the longest Disneyland post there ever was.

Disneyland.
it just gets better and better every time we go.
as a kid i remember being in awe of the place.
as a teenager, i remember going for family trips and high school trips and feeling like, "i wonder why i don't feel too old for this kiddie place? i can't get enough!"
as a newlywed, i remember going a few times and thinking, "this is just the most romantic place on earth."
but as a parent-
nothing can compare.
it's like you get to re-discover it all over again.
and do things that you felt like a dork doing before you had kids.
like meeting characters.
waiting for-ev-er on a curb just so you have the best seats for a silly musical parade.
buying souveniers like balloons and stuffed animals.
etc, etc, etc.
and because we loved it so much, and Ellie was so angelic and adorable, and because 2 days just wasn't enough...we bought annual passes.
yes, i can now be considered a Disneyland Fanatic.
welcome to the club, self.

of course i have like a gazillion pictures that just can't go without being shared...so, hold on to your hats, and get scrollin'- & enjoy some of our favorite Disneyland moments.

anticipating the day on the train from the parking garage- Ellie was squealing out of excitement. literally.

arriving at the park- we all could NOT wipe these silly grins off of our faces:

Ellie kept referring to the castle as her temple. who's going to wanna burst that bubble? not me, folks. not me.

the first thing Ellie wanted to do was ride "sea world"-- i could not for the life of me understand what she meant. then after her talking about "the boat" and the "kids singing" i figured out she was talking about "it's a small world." so, off to the creepy children musical ride we went. (yes, i think this was her fave).

this was pretty much her expression the whole time:

and so we rode it multiple times in those two days, in different styles. kissy face style:

daring, put-your-hands-in-the-air style:

and sing a long the whole dang time style (since after riding it once, it's impossible to not know every single last word of that dang song).

much to my excitement, we enjoyed many rides this time around. Ellie was never a huge fan of rides before this trip-- but this time we had some classic ride moments.
like on Dumbo (multiple times):

 

 several different carousel rides:

 

even by my mom:

riding the teacups till i thought my belly was going to fall off:

 

 

driving cars on Autopia (Ellie felt like a champ doing this):

 

oh and did i say It's A Small World was Ellie's favorite ride? i take that back. Winnie the Pooh's ride was BY FAR her favorite ride. how random? i think it was especially because she rode on it so many times with Gammy:

 

we also did quirky attractions like the Toy Story ride (though we were very disappointed the new Toy Story ride was closed for rennovations. lame.)- and while Ellie is pretty obsessed with Toy Story (especially Toy Story 2) she was a little freaked out by the three-eyed aliens and Zurg and his evilness.

and then my mom insisted that we go to the Tiki Room. which i think i had done once long long ago-- and which i won't do again for a long long time. what a bizarre, weird experience. i especially like the sound of the machine-birds' beaks snapping back and forth. classy. luckily, Ellie is easily amused. and thought it was pretty awesome to see birds singing and talking. i, on the other hand, wanted to run for the door the minute it started. now, i have never personally been to Hawaii, but that is NOT what i imagine it to be like. AT ALL. still, it was funny. especially since my mom was cracking up the whole time at it's weirdness/awkwardness. and it's one redeeming quality was the delicious pineapple ice-cream we got to devour while we waited for the weird Tiki Gods to talk to us. (please tell me i haven't offended one of you because the Tiki Room is your fave...?)

are you bored yet? because i'm not even half way done. feel free to stop here :) (but if you do, be aware that you are going to miss out on the cutest little Ellie Snow White you ever saw...yes, that statement is a little biased. because this post is written by her mama. but i hope you've gotten used to my biases by now).

the best part to me was when we dressed Ellie up in her Snow White dress to meet the princess. oh my gosh. she looked A-DORABLE...

  

and she actually did pretty well waiting in line....but i was grateful to have M there to take her away to do some rides while i braved the hour wait to finally see what princess we'd get to meet (isn't that weird? they don't tell you who you're waiting in line for...it could be anywhere from 1-3 princesses...and you have no idea who...i kept crossing my fingers Snow White would be there- since that is obviously Ellie's favorite): 

when it was finally our turn, we were so excited to see Tiana first. Ellie LOVES the Princess and the Frog- especially how Naveen and Tiana kiss- so naturally, she planted a wet one right on Tiana's cheek (i wonder if it grosses these ladies out to have little grubby kids' lips and hands all over them all day?)

Ellie was so AMAZED to see Ariel there. she loves the Little Mermaid, too.

and i think she felt the need to show Ariel her stuff- so she started pretending to fly. silly Ellie. Ariel was very nice and looked convincingly amazed:

Ellie seemed most starry-eyed over meeting Belle. i dont' know why? she was all shy and nervous- but then talked about her and her "yellow dress" for the rest of the day.

so at the time, i was way excited because we got to meet some really adorable princesses- but i was also sliggghtly disappointed- because i reaaallly wanted Ellie to get to meet Snow White.

well, not too much later, we were walking by "Ellie's Temple" again....and guess who we spotted!? 

You guessed it! SNOW WHITE! and guess who was with her? Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella! i told Ellie we could meet them, but we had to wait in line (which was only like 5 or 6 people long!) she kept saying to me, "Where is them?"

 

and then finally it was our turn. oh man, our little Ellie was so twitterpated, it's not even funny.

Snow White was so cute and nice to her- she just kept talking to Ellie, and admiring her dress-- i wanted to run up and squeeze her to death for making the encounter so memorable for Ellie.:

 and the rest of the princesses were equally adorable, too. Cinderella kept commenting on Ellie's red sparkly shoes (which Ellie was definitely proud of), and i think Ellie truly felt like one of them. it made me wish i could dress up like a princess for a day and make some little 2-year-old's life complete :)

afterward, Ellie could talk about nothing else. she was so happy and jittery! so, her Prince Charming came and swept her away:

and we went to the wishing well, where Ellie continued to be "Ellie Snow White" and she sang and sang and sang "I'm Wishing, I'm Wishing" over and over again.

 oh gosh it was cute.

while there, we definitely met other characters too- who made Ellie equally starry-eyed.

there was Mickey:

  

and Minnie:

 and Donald:

and Pluto:

 

and Goofy (who she was mysteriously a little creeped out by?)

but i think her very most favorite person of all to meet was "Poppins" (Mary Poppins). you see, we waited in line to meet her- even though we knew she had to leave to get ready for a parade she was in...i just wanted Ellie to be able to give her a hug (what a persistent annoying mom, i know). well, Mary Poppins was so sweet, she asked Ellie (in her most british accent) if she would "care to go for a stroll." Ellie seriously still talks about how she went on a walk with Poppins.

even the parts where we stopped to take breaks were a blast.
Ellie was just so happy.
whether we were at a fountain looking at the water:

stopping at random cars to take a pretend spin:

taking a random photo-op in front of Ellie's favorite letter, O:

 

huggin' and kissin her favorite Aunt Mimi, who came and partied with us each night:

 

trying to get swords out of stones:

dancin' her little booty off wherever there was music (which means, wherever we went):

 

giggling all day long with Gammy (who came both days to play with us and go on rides, and even buy us yummy treats sometimes!)

and getting to spend all day, every day with daddy- which hasn't happened for a long, long time.

it was a lovely, enjoyable, tantrum free (seriously) 2 days...ones that slipped away from us all-too quickly. it was wonderful to be there with my little family, my mama, my sista-- and with the magicalness that lurks around every corner.

 

and of course, i have to leave you with this:

(except for the fact that Ellie asks to go back to Disneyland, every day, multiple times a day. and i'm not even joking....quite frankly, i wish i could go back every day, multiple times a day too!)

now, believe it or not, that's like only 1/2 of the pictures i took. but i'm all sweaty after doing this post (what with holding my hot lap-top on my lap, and my personal little heater that is my basketball belly these days). AND, because i couldn't figure out the new blogger picture uploader too well (i blame it on my lame-pregnancy-brain...which will turn into my Lame-Post-pregnancy brain soon) it has taken me Ellie's entire nap time (a good 2 hours), so i'm going to call it quits here. if you made it this far, congratulations. you can come to my house to pick up a gold star Mon- Fri 9 am - 5 am.

xoxo