Disneyland...just the two of us.

At 5 in the morning I pulled Ally out of bed, plopped her on my bathroom counter and told her I was taking her somewhere special. Half asleep she looked at me with big eyes. "It's a suprise" I told her as I got her dressed and ready to leave.

We pulled into Starbucks at 6am, walked inside and ordered. The girl behind the counter asked us where we were off to. I told her somewhere that starts with a "D". Ally just grabbed her mini donuts and went along with it.

On the drive to the airport she asked me a few questions about our "special trip" but mostly sat quietly. Suddenly she shouted out "IT'S DISNEYLAND! DISNEYLAND STARTS WITH A D!" Nonchalantly I just said "I don't knowwwww!" and thought to myself, geez she's smart.

We made it through security, found our gate and boarded the plane. Ally was a champ. She pulled her luggage all through the airport, down escalators, up escalators, through lines, and never complained once. The flight was perfect and before we knew it, we had arrived in Orange County. Hello California!

We found our hotel and I asked Ally where she thought we were.

"South America."

UM no. I told to look out the window because Disneyland was just outside our hotel. Her eyes grew huge and she ran over to look. We changed clothes in a flash and hopped on our shuttle bus to the happiest place on earth.

As soon as I see the big green gates and ticket booths at Disneyland, I instantly turn into a 5 year old kid. I could hardly wait to get my ticket and go buy Mickey Mouse ears.

On the walk over Ally had asked me what my favorite ride was. I told her I liked the matterhorn so she chose that for our first ride. She didn't like it the last time we were there but maybe she thought this time it would be different.

Nope. Still hated it. Darn that big ice monster with red eyes!
So off we went to find Cinderella.

After waiting in line for an hour and a half, we met Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and (drum roll please...) Cinderella!! Thank goodness. You never know which three princesses will be there. I may have had a stroke if Cinderella had been on her lunch break.

The princesses greeted Ally in their super high pitched voices, signed her autograph book and posed for pictures. When we got to Cinderella, Ally just looked up at her with absolute bliss. Ahhh, the look on her face was priceless. She could have stared at Cinderella all day.

Oh Cindy.

For the rest of the evening and the entire next day we met more characters than I had ever seen at Disneyland, spinned in the tea cups over and over (and over...ally's favorite), shopped till we dropped, trick or treated, and ate the best corn dogs on earth. We had a blast.

And now I'm good for awhile.
Well, at least a year.