Characters

One of my favorite things about Disneyland is the characters that you run into. Some we had to stand in line for longer than others. But I loved how excited my little boys got when they met "the real Pooh" or "the real Buzz Lightyear". It's so magical at that age. My older kids were great about posing for pictures with all the characters without too much complaining, but for Aaron and Nate, the excitement was palpable. My favorite was when we met Woody. As I was taking pictures, Nate turned around to find Woody's hand and held it. Woody is just too good a friend to not hold hands.




















There's a story behind Donald's pictures. On our first day as we were walking to Disneyland, I instructed the kids on not fighting or teasing each other so we could have a pleasant time. I also told them that Mom's a bit obsessed with taking pictures (I took 400 pictures while we were there), and they would make me very happy if they would always look and smile when I was trying to take a picture. That afternoon, Scott had to leave before us to go back to the condo to meet the grocery delivery, and the kids and I headed home for lunch at a slower pace. On our way to the front of the park, we saw Donald. We stood in line to get a picture. And when it was our turn, Aaron wouldn't get out of the stroller for the picture. As we walked home, I told Aaron how sad I was that he hadn't gotten out of the stroller to be in my picture. When we got back to the condo, he very apologetically explained that the tea cup ride had spun him so fast that it had spun right out of his head him remembering how important pictures were for me. And he promised that he would remember that from now on and that he'd always jump right up for pictures and smile me. And he did, for the rest of the trip.