C'est un petit monde ...

My, oh my, what a wonderful day!!!

I had to post this song because we most certainly had a wonderful day!  Aunt Molly & Uncle Stephen -- thank you thank you so much!!! We had beyond our wildest dreams fun on December 26th.  

We left the house at around 8:15am.  Which for starters is well before any of us have been creaking out of bed.  These lovely French people keep their sun hiding until after 8am & it keeps us Texans in our beds way past when we are usually up and going.  It has been a fun slower pace for us, but most definitely needed to make a stop for coffee on the way to the metro for our train to Disneyland.

Here are a few pictures of most of us on the metro.

Katharine - check out the kids tshirts they wore today - you can see a glimpse of Jacob's shirt in this picture.  They loved their Christmas Paris jerseys & Eiffel Tower tshirts.   Thank you so much.  Halle thought her's looked like Belle under the Eiffel tower.  Very fitting for a day at Disneyland.

 This didn't turn out to be a very clear picture - but was sweet to see the expressions anyway as we turned the corner to see the Sleeping Beauty's castle

Our first stop:  We all kept repeating how fun it was to be there & could we believe we were in the center of Paris one minute & 30 minutes later - Disneyland.  So fun & exciting! 

Here is everyone waiting in line for Thunder Mountain.  I've always enjoyed Thunder Mountain but it has never been one of my favorites.  Today it was!  Everyone was giddy, fresh for the day & excited for our fun adventure.  This was Halle's first big roller coaster & Rebekah & Jacob's first time on this particular roller coaster.  They LOVED it!!  Halle just giggled & smiled the whole way through it.

Then it was off for some pirate adventures at Pirates of the Caribbean.  We made a quick stop off at the Swiss Family Robinson tree - our kids really enjoy that movie & thought it was fun that they had the tree in the park.  Once we got to the Pirate ride, Halle was a bit unsure of the dark cave - but quickly rebounded & enjoyed it.  They hadn't updated the ride like the Florida version, which I enjoyed - I like all the old school animatronics (I think that's the word).

 Here they are at Skull Rock before entering the Pirate ride.  Ryan, Dad & Chris ran over to Peter Pan to get a fast pass.  Thank you Disney for the fast pass.  It helps out sooooo much!

 After this we went to Fantasyland & rode Pinocchio (new for us), the tea cups, & Peter Pan.

Afterwards, we headed to main street for a hot dog & french fries.  The Disney Studios park closed at 7pm and we wanted to snag a few hours over there before heading back to the main park.  The first picture is of Halle & Jacob watching the Christmas parade while we waited for lunch.

 Bon Appetit!!

Here is my plug to every Disney studios park - please make a kid playland at each park like the one in Paris.  It was so fun and whimsical & captured the rides so well.  Here is a picture of Ryan with a giant French Buzz Lightyear.  Although those days have past... we spent many many early years with Ryan, Buzz & Woody.  Here is him humoring me with a picture with Buzz. 

They had a Slinky Dog roller coaster that went around in circles.  Here are my riding partners. 

A Cars version of the tea cups.... not a fan of twirling that much at once - thank you Mimi & Chris for being troopers.

A magical ride on a carpet ride....

We then went and sported our inner rock star & rode Rockin' Roller Coaster w/ Steven Tyler & Aerosmith (ok not really - but the music felt like they were right there with us).  The kids loved the ride & the quote after was "I've never felt more fully alive" 

Here is a snapshot of the Toystory portion of the park.  I'm always so amazed at Disney's creativity.

 The kid's went & got an autograph & photo with Dale - thank you Disney studios for a fun afternoon

Back over at the Disneyland Park, we got in line for a ride on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin with some cinnamon & spice popcorn from Mimi & Grandad.  This ride is a family favorite. 

Here are the kids giving me a space ranger stance in front of Discoveryland.

 Space Rangers - we need your help to defeat Zurg!!!

 Ok - love this picture of Chris!!  Look who is having so much fun with the astroblaster!!! 

Ok - a bit blurry - but still thought this was a fun picture to share of our Buzz Lightyear fun.

 Rebekah rode with me - here she is after tackling the ride with her astroblaster laser gun.

We rode the cars & then Mom/Dad, Chris, Ryan & Rebekah went to ride Space Mountain 2.  Riding Space Mountain in Florida has always been a favorite - but none of us had ever been on the new version of it.  Here is a video of the ride that I found online:

Jacob, Halle, & I waited at the exit with a tub full of Candy Floss (i.e. Cotton Candy) & talked about the day the three of us could ride it together when they were tall enough.  They were super troopers for not being able to ride this time around.  Way to go Jacob & Halle!

Afterwards, we headed back to Fantasyland to ride It's a Small World ( or C'est un petit monde).  It was the best!  They intermixed the traditional it's a small world song with Christmas carols & it really was just fantastic - no other way to describe it.

Someone had posted a video from last year's Christmas Small world ride &

it seemed very similar to this year's ride - Enjoy!

Then, Jacob sang his version of Tangled when Mother Gothel sings to the magic flower.  It was great!  Thus the smile below:

 
It was getting pretty chilly at this point - so we divided & conquered the rest of Fantasyland.  Mimi, Grandad & Jacob went to Snow White & the rest of us went to the merry go round.  Here are few pics from that ride:

Then the best way to end the day ... we couldn't even imagine what would happen next.  The chilly rains began - and instead of heading to Indiana Jones for the final ride - we headed to Walts to see if they had availability for dinner to see if the rains would pass.  Now, I had zero idea of what Walt's was except I had heard the name earlier as a place to eat at in the park.  We walked in & the lady said they were completely booked & couldn't take our party of 8.  I figured that would be the case since I had just seen her tell the same to a group about our size. . but had asked anyways.  As we were deciding where to head - one of the waiters came downstairs and said a party of 8 had not shown up & we could have their table if we would like.  What?!!  Yes, please!!  As we began to go upstairs - I realized how nice this restaurant was & was completely curious about the fare we would be dining on in a moment.  As we passed the rooms of people eating, we were led to a private room with a Christmas tree - set up for the holidays - tinsel & lights on the window, a fully decorated tree, and an amazing view out upon the main street of the park.  As we washed our hands in the bathroom to prepare for the meal - I couldn't help but thank the Lord for such an amazing treat to get to do this.  What a wonderful way to end the day!!  The kids loved the menu & even ordered themselves.  The picture below was of my steak & potatoes!  Delicious!!

Afterwards - we went outside to head to the metro & listened to a few minutes of their night-time show.  They projected images on the castle & had all sorts of lasers & lights beaming from the castle.  We came outside & heard Step in Time from Mary Poppins & did some dancing in the street ourselves.

Then another family favorite came up next:

And to finish off our few minutes there - Halle's all time favorite song from Tangled:

Afterwards, we could tell it was getting towards the end & wanted to make it to the metro stop before the thousands tried to head back to the city.  It was a sleepy 30 minute ride home - Halle fell asleep in her stroller, Rebekah & Chris sat on the floor, with Rebekah drifting off to sleep.  The boys hung in there - but were fast asleep within minutes of hitting the pillow.  We got home in the late 11:00pm hour from an abundantly full day of FUN!!  

Molly & Stephen -  It was and will be a memory our family never forgets.  We wish you were there with us - but hoping in the absence of being there, the pictures & stories bring you along with us.  Thank you so much!! 

** Also - I'd like to send a BIG thank you to Abraham Mast.  When he heard I was having trouble with my computer - he went and created a document to help me step by step alleviate the memory load on my computer so I could keep posting.  I so appreciate your help, Abraham!  Thank you so much in helping us capture our memories online by showing me how to continue to post our adventures!  :)