Disney Fun even in the Rain

Do these kids look excited?

They can't wait to finally get going. They have been waiting and waiting for this day to arrive.

Sophie is very calmly reading Dr. Who while she waits for us to be ready to venture out of the hotel.

Oh look it is raining already. Good thing we somewhat prepared for the monsoon that seemed to hit LA for our trip to Disneyland. 

It may be December and Winter but who would have thought drought stricken California would have rain that would last all day. 

After we walked through the gates Mollly quickly became our tour guide and took us directly to the castly for our walkthrough tour.

We visited Sleeping Beauty's Castle which took us through the story as we walked around.

Molly would have continued to be our tour director but after doing Snow Whites ride which was near the castle too we decided to give the boys a turn to pick what was next.  We quickly hiked over to Pirates of the Carribean and waited for that boat ride. Lucky for us the rain was keeping the crowds low because the waits for even these popular rides was only about 15 min.

The boys went on Indiana Jones next but Molly was too short to ride this one. This was the only ride 42" tall Molly wasn't able to ride. They boys LOVED Indiana Jones. Their Dad, who gets motion sick, wasn't quite as thrilled!  They dragged me along for a return visit to this ride later in our visit.

We met up with our Southern California Cousins for the Day and took a Jungle  Jingle cruise.

Everything was decorated for Christmas at Disney and the Jungle animals were all playing with different Christmas decorations.

Sophie particularly loved getting to view the Tiki Room. I think she sat through the show twice. It was a nice place to get out of the rain while waiting for others while they rode Indiana Jones which was nearby.

The Haunted Mansion was all decorated with a Nightmare before Christmas theme.

I was somewhat disappointed by the theme. I love the old victorian haunted house that I remember visiting as a kid. This was fun but more silly than spooky.

Molly insisted on riding the carousel a number of times while at the park. I think everytime we passed by this one we quickly jumped into the line to ride it yet again.

Here goes Molly on her first official rollar coaster. She had already experienced the drops in Pirates of the Carribean but the Matterhorn was really the first coaster.

At the end of the run she told me she felt like her stomach was going to drop off or that she was going to barf. Sophie rode this one and wasn't too keen on doing any more costers after this one.

We ventured over to Tomorrow Land and rode our next coaster which was Space Mountain.

Look at that face. Molly made it through by gripping the arm of her Uncle who she wanted to ride with. But that look of terror that the camera caught proves it might be too much for this little 5 year old.

I think we hit every ride in Tomorrow Land. Even though it was pouring rain we even rode the rockets. We couldn't get much more wet right!

Sophie knew that ASIMO was at Disneyland so she made sure we made it to one of the shows that featured this robot. We saw him walk, talk, climb stairs, kick a soccer ball and much more. It was quite an impressive little robot.

After taking our Star Tour we exited into a gift shop so we had to try on all the Disneyfied Star Wars hats.

It rained and rained for both of the days we spent at the Disneyland Park.

 We quickly figured out our "rain gear" was inadequat to the amount of rain so added ponchos. These greatly helped but we were still soaked.

 But it was pretty much what everyone at the park was wearing so we fit right in.

 While the rain was a bit inconvienient and often uncomfortable it certainly made the experience memorable. We were able to ride just about every ride at the park and many of our favorites twice.

The park was all decorated for Christmas and at night, with all the lights lit it was truely magical.

Look at how beautiful Sleeping Beauty's Winter castle looks.

The Its a Small World ride was our evening's entertainment. The parades and fireworks were canceled both nights we were at Disneyland due to the rain but the facade at Its a Small World put on quite a nice light show. The facade became a canvas as it displayed a projected program choreographed to classic Christmas music like the Nutcracker suite.

This was one ride that was improved by the Christmas theme. The music alternated between the usual It's a small World after all and Jingle bells and Deck the Halls which changed languages as you rode through. It was far less anoying with the variety of songs.

I can't believe they redo this entire ride just for the Holiday Season.

We had such a great time visiting Disneyland. Two days at this park was perfect. We saw shows and rode rides and had a great time. I am sure if we had hadn't had the rain we wouldn't have gone on quite as much as we were able to get in because of the short lines. We even tried the Finding Nemo Submarine (Which exceeded our expectations) and rode the Monorail (Which was less exciting than we thought it would be. We pretty much got a good look at the parking lots!).  We loved the Buzz Lightyear ride where we got to zap targets with ray guns as we rode by. And we love floating over London on the Peter Pan ride we waited in the 30 min line twice (this was probably the longest line we experienced at the Disneyland park).

Of course the kids took home some souveniers. Henry picked out an Indiana Mickey. Ian got a classic black and white Mickey and Molly got Princess Minnie. Sophie choose to get a necklace.

The kids quickly crashed when we got back each night. These were long wet days of walking and walking from one entertainment to another.

But these kids sure made the most of their first trip to Disneyland.