My 30th Birthday at Disneyland!

Wow, so my birthday was almost a month ago but I am FINALLY getting around to blogging about it. I was gone for 2 weeks, then when I got home, my hard drive crashed so I have not been able to upload any pics or anything!

I had the BEST birthday - quite possibly the best ever. What better way to celebrate the big 3-0 than by going to Disneyland and acting like a kid?? I got in to Disneyland free, of course, they gave me a button that said "Happy Birthday Kristie" and every employee in the park, upon seeing the button would say "Happy Birthday Kristie!" We took the girls and my parents came too. The weather was FABULOUS - could not have been better. It was fairly crowded, but we used RideMax and hardly noticed the crowds - aside from being run over a few times...

Haylie was in awe, of course - it was her first time really experiencing Disneyland - she went once when she was 14 months so that doesn't really count. She was such a good girl all day. I was noticing around 2 pm that she had not thrown a single fit - had not whined - nothing. Just a perfectly content girl enjoying everything around her. At 6 pm she got upset because I wouldn't buy her a balloon. I told her I would buy her one when we left so we didn't have to lug it around with us - so after crying for about 1 minute, she stopped and we continued on our merry way. She was so unbelievably well-behaved - it made the day THAT much better. And, Haylie went on her first real roller-coaster - The Matterhorn!! She was actually tall enough and I asked her if she wanted to go on a really fast train and she said yes!

Sidebar: When I was little and went on the Matterhorn for the first time, the Yetti scared the snot out of me and I did not go on it again until I was 14 years old - and even then I only went on it because I was with friends and didn't want them to think I was a wimp so I let the peer pressure force me into it! So I felt the need to warn Haylie about it so she would not have a similar experience.

So I told her there was a white monster like the one on Monsters Inc., and that he was not real so don't be scared. So she's sitting in front of me and she's belted in and I've got my arms around her. Well, the beginning of the ride is pitch black - so she got pretty tense and was holding on to my arms pretty tightly - but once we got going, she was so giggly! We laughed through the whole ride. So when it was done, she said, "Mommy, that was scary!" and I said "Do you want to do it again?" and she said, "YES!". So it seems we have a thrill-seeker in our midst!

Anna was really good - she loved looking around at everything - but we have discovered that she is probably not going to be a thrill-seeker - at least not anytime soon - despite the fact that she loves to climb on everything. The first ride we went on was Alice in Wonderland and she did not like it. Now, it could have been that it was a little dark, but I think it was the sensation of moving along that she did not like! She got a little better as we went on more rides - she LOVED "It's a Small World" - I got video of that so click the link at the bottom of this post to see it!



This is Anna on "Finding Nemo" - the submarines - she had her face plastered to the window almost the whole time!


Haylie took a little nap while waiting in line for Finding Nemo - we waited 40 minutes to get on it - the longest wait we had all day!

Anna snuggling with Grandpa Garry on Pirates of the Caribbean

Haylie riding the carousel - look at that smile - could she be any happier?

We got one family shot - and right before we took it, Anna spilled water all over herself so that is why she is not happy.

That evening, my parents took the girls to dinner at downtown Disney and Eric and I went over to California Adventure by ourselves! We had never been on California Screamin' so we went straight there and stood in line. Well, right when we got close enough to see people getting on the ride, it broke down - and they made everyone leave! So, I guess we are just not meant to ride that ride. So we went on a couple others and just had a good time being together. Okay - another sidebar: I'm not trying to be rude here, but this is something that MUST be shared. While standing in line for California Screamin', we saw a girl, who I'm sure is a lovely girl, wearing an outfit that was...well...interesting. We couldn't resist. I pretended to pose for the camera while Eric captured this shot:

No, her shirt was not ripped like I had originally thought - it was SUPPOSED to be like that. Poor girl. She must have terrible friends - I mean really - would you let YOUR friend out of the house like that? Again, I'm not trying to be mean here so please don't think I'm horrible. But come on. Seriously.

Ok - moving on...

Me and Eric waiting in line for "Soarin' over California" - an AWESOME ride that makes you feel like you are flying over different CA landscapes.

I found myself, several times during the day, getting choked up - I guess just because it was so fun to see my girls enjoying something so much. I don't know. I have noticed since I stopped taking my Cymbalta that I'm more emotional - but the good kind of emotional - I feel things more deeply now - so maybe it was just that I was enjoying myself so much - there was nothing to do but cry tears of joy!

I took a TON of pictures and they are all so cute - and a couple videos too - so you'll have to go check them out here.