Kittens From The Dark Side: California

Day 5 was DISNEYLAND!

The girls have never been to Disneyland, and Greg hadn't been, either.

My Mom has been dreaming of taking her Grand daughters to get fancied up at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique since she knew they were girls.

This trip was a dream come true in MANY ways!

Cora wrote us all invitations to Disneyland.

My Mom found these adorable little dresses and had them made specially for Cora and Esme.

The dresses have their names on them!

And the panels have Disney ladies on them.

Here's what I wore:

sweater: Ross
t-shirt: Target
skirt: Rekucci (Amazon)
bag: Ross
hair bow: J Crew

I wore the foot brace (good choice)

and these sneakers (bad choice):

sneakers: Naturalizer (DSW)

I got blisters from both the brace and the sneaker.

Sneaker left a blister on my right foot and brace left a blister on my left leg.

The sneakers are very squishy, but they needed more wearing in, I guess.

We drove in separate vehicles because neither had room for us all - and it was a good idea in case certain parties (me) needed to leave early (which I didn't, though I did consider it).

Here we are in the Toy Story Woody lot.

with Mickey flowers near front entrance:

Cinderella castle in the background:

With It's A Small World:

I forgot that the container holding my lunch/dinner was glass (not allowed in the park), and we didn't know that selfie sticks weren't allowed, so after riding the bus to the gate and getting to security, Greg kindly went all the way back to leave our things in the Cube. Thank you, Greg!

Even though we traveled separately, we found each other.

Thank you, Disneyland for having enough bathrooms!

There was a long wait to get INTO the park,

and we were concerned that we'd be late for the girls' appointment at the

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique - but they made it!

Before:

After:

Before Esme:

In process:

After Esme:

They told the girls how to hold their hands to look like princesses.

The mirror bloomed and sparkled when the girls looked in the first time!

With her Uncle Greggie:

Mickey barrette with pink rhinestones!

Cora after:

holding her cute tiara

These pictures melt my heart and these girls have no idea how perfect they are.

Cora is so pretty that the mirror bloomed and sparkled!

LOOK AT THEM!

I found "First Visit" pins for the girls and Greg!

Can you see it?

There it is again!

Here's Cora's:

While the girls were getting fancy, Greg and I rode a couple of rides.

First we went to Pirates Of The Carribean:

Then we waited in line for the Haunted Mansion.

It was very hot by this time and I was wearing out from standing.

But it was still fun!

When the girls were finished, the rest of the group went to It's A Small World.

They all loved it. It's one of my favorites and I'm happy to say we went again at the end of the evening!

Then we met up for lunch!

On the way to meet them, we stopped for Dole Whip by the Tiki Room:

Mmmmm!

I made some nice cream at home the other night (with mango, papaya, and pineapple) that tasted almost like it!

Greg had a Dole float, which was just more pineapple juice than whip.

Greg with the Matterhorn.

Can you see me in the background?

Some of my lunch had been confiscated (well, it had been denied admittance to the park due to its glass enclosure), so I had some small loaves, fruit, and crackers.

It was a great lunch (mostly because of the company!)

I remember Mr Toad's Crazy Ride as being really fun and silly

last time I was there with a child (8 years ago when I took my young friend Juildeen),

and the adults in our party really liked it. The girls thought it was a little scary.

I didn't remember that the Toad dies from driving crazy and goes to hell - that's terrible!

He should've gone to the hospital or to heaven.

The girls did wonderfully waiting in line.

We went to the Peter Pan ride next, and then the girls wanted to do the carousel

(urp) and other spinning around things. I was getting worn by this time, so Greg and I decided it would be a good time to visit the Star Wars part of the park.

It was immersive and incredibly detailed.

Rey came out and fiddled with this ship (and Chewbacca):

Then we saw the Millennium Falcon!

Steam came out and the sounds of people talking to each other while working on it.

The line was looooong.

We waited over an hour.

They entertained us along the way through the set design.

The Coke bottles were shaped like BB8.

I tried hard to keep a good and cheerful attitude, but I was fading.

Sitting doesn't wear me out too much, and walking is okay,

but standing is hard.

I sat when there was an opportunity.

Also, it always seems HOT at Disney parks.

I live in the Arizona desert and you'd think that 80 wouldn't seem hot, but every trip to a Disney park I remember being HOT. Sweating.

Eventually we got inside. It was cooler inside.

I just wanted a little rest.

The design was excellent.

I felt like we were on a movie set - only better.

Here we are in the Millennium Falcon itself!

The ride was cool and I had buttons to push so I wasn't looking out the front window the whole time at the tilting swirling scenery, so I didn't get very sick.

I was almost crying a couple of times in line and afterwards because I was worn out,

so I told Greg I needed to sit down and rest a bit.

He suggested I put in my ear plugs (which I always have on hand!), so I did.

They are tiny and pink (so they matched my outfit!)

I sat by these beeping droids while Greg explored some more.

I actually fell asleep against that wall for a bit, and that helped me reboot.

The ear plugs and the sitting and the little doze helped quite a bit.

Greg poked around the rest of the environment.

Everything looked old, but functional.

I don't love animal heads on walls, but I get a kick out of these

pretend off-world animal heads. None of them is a real animal!

We saw Chewbacca walking around and making his funny sounds.

Storm Troopers came by, too.

They had the same weird computerized sounding all the same voices they have in the movies.

It felt scary when they came by. I thought I might get arrested because I am CERTAINLY a member of the resistance.

Greg bought a t-shirt for his friend Joe's daughter Kinsley

and one for himself, too.

The bag (not free) is an extra happy memory!

This one!

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Resistance Supply

photo from this website

I got one later.

It looks like this:

Image result for star wars t shirts raglan sleeves disneyland

When we found everyone else, the parade had started, and we joined in watching it.

The girls were ADORABLE (again!) being excited to see the characters they love.

They were singing along especially to the Mary Poppins songs.

Look at this excited little sweet face!

I can't get enough of how cute she is.

Cora was sitting on Mark's shoulders, and I'm not that tall, so I couldn't get good video of her

reactions. She's in the second video a little bit, also singing.

And there she is!

We cobbled together some meal-type food (though on the way home, Cora asked, "Mom, when did we have dinner?!") Thanks, Jillian, for sharing your fruit bar with me! I needed it and it helped a lot.

We went over to the Toy Story area (fun) and the girls rode the space spinner (not its real name).

It's very pretty in the twilight.

While waiting for our fast passes for Toy Story, most of the party rode this car race ride.

Greg and my Mom noticed I was drooping again, so I left the line and sat down to listen to the dance party music. It was nice to SIT and watch the happy people walk by. The music was good, too!