The reason this blog title is One Last Final Hoorah is because sadly our Disney annual passes have ended. We celebrated one more time this past weekend and though it was our last trip for awhile, it was great! We made so many memories during this trip. Here are some of our favorites. (BTW these pictures ended up chronologically backwards so if you want to see them in the right order go to the end and scroll up! Sorry I was too tired to change them)
It may not be the real Indiana Jones but a Lego one is still pretty cool! Sorry about the reflection off his hat.
This was a first for both Emma and I. We've never gotten to see Fairy Godmother before! After Emma finished taking her picture, Fairy Godmother leaned down and asked Emma her name and talked with her for awhile even though there was a line behind us. She was such a sweet lady. As we were walking away Emma said, "Mom she's just like my Grandma!" It brought sweet tears to my eyes thinking about how many times my mom has been my Fairy Godmother.
This is inside the Beasts library. How many of you know where this is in California Adventure Park? It was a little discovery we made while we were there. It's in the same place Turtle Talk with Crush is. There is also this cool thing called the Animation Academy in that same building where you can learn to draw a Disney character with an actual Disney artist. We learned to draw Pooh Bear. Of course none of ours were very good but it was a fun 30 minutes! Oh ya about the library...you can find out what Disney character you most resemble. Emma was the only one of us to do it because it was so busy but she resembled Lady from Lady and the Tramp. I wondered if it was because of her pony tails. They do kinda look like Lady's dog ears! If you keep on going in the Sorcerer's Workshop from there you will go into Ursala's Grotto where she will steal your voice. That one was fun too but Emma chose the sing the Unbirthday song which is so fast so we sounded terrible! Still fun though!
Another first...I have never gotten to see Mushu or Mulan! Brent called us on his way to procure fast passes to Screamin' over California. He told us there were characters right next to the tortilla factory and we got there in time to see them. It was pretty exciting and Mushu was pretty funny.
This is me and Emma after going on the river run. We all got totally wet and I had to change shirts after that because I was wearing white! We weren't going to go on it but Brent talked us into it and we walked right on without having to wait....I wonder why, in January!!! Oh the water was sooooo cold! Cute pic though. Might have to print this one and frame it!
That's Emma in the green dancing with the Mad Hatter, Alice and the Queen! We didn't get close up shots with just them because they were performing but I squeezed my way in and Emma was chosen to dance with them. Every so often I get the impression that Emma still thinks the characters are real. Actually I'm not sure if she knows that those are not real people but a mask? She took one look at the Queen and really didn't want to go dance. She finally did after I pushed her out there. What a great parent I am huh? Whatever, she had a good time!
How totally cute is this picture?
YES, I finally get a smile on film from this ole galloot!
Just Goofin!
This was the coolest place. Right as you first walk into Main street, off to the right is Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. (for more info) It's this whole area that has history of Disney and the U.S. Brent and I love this kind of thing where you can walk around and look at cool stuff that you've never seen before. I have kind of a big like of history anyway and so this was right up my alley. This miniature of the White House that Emma was standing infront of was just one of the miniatures they had on display. The others I can remember were Splash Mountain and the original Sleeping Beauty's castle. After you walk around and look at all the history, there is a short theater presentation in the original opera house with Pres. Lincoln himself (well an Audio-Animatronic Pres. Lincoln anyway) Emma leaned over and asked if that was really him. He did look pretty real. He gave a short speech and I thought it was pretty moving. I like that we were able to see that speech this close to Presidents Day. It was a great reminder of what this coming holiday is about. This whole time was an awesome experience for me. It's not one I will soon forget. After we walked out of the speech we went through a hallway with portraits of historical figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Lance Armstrong just to name a few. It was cool talking to Emma about these people and sharing with her what they had done. It was also cool that we could experiencing these things on MLK weekend because we were reminded, as we went through and talked about some of these people who made a difference, that because of them we have the opportunity to work through our prejudices and difference instead of feigning ignorance. Again tears came to my eyes as we talked about those historic people. (I'm making it sound like I cried all weekend long. I didn't I swear. I'm just an emotional person!!!)
Waitin for the tram, waiting for the tram. How come we're always waitin for the tram?
Emma triumphs over the pumpkin! (While Mom and Dad take a break and rub their aching toes!)
HA! He thought I was going to take a picture of him flippin me off. Instead I got a smile. That's #2 babe. Face it you have a great smile. You should do it more often!
Emma finally got to go on a ride all by herself! She's big time now! She kept asking to do this on her own. We finally gave in on a ride we knew didn't either go to fast or go upside down.
How sweet is this picture. I want to be Princess Tianna!
Our first time riding the Disneyland Fire Truck! I love Emma's banana smile!
Emma was mesmerized by the Magic Shop guy! She really wanted this magic card trick. (not the one in the picture but something different) She had earned a little nest egg for herself and we told her she could spend it at Disneyland but that she couldn't spend it until we had gone through the park and it was the end of our trip. This happened to be at the very beginning but in the end we came back and got the magic trick she was wanting for two days. It's all she could think about! She's actually pretty good too for a 7 year old. That video will come later!
I guess we'll end where we began. Mickey! Right in the beginning in the park we saw Mickey and were first in line to take pictures with him. It made me stop and wonder if that was going to set the precedence for our entire trip. Well it sorta did. We had so much fun and did things that we've never done before and saw characters we've never seen before. We got to be the parking guest of the day, park in the closest spot to the tram, and not pay for parking the whole day long and on the first day we got in an hour early to the park because a nice lady named Peggy slipped us in when no one was watching! There was only one moment that was sad for me. As we were returning to our car for the last time the driver of the tram was giving us a little Disney trivia. He said that Splash Mountain is 20 years old this year. It was sad to me because I remember vividly when that opened and it made me feel really old! No I realize I am not that old but the thought of 20 years going by makes me feel that way! Anyway...Thank you so much Nth Generation (Brent's work) for giving us the annual passes. We've taken the opportunity to make many memories because of your graciousness. This kindness will live forever in our many blog posts!
It may not be the real Indiana Jones but a Lego one is still pretty cool! Sorry about the reflection off his hat.
This was a first for both Emma and I. We've never gotten to see Fairy Godmother before! After Emma finished taking her picture, Fairy Godmother leaned down and asked Emma her name and talked with her for awhile even though there was a line behind us. She was such a sweet lady. As we were walking away Emma said, "Mom she's just like my Grandma!" It brought sweet tears to my eyes thinking about how many times my mom has been my Fairy Godmother.
This is inside the Beasts library. How many of you know where this is in California Adventure Park? It was a little discovery we made while we were there. It's in the same place Turtle Talk with Crush is. There is also this cool thing called the Animation Academy in that same building where you can learn to draw a Disney character with an actual Disney artist. We learned to draw Pooh Bear. Of course none of ours were very good but it was a fun 30 minutes! Oh ya about the library...you can find out what Disney character you most resemble. Emma was the only one of us to do it because it was so busy but she resembled Lady from Lady and the Tramp. I wondered if it was because of her pony tails. They do kinda look like Lady's dog ears! If you keep on going in the Sorcerer's Workshop from there you will go into Ursala's Grotto where she will steal your voice. That one was fun too but Emma chose the sing the Unbirthday song which is so fast so we sounded terrible! Still fun though!
Another first...I have never gotten to see Mushu or Mulan! Brent called us on his way to procure fast passes to Screamin' over California. He told us there were characters right next to the tortilla factory and we got there in time to see them. It was pretty exciting and Mushu was pretty funny.
This is me and Emma after going on the river run. We all got totally wet and I had to change shirts after that because I was wearing white! We weren't going to go on it but Brent talked us into it and we walked right on without having to wait....I wonder why, in January!!! Oh the water was sooooo cold! Cute pic though. Might have to print this one and frame it!
That's Emma in the green dancing with the Mad Hatter, Alice and the Queen! We didn't get close up shots with just them because they were performing but I squeezed my way in and Emma was chosen to dance with them. Every so often I get the impression that Emma still thinks the characters are real. Actually I'm not sure if she knows that those are not real people but a mask? She took one look at the Queen and really didn't want to go dance. She finally did after I pushed her out there. What a great parent I am huh? Whatever, she had a good time!
How totally cute is this picture?
YES, I finally get a smile on film from this ole galloot!
Just Goofin!
This was the coolest place. Right as you first walk into Main street, off to the right is Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. (for more info) It's this whole area that has history of Disney and the U.S. Brent and I love this kind of thing where you can walk around and look at cool stuff that you've never seen before. I have kind of a big like of history anyway and so this was right up my alley. This miniature of the White House that Emma was standing infront of was just one of the miniatures they had on display. The others I can remember were Splash Mountain and the original Sleeping Beauty's castle. After you walk around and look at all the history, there is a short theater presentation in the original opera house with Pres. Lincoln himself (well an Audio-Animatronic Pres. Lincoln anyway) Emma leaned over and asked if that was really him. He did look pretty real. He gave a short speech and I thought it was pretty moving. I like that we were able to see that speech this close to Presidents Day. It was a great reminder of what this coming holiday is about. This whole time was an awesome experience for me. It's not one I will soon forget. After we walked out of the speech we went through a hallway with portraits of historical figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Lance Armstrong just to name a few. It was cool talking to Emma about these people and sharing with her what they had done. It was also cool that we could experiencing these things on MLK weekend because we were reminded, as we went through and talked about some of these people who made a difference, that because of them we have the opportunity to work through our prejudices and difference instead of feigning ignorance. Again tears came to my eyes as we talked about those historic people. (I'm making it sound like I cried all weekend long. I didn't I swear. I'm just an emotional person!!!)
Waitin for the tram, waiting for the tram. How come we're always waitin for the tram?
Emma triumphs over the pumpkin! (While Mom and Dad take a break and rub their aching toes!)
HA! He thought I was going to take a picture of him flippin me off. Instead I got a smile. That's #2 babe. Face it you have a great smile. You should do it more often!
Emma finally got to go on a ride all by herself! She's big time now! She kept asking to do this on her own. We finally gave in on a ride we knew didn't either go to fast or go upside down. 
How sweet is this picture. I want to be Princess Tianna! 
Our first time riding the Disneyland Fire Truck! I love Emma's banana smile!
Emma was mesmerized by the Magic Shop guy! She really wanted this magic card trick. (not the one in the picture but something different) She had earned a little nest egg for herself and we told her she could spend it at Disneyland but that she couldn't spend it until we had gone through the park and it was the end of our trip. This happened to be at the very beginning but in the end we came back and got the magic trick she was wanting for two days. It's all she could think about! She's actually pretty good too for a 7 year old. That video will come later!
I guess we'll end where we began. Mickey! Right in the beginning in the park we saw Mickey and were first in line to take pictures with him. It made me stop and wonder if that was going to set the precedence for our entire trip. Well it sorta did. We had so much fun and did things that we've never done before and saw characters we've never seen before. We got to be the parking guest of the day, park in the closest spot to the tram, and not pay for parking the whole day long and on the first day we got in an hour early to the park because a nice lady named Peggy slipped us in when no one was watching! There was only one moment that was sad for me. As we were returning to our car for the last time the driver of the tram was giving us a little Disney trivia. He said that Splash Mountain is 20 years old this year. It was sad to me because I remember vividly when that opened and it made me feel really old! No I realize I am not that old but the thought of 20 years going by makes me feel that way! Anyway...Thank you so much Nth Generation (Brent's work) for giving us the annual passes. We've taken the opportunity to make many memories because of your graciousness. This kindness will live forever in our many blog posts!
1 comment:
Holy Epic post! That is a sad sad day when the passes expire. Enjoyed your pictures so much! DLand is pure magic!!
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