Day Two: DISNEYLAND!!!

On Thursday, we celebrated Valentine's Day in one of the best ways I can imagine: by going to Disneyland!

Opening Valentine's cards and presents

From our hotel, it was a short walk to the front gate, and we got to go in an hour early since we were hotel guests.

Walking to Disneyland!

We got to the gate by 7:45 a.m. and hit the ground running. I had bought a book called The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2013 which gave lots of tips, and also suggested using a "touring plan." They had done TONS of research and came up with the most efficient way to see the Disney parks, even if it seems counter-intuitive, so I worked out a plan and downloaded their app. Well, we strayed from the plan right away (Peter Pan's line was longer than anticipated and Snow White was temporarily closed), but the great thing was that the app would let me change things around on the spot. Still, we kind of did things our own way and didn't quite get to everything, but we did the major things on our list and the tips I read helped me to prioritize.

My touring plan

Noah with Walt Disney and Mickey

Ready to ride Peter Pan's Flight!

 In the early afternoon, Jimmy Z. met up with us and rode a few rides, enjoying the beautiful sunny day in the 70s.

One of the top things I wanted to do was Jedi Training Academy, where I read that the Jedi Master chooses children from the crowd to train to be Jedis. One of the suggestions was to have your child wear a Star Wars shirt and to hold him up on your shoulders to be chosen. Done and done! Well, almost... Chris wandered away and couldn't get back to us by the time they began choosing kids, so I was holding 40-lb. Noah as high as my arms would let me and bouncing him around in the air. The Jedi Master called on him, the "small, oddly... hovering... child in the back." So exciting!!!

Darth Noah and a Storm Trooper

Ready for Jedi training

Noah fights Darth Vader!

Noah is now officially a Jedi

Noah poses in Toon Town

Goofy! We meet again...

 Late afternoon, Noah was DYING to ride the monorail, so we decided to take it to Downtown Disney (outside the parks) and grab dinner there. We ended up at the Rainforest Cafe, sitting outside on the roof and enjoying a cool and gorgeous evening and great company! We were all so wiped out that we just kept sitting there, wasting precious Disney time... until I asked Noah if he'd rather go to the hotel and swim or go back to Disneyland for more rides. Poor, tired boy chose swimming at the hotel! So we had to forgo The Haunted Mansion on this trip and headed back to the hotel. Drew and Jamie were asleep by 8:30, and Chris and I stayed up SUPER-LATE (until 9:30!) packing our bags to check out early in the morning before going to California Adventure.

Relaxing in the hot tub after Disneyland

If you haven't yet, you can see all my pictures (and a few of Jamie's) HERE!