Disneyland: Day One

This is Finley's second trip to Disneyland, but it is the first trip to any Disney property where she is finally taller than 40 inches.  This means she can ride nearly every ride in the park!  Her first evre big girl roller coaster was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  She did great!  She was really giggling up a storm.  We also took her on Space Mountain, which has been Halloween themed to Ghost Galaxy, so on top of being in space, a crazy ghost monster was chasing you.  Finley wasn't as thrilled with Space Mountain, she really didn't like the ghost.  She wants to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again, but I think Space Mountain is off the table until that ghost is gone.

This morning we started by getting our Disney annual passes for both Florida and California, which should make for a very fun year.  After we got that all processed and our photos taken, Finley wanted to ride Mr Toad's Wild Ride first.  After that it was on to Dumbo, the Teacups and Small World.  We headed over to Toon Town to meet Goofy, visit Minnie and Mickey's houses, ride the Gadget Go-Coaster and Roger Rabbit's Toon Town Spin.  We fast passed Space Mountain for later and then rode Buzz Lightyear (Daddy won!)  We headed over to Frontierland for lunch and then on to Critter Country to ride Winnie the Pooh and meet him, followed by Tarzan's Tree House.  After that, we visited the special Halloween Jamboree where Finley met Chip or Dale and Donald Duck.  Donald was especially interactive with Finley, he took her over to the pumpkin carving area, which was really neat.  We rode the carousel, then Pinnochio and then it was time for the Soundsational Parade.  After the parade, we took a ride on the monorail and headed over the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Finley loved it!  Then we headed to Tomorrowland for Autotopia and Space Mountain.  The park was closing early tonight for the Halloween Party, so we headed over to California Adventure to check out Cars Land and grab some dinner.  The park was getting crazy crowded and Finley fell asleep, so we headed back to our hotel for the night.

Finley got a Donald Duck to nearly complete her collection of Disney animals.  On each trip we have taken, she has gotten Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Goofy.  In Hong Kong we will get Pluto and she will have a complete set!  Finley also selected some pink Disneyland ears, she wore them all day.  The crowds will be even crazier tomorrow, so I am sure we won't be able to see as much as we did today, but we are having an amazing time.























To give you an idea of the crowds, it is almost as bad as the day in December last year when Justin Beiber performed:

Dewberry Farm

On Monday afternoon, Grammy, Grandad, Finley and I headed up for our first ever visit to Dewberry Farm. It didn't take as long as we thought to get there and Finley was so excited to try everything once we got there. Her favorite things were feeding the goats, riding the roller slide and selecting a pumpkin. She liked to try and pick up all the pumpkins, I was surprised whenever she was actually successful, those pumpkins were heavy!

Happy Birthday Chloe!

Chloe's birthday party was a new one for Finley.  Chloe hosted a fantastic mermaid tea party at the Pink Pokka Dot.  All the little girls dressed up like mermaids, made necklaces and got their hair done.  After all that fun, there was a mermaid fashion show with Ariel.  Finley had such a lovely time, even though she was a little wary of dressing up at first.  Happy birthday Chloe!

Happy Birthday Avery!

On Sunday, Finley and Clifton headed up north to Bouncin Bears to help celebrate Avery's 4th birthday. Finley had a great time and loved playing on all the bouncy houses. Of course, she was a huge fan of the pizza and cake. Happy birthday to Avery!

Pretty Ballerina

Finley has been loving her dance class this year.  They start with tap and then it is onto ballet for the second half of the class.  We got her a little flower hair clip in Hawaii and she insists on wearing it in her ballet bun.  I finally got her a new pair of tap shoes, we were cramming her feet into her shoes from last year.  There was no class today since school was out and she is going to miss next week's class since we will be at Disneyland.  I am sure she will be very excited to return to her dance class.

Back to the Grind...

Now that Finley is in the three year old class at school, she has homework. She loves doing the homework that her teachers send her home with. This week she was working on writing the letter A and identifying things that begin with A. She did a great job!

Our First Helicopter Ride

On Friday we headed over to Blue Hawaiian Helicopters for our first ever helicopter ride.  Finley (Clifton and I too) was SO excited to ride in the helicopter.  We had spotted helicopters all week long and Finley kept asking if it was the blue one that we were going to ride in.  We booked the two hour Big Island Spectacular and boy was it ever spectacular.  Finley did great buckling in and getting her headphones on.  She was so brave!  Our pilot Noah was great with her and really kept her involved for the ride, at least for the volcano portion of the trip.  By the time we made it to the Kohala Coast for all the waterfalls and amazing valleys, Finley was fast asleep.  There was no waking her up.  The pilot said it was quite common for little kids.  I cannot wait to ride in a helicopter again!  If anyone wants to stop by and view the two hour DVD from our ride, feel free to stop by =)

If you ever get to the Big Island of Hawaii, I highly recommend taking a helicopter tour. It was the highlight of our trip. The best part was how wonderful the staff was with Finley, she was at ease the entire trip, even when our pilot was getting a little crazy with the copter!