I Love...Disneyland! Take Two {Part 2}

Today I'm going to continue my mini series on the reasons I love Disneyland.

FAVORITE SPOTS TO TAKE PICTURES IN THE PARKS!

Disneyland Front Lawn or Mickey Flowers

The very first thing you see when you enter Disneyland's gates is the front lawn or the Mickey flowers. It's been a tradition for Josh and I to take a picture in front of them. There have only been 2 trips we've taken that we haven't taken a picture there. My favorite is when the flowers change due to a season or special celebration, or when the train is in the background of the picture.

Main Street

Obviously. I love the buildings, I love the smells as you walk down the street towards the castle, and I love the music they play as you stroll through. I really love when the lights are on at night.

Cars Land

It's probably the best spot ever. I love the fact that you feel like you are actually in the movie Cars. They did such a fantastic job creating this area. All the buildings and the sights and sounds. It's the perfect spot to take lots and lots of great pictures.

Mickey's Toontown

So while this is not my favorite area of Disneyland by any means, it does have the best places to take silly pictures. There are tons of little things to pose with to get that perfect funny picture. You can pull on different things that make sounds and pretend to be driving a car in a very crazy fashion. It's one of my favorite places to go and take fun pics when other areas in the park are busy.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Obviously this is the most iconic spot in Disneyland. It's breathtaking. It's beautiful. And right now, it's pretty shiny. Because of the 60th anniversary (which is still going on as of publish date), the castle is decked out in beautiful diamonds and jewels. It really does look magnificent, though I love the way it normally looks as well.

60th anniversary

50th anniversary

Early '90s

Off The Page/Animation Academy

This building is located in Hollywood Land. I highly recommend checking it out if you never have. Currently, the meet and greet for Anna and Elsa is located in this building, as well as the Animation Academy (where you can learn how to draw characters), Turtle Talk with Crush (we've never done this before, but the way I understand it, you are able to "talk" to Crush and some of his friends and they respond back to you), and the Sorcerer's Workshop and Beast's Library (where you can make an animated drawing and learn what Disney character you are most like). It's a great respite from the heat and offers a view of some wonderful Disney classics on multiple giant screens set up around the main room.

Wherever the characters are

I have to mention this again because there are newer characters to meet that are pretty fun if you're into certain franchises (Star Wars and Marvel, specifically). Also, if you have a Disney Visa card, there are two spots in the parks that offer exclusive meet and greets just for you...and they come with a free 5x7 print! In California Adventure, the meet and greet is usually with Minnie, Daisy or Stitch and in Disneyland, it's currently Kylo Ren (as of publish date)! There are specific times of the day they are offered, so be sure to check out the details before your trip. We took advantage of the Kylo Ren meet and greet the last time we were there and it was a lot of fun! He's a little intimidating, as the character is very true to his character from the movie, but it was really cool to be able to have that experience.

Also, I will mention that there are some fun photo spots that have been set up around the parks for the 60th anniversary. They are each based on an attraction and offer a 3D perspective that makes it like you are a part of the attraction! There are three in each park and we have taken pictures with three of the six.

This one is located in A Bug's Land in California Adventure

This is right next to the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland

This one was around the corner from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but due to Star Wars Land construction, I'm assuming they've either moved it or aren't offering this one any longer

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post for more fun info about why I love Disneyland! And if you missed yesterday's, you can find it here.

I Love...Disneyland! Take Two {Part 1}

One of my most favorite things to talk about is Disneyland (if you're new around here, you probably didn't know that. But chances are, even if you're new, you figured that out quickly)!

I did a little mini-series a few years back about the things I loved about Disneyland, with each day centered on a different category. Since we have been quite a few times since then and experienced some new and different things, I thought it would be fun to do an updated series!

So, here starts day 1 of I Love... Disneyland! Take Two:

FAVORITE RIDES

I don't feel like this list has changed too much, but there have been a few changes/differences to some of the rides, as well as a few that I feel deserve to be spotlighted here.

Pirates of the Caribbean

I have to start with this one, because it is my absolute favorite. I also love that it's Josh's absolute favorite as well, so we ride on it as much as we possibly can when we are there. I'm not sure what I love more: the smell when you enter the building, the infamous song "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me", or the crazy pirates and their various antics throughout the ride. I honestly love everything about it. We try to make it the first ride we go on whenever we start a trip to Disneyland. It's just that good.

The Haunted Mansion

Just down the road a little bit in New Orleans Square lies The Haunted Mansion. This ride is all sorts of fun. I love the fact that it still scares me a little bit (total honest moment here. I get freaked out to this day by the ghosts that pop out from behind the graves) and yet I will ride on it over and over again. I love that they added the Hatbox Ghost last year as a part of Disneyland's Diamond Celebration for its 60th anniversary. The stories are a little conflicted as to how long the original Hatbox Ghost resided in the Mansion when it first opened, but regardless, it wasn't more than a few weeks. "Hatty", as some of his die hard fans refer to him, has had a cult following for many years and people have requested and awaited his return. If you haven't been to Disneyland at all in the past year, be sure to look for him as you exit the attic scene on the right hand side. He's pretty awesome.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

(A Hidden Mickey!)

So this is a new addition to my list. I'm not sure why I didn't include it before, but it's here now! I seriously love this ride. I have a harder time with the rides that jerk you around a lot, so we usually only go on one of those types of rides each day. I wish I could ride this one more often though. It's super fun! They remodeled it a little over a year ago and added this really cool "indoor" scene with dynamite. I will not ruin the surprise for those that haven't seen it, but I do recommend sitting in one of the cars further back to get the best experience. I love that Disney incorporated Rainbow Ridge in this ride (the little town you pass by right before you exit the train), as this ride is on the site of a previous attraction called Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland.

Jungle Cruise

This is a fun one. I love the jokes the skippers tell. Some of them are super corny and some I've heard a million times...but then you ride and hear some you haven't heard before and it's just amazing. It's seriously the best ride for a laugh and a little break from the throngs of people hanging out in Adventureland.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye

This is right next door to the Jungle Cruise and is worth the wait (though I do recommend getting a fast pass for this one whenever possible). It can be super jerky and bumpy at times but it never gets old. I love everything about this ride and I love that they brought some of its original glory back a few years ago when they redid the beginning sequence of the ride. If you ride more than once, you may notice that the colors and themes change a little in that initial room.


Space Mountain

Ok, so I love Space Mountain. For an indoor, can't really see anything in front of you, roller coaster, it's pretty awesome. We've been on it when it changes to Ghost Galaxy around Halloween, which is also pretty fun. And the past couple of trips, we got to experience the most recent overlay of Hyperspace Mountain, which has a Star Wars theme. Let me tell you, that one is not my favorite. I love the fact that I can't see stuff in front of me on that ride and yet Hyperspace Mountain ruins that. It actually freaked me out the couple of times we went on it because you can see the track in front of you at times and how close you are to hitting stuff! If you're cool with that, I'm sure you'll love it. For me, it just makes me super nervous with a pounding heart. I'm really looking forward to the day that it is back to its original and glorious form (little known fact: the score for Space Mountain was done by Michael Giacchino, who also did the Alias theme song. If you ever go back and watch that, you'll probably notice that the music styling is very similar between the two. Also, Giacchino did the score for Up, which is one of my most favorite Pixar movies).

Peter Pan's Flight

The line for this ride is ridiculously long no matter what time of year you go. We went once right when the park opened and still had to wait for over 30 minutes to ride it. And considering the ride is probably only about 2 minutes long, it may not seem worth it. But I just love this one. Peter Pan is one of my all-time favorite stories and I love the fact that you "fly" on this ride. Also, they refurbished it last year and added some really cool animated features to the ride, as well as enhanced some of the other parts. It's definitely worth going on at least once in awhile.

Alice in Wonderland

This is also a new addition to the list! I didn't realize my love for this ride until a few years ago when I rode on it for the first time (at least, the first time that I can remember). For a Fantasyland dark ride, it is one of the longest, and to me, that makes it worth the 20 minute line it typically has. This one also had a refurb a few years back and has some really cool additions. Fun fact: on our last trip to Disneyland, we were supposed to ride this as part of our Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps Tour, but the ride broke down before we were even inside. Because of where our vehicle stopped, they had to call the Disneyland fire department to come and "rescue" us. It was the first time Josh and I have ever been escorted off a ride together and it wasn't our last time on that trip!

Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters

Which leads me to this ride (which was the other ride we got escorted off of on that trip). This one is just fun. It usually has a pretty short line and it's a fun competition for us. Josh almost always beats me (I honestly think I've only scored higher than him maybe twice) but it's still super fun. We know some of the higher scoring places to aim and we do our best to get the highest scores we possibly can. Plus, I love that you can email yourself a copy of the picture instead of having to purchase it.


And before we head over to California Adventure and my favorite rides there, I wanted to give a couple of honorable mentions for some other rides that I also enjoy:

It's A Small World

We have to ride on this one at least once a trip, because it's just fun. And it's a nice long ride, which is a great break if it's super hot outside. It's my favorite at Christmastime, because of the way they decorate the outside, but also because I love all of the decorations inside (and the song changes to Jingle Bells).

Star Tours

This one is really fun and I love that a few years back, they changed it to where you go to a different destination each time. This one can be really jerky sometimes, though, so we don't often ride this one too many times in a trip.

My LEAST favorite Disneyland ride is the Matterhorn. It hurts so bad. If you have any back, neck, hip, joint, or knee problems of any kind, or if you'd like to not have to visit a chiropractor after your visit, I would suggest skipping this one. They redid some stuff on it last year and added a cooler looking Abominable Snowman, but you can watch lots of videos on YouTube to see it. The ride is rough!


Over in California Adventure, I have a couple of favorite rides:

Toy Story Midway Mania

This is another competition ride, but this one is in 3D and has a bunch of different mini games that require you to shoot at different targets with different ammo. It's really fun and I often beat Josh on this one. The line is also super long, so we tend to only go on it when it's either not super hot outside or when the line is on the shorter side. I think the shortest we've ever waited was 20 mins and the longest was probably closer to 50 mins.

Radiator Springs Racers

It's by far the best ride in California Adventure. I love this ride. The Cars movies aren't my favorite, but Cars Land in California Adventure is like walking through Radiator Springs in the first movie. And this ride takes you through the city as well and it's awesome. This is also a competition ride, though you have no control over who wins. But it's seriously amazing. We always do single rider on this ride, unless we are with a big group, in which case we will get fast passes first thing in the morning. But single rider is definitely the easiest way to avoid the 1-2 hour wait this ride usually has.

Soarin' Over California

This one will soon be a thing of the past. Well, at least in its current form. It is changing to Soarin' Around the World in June. I'm excited to see what they do differently, but I am also very sad that they will no longer have the California film with the smells and the music. I love to take my flip flops off on this ride and imagine that I'm really hang gliding over the places on the screen.

Monsters Inc.: Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!

Honestly, Monsters Inc. is one of my favorite Pixar movies and I just love this little ride. I think my favorite scene is with the bedroom doors. I love Boo and Sulley and their relationship. This ride also tends to have a wait of between 5-10 mins, so it's the perfect ride to go on when it's hot outside.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure

I also really love this one. It has a super short line most of the time and it's just so fun. I love singing along to the songs and enjoying the cool air. I love that it makes you feel like you're going underwater. It's just a great ride.

And my LEAST favorite ride in California Adventure is The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It's not because it's a painful ride...but it freaks me out! I've been on it about six times, so I feel like I gave it a pretty good try...but it's just not for me. If you like the feeling of falling super fast, going up and falling again a few times, you will love it!

Stay tuned for my next post tomorrow about my favorite place!

04.16

April was a really fun month, full of fun times with family and friends.

Here are some highlights:

We started off the month with a fun trip with friends to the beach! It was such a good little weekend getaway. We did a little wine tasting, visited an aquarium, did a lot of walking, and hung out on the beach. The weather was perfect and we had such a great time with our friends.

We had a couple of fun celebrations for my sister's birthday. We went wine tasting in a place none of us had been before and it was so much fun! It happened to be raining all day but we made the most of it. It was such a good time, She, my mom and I also spent a fun day shopping followed by dinner and dessert with the boys. I'm so glad we were able to do so much to celebrate her.

I had my five year anniversary at my job! It's crazy to think how fast time has flown and that I've had this job that long. My boss and his wife took Josh and I out to a nice dinner to celebrate. It was a really fun night!

Josh and I also had a fun date day, just the two of us. We went to a candy making factory (which kind of turned out to be a bust since they no longer offer guided tours and they don't make candy on the weekends) and then I took him to this cool indoor market I'd been to a few years ago with my wine ladies. We had a yummy lunch and then headed to a winery to do a little wine tasting. It was a really fun day and I'm glad we were able to go and be a little spontaneous together.

I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix. I had never seen it before and have a few friends that really loved it, so I decided to give it a try. Some of it was super cheesy and one episode had me thoroughly freaked out, but overall I really enjoyed it and all of its late 90s/early 2000s goodness.

We also babysat my sister's dog for a few days while she was out of town. Josh and I already really loved their dog before this, but I think he really fell more in love with her while she was with us. We were both sad to see her go when it was time for her to go home.

Overall it was a very busy and fun month, but I'm excited for life to slow down a little bit this next month!

Never Say Never

Being an adult can be hard.

Obviously.

One thing I've learned in my 31 short years on this earth is that you really shouldn't say never about everything. Or even make fun of things you don't understand or like. Because I have eaten my words many times over these 31 years. A couple of case-in-points for you:

1. I swore to never have a Twitter account. It's true. In fact, I posted a status about it on Facebook about 6-7 years ago (I know this because it popped up on my "On This Day" not that long ago). I didn't understand why anyone would want to post nothing but status updates when you could already do that on Facebook. Oh, how naive I was...

2. I used to be the girl that posted every single thing she did throughout the day on Facebook. I make fun of those people now, but really, I used to be one of them. That good ol' "On This Day" feature has reminded me of that fact many times. I used to post things like "is doing laundry" (remember when a status was your name or your name is?) or "is tired" or "is bored". Yep, things I'm sure all of my friends were dying to know about me. I guess I shouldn't make fun of the people that still do it, since I used to be one of them.

3. I didn't understand why people used the phrase "self care" and vowed never to use it. And yet, if I look at my life, I really am a huge proponent of "self care". In fact, I took some time this evening to do just that. I found a spa station on Pandora to do some of my stretches to and it made them so much more relaxing. I read my Bible. I poured myself a glass of wine. I spent some time relaxing on the couch. I need "self care". I need alone time. Both of which are not only good for my soul and mental health, but good for my physical health as well.

I think we as humans are far too quick to think that we will never be "that person" or we would never use "that phrase" or feel "that way". But until we are in those places in life, we can't say that. I didn't understand loss until I had been through it. I didn't understand how hard marriage really was until I got married. I didn't understand why people respond in anger in their pain until I was in pain and responded in anger.

I think we need to stop saying never in certain situations. I think we need to stop being quick to judge people in hard situations. I think we need to remember that life isn't always going to go the way we anticipate and remember that it surprises us often. And I think we need to have a lot more grace for ourselves and for those around us.

03.16

March was a very busy month for us! Here are a few highlights:

We went to a Mutemath concert with a couple of friends. It was such a great show! Josh and I had seen Mutemath twice before but it had been quite a few years. They have so much energy and it's obvious they have a lot of fun when they perform.

I saw Wicked with K.M. and S.W. It was so good! I had seen it about 6 years ago with a few friends and loved it. It was just as wonderful the second time! We also found a great soul food place to go to for dinner before the show and got some macarons!

We also went wine tasting twice! The first time we went with a group of friends and went to a few different places that we'd never been to before. The second time, Josh and I went by ourselves to a new place on our way to spend some time with his family.

Easter weekend was a busy but good one. We went to the Good Friday service at church (which was really good) and then had a few friends over for dinner and games. On Saturday, we spent the day with Josh's family at the campsite that one of his brothers and his parents were camping at. On Sunday, we went to church in the morning and then spent the afternoon with my family. It was a really wonderful weekend full of time with family and friends, and spent doing a lot of reflecting on what Jesus did for us on the cross.

I read The Last Girl with my BCBs. It was a very interesting read and I'm curious to see what happens next in the story.

My friend E.O. had her baby girl! She is such a beauty and I can't wait to cuddle with her someday!

I had a lot of release from my myofascial appointments this month. It's crazy to see the physical changes as well as to feel them. I notice all sorts of little changes here and there now. And it's always encouraging when my therapist tells me how much better things are looking in between appointments.

March was busy and fun, but it's hard to believe three months of 2016 have already happened!