Disneyland Day 2 - The "REAL" Disneyland

I think my boys were perfect ages for their first trip to Disneyland.  They were both so enchanted by it, loved everything, we did have to mention a few times to Roman that things were not real so he wasn't afraid, and Hudson had a few rides that he didn't care for but overall they were just in awe of everything.  The second day was our long day.  We went into the park right after it opened at 8 and were only planning to stay until noon but we were getting right onto the rides and having such a great time we stayed until 1:30 before breaking for lunch and some much needed naps.  

As we were walking in Roman was so excited to see the streetcars pulled by horses, and the castle, and the characters.  It was all so "magical."

 We had heard that the Nemo ride was pretty busy so we went there first.  There wasn't even a line and we got right on the submarine.  Both boys really liked it and wanted to go again (but we never made it again.  Roman saw these pictures and said "I wanted to ride that again!  We need to go back!")

 Next we went to Autopia and Roman convinced Grandma to go with him and he drove.  He couldn't even see over the steering wheel, but he was really excited that he drove the car.  (See my dad in the car behind them all by himself...he looks very serious about driving that car!)

After that we went over the It's a Small World.  We got there just in time to see the clock work on the front.  We had to lift them up so they were able to see it all and they were just in awe of it all.  

The whole morning, from the moment we got to the park Roman asked if we could go to Mickey's house.  When we finally got there he was so excited he gave Mickey's mailbox a hug.  We went through (again, no lines yet!  YAY!) and were able to go in and see Mickey.

As soon as we came out of Mickey's house the boys got to drive Mickey's car.  Hudson talked about that for days.

Next door to Mickey's house was Minnie's house.  Roman wanted to go there next.  The line for Minnie's house was actually longer than the line to see Mickey.  Hudson wasn't so sure he wanted to see Minnie so Marla got to pose with them.

The rest of the morning we went from ride to ride finding more favorites than we could count. Every ride Roman told us was his favorite.  We finally took a lunch/nap break around 1:30 and went back to my parents hotel room so the boys could have a little down time.

As we went back into the park we let the boys get Mickey ears.  I showed them so many fun ones but in the end they settled on these.  (I was shocked Roman didn't want toy story, or Mater, or even the pirate one)

While we were waiting for the parade to start I took these pictures of Hudson's shadow.  I took a LOT of pictures to get a few that worked, but look how cool that is!

The boys thought it was so exciting to watch the parade.  They loved seeing Mickey and Minnie, Pluto, the princesses and the Lion King.

After the parade we went over to Fantasyland and took the books on the carousel, teacups, dumbo, Mr Toad's wild ride.  This was probably Hudson's favorite area.  While we were getting on the Dumbo ride Marla told me that our cousin Andrea was also in Fantasyland so while we were up in the air I watched for her, and saw her.  So I yelled "Andrea"  And she heard me.  And waved.  I think that means I am loud!  It was pretty crowded in fantasyland.

We went to dinner across the street at Mimi's cafe then went back into the park to watch the fireworks, we had time but it was so crowded, and we wanted a good place for fireworks so we ended up staking out a place in the middle of the road so we had a good view of the fireworks but also access to get out of the park quickly when we needed to.  The castle at night was beautiful.  The fireworks were amazing, and everyone enjoyed them....especially Hudson who slept through it all.  He fell asleep in the stroller and slept through everything.  Roman was so excited about it all he didn't fall asleep until we were almost back to my Aunt and Uncle's house.