Disneyland TWICE!

Our roommate Emma has a friend from BYU that works for Disney World in Florida. Apparently every Disney employee can go to a Disney park for free and take a couple of friends. So, when Bree came to visit Emma, she took Emma and me to Disneyland!!! Emma's friend from class Emily and Bree's friend Caitlyn came, too, and even though we didn't all know each other, we had such an amazing time. Bree and Caitlyn (who used to work for Disney World, too) are Disney experts, so they knew the best route to optimize our time and minimize our waits in line. They get Park Hopper passes, so we started our day in California Adventure.

Outside Soarin' California


Heading towards Screamin'

You can't tell, but I actually felt like death here. Nothing a little Advil from the First Aid station can't cure.

Waiting for Indiana Jones to open back up. Someone dropped their backpack on the track, so they shut the ride down for a while. We actually had terrible luck with rides being open - of our 11 or so rides, 5 of them were closed at least temporarily. We didn't even get to ride the new Little Mermaid ride in California Adventure because it was shut down for the longest time.

Outside the Cinderella Castle. It's so disappointing. I didn't know before I first went a couple of years ago that the big pretty castle that you see in all the Walt Disney previews is from the castle in Disney World in Florida. The Disneyland one is just TINY. The rest of the park is magical, though, so I forgive it.

Splash Mountain has several little dips, and somehow I got drenched on every single one of them. This is me on the last drop - that's my "But I don't wanna get any wetter" face!!

Bree said she'd never seen anyone get so wet on this ride. This picture doesn't do justice to what a drowned rat I am. That ride and I aren't friends at the moment. Plus, it was getting darkish, so I was soooo cold!

There we're waiting for the World of Color water show to start. We got our Flash Passes for this 9 PM show at 10 AM in order to get a good section, plus we got there about 50 minutes before it started. There were already hundreds of people waiting when we got there. But the show was incredible. I had no idea what I was waiting for, but it was so worth it. It might be my favorite thing we did all day.

Star Tours had been recently redone, so we knew that there'd be a super long line for it. We got our Flash Passes first thing when we got to the park, and our time slot wasn't until that evening. This is us with our 3D glasses at Star Tours at around 10:30 pm.

We were at the park from about 9:30 (I think) until it closed at midnight. It was an intense day.

Bree and Caitlyn were super bummed we didn't get to ride the new Little Mermaid Ride when we went on Saturday, so they decided to go back to Disneyland on Wednesday just to ride that one ride before they left (guess you can do things like that when you get in free!). The best part....Bree invited me and Ryan to come, too. They would get us in free, then Ryan and I would stay the whole day while they left after just the one ride. The even bester part....Emma agreed to babysit ALL DAY, so that we could go!!!! It was amazing! Because of some intense traffic, we didn't get into the park until 11:30 and we left around 8 pm, so it wasn't the 14 hour marathon I had with the girls, but it was just perfect. Ryan and I don't get to go out on dates that much since babysitting seems to double the cost of every date, so it was so nice just to spend the day with him.

I didn't take that many pictures (most of the pictures of the girls group are from their cameras), but here we are outside of the Castle.

Ryan likes to make goofy faces for the camera, but he mistimed this one a little (easy to do since Space Mountain's in the dark), so this is just the beginning of his goofy face. Doesn't he look ecstatic?

We still prefer Magic Mountain a little since we're more roller coaster people (to which Bree, Emma, and others insist we're nuts), but there's no discounting the Disney experience. The roller coasters may be tame, but the theming and everything is amazing. We're actually taking the kids for the first time ever this coming weekend when my Dad, Mama Cara, and Lexi come to visit for my birthday. I think it'll be really different with kids. Sure, it'll be harder, but I just know Jeremy's going to be amazed and have so, so much fun!