The Second Half of That Disneyland Birthday Trip

Oh, y'all, I took a nice little blogging break there.  Sometimes when I fall off of the blogging wagon, it's hard to get my butt back up on it...especially when I know that I have a huge trip to blog about.  That last post took me over 3 hours to do.  This one, well, this one probably won't.

So, if you need a refresher, here's where I left off with day one of Olivia's 4th birthday trip to Disneyland.

The day after Olivia's birthday, we tried our best to get there early, but it's us, so you know that didn't happen again.  We met up with Sarah & the girls and her sister & her triplets right at the entrance and headed over to meet the princesses again {because we love them so}.

And then we headed over to see Merida {because she's my favorite}.

And since we were right there, we did It's a Small World again {because we really, really love that ride}. And I really, really love these girls.  

After letting David take a trip or two around the Buzz Lightyear ride {and get his picture taken with a Storm Trooper}, we headed over to California Adventure to spend a few hours.  It's always fun passing through the Main Street area on our way out because we inevitably run into a few of the Disney characters along the way.

California Adventure really is a lot of fun, even if it doesn't hold as much of the magic for me as Disneyland.  Olivia LOVES the Ariel ride {we seriously ride it multiple times in a row each time because the ride can accommodate so many passengers that there is rarely a line} and we LOVE seeing her interact through the Disney Jr Live on Stage shows.  This year, the show had characters from Sofia the First and Doc McStuffins!  We even rode one of the CarsLand rides a couple of times.

We got a sweet treat and rode the Monster's Inc ride {and David had an almost encounter with Sully}, Donald Duck's crew sang Happy Birthday to Olivia and I found my new favorite California Adventure ride in the Toy Story Mania ride.  {If that line hadn't been so long,  I would have ridden it over and over again!}

And, of course, we had to recreate this picture from last year.

Sarah and the girls took off after the Pixar parade and it was so sad saying goodbye to them, but we know we are going to be seeing them again soon which made seeing them go a little easier.  We love those precious ladies so SO much and we are so very thankful for their friendship.  Olivia could not ask for a sweeter little girl than Kendall to be her very best friend forever.  

After the girls left, we strolled back over to Disneyland because Olivia wanted to see the parade there, but once we got in and secured a spot, she decided that she wanted to go ride Splash Mountain again.  So ride it we did....two more times!  And, since I had never ridden Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, we indulged in that as our last ride of the trip.

We had such a fantastic trip out.  I just love that even though we don't live in California anymore, we are still able to go to one of my favorite California locales on a pretty regular basis AND that we are able to meet up with some of our favorite California ladies in the process!

Can't wait for our next trip to Disneyland {which may be sooner than later?!}