disneyland

we returned a few days ago from a fun filled trip to disneyland. now i know disneyland is super commercial, materialistic, crowded etc....that said the kids loved it. i technically had a conference in anaheim (i shamelessly schedule my conferences in places i want to go) and my mom went with me to help with the kids. todd said 'no thank you' to disneyland (though in the end he worked his butt off in denver getting our first little house there ready to sell so he may be regretting that decision).

we had a great time. we saw all the usual suspects (mickey, minnie, goofy etc) ......

......and to lucy's delight many of the princesses. in fact momo treated us to a fabulous 'princess breakfast' in which they all showed up.

....... this was on day 4 of the trip so momo and i treated ourselves to bloody mary's that breakfast.....



....we went on lots of fabulous rides.  hitting of course 'the classics'...mr. toads wild ride,  the storybook ride into pinoccio's whale, the mad hatter's tea cups, dumbo the flying elephant. 

....and a few new rides. riley loved the 'autotopia' rides where he was able to drive a car.


....riley also discovered a new found love of roller coasters...who knew? this is outside 'big thunder mountain', which lucy also rode to her credit, but riley went on it again and again. 

.....and to balance out the princess time, riley was selected to be a 'jedi in training'..... as you can imagine this made his day.  after his 'training' he had to fight darth mal...

.....we watched the parade (in fact we managed to see it three times!)...

....most of the days were sunny and bright but we did get stuck in a rain storm while sitting atop the ferris wheel....this picture was snapped before the storm, but do noticed the grey clouds threatening behind the ferris wheel. 

.....all in all we had a very fun visit to the magic kingdom!

and it really does look especially magical at night......