Happiest Place on Earth

Me and my dad at Disneyland when I was less than a year old.

I love, love, love Disneyland. My parents started taking us when we were very young. To show you how old I am, we used to have tickets for each ride instead of just a pass to get in the park. My parents would buy packets of tickets which would have lots of A rides (smaller, less popular), but very few E rides (Matterhorn, no such thing as Space Mountain back then). We would have to split the E rides between all of us kids. There used to be a saying that something was as good as an E ride, but now days, no one would know what that meant. One year my mom made us all shirts out of red bandana fabric. For some reason, that stirred up some excitement in the park. People kept taking our picture. I guess they weren't used to a 7-person family. Or maybe they thought we were a performing group or something.

Last week my sister and her family were going to Disneyland. They invited us along and we really wanted to go, but we weren't sure Baylie would apprciate it being so young. Plus, we didn't see how we could justify the cost. When my mom said she'd pitch in as a birthday present for me and a graduation present for David, we jumped at the chance. And can I just say, you're NEVER too young (or too old) for Disneyland.

Baylie loved Disneyland. Her favorite rides were "Small World," "Tea cups" and "Horses." She loved some of the characters and not others, but regardless she would always ask for "my book, my book," the autograph book Grandad bought for her. She especially loved the princesses. It was so much fun going to Disneyland with a child. It was so magical.

I confess I cried when Baylie spied Tiana and ran over to give her a big hug.

Baylie cried too when she had to leave Tiana.

Baylie was a big fan of Alice who invited Baylie to dance with her. (During the Tiana show Baylie was also asked to dance, but she was too afraid and wouldn't go - much to my dismay since we arrived a half hour early just hoping for the chance!)

Even Jalen, young as he is, enjoyed himself. He kept looking around and watching everything. He went on a few rides. I think it was nice for him to see something besides our apartment ceiling.

We'll be moving across the country soon, so it will be a while before another Disneyland trip, but then again, Disney World isn't that far from South Carolina...

Disneyland can also be exhausting...

... you have to take a break wheverever possible - even on the ground.

Thanks Grammy (and Grandad) for making this trip possible.

We also took a side trip to the Santa Monica pier where I was sure our little princess was going to jump into the ocean. Thank goodness for the monkey leash.