DISNEYLAND!

On the Friday of their visit, Mom, Aunt Cindy, Claire and I decided to drive to Disneyland!  Nick was thrilled for me to have someone else to go with.  The excitement started long before we left the apartment.  None of us slept well because we were too excited.  Mom and I were singing and dancing to "walking right down the middle of main street USA" while waiting for the Ebingers to finish getting ready.  As we headed out of the apartment (an hour later than we planned) Aunt Cindy was yelling in the parking garage and telling every individual we ran into that we were going to Disneyland (I had to lock her window in the car to keep her from yelling while at stop lights).  Claire and Mom and I were already singing Disney songs.  It's truly amazing we were not exhausted already when we arrived just from all the excitement.  (Basically, I could not have picked better people to experience Disneyland with.) 

On the tram from the parking lot to Disneyland!  We were already having fun watching all the kids faces!

looks quite a bit like Disney World at the entrance.

 This is Sleeping Beauty's Castle and all I can say is she must be jelous of Cinderella's (Disney World) because this castle was very tiny in comparison.  Still, you must take your picture in front of it.

We did stop to have our pictures taken with a few characters...All of us with Mary Poppins and Bert.  Mom and Aunt Cindy with Winnie the Pooh (while Claire and I rode Splash Mountain).  Claire with the main characters of her favorite Disney movie (Nightmare Before Christmas).

Claire, Mom and I rode the Matterhorn as soon as we arrived and then headed to Small World with Aunt Cindy.  As you can see, the mothers were having WAY more fun on Small World than any person (child or adult) has ever had!  You may also notice we are all wearing big Disney buttons.  When we arrived at the ticket counter the lady asked if we were celebrating anything and of course we were!  But they don't have buttons that say "I'm Celebrating being at Disneyland" so we told her about Mom's 50th Birthday and Aunt Cindy's Anniversary.  They each wore their buttons proudly until someone said "Happy Anniversary to you both"!  They were promptly corrected after the laughter and crossing of legs to keep from peeing our pants subsided.

We had such a great time.  Disneyland is a lot like DisneyWorld but has a few of it's own gems as well.  The other park there is Disney's California Adventure.  Here we rode (or some of us did) Soarin', California Screaming, and Tower of Terror (even Mom did this one!).  My only regret may be not just biting the bullet and buying the annual pass.  We stayed till about nine when we just couldn't walk anymore and had to put effort into staying awake for the drive home.
It was a great day!