The Page Crew

After calling Disneyland twice to confirm that the fire in Orange County/Anaheim wasn’t causing the air quality to be bad, we made the decision to run down to Disneyland for a Mommy, Daddy, Maddie date.  Although we were both a little apprehensive as we drove through thick smoke, we made it to the Disneyland area & saw the blue sky reveal itself.  We knew we were in for a treat when we pulled into the parking structure & they directed us to park in an area that we had thought was for reserved parking (keep in mind that this is at 1:30pm on a Sunday!)  We jumped on the second tram that pulled up & then walked RIGHT through the front gate.  We don’t quite understand it, but Maddie has an obsession with Pirates, so we walked right on to Pirates first (as she sang “yo yo yo yo - yo yo yo”.  That is how the rest of the day went, the longest line was 15 minutes for Autopia - but we went on more rides in a 5.5 hour period than most people can get done in a week at Disneyland!  Daddy was especially happy as we walked past Space Mountain & saw the 5 minute standby timer - so he ran on while Mommy & Maddie watched the kids play with the “germ ball” (the gigantic wet spinning ball that 500 million visitors to Disneyland have touched & kissed). 

Some “too cute not to share” moments:

• Mommy coaxed Daddy to take Maddie on to the teacups.  While sitting in the teacup, Maddie stated that she wanted to go fast - he he he - As Mommy watched from the sidelines she began to laugh hysterically as our already tired daughter started to slump towards daddy with the excessive speed - then all of a sudden she just fell flat against him & didn’t even flinch a muscle.  We could only regret that we didn’t have a video camera as it was the funniest thing EVER!  (although she did start saying “fast, fast?” again when Daddy slowed it down out of concern.
• Daddy took Maddy onto the Go-Gadget kiddie roller-coaster.  Keep in mind, Maddie cries everytime on Pirates at the “bu-bump” towards the beginning.  Well, Daddy didn’t realize that this was a genuine “relatively” fast roller-coaster.  Well, Maddie absolutely loved it (or so we thought), but the look on her face from Mommy’s perspective was CLASSIC!
• Maddie got to meet several of her favorite characters.  She met Mary Poppins who, although she LOOKED genuine was a very confused person in regards to the accent (British mixed with Australian & even a hint of Chinese in there).  Maddie thought it was soo cool.  She also got to see Goofy, although she couldn’t meet him due to all of the excited Asian decent fans visiting with their 4000 megapixel cameras.
• Daniel & Aimee can somewhat vouch for this, but we once again got to see the block-party parade with all of the big Disney characters.  She put the last visit to shame with her enthusiastic (understatement) dancing & incredible energy.  She got to slap high-fives with lots of the characters since they were soo amazed to see a little girl on Daddy’s shoulders with so much energy!
• Maddie had the amazing priviledge to meet the big man himself, yes folks, Mickey Mouse IN PERSON!  Consider us a cheap, but we didn’t buy the 12 dollar 5×7 printout from them, nor did we pay the 15 dollars to get a download version….BUT, below is the best shot we could get:

Maddie absolutely loving Mickey Mouse!

Sorry for the incredibly long post, but, we just had sooo much fun visiting Disneyland when no one was there!  (it was a little eerie at times)  We really missed having some of our normal Disneyland companions there, but it was nice to spend a little “just the three of us” time!

Enough said. =o) ENJOY!!!

Rusty here, with a little technical humor that is too funny not to pass on:

Both of us have been working hard on teaching Maddie to be more responsive to questions, which in turn will help her to be more inquisitive.  To get her in the mood, we usually ask her a few questions: her age, the president, her friends names etc.  Recently, we have decided that, in order to prepare her, we should start asking her who the president elect is…she caught on MUCH faster than we thought she would.  Now she finds Obama a VERY fun name to say.  As her parents, we are starting her early to respect God’s newly appointed leader.

Enjoy this little interregation video:

I took Maddie to a local park yesterday to take some pictures. We had so much fun running up and down the hills and playing out in the cold. Enjoy! =o)