Honeymoon #1 - DISNEYLAND!

To continue the story... I woke up Friday morning, my fever broken and feeling like I was becoming myself again. I had planned on going to work that morning, coming home early and us leaving for California around 2p. However, with the lack of restful sleep, instead I fell back sleep for another couple of hours and when I woke up, I was ready to go!

We were on the road by 10a and were so excited to get to the park early! With our early arrival we decided to head to the park for the evening shows and maybe a ride or two!

I cannot tell you how much that I love the fact that my husband loves Disneyland! I'll admit I was nervous because he was so anti-Disneyland when we started dating. In his words, it was immasculating and for little children. As someone who loves and knows him, I could not take this as truth, but ignorance... I knew he would love it if I was the one who got to show him :) 5 months into dating, we did a weekend trip to the Happiest Place on Earth with 2 of his college friends, Herb and Katie (Herb was a usher in our wedding) and it was a BLAST! He fell in love with it! He fell in love with the romance, the nostalgia, the ambiance, the rides, the history. His favorite part about Disneyland is just walking around taking it all in... rides come second to just enjoying the atmosphere Disney masterfully creates. Magical!

We arrived into the park all decked out for Christmas... the Christmas festivities at the park had not started yet, but the fireworks show and the snow fall on mainstreet were starting that night. We however were going to see Fantasmic, as Aaron had never seen it. We got to the park, grabbed bread bowls of soup in New Orleans square and then dessert at the Critter Country sweet shop. We took a ride on the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbeane and then settled along the Rivers of America to wait for Fantasmic. Before the show started the fireworks lit up the sky above the park and snow began to fall on us in New Orleans square! I literally started crying! ha! I was sitting in the middle of Disneyland, next to my HUSBAND, and "snow" was falling all around us. It was amazing!
We headed back to the hotel pretty quickly after the Fantasmic show to try to get to bed somewhat early due to recovering from sickness still.


Aaron and my mission this trip to Disneyland was to ride all the "lesser" rides of the park. We had gone crazy in February with Katie and Herb, riding all the biggest "must-ride" rides, so this time, Aaron wanted to focus on the smaller rides that aren't as popular and we both wanted more of an opportunity to just sit or walk around the park and not have to race from ride to ride.

The morning of Day 2 in the park, we got down Main Street and grabbed some breakfast at the Jolly Holiday bakery and sat on a park bench in the middle of the circle area in front of the Castle.

You can see it very well in this picture, but the night before Aaron and I had gotten the "Just Married" pins from Town Hall to mark that this was our Honeymoon! I have it pinned to my scarf and Aaron's was on his backpack. Everyone from ride operators, to street sweepers, to fellow guests of the park would stop and congratulate us... literally the best part of the weekend!! It was a constant reminder than this was our HONEYMOON because just a week before, we got MARRIED!

Aaron's first visit to Tarzan's Treehouse

Pirates Treasure on "Pirate Island" - AKA Tom Sawyer's Island

Mark Twain's Riverboat!

Disneyland has a PETTING ZOO!! This is Stitch the goat :)

I love Disneyland at Christmas

Of course... a churro

Aaron and I had a super blast in Disneyland enjoying all the Christmas decor! It is my favorite time in Disneyland.

Over to California Adventures!

In the Carthay Circle Restaurant

 This was my first time seeing the newly re-done Buena Vista Street in California Adventures. It is so much better than the previous entrance to the park.

For a wedding gift from Andy and Carissa (Andy was a groomsmen in our wedding) and Andy's parents Tom and Joyce was a dinner at the Carthay Circle Restaurant in California Adventure!! It is the super nice restaurant in the center of the park! They made a reservation for us and gave us money to pay for the dinner. We felt so classy! The restaurant is usually booked for weeks in advance! The restaurant building is styled after the theater where Snow White premiered and has a very 1vintage Hollywood feel to it. I ordered a glass of wine from one of the Disney vineyards and Aaron had a very manly cocktail. We dined on their delicious firecracker duck wings and delicious entrees. Then we enjoyed a piece of pear pie for dessert. With our meal we got special passes to the World of Color show that night too!

After dinner we walked around California Adventures going on a couple rides, taking the character quiz in the Beast's library - I was Belle and Aaron was Tigger. Then we walked through the new Cars Land! Aaron has a love of neon signs, so he was in heaven!

We watched World of Color and then called it a night!

The rest of the weekend was fantastic! We took our time riding rides and enjoying walking around the parks. We never waited too long in lines and had so much extra time that we even were able to head back to our hotel room for a nap - seriously being sick took a lot out of us.

 Another fun story on our trip was the Sunday night we were there we had dinner at the Carnation Cafe on Main Street. Of course the server congratulated us on our wedding - thanks to the pin. It was the birthday of the boy at a table near us, and so the servers at the restaurant brought out a sundae and sang to him. Then our server brought us a ice cream sundae all on his own and told us, "getting married is a big deal! Congratulations again!" Such a sweet guy!

having fun in Toon Town

We finished off the trip with a visit to the Mouse that started it all! Mickey!!! We waited a long time, but it was worth it. He took my hand when I walked in and admired by wedding ring! It is always nice to have Mickey Mouse's approval.

Overall a wonderful weekend away with my love in once of my favorite places in the world!