Disneyland 2012:: Favorite Moments Part #1

We have over 600 photos from this trip to Disneyland.

I can't post them all on here, even though I wish I could, so here are some of our favorite moments from our

... Lanese Family Disneyland Trip 2012...

We arrived on Thursday, November 1st and got into the park by noon. We started by visiting Disney California Adventure. We were on a mission to get into Cars Land. 

It's beautiful. No really, thats how I describe it. The attention to detail is unbelievable. We were transported right into Radiator Springs. When we got in, Radiator Springs Racers was closed and the cast members told us it would open later that day (time unknown---they have to say). 

We went and got some Chili "Cone" Queso from the Cozy Cone Motel quick service cones.

Right when we were done, I noticed that a few cast members were talking into their headsets...I had a good feeling it was opening. So we hung around with a crowd of about 50 others, and....within 5 minutes...OPEN. We literally walked right onto the ride. It is now in my Top 3 Disney rides! 

We spent the rest of the day at Disneyland getting on every single ride with a line of 10 minutes or less. Awesome!!

Thursday night, Alex got in and we all didn't go to bed until like 2am, long day! 

Friday morning we went to Disneyland with Alex and again got on a bunch of rides all with just walk on, 5 minute or 10 minute lines. We ate lunch and then the dance kids started arriving for us to go backstage. The next two days are a bit of a blur. Alex and I were backstage with the girls for the rest of Friday until they were in the parade at 6pm. I was so incredibly proud of them! It had been a stressful month for Alex and I, but so worth it to see them out there. They all had huge smiles and amazingly I didn't cry :) 

(We had to walk with 15 girls with no parents from Village Haus all the way to Toon Town...we made it without losing all the kids) :) 

After the parade Alex, Matt and I decided to watch Fantasmic. We got awesome seats and sat for 30 minutes watching Disneyland Sing-A-Long...singing along :) It was SO fun! Alex used to watch it when she was little too so she also knew all the words. Everytime we got hungry this trip the three of us would sing, "I'm so rumbly in my humbly..." Anyways, here we are all very excited for Fantasmic :)

Saturday was another story...things got crazy backstage. It was super stressful. Two of the kids that came along with us to Disneyland were previously removed from the team due to behavior but I had allowed them to come anyways. They were super naughty backstage and made things pretty difficult. We ate together as a team at 9:30 at River Belle Terrace and they had to be backstage in 93 degrees dancing and didn't get out onto the street for the taping until 2:30pm. They were tired, hot and hungry. Bad combo for 6-12 year olds! (Mostly 6 & 7's). 

They held it together for the most part though and again we were super proud of them! We definitely learned a lot for next year to make it an even better experience for us and them.

Ready for Day #2. Still smiling after an 8-hour day of dancing the day before :)

We dressed in our Christmas attire for the ABC-tv Taping of the Christmas Day Parade. It. Was. HOT. Alex supplied the hats and I made the shirts :) 

Our girls are the ones in black (the ones paying attention) ; )

"Get your kicks on Route 66!" Watch for the Dance the Magic dancers to open the parade on Christmas morning! 

Like I said...hot! 

I'll write more later today. Avery is napping in the office and the rest of the pictures are on our iMac in there. 

I have some fun posts ready for this week. My job is finally slowing down. I now teach 5 less classes/week including no Saturday mornings. The family that was causing so much trouble for me is now gone. Disneyland has past us. I feel like I can breathe and I'm hoping this helps for a lot of reasons. :)

Posts to come this week:

*Disneyland Favorites Part #2

*Our Disneyland Tips & Tricks

It's a beautiful day :) 

-Chelsea-