DISNEYLAND - DAY 2 (finally)!!!

To start off today's festivities, please enjoy a little early morning video from Addy. Doesn't she look hung over? I swear we were not drinking the night before.

On Day 2 we were joined by our friend Mandy and her family (who also let us crash at their house), which included Mandy's 4 year old daughter, Sydney. Ohhh was Addy ever in heaven to have a friend, and especially ANOTHER friend named Sydney (this is her 3rd).

I tried to start the day off with something less traumatic than the first day, so Finding Nemo Submarine was stop #1. Survey says: kids loved, mom not as much. One of many taken for the team.

Hallelujah for the multiple adults thing again, because I got to hit my favorites - Space Mountain and Indiana Jones, both with Ethan. Maybe I'm getting old, but I.J. was way more exciting than I remembered. Space Mountain, on the other hand, scared the pants off me. The ride was the same, but they made some changes for Halloween to the images projected inside and they were terrifying! Maybe I'm a wimp, but giant red floating skeleton heads popping up while I whiz by at 60 mph tend to make me nervous.

Another fun Halloween change was the Haunted Mansion. AWESOME!!! This ride seems like it's always closed when I go to Disneyland, so I was thrilled it was open. And holy cow, amazing!!

Of course, we had to hit the Teacups again - this pic shows Addy looking a little nervous about riding with all the boys, so she hopped into our cup right after this was taken.

It's a Small World was a HOOT with these two! Sidenote - Sydney does not have a gold tooth - that's popcorn.

As you can see, these girls thought IASW was the best thing EVER!! Seriously, I thought they were going to climb out of the boat and hug all the puppets. I also quite enjoyed myself because it's a LONG ride and was a nice little chance for me to change my shoes (yes, I switched shoes), enjoy some Diet Coke, send some texts, and basically sit in a stupor for 10 minutes.

Not as big of a hit was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I sort of knew this would happen going in, but it was the only ride in Fantasyland that had less than a 25 minute wait, so there it is. Here's the classic group pic: Tyler, Connor, Mandy, me, Sydney, Addy, Cassy, and Ethan.

We trekked back to California Adventure and Ethan and I went on the River Run with some hilarious little Japanese girls and their dad. Next time I won't wear jeans on this ride.

Our only major mishap of the day was losing Sydney for about 20 minutes inside the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. Apparently (this happened while Ethan and I were getting soaked on the river) Sydney is a jungle cat and blew Addy out of the water with her climbing skills on the ropes course. She got to the top and took off before Cassy could catch up with her, but luckily we found her before we had to shut down the entire park.

This is Addy meeting Russell (from the movie Up).

Heimlich's Chew Chew Train at Bug's Land. I know I complained about other rides being boring, but this one wins not only the most boring, but also the shortest ride ever award. I swear it was 7 seconds long.

Last stop was the Tower of Terror. And no, I did not take Addy on this. The funnest part of the whole thing was waiting in line, and getting laughed at by Ethan while I peed my pants in suspense. OK not literally, but it was close. Even being wheeled into the operating room for a C-section was not as scary as getting on that ride. The ride itself was also pretty darn terrifying...at one point I couldn't tell if we were going up or down or east or west or what but it was crazy. CRAZY!!. My blood pressure stayed at approx. 200/120 for at least 15 minutes after it was over. What a rush!

And that, you will be grateful to know, concludes our Disneyland travelogue. What a totally wonderful and magical vacation! It was so fun watching Addy experience everything Disney for the first time. I just loved it. And it was SO cute watching Addy with my Cassy and Ethan. She really misses out on a lot of good family time living so far away, so it was great for her to have a little bonding time with her auntie and cousin. Love you guys!!!!