Disneyland for Thanksgiving

John and I had such a great week together! We spent Thanksgiving with John's family this year in California. John's Brother Kris is a super smart guy and is in Dental School at USC and so we traveled out to South Pasadena to stay with him and his cute family. On Tuesday afternoon we started our journey to California with Joe and Dawn. During the drive we got on the topic of how good In and Out burger and since John's parents had never eaten there when we reached Vegas we decided to go. It had been so long....I LOVE those fries! We stayed in Prim and then Wednesday finished our trip to California. The funny thing is when lunchtime came that day we ate at In and Out again I guess that you really can't have enough of those great burgers and fries!
That night Ashley made an excellent dinner for us all! Her recipes came from "The Barefoot Contessa" I was very impressed with the baked asparagus, tender parmesan chicken and spring greens with delicious lemon juice squeezed from the fruit to on it top off.
The park opened at 8:00 AM on Thanksgiving Day. We were about 45 minutes away so we left so that we arrived there early right as the park opened.

On the trolly with our little nephews (Ethan and Ryan) on our way into the park.

I just love Disneyland! There is just a great magical air about it. I am so happy that we were able to come. When we arrived we headed straight for Pirates of the Caribbean. That is one of my most favorite rides. Stacy, one of my best friends collects pictures of people in front of the Pirates sign so John and I had to make a stop and get that photo for her.

Pirates Of the Caribbean

As you come out of Pirates you walk right into New Orleans Square. It was decked out for Christmas and looked just amazing. It was also decorated for the new movie The Princess and the Frog which is going to be in theaters soon. John and I would love to go to New Orleans someday.

Dawn, Emilee, Joe and John
Kris was so great to run and get all of the fast passes for us to ride the big rides. Kris and Ashley have season passes (I’m so jealous!) so they know all of the quick ways around the park. When we went on the Indiana Jones ride (another favorite) we had a fast pass and only waited about 20 minutes. I was just amazed; we just waltzed passed so many people. I think that the fast pass thing was one of the best things ever invented!

Kris and John inside Indiana Jones.
Next we made our way over to the Haunted Mansion. I absolutely love this ride during Halloween and Christmas time because they completely change it to a Nightmare Before Christmas Theme. That move just happens to be one of my favorites to I guess that is why I love it so much.

Jack the Pumpkin King

Splash Mountain got the best of me for sure!
I think that it took about three hours for me to dry off.

Little Ethan just cracks me up! This is the great face that he would make periodically, which made us all laugh. The best part is he knew this fact and would randomly do it just to get a rise out of us. I loved it; he is a fantastic little nephew!

I thought that Ryan looked so cute going up to this door trying to open it, I just had to take a picture.

The buzz and Woody shooting game has got to be on my list of best ride/games at Disneyland. I had never been on it before and my score definitely showed! I am not so great at the shooting but it was great fun none the less.

Everyone’s 3-D Glasses

While we were waiting in line for it’s a small world the Christmas parade was conveniently taking place at the same time to we got to watch it as it went by. As you can tell both John and Ryan are enjoying this event. I really am not the largest fan of the it’s a small world ride because it plays the same song over..and..over..and ..over…and I think you get the point, it gets a little old after a while…..except for Christmastime. For Christmas they play multiple Christmas songs throughout the ride and to top it off all of the dolls are decorated for the season as well. It makes it a really entertaining ride.

We had a great day!

On Friday we had our traditional thanksgiving meal but not until after we enjoyed a very busy morning shopping! I never woke-up early to do Black Friday shopping until I meet John's mother five years ago. It is pretty much a tradition now to go when I am with her for Black Friday. We found so great deals and I am very happy about the fun things that I bought. I found a really great black sweater that I am saving for myself for christmas...I can't wait:) That night Joe and Dawn stayed hope with the little guys and use adults went to the Blind Side. When we were in line at the theater Kris and Ashley were ahead of us and when they purchased their tickets John overheard the price and thought to himself...did they buy our tickets?...the he saw the price per ticket $12. We come from the small town that is an expensive ticket to a movie. Therefore it was $24 to go to the film. There is California prices for you. To top it off get this, anytime that I go to a movie I always wear a sweater becasue I get cold easy and the AC is usually crancked up pretty high. I thought for sure that in California this would be the case too right?...WRONG! I have never been to a more uncomfortable theater in my life. It might as well have been a sauna! I am one who is always cold and I was fanning myself with some papers that I luckily had in my coat pocket. I feel sorry for those who normally have an elevated body temperature that were in that theater. On an upside to the story the movie was great. I would probably see it again....just in another location!

I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to come out to visit Kris and Ashley for Thanksgiving. We have wanted to travel out to California for the last year and a half and just haven't made it until now and I'm so glad that we did. We had a time with Johns excellent family. We just wisht that Emily and her family could have been there.