Steve and I woke up bright and early Sunday morning and the first thought that crossed my mind was “Nicole’s running right now!!!” I hadn’t realized when we made our plans that it was the same weekend as the Tinkerbell 1/2 marathon, but the stars aligned and I ended up being in the same place as Nicole on her race day! I grabbed my phone to see where she was from her twitter feed, and then Steve and I went to where the race was going by our hotel, but unfortunately we had already missed her. We got dressed, grabbed coffee (obviously) and walked over to the park.
Disneyland is so incredibly nostalgic for me. My dad used to take me every year for my birthday. In fact, one of my 2 very favorite birthdays in my soon to be 27 years of living was when I was in elementary school and I woke up on my birthday (I think I was turning somewhere between 7-9–dad??), and started getting ready for school, but my dad stopped me and told me I wasn’t going to school, then surprised me and took me to Disneyland for the day! I will never forget it. As soon as we got to the gates my heart felt ready to burst! Maybe I’m nostalgic or maybe I it’s that I have the mentality of a 6 year old, but this place just brings me so much joy–it really is magical!!
We got there right as the park opened, so we had no trouble getting on the first few rides. We headed straight to Indiana Jones, then Space Mountain, then stopped in a few shops to get in full Disney spirit.
I'm a princess
Steve is not.
"I have to wear the birthday hat because it's almost my birth week!!!!"
Then I saw Woody!!!
Woody and I get along because we both have wiener dogs.
And Steve took more pictures
Is it just me, or is Disneyland super nice looking compared to other theme parks? It makes Knottsberry farm look like the state fair!
Water is pretty. We don't have any in the entire state of Arizona, so for us it's like getting a picture of a lunar eclipse.
Then, we went on the Mark Twain boat ride. I don’t think I’d actually ever been on this thing. It definitely wasn’t a thrilling ride or anything, but it was nice to see the sights.
We walked around a lot, explored the different areas and went into lots of the Main St. shops.
Steve told me to look classy. I think he forgot who he was with....
LOOK!!! It's the castle! It's magical :)
I want my house to have a moat. Hey Steve, can we please make that happen? I don't think the HOA will mind...
It's like this shirt was made with Steve in mind. I always tease him about being grumpy because we have such opposite personalities. Really, he's just reserved, but I kind of have the personality of a toddler with a caffiene problem.
And now for my favorite picture!
Thank you Disneyland for knowing everything I've ever needed in life.
Next up, it was time to hit up Thunder Mountain Railroad! Do you remember being a kid and thinking this ride was so awesome and scary because it went sideways?! That’s big thrills for D-land. And of course Steve assumed the purpose of rides were to give him photo opportunities. I was actually pretty impressed with the photos he got mid bumpy ride!
After the ride we walked around a little more
Steve loves stars and I still have the delusion that "I'm the greatest star" so this picture made total sense. I hope you just heard Barbara singing in your head too. Heather?
At this point the park was starting to get crowded, so we decided to hang out around downtown Disney for a bit before getting out of the area for dinner. Stay tuned for part 2…
Fun!! I love the Mark Twain boat! We didn’t do it this time, but I always enjoy taking a cruise around the river in the middle of the day when the park is super busy – it’s a nice break