"It's a world of laughter, a world of tears..."

This year is turning out to be very similar to last in that we are in vacation mode for months!  Lucky us!!  We took our second trip to Disneyland with the kids at the beginning of this month.  Aside from the long drive down to Anaheim, we had another amazing time. (As an sidenote, we are beginning to think Maddie is ill fitted for long car rides.  She complains of belly aches after only 30 minutes in the car.  I need to look into this...)  This time it was a bit different though.  For starters, it was HOT.  We are not used to going all day long in that kind of heat and it definitely slows you down.  Secondly, it was CROWDED.  We were lucky enough to go Tues-Thurs last year because of Mark's sabbatical and let me tell you, it makes a difference.  We went Friday and Saturday this time around and the lines were l-o-n-g.  The kids managed it well though and I only once thought I was going to lose my mind (when Jacob and I waited for 40 minutes on the Space Mountain line only to have it break down with the employees telling us we could "risk it" and wait another hour and a half.)  Finally, we were a lot less "aggressive" this time around in that we didn't take as many pictures, didn't hunt down as many characters and overall just relaxed and took our time.  I guess that's what second-timers do. Maddie loved riding more of the rides this time although we are learning that she is a lot more conservative when it comes to scary/thrill rides than Jacob is. 

On the second day, we headed over to California Adventure to check out Cars Land.  We've all been dying to go since we just missed it's opening last year (and Jacob loves himself some Cars). We got there early and waited before the doors even opened but the crowd was already horrific.  We followed some thousand people in and went straight to the main Cars ride and still managed to wait an hour to get on that darn ride.  But I thought it was totally worth it.  They did a great job creating Cars Land and that ride was super cool (even if Maddie did freak out in the middle of it and start crying because she was terrified.  ha.)

I can't wait to continue to make this an annual trip for us -- at least until the kids can't stand it anymore. :)  Perhaps Disneyworld is next??

As always, you can check out the full album from Disneyland here. 

But here are the highlights.

Our first ride!

On "it's a small world" ride

I think we all absolutely LOVE the parade.  When Maddie hears the drums coming down Main Street, she has to get up and dance.  And she does this:

And this:

And this:

Day 2:  Waiting for California Adventure to open so we can go to Cars Land

The sea of people we followed in straight to Cars Land

Waiting in line for the Cars ride

You can see the Cozy Cone motel and Lightning McQueen behind us

The ride - Finally!

It's probably a good thing you can't see Maddie's face in this picture that was taken of us on the ride.  This was about the point when she started screaming (she's up in front next to Jacob).  Clearly the rest of us were having the time of our lives!!

Luigi's white wall tires

The ride essentially takes you on a ride through Radiator springs and it ends with you racing the car next to you.  That's when Maddie lost it and this is what it looked like as we were walking out.

Our favorite -- Mater :)

Can't wait until next year!!