Disneyland Day 1

So I took my kids into Disneyland & Disney California Adventure for the first time today. We spent all day there & I just wanted to give a quick run down of what we did. We walked in to Disneyland when it first opened at 8am & just planned to do Main St. & ride the train once around but once we got in we immediately saw Mickey with Pluto, Donald, Minnie, Goofy, Alice & Mad Hatter, and Cruella deVille. Later on in DCA we saw other characters, mostly at Disney Animation which included Mickey in Sorcerers Apprentice outfit, Woody, Mr. Incredible with Elastigirl, Cinderella with Jasmine, Chip & Dale, Koda & Kenai from Brother Bear.

From Disneyland 2009

Anyway, we rode the train around Disneyland, walked up & down Main St. USA, checked out Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and headed over to DCA for it's opening (it opens at 10am). We got a fastpass for Soarin' Over California then made our way to Monster's Inc. ride. We were the second car on the ride that morning. Then we did Tower of Terror which Jennifer just loved especially since she got to go on it twice in a row. For all the rides with height requirements where Anna and/or Sara are too short, one of us would go on the ride with Jennifer who's tall enough for just about all the rides and then the other would stay with Anna then we'd swap & the second adult rider would just take the switch off pass down the "Fastpass" line almost right up to the front bypassing most of the people waiting in line.

We did Soarin', then while one of us did Grizzly River Run, the other let the kids play at Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. We all got nice & wet on GRR and Sara especially loved flying at Soarin'. We had lunch and spent time in Bugs Land where the kids had fun on Heimlich's Chew Chew Train (very short for the 15 minute wait), Tuck & Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies (same as last one and it's only slow moving bumper cars), Flik's Flyers, and the 3-D show "It's Tough to Be a Bug!" that had more effects & sensory elements to it than just visual, the seats sprayed you & made you feel things during the show related to bugs, fog machines, spiders dropping from the ceiling, etc

Finally we did Muppet Vision 3-D, another show like the last one but Muppet themed but funnier and no scary parts at all. All your favorite Muppets are represented except for a lack of characters from Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem which meant no Animal but Janice rides by on the back of a bicycle with Scooter at one point. After this show we sat in line for a Broadway type showing of Aladdin with real actors & nice effects, sets, etc. We sat down in line & had dinner since we arrived to the show early enough to do so, about 25 minutes or so and there were already people there before us. We called it a day after that & now we're all tired. We did a bunch today, tomorrow we'll take it a little slower.

New Design / First Compliment

First off, if you come to my actual web page to read my blog vs. getting updates via RSS feed you'll notice I picked a new design template for my blog and have chosen to "go green" so to speak.  The layout is still the same so you can still access all the features and fun stuff as before but I thought it was time for a change.  At some point in the future down the road I may eventually go to a hosted site & start using something like Wordpress so I can have more flexibility in my design but for now this offers very low maintenance, easy startup, and best of all, it's free.

And now for something completely different.

In the last few months my 2yr old daughter Anna has just been exploding with how much she's talking, the words she's using, the sentences she's making, and in general just how much she's communicating and showing us how much she understands things.  This has also started to define her personality more as she's able to communicate what she's thinking, how she's feeling, her wants, etc.

This past week as I was coming upstairs, she was standing at the top of the stairs waiting for me and holding out a bracelet for me to take while saying "Reach Dad, reach."  When I got to the top of the stairs and took it from her she gave me possibly the first genuine compliment she's given me by simply saying, "Good reach Dad, good reach."  The next day I had just finished helping her in the bathroom and while she did most of the actual "work",  as we were finishing up she told me, "Good job Dad, good job."  

I can't remember the last time I got a compliment that was as meaningful.  It reminded me that genuine compliments between adults seem to come way too infrequently and are usually "scheduled" events that involve a boss or manager at review time.  At the same time, it also taught me that perhaps we should be more casual in giving compliments to each other so long as it's sincere and not trite or repetitive.  

"... and a little child shall lead them."  Isaiah 11:6