The Happiest Place on Earth

Of course, James can't go to Southern California without making a trip to Disneyland. We got a hotel within walking distance from Disneyland, and after we checked in on Sunday evening, we took a walk to Downtown Disney.  Enzo LOVED seeing all of the people and enjoying the street performing musicians.  His hands were constantly signing "more, more" whenever he liked something - which was often.  His favorite things, however, were the buses.  He learned how to say "bup" and was constantly saying hi to the "bup"s and wanting "more, more, more" of them when they would drive away.

 
After seeing how excited he was just at Downtown Disney, we were really looking forward to taking him to Disneyland the next two days.

Enzo is an early riser, and like his dad, must have been too excited to sleep.  So we got up bright and early, had breakfast, and were ready to go long before the park opened. 

This is what Enzo looked like when we got there:

He had some time to sleep though, while we waited for the rest of my family to arrive.  Nathan and Andrew, two of my wonderful brothers, are active duty in the military and were able to get us discount park hopper passes so that the entire family could go. We were lucky that Nathan got back from Iraq just a few days before Matt came home so we could all be together.  So the whole large Newey clan went to Disneyland on Monday, although we all kind of split up and did our own things.  (With a group of 20 or so people, it's a little difficult to stay together the whole day.)
Enzo woke up just in time to enjoy Mom's Jamba Juice for breakfast and then head into the park.

We started off the day by being greeted by a cast member, asking us to take a quick survey.  After the survey, she invited one of us to attend a 90 minute focus group for which we would be paid $150.  I let James go so that Enzo and I could hang out with my mom.   When he came out later that day I asked him if he had gotten $150.  His answer was "No......(long pause)...I got $200." Leave it to a LeFevre to make money at Disneyland.

Disneyland has always been known as "The Happiest Place on Earth."  After taking Enzo this time around, I think that is definitely true.  Disneyland has always been a fun place, but I've never had more fun that I did watching Enzo.  I think maybe parents have more fun than their kids do.  I loved watching Enzo and all of his excitement.  By far, his favorite thing was the train.  We rode it the first day with Grandma Cindy.

In the pictures, he doesn't look that excited.  That's how he was the first day.  Just kind of staring and taking it all in.  But by the second day, he couldn't hold himself back.  He was so excited about the "CHOO-CHOO!" that when we got there on Tuesday before the park opened, he had to get down from the stroller while we waited in line so that he could run up to the gates and stare at the choo-choo.  He ran back to get Mommy's hand and take her up to open the gates.  When, of course, I couldn't do that for him, he first attempted to open them himself by reaching around and trying to lift up the bar.  Then, when that didn't work, he ran back to get Daddy.  He made Daddy go up and then asked him for the "keys, keys" so he could open the gates.  The poor kid couldn't understand why we couldn't go see that "Choo-CHOO!" on the other side.  I wish I had a recording of the insistent and urgent sound in his voice.  It was even worse when we got into the park and, later that day, had to wait in line for the choo-choo to show up, just to get to the front of the line and have the operator shut the gate right in front of us and make us wait another 10 minutes for the next train.  The poor kid was distraught, wanting to get on the choo-choo. (And now, his favorite thing to do at home is watching YouTube videos of the Disneyland trains.)

Of course, we also rode Winnie the Pooh. Sadly, by the time we got off the ride, Pooh and Tigger had disappeared and we didn't get to take our pictures with them.  So we settled for a picture of Enzo by the Hunny Pots.

Another favorite was all of the boats to be found.  Pirates of the Caribbean was a hit, at least with Mom and Dad.  Enzo just laid back and relaxed...and fell asleep.

But there were also boats on the Jungle Cruise and It's a Small World, which was a big hit with Enzo.  He spent the last part of the ride leaning out of the boat over the water to look at the "muh-ney, muh-ney" that people had thrown into the water.  He wanted his own money to throw into any water he saw the rest of the trip.  With all of the rides containing boats, he learned a new word.  Just like Nemo and all of his friends, Enzo now wants to touch the "buh-tt, buh-tt."

We also rode the Toy Story Mania ride in California Adventure, which was a first for all of us.  While Enzo couldn't quite keep his glasses on for the 3-D effects of the ride, he sure enjoyed playing with them.

He was also a big fan of of the giant talking Mr. Potato Head.  Once again, we get a back of the head shot because he was too busy to look at the camera.

And of course, we had to stop for an attempt to pull the sword out of the stone.  One of these days, Merlin's going to be around and someone might actually pull that stone out.  (It happens every once in a while, and you get a big prize of some sort - or so I hear.)

Enzo also got to ride the teacups for the first time.  He went with Mommy and Uncle Matt and friends, since Daddy's too wimpy to ride. Enzo didn't mind them and even asked for more when he was done.

To be continued....