The View From Here: Life with the Wardrips...: Definitely the Happiest Place on Earth!

A couple weeks ago, we got to spend 2 days at Disney and we had an amazing time! We went to celebrate Noah finishing his Master's Degree (we actually packed up and went there on the same afternoon that Noah completed his Master's presentation!) and it was definitely the perfect way to have fun together and re-connect as a family after 3 stress-filled months!

We stayed at the Candy Cane Inn, which is about a 5 minute walk into Disneyland. It was fun to stay here with my little family because as a child, this is the same hotel I stayed at when I went to Disneyland for the first time when I was 8-years-old.

Keira loved staying at the hotel too! We set out her sleeping bag on the floor and she had a great time sleeping there! On our first day at Disneyland, she kept saying throughout the day that she didn't want to go home and she wanted to stay at the hotel. It was fun to tell her, "Yes, we are going back to the hotel to stay one more night!"

Snuggling with Daddy before heading off to Disneyland!

Classic picture spot!

She loves loves loves the carousel!

And the Dumbo ride, of course!

Happiness!

Getting to meet Minnie was fun!

Some really cool flowers around the park

Chillin' out after lunch

Is Keira imitating Pooh or is Pooh imitating Keira?

Hmmmm....

Can't get enough carousel!

Daddy let us splurge and get Keira's face painted!

She was so excited!!

So pretty!

Disney parades are always pretty amazing and this one, centered around music, was no exception! Although Keira has never seen a Disney movie, she loved seeing all the characters!

On our 2nd day at Disney, we went to California Adventure, which was our first time going there. It was a lot of fun!

When you ask Keira what her favorite ride was, she will say "The Mermaid Ride" which is the brand new ride that tells the story of "The Little Mermaid." We went on the ride 4 times and it was really fun to see the amazing special effects they use nowadays.

Ariel and her underwater hair-do

This is Mickey's Fun Wheel. If you ask Keira about it, she will tell you she did not like it and she'll say, "I shaked" and then proceed to demonstrate her shaking (ie trembling with fear) motion.

If you look closely, you'll see some gondolas on the outside and some on the inside of the wheel. The ones on the outside are stationary and the ones on the inside of the wheel are on a track and swing back and forth as the wheel goes around. We thought we'd go all out and try the swinging gondola, but maybe that wasn't the best choice. It was a bit scary for me, and yes, Keira did shake and bury her head in my lap as the gondola rocked. Next time, we will stick with the stationary gondola!

Riding the rocket ships!

Wheeee!

Getting ready for the swinging gondola!

We had no idea when we were in store for!

(Fun?) on the swinging gondola!

The view from way up high on Mickey's Fun Wheel!

More carousel? Yes, please!

Keira LOVED meeting Pluto! She went back in line to get to meet him a second time! And she was brave enough to take a picture with him all by herself!