California Dreamin' - Day 3 (Our first day at Disneyland!)

That's right!  We took little man to the "Happiest Place on Earth" (sidebar:  any place with Clay is the happiest place on earth but we were excited to take Clay there so he could give the place an extra dose of happy - and cute!) 

It was a fun filled, action packed day.  I'll try to do most of the run down via picture but will fill in the gaps with some wordy descriptive narrative... and away we go!

We started our morning with a quick bite at the hotel, then we caught the public trolley to Disneyland, a mere 10 minutes later and we were picking our tickets up at Will Call.  Since it was Clay's first time, the "cast members" gave Clay a special button to wear (since our child was just 3 days into being 14 months old, we allowed his stroller to wear the button instead).  

 After a few photo ops, we went straight to Space Mountain to get Fast Passes (you slip your ticket into a machine and get a time stamped ticket to come back later; as long as you come back at the time of the ticket or later you get to go into a shorted "fast pass" line.)  Then we went over to Finding Nemo to take Clay on his first ride!

On our first ride:  Finding Nemo

Clay did great; it's a pretty dark ride but it didn't seem to phase him.  I think his favorite part was the bubbles (a word he is a big fan of!)

 After Nemo, we had ate again and then went and took advantage of our Fast Pass - it was at this point that we learned about the magic of having a baby when you're a Disneyland; since we had Clay and couldn't ride "big kid" rides together, we just went up to one of the attendants, showed Clay in his stroller and got a stroller pass.  The stroller pass means that one person gets to go on the ride and then come out, give the person who waited with the baby the stroller pass and that person gets to go on the ride (you either get to go in the Fast Pass line or go back in through the exit and they'll get you in the line).  Well, you combine that with the Fast Pass ticket and it becomes even better - going forward we only needed one Fast Pass ticket and the first person on the ride got to wait in the short line AND then the second person basically got to cut because of the baby.  (I'll do a separate post for all my tips for going to Disney with a babe).

This is me on Space Mountain, I look like I am about to say a really bad word but I assure you, it was just a highly inopportune time to have had my picture snapped.  The ride had pretty much finished and I had tears (just from going so fast) going out the side of my eyes, I just happened to go into wipe them away as the picture was snapped.  I know I don't really need to offer this explanation but I think a little part of my heart whimpered when this pic was snapped since, I typically smile the entire time I'm on rides simply to avoid awkward pictures like this one.  Oh well, time to build a bridge... and get over it, right? 

Clay obviously found his first trip to be exhilarating (he crashed 3 hours into our trip).  Jim took advantage of Clay's nap to ride splash mountain and of course intentionally made a funny face as the picture was snapped but I don't have a picture of it.  

At this point, it was early afternoon and the park was starting to get crowded so we decided to take advantage of our park hopper pass and head over to California adventure.  

Before heading into California Adventure, we made a quick stop at our family brick.  For those of you who don't know, Jim and I had our honeymoon at Disneyland in 2005; our way of thanking Jim's family was to get a brick for our to enjoy during future visits (and we have enjoyed seeing it each time we've been since!).

Clay looking at "the brick" while his mommy waves like some kind of socially awkward martian.

Once inside, we snagged a Fast Pass for Soarin' Over California and headed over the "A Bug's Life Ride".  Let me say, this was a brilliant move; we didn't wait more than 5 minutes for any of the kids rides over there and they pretty much have the same feel as some of the main rides in the Magic Kingdom (the caterpillar ride is like Dumbo's train, the lady bug ride is like the tea cups, etc,).

Clay and Daddy waiting for Flick's Great Adventure!

After this ride, we did the caterpillar ride - no pics from the ride that day but I do have a pic from the next day that I'll share later!

First off, you are soooo welcome for the shot of my back side - I think the photographer was really wanting to capture the fact that Clay was walking up the stairs, you just get this as a little bonus.  Anywho, I thought if we went into this one show we'd end up in this playground that makes you feel like you are the size of an ant - guess that was actually in the Floria park - so Clay and I had to leave the show that I roped us into and go walk stairs while the show finished up.  We had a good time, though!

More assisted walking.

Clay's first character meet and greet - with Lightning McQueen!  Cousin Joseph would be so proud!

We closed out the day with a ride on the carousel; I was able to get this picture before the ride got going.  Good thing too because he insisted that I ride with him so a pic during would have been a little hard.

We decided to call it a night at that point because Clay had only had one 20ish minute nap that day and it was our Texas bedtime. 


I am so glad that we ended up deciding to spend two days there because it let us get a rockin' game plan for the next day.  More on that soon!