The Ferris Wheel at Disneyland

I have never been on a Ferris Wheel before and I have always wanted to ride on one. Just to see what it is like. And Disneyland gave me that opportunity. 

This wasn't just any Ferris Wheel. This one was HUGE! Super HUGE. And it scared me to death! I can ride an upside down roller coaster, do the Tower of Terror, but this thing was so unnerving. And it lasted forever. At least with the roller coasters, you knew what to expect and it was over quick if you didn't like it. This one went on and on and on. And if something went wrong, we would be dead no question.

One ride on this was enough to last me a lifetime.

Taneal felt the same way too.

Mickey's Magical Map at Disneyland

The 4th day at Disneyland, a Friday, the crowds were starting to come. We had been fortunate that most lines only had a 5 minute wait, the longest line had been about 30 minutes in Cars Land. Everywhere else was super short. So when Friday came around and things started to get busy, wait times around an hour, we were tired and not really wanting to wait in the long lines.

It kind of made me a little happy, because it gave me the opportunity to see some plays. I love plays and singing and watching dancing. It is pure enjoyment for me. So we stopped and watched a play called "Mickey's Magical Map" and I was in heaven.

The cool part about it was watching my kids enjoy the show. They all were enthralled. Watched every bit of it. No problems at all.

And I think Nathan has a crush. It's on Rapunzel. He got so excited when she came out onto stage. Every time he say her his body would overflow with excitement. It was so cute!

This guy was so fun to watch. His facial expression was so happy and happiness radiated from him.

Going inside the bubble was pretty cool too.

And afterwards, Taneal wanted to know how she could get a job at Disneyland and do the singing and dancing like all those people. I completely understand. They were pretty impressive and so fun to watch.

This is Nathan after the show. The last day of 4 spent at Disneyland. He was tired. Done. Ready to go home. He refused to walk. Just laid on the ground in the middle of the walkway.

The Sword in the Stone at Disneyland

My kids don't know the Disney movies like I do. None of them have ever seen The Sword in the Stone, which is one of my favorite Disney movies. 

So when I saw the sword in the anvil, I was so excited. I told my kids to go try to pull out the sword. They looked at me like I was crazy, but gave it a shot. They all tried. They all could not pull it out.

We moved on to another ride. And while in the line, Spencer asked me why we were trying to pull the sword from the stone. It was then I realized that none of my children knew this movie. 

I explained to Spencer that if he was successful in pulling out the sword, basically we would get a million dollars. Her looked at me like I was kidding. And I told him I was serious. He asked if he could go back over to the sword and try in again.

Spencer was so determined to pull that sword out. He seriously wanted the million dollars. He tried and tried and tried and tried. Only stopped when we insisted.

And then we got back to the hotel and I bought that movie for my kids to watch. Now they understand.

Jedi Training at Disneyland

My kids love Star Wars. Not that they've really seen the movie, but they love all the stuff that goes with Star Wars. Spencer had a Star Wars birthday party last year. All my boys have light sabers. They all occasionally hum the theme song.

So when we were at Disneyland and heard Jedi music playing, we walked over to see what was going on. And we discovered Jedi Training.

And actual Jedi Knight was there selecting children from the audience to train them in the Jedi ways. My willing children were selected and were given a cape and light saber.

The Jedi showed them how to swing their light saber, how to duck, and all the cool moves needed to be a true Jedi. Nathan and Spencer absolutely were eating this up. Life didn't get much better than this at that moment. And I quite agreed.

But then all of a sudden, the Jedi Knight felt something dark happening. He gathered all the Jedi trainees and had them move to an area together. All of a sudden the stage began to lift. Fog started coming out and Darth Vador appeared. Then Darth Maul came running from out of nowhere. The Jedi knight told Darth Vador that non of these students would go with him to the dark side. Darth Vader wasn't convinced and asked for a challenge. Well, all these students had been trained and so they were able to fight Darth Vader and Darth Maul. 

Can I just say, "Wow!!!" It was quite the experience.

Darth Maul was amazing. He walked right up to us and looked like the real thing. Freaky!

Here are the videos of my children fighting the dark side. As my luck would have it, two kids were going at once, one on the stage fighting Darth Vader and one on the floor fighting Darth Maul. Its pretty cool to watch them in action. Gavin, Nathan, Spencer, Danielle, and Camie all participated:

Cars Land at Disneyland

The very, very favorite part of Disneyland was Cars Land. Probably because my kids love that movie and can almost recite the thing. So to walk up to the entrance and see down the road to Radiator Spring, was truly awesome. 

And Lightening McQueen, Mater, and Red were all there. 

We visited the Cozy Cone hotel. Although it wasn't a hotel, you could buy food. That we didn't buy. 

Flo's V-8 Cafe was there. 

The landscape was just like Radiator Springs. It really felt like we were in the movie.

This was a fun little tractor ride. Gavin was too short to ride the main Cars ride, so we went on the other rides while the rest of us rode the Cars Ride.

The main ride in Cars Land is probably one of the best rides at Disneyland. It is like taking a nice leisurely ride with Sally and McQueen. And at the end there is racing. Super fun. And it probably had the longest lines at Disneyland. Everybody was in Cars Land. It was the busiest place. And no wonder why.