:Disneyland:

We took the plunge and decided we would make our first family trip to "the happiest place on earth".

John and I have been 2 other times together, both with the Hitchcocks, meaning nieces and nephews.

We had a lot of fun with them, but there is nothing like experiencing it with your own kids.

We decided this would be Chase's birthday gift (even though she is still free til 3).

But it is an expensive endeavor! The day before, Chase happened to mention to one of her teachers that we were going the next day and she so kindly offered us a ticket that was to expire this weekend!!  I was blown away...an $80 savings!

The costs are just astounding.  I can't imagine taking a large family there.  We calculated on our drive home and we hardly spent any money...a couple of snacky treats, lunch (food no drinks), parking, a small souvenir...

guess how much we spent????

We made it to the park just a bit after it opened and got parked and in pretty smoothly.

We had advice from some friends that are pros that have season passes about what to do and not do.

We headed straight to Fantasyland and rode Peter Pan first...

Chase hated it and cried/screamed/shook in terror!

FABULOUS!!!

Needless to say, that changed our day.  

I decided I needed to relax and not worry about doing everything or even close to that.

She enjoyed the carousel.

She LOVED the teacups (we did that twice).

She would not go on Dumbo...

** I remembered this picture being similar to one with Ellie from 2004...and found it.  Isn't it eerily similar?**

SO SWEET!  Even the same teacup!!!

She didn't even really love Toon town all that much...did not like meeting the characters who's faces you could not see, ie: Minnie, Woody, Jessie...trembled in fear any time we came near one.

But the saving grace of the day was the PRINCESSES!!!

The ladies saved the day and made the whole trip worth it.

Chase is way into princesses and loves anything pretty, dressed up, sparkley...

We bought her an autograph book as soon as we entered the park and that pretty much became our mission.

The first one we spotted was Aurora, Sleeping Beauty.

She was lovely!

You must see the progression of meeting a real life Princess...

Then we saw Ariel...she was Chase's favorite.

Next we saw some fairies including TinkerBell.

Snow White...

Then, since we were saving time by not riding rides, we spotted a long line to see Rapunzel from Tangled.

Chase loves this movie, so we decided to wait the 45 minutes.

I guess it was worth it?!?

And we ran into the Fairy Godmother...and Woody (Chase was terrified of him so my dreams came true!)

The park is a lot smaller than Disney World, or at least seemed like it to us, so it is really manageable.

There were great fall and Halloween decorations up which were fun to see.

Chase asked for a big lollipop at one point and we bought it for her, she loved every lick.  Then she asked for popcorn later and we bought her that, and as we were walking away from the popcorn stand, she said something like, "this is the best day ever"!

That made every penny worth it!!

We stayed all the way to the very end...watching the parade at about 7.  We all enjoyed this.  We saw the last of the princesses that we hadn't seen around the park, Tiana, Cinderella, Belle.  It was a great show.

Then we got bussed back to our car and were on the highway in about 15 minutes.  Chase was asleep in no time at all and we were able to stop at Chickfila for dinner.  

It was a great day.  We won't be hurrying back up there.  We want it to stay a special occasion.  I think a year from now maybe she will be able to handle it a bit better.  It was really a fun family day though, a rare treat to steal John away from work.  And I loved being just the three of us...or four...or 3 1/2!

Chase's "big" treat was picking out a birthday gift from Uncle Zach, so at the end of the day she was able to do that and she got a baby Tiana doll.  She is darling and loves being her mommy.

We all slept like rocks and struggled to make it to work/school on time this morning.

But it was well worth it to see that little girl's face light up all day long!!