The Happiest Place on Earth

Okay, first of all - MAJOR photo and video overload on this post! I know I've said that before but I've really outdone myself this time. Hope it's worth it by the time you survive till the end!

This last week was really crazy busy - we went to Disneyland! It was my first time going (and Mira's, obviously). We went with some members of Mark's family, otherwise it wouldn't have been feasible to take Mira. It was still tricky and of course it would have been easier if we hadn't taken her but I wasn't quite ready to leave her for so long yet. Plus she got into Disneyland for free so at least it didn't put us out that way.

Before we get into all that, here are some random pictures of Mira:

Eating Cheerios for breakfast

Yay Cheerios!

I love my Cheerios so much I'm going to share with the dogs!

Mira is quite good at sharing for an 11 month old. She shares pretty much anything she can, and smiles so big when you take what she's offering, but 2 seconds later she wants it back. Oh well, it's the thought that counts. She's also developed this habit of chucking any food she doesn't want right over the side of the high chair - she'll even glance down to make sure the dogs are there first (and of course they are, since they figured out pretty quick that they can get free people food near the high chair), then grab a handful and deliberately drop it on the floor. It's hard to discipline when it's so dang cute! Discipline is going to be so hard anyway, because anytime I tell her "no" for anything, and no matter how sternly and purposefully I say it, she grins and giggles. Seems a bit ineffective with that attitude.

She could definitely walk if she wanted to - she can do the squats and bounce up on her tip toes completely unsupported (and my opinion is that if you can do that, you can certainly walk), and if she holds onto your finger she takes off walking super fast and giggles the whole time, and we've been able to trick her into taking a few steps by herself a few times, but the second she realizes she's not holding on to anything she freezes, drops down and crawls off. She's totally just psyching herself out. Well, she'll figure it out when she's ready. There's certainly no rush for her to learn to walk from my end. :)

Okay, now for the trip! On the drive out we passed through Primm, Nevada, and stopped at the Buffalo Bill Casino, which is home to, apparently, one of the steepest roller coasters in the world. I took a video of Mark riding it:

Driving for long distances with a baby is tricky - I felt bad making her sit trapped in that car seat for so long but all things considered she actually did pretty well. We'd have to make a couple extra stops for diaper changes and meltdowns but we were able to drive from Salt Lake City to Disneyland in one day - we left at 3 AM but we did it! The next day was our first day in the park:

I'll be the first to admit that yes, this does sound very cliched, but I really did feel like a little kid again going through Disneyland. I remembered how much I used to LOVE watching all the Disney classics, like Cinderella, Snow White, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, and how much those movies are ingrained as part of your childhood. What a wonderful feeling it was to go back in time like that! And it was mind-boggling to realize how many movies we watch are Disney! Movies like Indiana Jones even. It was so fun to just walk through the park and see the different themes and look at the little girls dressed up as their favorite Disney princess (if Mira had been just a little bit older you can bet she would have been all dressed up too!), and of course catching glimpses of the characters wandering around. I just loved how it all really was a "theme" park. All the cast members working on a ride were dressed for that theme - this was the epitome of "Spare no expense."

As far as riding the rides went, we were able to take Mira on some of them, like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Winnie the Pooh and of course the carousel, and for the other ones we all took turns watching Mira so the others could go on rides. Mira did well on the rides - if it was completely dark on the ride she would start crying and she got scared on the carousel this time, but otherwise she didn't have any problems. Here comes the picture overload:

We let Mira "drive" a car in Toon Town

She sure was having fun being in control of the wheel!

Hold onto your hats - Mira's driving!

Whoooaaaaa!!

Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!

Mark isn't sure about the mouse ears.

Okay Mom - really?

Riding the merry-go-round. She actually got scared this time.

Modeling another set of mouse ears.

Mira meeting Mickey Mouse himself! And she didn't cry!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

Riding the Winnie the Pooh ride.

Having fun is so exhausting...

Tigger's body language says it all!

Again, no crying from Mira. I think she liked being the center of attention.

With Pooh bear, Eeyore, and Tigger.

All of the above plus Cap'n Jack Sparrow, I mean Mark

We got a 3 day pass so we spent the first day in Disneyland, the second day mostly in California Adventure, and the third going back and forth. We stayed in one of the resort hotels so we were able to walk to the parks, which was nice except that it was all so huge and spread out that it took a good 15 minutes to walk in to the park, not to mention getting to anything inside the parks. And maneuvering a stroller made it trickier too. You'd think that going in the middle of February would mean fewer people but it still seemed really crowded to me all 3 days - and we went in the middle of the week too! I don't even want to imagine what it's like during the summer or the weekend (or both, god forbid).

You would also think that since we were in southern California we would have sunny, 70-degree weather the whole time (since that's what the weather always is in southern California). As luck would have it, it was cold, windy and rainy for 2 of the 3 days we were there. Go figure. But since we were there we had to make the most of it so we did as much as we could anyway. That was my one complaint - we spent so much time running around we couldn't really relax. We were too busy getting our money's worth! We were up early every morning, walking around the park and hurrying to cram in as much as we could every day, and we pretty much didn't leave the park till closing each night. It was exhausting! I wish there was a way to go through this without being so harried about the whole thing.

As fun as Disneyland is, I really enjoyed California Adventure! It has more thrill rides, and they do something every night called the World of Color Light Show. I've been trying all day to upload some videos of the light show on to here but for some reason it's not working - so here are a couple pictures and when I can figure out how to get the videos uploaded I'll do that on another post. It was amazing - think the fountains at the Bellagio in Vegas, only set to Disney music, with amazing bright colors, fire, and scenes from Disney movies projected onto the water. Trust me, it's so cool! The pictures will have to do for now and they don't come close to doing it justice.

The Paradise Pier at California Adventure.

The coolest ride I've ever come across was in California Adventure. It's called the Tower of Terror and it's based on The Twilight Zone. True to form, it had a theme - it looks like a hotel, even on the inside. It had furniture and pictures and props from the 1930s, covered in dust and cobwebs, the cast members were dressed like bellhops and they acted like they were actually hotel employees, not just ride attendants herding you through as fast as they could. The ride itself is in a maintenance elevator. You sit down and put on a seat belt, and I would not recommend this ride for anyone who has a fear of getting stuck in an elevator when it breaks down - because that's basically what happens. The short version of the ride description is they shoot you all the way up to the 13th floor, and the elevator doors open so you can see you're at the top of the building and you can see all across the park. Then they flash strobe lights in your face so you're blinded and then you're dropped several stories in the pitch black. Then they'll shoot you up a few stories, drop a few more, up several more, the whole thing shudders and you drop again, then you're up at the very top again, then you drop to the bottom - and remember you only have a seat belt to hold you down. Really - just a seat belt. It. Was. Scary. But thematically one of the coolest rides I've ever come across.

You can kind of see one of the three elevator shafts. The doors right below the word "Hotel" are the ones that open up when you're at the top.

Tower of Terror at night. I love how they made it look like it used to be a really fancy hotel that's falling apart.

Me trying on Mark's Captain Jack Sparrow hat.

I put in some embarrassing pics of Mark so I'll be nice and include this one of me.

Aren't we a lovely couple?

Awww...

Different kind of awwwwwww..... :)

Mira had to deal with a pretty major schedule disruption this whole week. Not to mention being stuck in a car seat or a stroller most of the day - I felt bad about that but she seemed fine.

After our last day in Disneyland, we took a detour to the coast and went to Huntington Beach. I knew the water would be too cold for swimming but this was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up. In her first year, Mira has set foot in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans! Isn't that beyond awesome?! This is why I knew we couldn't pass this up. We got a lot of pictures from this. (If you want to remind yourself how she did in the Atlantic Ocean, click here.)

Watch me walk!

This is so much fun!

I like walking on the beach!

Let's walk into the water!

Wait a minute...

Her face says it all.

Now she hates the beach.

So there you have it, Mira has been to beaches on both coasts and she hates both of them. I'm sure it's because the water was so cold. I hope we haven't scarred her for life and she'll never like the beach. :) I can't help it, it was so cute!

She did like sitting in the sand and playing with seashells.

She's happy again!

I guess I can forgive you, Mom...

Instead of driving all the way back home, we decided to stop in Vegas and spend a night there to prolong our vacation just a little bit more.

While we were in Vegas Mark did something he's been planning on doing for the last year or so... I swear this man is insane... He jumped off the Stratosphere Tower. I can't believe people pay to do things like this. Several years ago we did the rides at the top of the Stratosphere and even though I love roller coasters and thrill rides, I vowed to never do the Stratosphere rides again because they are the only ones I've ever cried on because I was so scared. Once was plenty, thank you. And Mark wanted to jump off the top of the tower?? Okay, go ahead and I'll stay at the bottom to record you falling. Which is what I did. :) I'm impressed he did it! He even got a certificate saying that he can no longer be called "chicken" ever again. Stupid maybe, but not chicken. Now he's even saying it was so much fun he would do it again! This is one ride I'll pass on. Especially when they write your weight on your wrist so that if you splat they can be sure to find all the pieces. Seriously. And they asked him if he had any last words for his family in case something happened. Are these guys for real??

Tomorrow is Mira's first birthday and I just can't believe how fast this year has flown past! So crazy to think that at this time a year ago Mark was trying to talk me into going to the hospital because my contractions were so strong... We had a family birthday party today so I'll make sure to post pictures from that tomorrow. I never knew a year could go so quickly and that a person could change so much in that amount of time. Best thrill ride ever!