Disneyland's California Adventure Park

I have good news, and I have bad news...

The good news is that we had a blast at Disneyland.

The bad news is that we are home from Disneyland.  

Oh, don't mind me... I do love my home- but all play and no work- now that's the life for me!     

We did have a wonderful time and, boy, do I have the pictures to prove it.

We are still learning how to use our new camera though, so we didn't use it to it's fullest potential, but we still managed to get some great shots.  I really want to take a class so I can learn and understand how to best utilize all the settings on my magnificent machine, but there was no time for that before Disneyland, so I played around with the settings and did the best I could with what little I've learned so far.

    

We visited California Adventure on Friday, and Disneyland on Saturday. 

Today I will post the pictures from our visit to Disneyland's California Adventure Park.  Then I will do a follow-up post with pictures from our visit to the actual Disneyland Park on Saturday.  

Kelly seemed to thrive on our excitement as we anticipated going to Disneyland. She didn't even really know what was going on, or what to expect, but she was still so excited- I think just because we were. 

This is something that has changed so much about her.  It used to be that it didn't matter how happy or sad you were, she would be completely unaffected... disconnected... detached.  But now, does she ever connect with our emotions and feel them too.  It's so wonderful to see her so full of life!

Here she is, smiling big as we waited for our shuttle to arrive at our hotel to take us to Disneyland.  Her expression tells it all.  We all felt like this!

Unfortunately, this is a rare thing: a picture of Clint and I together!  Usually, one of us is always the one taking the picture (which is actually the side of the camera that I prefer to be on!) but Caleb did a pretty good job taking this one of the two of us, don't you think?

We were all very happy that Camryn's best friend, Shayli, got to come with us.  She is one of the sweetest girls on the planet.  Here the girls are, occupying Kelly while we load the stroller onto the shuttle bus.  

(Notice Kelly's pink Minnie outfit?  Yes, silly me... I got her one in pink too!)

On the bus, ready to go!

Look who greeted us at California Adventure Park! I guess this is "California Goofy!"

Hi Sully!

We got into the park just in time to save seats for the Disney Pixar Parade.  Here we are, eating yummy ice cream treats while we wait... 

Kelly loved her ice cream sandwich.

(I just have to note- can you believe I actually made that bow to match her outfit? Just don't look too closely... lol ;)

Being silly before the parade starts...

The crowd gathers...

Keeping Kelly seated is always a challenge... Caleb's always a big help when my arms tire.

Lightening McQueen started off the parade- Vroom! Vroom!

"What's her name" (?) from Monsters Inc...

Kelly's taking it all in... such a pretty girl...

(Notice how dark the shot is?  I lightened it with my photo editing program, but this is the best I could get without it getting too grainy. Clint took several great ones of Kelly watching the parade, but he forgot to look at his monitor to see that they were all coming out extremely dark!)

Crush sprayed water on the crowd...

Kelly's getting into it now!

A Bug's Life

Toy Story green army men- aren't these guys great?

Mr. Potato Head

Woody 

(How we didn't manage to get Buzz, I don't know..?)

Finally, some light bounced and Clint got the gift 

of this one well-lit shot.

The big girls rode a couple of rides during the parade, so they found their way to us afterwards.  Kelly was thrilled to have them share their pretzels with her, of course!

Let's see... ice cream, pretzels... what else can we eat?  

How about a Churro?

Oh, these wonderfully bad foods are all a part of the fun of going to Disneyland, aren't they?

Another thing I love about Disneyland are the flowers!  There are so many beautiful flowers everywhere.  Look at the beauties behind Kelly here.  

I took Kelly on her first little ride while the others rode some big rides.  Here we are, standing in line, watching it go.  We were in "Bug's Land" where they have most of their little people rides in California Adventure Park.

A better look at the ride.  Kelly wasn't so sure about it...

"You mean we're going to get into those flying boxes, Mommy?"

Belted in and ready to go.  

She's still not so sure about it... in fact, she's pretty darned scared, poor little bug.

"What's going on here?"

"Why is everything moving?  Why are we up in the sky?  I don't like this feeling, Mommy..."

"Get me outta here!"

Poor baby girl... she did not like that big scary ride!  Not to worry, it was about over when she began to cry, so it was only a moment until I was able to hold her and comfort her, and she recovered quickly.  We met back up with Dad and "Bubba" as she now calls Caleb.  

She soon found herself feeling safe up on Caleb's shoulders and forgot all about that scary old ride. 

 There's nothing like a ride on Bubba's shoulders to bring a swift smile back to Kelly's sweet face!

Some pictures of the park as dusk set in and it took on a magical glow.

We met back up with the big girls, who were having so much fun together.

Everywhere we went, they walked arm in arm like this.  So sweet.

We really wanted to go on "Soarin' Over California" but the line was too long and they weren't offering fast passes anymore.  We decided to take this picture for Shayli's mom, since it's her favorite ride.  

We ventured back over to "Bug's Land" to see if Kelly would ride any more rides with us.  We stood in line for this ladybug ride, but at the last minute, we decided not to have her ride it as it seemed pretty fast-moving and she was getting tired.  Caleb and I stayed back with Kelly while Clint and the girls took a ladybug spin.  

Kelly wanted her daddy...

Smiling at Kelly...

She gives them a smile back... 

After the ride, we could tell Kelly was about out of gas... from the looks of this picture, I think Daddy was too.