The Happiest Place on Earth

You can't go to California and not go to Disneyland, right?!  My hubby and I have been to Disneyland so many times we lost count.  Living 20 minutes away while growing up, you tend to go a lot.  And way back then, it was very cheap to go for the day.  Yes, I know, I just dated myself.  But we could go for like $20 a day, so it was always an option.  Now days, it is like $80 for a day and that is only one park.  That is a bummer because it is such a fun place to go.

I have deprived my children all these years of this place and so when we learned of this family reunion, I started making plans to take them.  I heard of this program of volunteering your time for a day and you could get a free pass to Disneyland.  I jumped on that chance and signed us up to help with a Chihuahua Rescue.  We had to go to a Petco and help with these dogs for 4 hours.  That is it and the whole family could do it and we would get a free day at Disneyland.  We had a great time, it was easy and it saved us about $572 - the cost of one day in one park for 6 of us.  Not a bad deal.

We picked a day and whoever wanted to go, went.  I think there was about 22 of us they went that day.  We all started out together and then we seemed to split up going every which way.  We really wanted to stay together, but with that many people it was too hard. So we met up a few times throughout the day. I decided to not bring my nice camera as I didn't want to lug that heavy thing around and I wanted to be able to just put it in my pocket, so I borrowed T's camera.  Some of the pix are not the best, especially the ones at night, but I was happy that I opted out of the big camera.  It made the day much nicer for me.

Here we are walking down Main Street at the very beginning of the day - 8AM!

Here we are on the first ride of the day at what ended up being one of our most favorite. . . . . .

INDIANA JONES 

We really liked SPLASH MOUNTAIN too.....

OK, maybe not J as you can tell from her hidden face in the picture below. . . . Can't see hubby in the very back cuz some crazy woman was larger than life. (heehee)

Another favorite was SPACE MOUNTAIN . . . . (the white building behind the big space age thing in front)

Again, gotta love those pictures taken during the ride. . . . How does T always end up in the front???  Look at hubby, if you can see him with that same lady in front of him-what a crack up!

Here we are all after eating lunch and trying to figure out what to do next.  Hmmmmm?????

Half way through the day and still going . . .

Had to stop and try on some hats. . . . .

These Mad Hatter hats were so cool, but they were $60.  OUCH!

I have always liked the JUNGLE CRUISE. . . .

And then the night falls and we keep going . . .on the DUMBO ride with my K! 

OK, K is getting a bit wacky as the night wears on. . .  she is on overload! (on the Matterhorn)

Of course, fireworks and watching TinkerBell fly from the castle . . . Dumbo flew too

And we are finally DONE!!!  It is midnight and we meet up again to head back to the beach

What a fun day we had.  We are wiped but happy.  One day is hard to get everything done, but we did do most everything we wanted.  We would have loved to go to California Adventure but we would have needed another day and no one was willing to give up another day sitting on the beach.  And best of all, the day didn't cost us a thing.  We had signed up for the Disney Visa card years ago in anticipation of going to Disneyland some day and we had racked up enough reward points to pay for all our food in the park (which isn't cheap) and we still have some left over.  Couldn't have asked for a better day.  It truly is the happiest place on earth, when I am with my family for sure!