moment of the day. The animatronics in this ride are amazing! You really think you are looking at Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow! Zack was on the edge of the boat, talking up a storm and we came to point where the boat went between two sets of pistol fire. Zack HITS THE DECK in the boat and takes cover for fear of his life! It was so real, so honest, and so cute!

I have to say; in Brazil at Carnival I was amazed at how they know passion and performance. Well Disney knows dreams and entertainment (and marketing. but this isn’t a glass half empty kind of blog tonight.)

I carried my sweet Kayla home after she fell sound asleep on the booth of the restaurant. Zack rode home on Alex’s back, clad with balloon swords and arms. They both lay here passed out, I am sipping a bear, hoping the internet connection is fast enough for me to join them sound asleep in dream land…. Dreaming of the next BOOM MOMENT to come!

Love ya all!

H

I forgot how long a flight it is to the west coast! Our day started at 4 AM EST and we got to bed at 730 PM PST. Which when your 33 aint to tough, but when your 3 it is a LONG day!

It started when the limo driver overslept and we ended up driving ourselves to the airport, not the end of the world, just more money.

The flight was fine, on time and despite no food, we were ok.

I HATE ALAMO RENTAL CARS……. There will be no more support of them in the Hardy/MacAyeal family or extended family worlds!

Once we got here, and got the Neverland pool where Zack and Kayla had a BLAST on the slides all was good.

We finished the day with dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen, the most expensive BUFFET dinner I have been to, but the kids loved it. By the end of the night Zack was saying, “Hey Goof” to Goofy as if they were life long friends!

We're going to LA baby!
We are heading off to Logan tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM to board the morning flight to LAX! We will be staying 6 nights at Disneyland, sure to be filled with FUN!
I will be posting photos and tales from the trip, stay tuned.....