Dinney-Land (That's not a typo...it's just what we call it)

Sooooo....the day after my recital, we hopped the Jet Blue to Cali and partook of the Disney experience for a few days. My mother-in-law thought I was half crazy to leave on a trip the day after recital, but she stayed home with Macy, so she can call me anything she wants. It was a tad stressful, but really nice to have oodles of family time after I have had to ignore them for the past few weeks. I think I planned this trip out of mommy guilt, but whatever.

We got down there and strolled around Downtown Disney. Nice weather, fun to shop, and all that good stuff. I'll admit, I was TIRED! I should have taken a sleep day before this trip (yeah right)

We ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Our first time. It was cool, but I'd never worry about doing it again. It was like a really expensive Mayan, but without the pasty white cliff divers.

Day One in the park! Sweatshirt weather in the morning, which was perfect. Crowds were not too bad (as it wasn't Memorial Day weekend), but our regret about coming was that Splash Mountain was still closed for refurbishment, and the official Star Tours opening wasn't until June 3. When I booked flights, it was going to be open. Stay tuned......

Donald greeted us. My kids are not big into the characters, which truly saves us lots of time. They never know how to talk to one of them. I don't either!

The nice sweeper man took our pic.

We always start in Fantasyland. The reason we did this time was to kind of sell Quinn on Disneyland. If we sprung the big stuff too soon, it wouldn't fly for him. He was too young to remember our last trip. The funny thing....I NEVER rode on Dumbo, Tea-cups, etc. until I was much older. I was the youngest and was dragged to the big rides first thing. I guess Macy will experience that one day.

Quinn was all about having his picture taken EVERYwhere.

We spent the whole day in Disneyland, enjoying almost everything. Super fun. We watched fireworks....with NO Tinkerbell. Last time Tinkerbell had a malfunction as well, so I was a little miffed.

Emi woke up with a nasty cold on the second day. She coughed literally everywhere she went, but would not slow down. She coughed in front of Tink and Tink was not pleased. Bring on the hand sanitizer.

Off to Goofy's Kitchen....Parker and Goofy have a special relationship. I love their food, though my kids hardly eat. My parents treated us to this because of their guilt. They were once coming with us, but had to pull out because of my mom's surgery.

I'd be a littled bugged if I were Jasmine....just saying.

The rest of the day was spent in the construction zone they call California Adventure. I still love that park....they are changing thing up a bit to make it less Californ-y and more classic Mickey. There is some good and bad with this. The huge Cars land opens up next year. From what we could see of it, it will be really cool. Quinn had been soaked from the River Rapids, so he is sporting a big shirt from Parker.

All I can say (other than this pic sucks) is ....World of Color= AWESOME! I was stunned. So fun.

Onto the last day....Bill tried tirelessly to get us into the new Star Tours. They were doing showings for Cast Members and annual passholders who won a lottery. No luck. ON the last day, he finally pled his case to the right guy. The manager. We got in. So, so cool. 54 different combinations. 3D. It almost made me a star wars geek like 1/3 of my family.

Quinn's favorite ride...the Gadget Go-Coaster. However, he always wanted to ride it when we were as far away as possible. Typical.

It was a good day for Star Wars geekidom. I did nothing short of showing some leg to get Parker up there for Jedi training. He was great.

He fought Darth Mall (is that how I spell it? um probably not)

We dined at the Blue Bayou. My favorite, favorite place. Pricey, but worth it. I'm sucking down one of my four Mint Juleps. UMMMMMMM.

Parker and I on Tower of Terror. Love this ride. I love feeling weightless.

We had never tried the fun wilderness area in California Adventure. Way funner than Pirate Island.

The thing I love about Disney is the cute little surprises everywhere. We kept seeing this cute little grandma around the park. Notice her polka dot dress and yellow shoes. She's all Minnie'd out. Bill had to get a pic.

Goodbye Disney! Back to reality.

Oh....P.S. They should never have brought Captain EO back. I'm a huge fan of the MJ, but I had forgot how horribly campy it is. Pretty embarrassing for us kids of the 80's.