Homesick for Disneyland

First: some housekeeping issues. My playlist is being really weird. I'm thinking that whomever originally uploaded the songs to playlist.com has messed around with them. Today when I turned my music on, there was some drunken idiot singing Bohemian Rhapsody. If you encounter this in the future, please let me know so I can fix it. (I honestly hardly ever listen to it anymore. I need to put new songs on it!)
Also, this post should probably be broken up into several posts, but my friend Amy will most likely be posting soon about Disneyland I don't want her to feel like I'm stealing her thunder.

There are two places in the world that I've been where I could live and be totally content: England and Disneyland (or World, I could do either). For both of these places I am constantly saying I am homesick. And I mean it. I miss them. I want to go back soooooooooo badly that it affects my dreams and my waking thoughts.

People are quickly learning that if I am in a sour-ish mood, the only thing you have to do to get me out of it is ask me about Disneyland. I loooove talking about Disneyland. I love it when people are going for the first time- or haven't been in a long time and they ask me for advice and tips about what to do and where to go. It puts me in the oh-my-gosh-I've-created-a-monster-please-make-it-shut-up type of mood. My friend Amy is at Disneyland right now. Like this second, as we speak she is probably standing in line for a ride or *gasp* eating a corndog!!! UGH! My co-worker is also going this weekend- and she made the mistake of asking my advice.

She got it.

I've talked about Disneyland so much in the last few weeks, that I find myself homesick for it. True, it hasn't even been a year since I was there, but I just need the magic. I crave the carefree happiness of it all. Sigh... I guess I will have to content myself with posting pictures from my trip last year- since I never really did post many.

Our first day there, we had some time to kill before going to Goofy's Kitchen so we wandered downtown Disney.  When I grow up, I want to work at the Lego store. Oh my gosh! I can't imagine the work that goes into those things. And who sits around and thinks them up? Wow!

AUUUGHHHH!!!!! I just had a minor melt down trying to upload pictures and arrange them. Stupid blogger won't let me put them where I want. So I threw my computer across the room, stormed out and ate an entire pie! I feel better now. (one of those statements is not true).

There were several awesome displays- of which I have pictures- and also of which I have no patience to post today. But this was my favorite one. All Legos folks. Awesome. (well, not the actual building, come on.)

What's fun about the Lego store, is all the stuff they have for you to play with. Outside, they have work stations where you can fashion yourself a race car and run it in races against other cars.

I'm not sure who had more fun, the two year old or the uh... taller two year olds.

 I made two. A "Kermit" car and a very poor rendition of a Model T.

 We lined our cars up to race. I can't even tell you who won (probably me, because I'm awesome)

but my favorite thing was DJ poking his little head over the track so he could see.

There were also exotic birds. DJ wasn't quite sure what to think of that. This part was after Goofy's kitchen and he didn't really trust us.

We made a visit to the Build a Bear shop. If had all kinds of money and nothing else to do with it, you betcha I'd buy this Kermie and all kinds of little outfits for him. But, sadly, I am not 5 years old- nor rich.

Twas the end of day one and already they were wiped out!

 Having fun really takes it out of ya!

Our first actual day in the park was lots of fun. It's just so wonderful to go with kids who are seeing it all for the first time- the wonder on their faces is priceless. All these things they see on TV and in cartoons... they're real? Really? I love it.

It's almost a tradition to get on the train first thing and just go for a ride around the park. Plus, little boys like trains. And so do his children. 

Our first thing inside the park was to go to the Tiki Room. There wasn't much of a wait, at it's always best to get it out of the way so you can say you've done it.

The first ride we went on was Pirates. Thank you kind stranger in the first row for taking the picture for us. It's amazing how much there is the park that you can do with a baby. People probably don't realize that babies can go on pretty much any ride that doesn't have a lap bar. The big big rides he couldn't go on- but everything else he could.

Do you know what I love about Disney? Well, besides the obvious things I've gushed over in the past- that they think of everything. I mean. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. Did you know there are designated places in the park for you to take your service dog potty? seriously. Who thinks of these things? We stumbled across one by Big Thunder Ranch.

DJ's favorite ride by far was the Pooh ride. He still, a year later talks about the Pooh ride. He loooved it. And I loved taking him. Our last day, while we were sitting waiting for Fantasmic, I took DJ and we rode the Pooh ride THREE times! There was no line- and he just loved it and kept asking and because I'm a doting aunt who has no other purpose in life than to spoil cute babies, I obliged.   

 He also quite enjoyed Dumbo. Baby O didn't get to go on that one. He hung out with me.

Another thing I like about Disney is the random street performances that they have- and not all musical. Seriously, who sat around one day thinking, "I am going to make art with a wet broom."? Depending on the heat of the day, it only lasts a minute or two.

Well, this guy does it. It was so cool! the fun thing about this memory, was he was drawing one picture, he had a crowd of people around him and everyone was saying... "who is it?" in whispers. It took a minute, but I was the one who said (really loud, because we all know what a bigmouth I am) "It's Zero! (from Nightmare Before Christmas). The artist looked up at me, got a big smile on his face and said, "Yeah!!!" like I was the first person to ever get that one. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Zero.

Ugh... I was just looking through my pictures and there are seriously so many more I want to share and talk about- This post is already toooooooo long and is going to have to be continued. I'll wait till another time when I need a healthy dose of Disney Magic!