30th Birthday in Disneyland - Take 1

Our countdown to Disneyland trip!

It still seems so weird to me that I'm 30! I don't feel any older but it still scares me a little every time I have to write it down or claim it on something. Anyway.... for my 30th Birthday I told Rob I wanted to spend it in the Happiest Place on Earth - DISNEYLAND! I figure it's pretty hard to have a bad day there and that way I wouldn't have time to think about being sad about turning 30. Luckily Rob went along with this plan as well! And my Dad and Debbie asked if they could join us.

We headed out of town on May 21st, a Friday afternoon. The drive went pretty smoothly and we arrived in Anaheim just in time to catch the evening fireworks from our car as we drove to the Worldmark condos in Anaheim. Dad and Debbie were supposed to get there before us but had some flight delays and ended up getting to the condo the same time as us. Ellie was thrilled to see Grandpa Snow White and Grandma Debbie and even though it was 10 at this point, she got to be their helper while they ran to the grocery store for some snacks and food for the next day.

Saturday morning we were all ready to go by 8:30 and hurried over to the entrance of California Adventure (less than a mile walk). As soon as we got in the gates we booked it to the Toy Story ride because we had heard the line gets really long on that one fast! A 5 minute wait later we were on the ride.




And that was typical of our day at California Adventure. It was a cool but sunny day and just not that crowded! We used fast passes for the rides that we could but pretty much just did what we wanted all day with very little waiting. Ellie loved everything and was so excited.





Her favorite of California Adventure was meeting and having her picture taking with Cinderella. And seeing the Disney Playhouse show. It was very well done and she still talks about seeing all of those characters! We watched a cooking demonstration with Goofy and he gave Ellie a kiss on her hand afterwards. She met Mickey, Mr Incredible, and saw a bunch of characters in the Pixar parade. We went to the Aladdin show and had great seats and that was probably my favorite! It was so well done and the Genie was hilarious. We took an early dinner break and ran home to the condo to eat and then headed back to the park for a few more hours.






We made it back in time to watch the great Pixar Parade. Loved it!





Thanks to having so many adults - we were able to get on all the "big kid rides" (except for the roller coaster that was broken). Since we had some time left over - we ran over to Disneyland for a few hours and road the Jungle Cruise ride and looked around and waited for the fireworks that were canceled due to the windy weather (it didn't feel windy to us). We headed home and Ellie passed out. Probably the funniest thing I've ever seen - she was so worn out!





We all crashed pretty soon after getting back on Saturday night from all the walking around! Sunday we headed over to a local ward in Anaheim for Sacrament meeting and then went to see the Newport Beach temple. So beautiful! I was so impressed with the gardens and temple grounds. And I love visiting temple grounds - even if it's just walking around them.





We tried to go to Huntington Beach but it was WAY too windy. We lasted about 5 minutes outside of the car and saw a huge boat that had blown over on the shores. Then watched from the warm car some para-surfers (not sure if that is what they are really called).

Since the fireworks were canceled the night before at Disneyland - we were able to go on our roof and watch them from the big deck up there. Ellie enjoyed that! I love Disney fireworks.