Disneyland Here We Come! (Part 3)

We arrived at our hotel in Anaheim to find this view from our room. Yes, I love the palm trees...but those of you who've been to Disneyland know that what we could see right across the street is the Matterhorn and Space Mountain (still one of my very favorite rides)! I think I may have been more giddy than even Noah at that point! Also, I have to mention how pleased we were that we stayed at this Marriott. The employees there were very helpful & friendly, the rooms were nice, comfortable & clean, the location great, and there was even a Pizza Hut right on location (on the 3rd floor) which we used for dinner one night. We will definitely stay there again next time!

After dinner at the restaurant near our hotel, we got the boys ready for bed in their cute new Buzz Lightyear pajamas (as if I needed to hype up Disneyland anymore at this point, but they were on clearance a couple of months prior & it was just too much fun).

I, along with Noah & Lincoln, hit the hay after that...while Mark went into my parent's adjoining room to play a couple games of cards. I had to snap a picture of Noah in his bed - he made the bed look huge, or it made him look tiny! Either way, it was super cute.

Happy to go to bed in his own big bed, with his new "soft shark".

First thing the next morning we donned our Mickey Mouse ears from our trip there two years ago and we were off to Disneyland!

It was quite convenient having a McDonald's right in our hotel parking lot (quick breakfast), and then it was a short walk across the street to Disneyland! In fact, you walk further from your car to the gates of the park if you drive to Disneyland and park your car than we did from our hotel door!

Yeah! Disneyland. Gotta snap a shot at the traditional spot in the entrance.

We were so glad to have my parents along on the trip. Not only was it so nice to have 2 more sets of helping hands, but it was so much more fun! It was so fun to be able to have someone with us to fuss over the boys' cuteness that loves them as much as we do. And it was nostalgic to go back to Disneyland with my kids and parents, since we went so often growing up with our grandparents too!

Due to Noah's intense Buzz Lightyear fanaticism (and Zurg lately too), we chose to ride the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster ride first. Noah was pretty excited in line just looking at all the characters painted on the walls, and at the talking Buzz that you see in line. However, he was a bit hesitant once we got on the ride. Each ship holds two "space rangers", and you're provided with astro blasters that you shoot targets (on evil aliens, etc) with as you turn your way through the ride. A running score of your points is even kept on the dash in front of you! As we approached the part of the ride where Zurg was, I turned around to take a picture of the boys to find Lincoln with a serioius 'duh' expression & Noah practically climbing up Mark afraid of Zurg. Poor guy!

I can understand why a kid would be afraid of this guy.

Noah calmed down quickly once we explained to him that the bad guys couldn't get us, they were just pretend, and that we could shoot 'em with our laser beams...but he sure kept a careful eye out the rest of the ride. Now, Noah did end up growing quite fond of this ride (understatement). Any guesses on how many times he ended up riding it? I'll tell you at the end of this post :)

Another hit (although we weren't willing to brave the line more than once) was the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. It's a really cute ride & is a lot different (better) from how the submarine ride used to be when I was little...in the pre-Nemo era.
Noah loved the submarine ride, and I was actually surprised that a couple of parts didn't scare him, but they didn't. He can be hard to predict sometimes.

Me with Lincoln on the Dumbo ride. My mom took Noah.

Funny thing, I don't really remember ever going on this ride growing up. I must have at some point, but I think that it's the only ride at Disneyland that I don't have a memory of going on. Anyway, my dad took Noah on it and he (Noah, not my dad) looked a little nervous entering the whale's mouth. I'm posting a picture of their boat going into the whale so that Noah can look at it...

I love the teacups! Mark and my mom both hate them however, so it was just my dad, Noah, and me that went on them. Yes, we spun the cup super hard and all staggered as we got off the ride. I'm not sure why that's so much fun, but it sure is! "A very merry un-birthday to you!"

We borrowed this sit 'n' stand stroller from my friend Claire, and it was seriously a life-saver. Not only was it nice to have getting the boys to & back from Disneyland, but Noah could get on and off the stroller as he pleased throughout the day - so that was really nice. I have to giggle when I look at this picture with Noah peeking around the stroller like that. Ha!

As many times as I've been to Disneyland, I've never been to California Adventure. I loved it. This picture was taken there, in front of a store window actually...but Noah loved looking at it (as you can see).

And, I'll wrap up this post with an answer to the question that I posed earlier in this post. How many times total do you think that Noah rode the Buzz Lightyear ride? If you guessed in the single digits, then you weren't even close. If you guessed a dozen, then you were still too low! He rode the ride 18 times! We have to mention that 11 of those rides were with his grandpa, who took him (and my mom took Lincoln) for a while so that Mark & I could do some adult stuff. We tried to hit the Indiana Jones ride, but it ended up temporarily closing, so we grabbed some lunch and then went on Space Mountain. I love that ride. Anyway, back to the Buzz ride...

I mentioned that this ride keeps track of your points (that you accumulate by hitting targets with your laser gun throughout the ride). Well, at the end of the ride you can go to a computer and see a photo of yourself with your score on it, and you can email it to yourself! So, here's one of Mark & Lincoln that I sent to myself!

And here's one of Noah and me! I have to point out the scores - not bad 'eh? I have pretty good aim, if I don't say so myself...and 8,400 points isn't bad for a 2 year old either!