Disneyland!!!!! What a perfect day!

It was truly a magical day! We had such a wonderful time and made so many great memories today. I think the kids were at the perfect ages, old enough that we didn't have to take a stroller or diaper bag, but young enough where everything seemed amazing and real. They loved the rides, loved the shows and parades, and could keep going until after the fireworks.

We started out really early. Since we only had one day in the park, we chose to go to the original Disneyland, not the California Adventure. I wished we could have gone through that park too, but we just didn't have time this trip.

The boys loved our breakfasts at the hotel, and they filled up with their mini Belgian Waffles. 

We walked the few blocks to Disneyland and got in right when they opened. I had purchased our tickets online and they just had to scan the barcode in the email. We had the paper tickets as back up just in case.

Since we were there right away, we were basically able to hop right on to the Jungle Cruise. 

Our jungle tour guide was hilarious! We were probably his first or second tour of the day so he was fresh, but he made everyone laugh the entire time with lots of groaner puns and wordplay jokes. 

Next we went to the Indiana Jones ride, the Pirates of the Carribbean ride and then the Haunted Mansion. They were all super fun and just scary enough for the boys to be exciting, but not too scary to get tears.

Since we were on a roll, we headed over to Splash Mountain. We waited about 20 minutes for that one and it was a fun one. Disney takes a picture of your face as you go down the "waterfall". Carson's face is priceless!

We wandered over to Tomorrowland, so we could go on Star Tours, and attend the Padawan Academy. We got there just as the Padawans were being picked but unfortunately neither boys got picked.  It was fun to watch anyway :)

We waited in line for at least an hour for Star Tours. It was an awesome ride, but Jeff got a little motion sick from it, just like he did on our honeymoon. So when we went on the Teacups a little later, he watched and took some pictures of us.

According to the apps that we downloaded, the lines were getting pretty long, so we decided to do some activities that didn't require waiting in lines. We went to Tom Sawyer's Island and explored. Jeff has great memories of doing this when he was a kid and I think he still had just as much fun as our own boys did exploring the island. 

We continued to explore the classic rides. We, of course, had to ride the "It's a Small World" ride. All we needed were a few softballs to chuck at the dolls by the end of the ride and it would have been perfect!

We continued to ride all the old rides like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the Pinoccio one, and Snow White. 

We didn't make it on the Peter Pan and the Alice in Wonderland rides though. But we did try to pull the Sword out of the Stone.  Apparently none of the Kline boys are the Once and Future King.

Carson loved the Storybook Land Canal Boats because he thought it was hilarious to be swallowed up by the big blue whale. The boys got chosen to sit on the front of the boat so they got a really good view of all the little storybook scenes during the ride.

The boys were still going strong so we went back to Tomorrowland and rode the submarine ride, and then rode the two rides with the Buzz Light Year theme. 

The sun was starting to go down so we darted back to Adventureland to climb the tree house which used to be the Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse but is now called Tarzan's Treehouse.  Then we went to the Magical Tiki Room (after I had a Dole Whip, yum!).  Those birds are seriously creepy but hilarious! I don't think the boys were too impressed with them though.

 The parade was just getting ready to start and since we chose not to sit and wait at the curb for hours, we were very lucky to get a spot at the top of a small set of stairs and actually had a great view. The light parade is so amazing and fun! It was a beautiful end to a perfect day.

 We also stayed for the fireworks and got to see them set off with the It's a Small World as the backdrop. Everyone was standing however, so we had to each hold a kid so they could see the projection on the buildings. No hands for pictures. It was pretty cool how they tied in all the Disney movies, both new and old, and finished off with "snow" falling all around us (in 90 degree weather).

We could have stayed and gone on a couple rides that we missed such as Peter Pan, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Space Mountain (which was closed most of the day). But we were all super tired and still had to walk back to our hotel room.

It was truly a magical day.