California Land

With day 1 at Disneyland down, we still had a day to tackle California Land, located next door to Disneyland. California land was fantastic, I would even go as far as to say, I think I liked it just a little bit more than Disneyland or though it does pain me to say that :)

here are a few pics of our day:

First port of call was the High School Musical parade

Once again, Chey was picked out of the crowd to get up and dance with the High School Musical parade, not only once....but twice! See photo above, Chey in the yellow t-shirt. (above)

Water Rapids...we all got wet on this one, but has to be one of the best rides!

Poppy flew into LA this Friday morning and arrived in Anaheim just as we were about to walk out the door to get to California Land. He decided to come along for a couple of hours before he dropped from Jet lag. As you can probably tell from the photo...he is a little tired! The kids enjoyed having him with them for a short time though!

Check out the big wheel in the background of the picture below. Kell, Breyton, Cai, Poppy & I decided to go for a ride. I am not great at these sorts of rides, I get motion sickness (so does Chey; she decided to watch from the sideline...I should have done the same!). I didn't realise until we were almost in the wheel that there were two different ones...one that swings and one that just goes around slowly....guess which one we were on!

The Pixar parade was nothing on the Disneyland parade, but still alot of fun

After the Pixar parade, we made out way back to the hotel room to wake up a sleepy Poppy and have a quick swim in the pool (by this stage, the weather had really heated up during the day - nights were still cold though), then it was back to Disneyland for the night time events.

Disneyland closed at midnight, but we only made it to 10.30pm. When we booked the trip, I was certain 2 days was going to be more than enough time and I would be all theme parked out! Although I was a little theme parked out, I could really have done with another day at both parks to do all the things we missed....and we did miss alot! Especially at California land. All in all, we went to bed happier for having experienced the magical world of Disney!

Where Dreams are Made.....

Disneyland really is the place dreams are made and finally after 30 years, one of my childhood dreams were realised along with Chey's. We arrived at Disneyland!

The ride from LA to Anaheim was one filled with excitment and laughter. We were finally on our way to the highlight of the trip....for both children and adults included!

A little excessive, but certainly added to the fun of the trip (and the fact that we hardly ever do anything terribly excessive, was a good enough reason to 'go a little crazy' this time as really, this was a one off trip and we wanted to make the most of it), was staying in a Disneyland resort called the "Disneyland Pier Resort".

Here is Chey standing in our room....to be honest, for the amount we paid, it is nothing flash and

I didn't rate the beds (our hotel in LA was definitely a better deal) but we were close to Disneyland, which meant we could come and go from the park as we pleased (not that we rarely left the park for 2 days other than for dinner at night time) and it was a nice feeling to be able to be able to 'stay in Disneyland'.

Here is Chey with Pluto located in the lobby of our hotel.

Waking up early Thursday morning, we made our way to Disneyland for our first fun fill day and we were not disappointed! It was definitely a day to remember and I feel blessed to have been able to fulfill my dream and Cheyenne's.

Here is a snap shot of the days events :

Every little girl dreams of living in a castle like this! The fireworks at night which are displayed above the castle were just amazing and the perfect way to end a day at Disneyland.

When we checked in at our hotel the day before, we were given a bag which said "1st Time at Disneyland" and were told to wear them to the park. All day we saw people wearing these badges and others that said "it's my birthday" or "Celebrating an Anniversary" etc etc. We wondered if there was any reason behind wearing these and Chey did manage to ask a stranger if they received anything special for wearing the '1st time at Disneyland' badge but was told no. However as we discovered at the end of the day, there is a good reason for wearing these badges....

While lining up for the parade that happens at 5pm each night we struggled to find a spot where we could see (being 1st timers, we didn't know to get a spot on the main street early!!). Chey & Breyton managed to work there way in right up the front so they could see the parade first hand, Kell, Cai & I however, had to make do with standing on a park bench and dodging the sun and people who were taller than us.

We were happily clapping along to the music and trying desperately to take a decent photo of the characters when Cai suddenly yells out..."Look Fi, Chey is up with the parade"!! Sure enough, we look over and Chey was being danced around with one of the dancers and having a fantastic time. I was chuffed! See below, dodgy picture, but the best I could get from my perch. (see if you can spot Chey...she is the one in the white t-shirt with the micky mouse ears just in front of the lady in the red) Unfortunately, the photos I got of Chey up with the parade were all a little dodgy due to how far away we were from them and the sun was in the wrong place!

I had just put my camera away and was looking down the stree to see what was happening further down in the parade when Cai yells out again...Look Chey is up AGAIN! This time she is dancing with Mini Mouse! After the parade finished I quizzed Chey on her brush with fame and she tells me that the first time she was picked out, was because she was wearing the 1st time badge, the second time, she was hand picked by mini mouse because she was wearing her mini mouse t-shirt that her Aunty Kell had given her for Christmas (she had saved it until this day to wear!!). She too was chuffed.

After the parade, we made our way back to the hotel to have dinner and freshen up before heading back for the night time fireworks. What better way to end the day than dinner in Goofey's restaurant making your own Mickey Mouse pizza

Jet Setters.....part 1 LA

It may take me a couple of entries to get through all we have done and experienced in the past month! It certainly has been a busy time for us, we are so blessed to have been able to go on such a great holiday to both the USA & NZ. It certainly is nice to be home again though - we have missed our friends and family.

The 31st of May saw Cheyenne & I leaving Brisbane for LA where we met up with my ex's sister Kelly & her husband David & 2 kids, Cai & Breyton. Thankfully our flights went off without a hitch and we arrived a wee bit earlier than expected in LA - 7.30am Monday 31st May and somehow managed to find our way out of LAX airport and onto the right bus to take us to our hotel - don't laugh, it wouldn't be unlike me to take the bus that headed in the wrong direction!

Kelly & the boys were eagerly waiting for us to arrive at the Renaissance hotel, Hollywood and after some searching (and a mild heart attack on my behalf) the clerk FINALLY located our hotel booking which we had paid for up front on expedia (phew! I didn't fancy sleeping on the streets of LA).

We quickly checked out our hotel room before heading down to a cute dinner for an all american breakfast!

Here is Breyton, Cai, Chey, Kelly & Davey waiting for breakfast to arrive

After breakfast we found a double decker bus with an open top that did tours around the main streets of LA, showing you where famous people live, what hotels they own, famous night clubs etc etc. The tour was fantastic, or at least what I can remember of it was.... after a 13 hour flight where I had absolutely NO sleep, a full belly and a bit of warm sun...you can imagine how I was feeling! Kelly & David were sitting behind me laughing as they watched my head literally roll around as by body slowly shut down and I struggled to keep my eyes open! Chey on the other hand was way too amped up to even think about sleep.

So after the tour finished I took myself off for a sleep - after 1 solid hour sleep, I was ready to go again and decided to hunt Kelly out- I had no worries about where I might find her! In the shoe shop downstairs....this is where I made my first American purchase....yep! All 5 pairs of Sketchers shoes!! Seriously...$40.00 per pair of shoes is a bargin...especially as I spied one of the pairs I brought in LA in Myer for $119.00!

Monday night we decided to head to Dodges game! How much more American can you get! It was fantastic!! The crowd was awesome and considering it was just a regular Monday night, it was crazy to see how many people where in the stadium, it was pretty much full.

We couldn't watch the game without a massive foam finger!

We absolutely loved the game. We ate hot dogs, drank the biggest soda's you can imagine and embraced the atmosphere, singing along with the crowd as they chanted.

Tuesday we headed off to Universal Studios.

We had a great day here. It reminded me alot of Movie World and certainly wasn't as big as I expected it to be. In fact I would think it is smaller than Movie World. Chey & I lost the others when we all went into a 3D Shrek movie at the beginning of the day. Chey decided it was too scary and so we had to leave before it started. I would have thought we would find them again later in the day, but we didn't - still we had a nice time just hanging out together!

Wednesday we only had 1/2 a day to fill in before our transport arrived to take us to Vegas. Kelly & David had checked out the Farmers Markets when they first arrived in LA and thought they were so great, so we headed back there for the morning. They were fantastic and really it would have been nice to have had more time to cruize the shops.

I wanted to show you a picture of this shop that Chey fell in love with! She had seen the dolls advertised and desperately wanted to buy one. I forget what the name of the shop was but it was something like the All American Girl

Initially we thought they were fairly cheap and I said yes Chey could buy one as she had some spending money of her own....however we discovered that the prices we were looking at were not at all for the dolls...that was just their clothing! The dolls were double the price and more! So much to Chey's unhappiness we had to leave the dolls behind. The stores though were just amazing - they certainly know how to appeal to a little girls heart! Check these out....

This is the nursary for babies....Annaliese would absolutely LOVE this Heid, it is just beautiful and they have everything a new 'mummie' would want for their baby!

There is every choice type of doll available to appeal to every little girls hearts desire...dolls for the outdoor lover, complete with her own tree house or a campervan for your baby? There are bikes and dolls dressed ready to play a round of tennis, you can have a black babies or white babies, there are a range of clothing options, accessories, bedding, housing, you name it, they have it

There is even a holder in the customer toilets for you to hang your baby while you go about your business....

Still more to come.....Vegas baby!