Recently we traveled to Disneyland (again) for what was entitled the Princess Trip. Only girls were allowed to come, so the cast of characters involved my dogs, Genevieve and Belle, me, my mother, my grandmother, and my three cousins, Ava (8), Bella (7), and Josephine (4). This was a relatively short trip only 5 days. This posting will only include the humans and the next one will be the all important dog one.
Bella was very kind about guiding the Sawyer girls through the park. All the girls behaved beautifully with my three key rules.
1. Be within arms reach of an adult.
(Or they have to go back to holding my hand.)
2. Do not cry, whine, plead, beg, or ask for anything or any ride.
(Or we will not do/get it. They learned that lesson quickly after losing the chance to go on Pirates.)
3. K.C. is the boss. If I tell you to do it, do it.
I loved to watch the girls when they began to ask for something and either one of their cousins would put a hand over their mouth to stop them or their eyes would get wide and they would say, "I'm not going to finish that sentence." They were allowed to give suggestions when asked and they were allowed to ask what we were doing.
This was Josephine's first trip to Disneyland. It was an absolute riot to watch her experience the park for the first time. But more on that later...
This is the girls walking to the park on the first day. They were very excited!
The girls with the Mouse in California Adventure.
We all went on Splash Mountain together and I was sacrificed to the front. The girls look happy, don't they?
Ava celebrating a very thrilling trip through the Matterhorn.
Josephine and Ava were little daredevils on the trip, excluding Tower of Terror, they loved every ride and even put their hands up on a few. If you notice in the above photo Grandma is holding on as if she will fly out any moment and Jo has her hands up the whole way.
On the Grizzly River Run, Jo had her hands up. Across from her were some 13-14 year old boys, all were hanging on until they saw the 4-year old with her hands up. None of them even some what held their hands up as much as she did. Poor Bella, who bravely sat by the door, got soaked.
The girls were able to meet Tinkerbell in Pixie Hollow. They were very curious if she would be an "normal sized person, as big as you". I told them they would just have to meet her.
In California Adventure for the first time.
Man, they look tiny next to that thing.
That ice cream may be bigger than her head. She did finish it (with my help).
While waiting to get into the Golden Horseshoe, Ava inquired about the type of food that they had at this particular establishment. My mother began to name off the "food": chicken strips, chili fries... Ava then said, "Skip to the dessert menu." She had obviously seen the menu advertising the ice cream in the window. So every kid ate a sundae.
Ava modeling in DCA.
Jo was our ambassador to all the characters. After a slight bauble with Alice and the Mad Hatter she had no more problems. She had her book open and was ready to go whenever we went to meet a character and we met A LOT!
The girls on the Teacups. They wanted me to spin them until they got sick. I didn't want to deal with the mess afterwards so spun them at half-speed and went on before we ate dinner.
This is the first ride we went on and the girls loved that they got to go on twice during the riders swap. Both girls put their hands up on the second go around.
Grandma and the girls waiting to go on the submarines.
One night we went to the ESPN zone for a 3-hour dinner. The girls were so good (for the most part), Grandma and I took them to the ESPN game zone afterwards. Jo scared me a little. She drove her race car like a mad-woman. She cackled and screamed as she crashed through rocks, cars, hills, whatever was in her way. The only reason I was second place to her was because I kept getting hit by things that she had demolished (well, that and I couldn't stop laughing at her riotous cackles). Frightening. Just frightening.
And what type of princess trip would it be if we didn't meet the princesses. We all know this was my favorite part! *eyeroll* I had some drinks to supplement.
