the first trip to Disneyland

This past weekend, we flew down to Orange County and Miss L made her first visit to Disneyland. (Her first trip to Disney World was back in January – see recaps here, here and here) Since her last drive to Los Angeles with Mr. M was a little too eventful and not so pleasant, we thought that making the one-hour flight might alleviate some of that ickiness. Turns out that she was a great plane passenger (made better by her having her very own seat) and the trip down and back was easy all around.

And if you’re wondering how much fun an 17-month old can have at Disneyland… well… let’s just say that she went crazy when she saw this poster at baggage claim.

“Mickey! MICKEY!” Yes. A poster. At the airport. Not even close to the parks. Oh boy…

Our real reason for visiting for the weekend was the D23 expo [see the blog I wrote over at This Happy Place] – essentially a big giant Disney fan convention put on by the mouse himself. My mom and I attended the first expo back in 2009, so we decided to reprise our visit and bring along Grandpa L, Mr. M and Miss L this time around!

And while our trips to the parks were short over the three day span, she got on lots of memorable rides…

Like Dumbo (or “Bumbo!” as she calls him)…

The Jungle Cruise… (she definitely liked the hippos and the ‘backside of water’ the best)

The Disneyland Railroad…

Autopia…

and Winnie the Pooh. (“Pooh!!!”)

We only let Miss L look at the carousel, because no matter how excited she is before she gets on one, she freaks out and hates the ride while she’s one it. I think we all enjoyed just watching the horsies circle by much more…

And while the lines were incredibly tame for a summer weekend (longest was 20 minutes), she still did a great job waiting. And if she started getting impatient, this usually did the trick…

Heck, she even got to enjoy her very first Dole Whip!

Did I mention that Mr. M was a super-trooper and dressed up as part of our Dumbo family-themed attire for a whole day?

On Saturday night, my parents were kind enough to volunteer for sleepy duty with Miss L, and we got to stay in the park to relive the glory days of our late twenties (when we had annual passes and would visit Disneyland on a random Friday night).

What does that mean?

Going on Splash Mountain at 11:15pm at night because there’s no line and the thrill of getting soaking wet is just too hard to resist.

As for her time at the convention… a lot of it was spent here… in the Disney Channel pavilion.

She chased after and threw around all of the “bea balls!” …

… hung out with Perry the Platy-bench…

… and even got to meet her favorite special agent Bear, Oso! (Sean Astin held up the poster and talked behind it using the voice… you should have seen her eyes light up)

We even “suited up” for the new Disney Universe game…

In all, it was a really fun trip and I’m sure she’ll have more fun next time when we head back in January. I’m not sure I’ll be able to take any photos, since I’ll probably be hobbling around and trying to walk, but we’ll see!