The Buchanan Family: The Happiest Place on Earth!

In May we took a family vacation to Disneyland! The kids were so excited to watch movies in the car on the way down-- so excited in fact that Kirstie stayed awake the entire time. She didn't want to miss a minute of the experience!

However, the her lack of sleep took its toll, as you can tell by the look on her face in this picture!

Luckily, her attitude soon improved-- after all, it is the happiest place on earth, right?

Ian (aka Mr. Easy-Going) loved it all! He didn't even mind all the time spent in the stroller!

Dumbo was Kirstie's favorite ride-- it was our first ride of the day all three days.

The Teacups was one of the rides Kirstie was most looking forward to. She was insistent that we ride in the purple teacup with the flower on it. Lucky for us all, that's the one we rode on first!

Ian was a little uncertain of all the rides. He got the hang of it eventually, but it took awhile. I think his favorite ride was the Nemo Submarines. Other rides put him to sleep-- Small World, Little Mermaid, Pirates...

Ian did manage to entertain himself pretty well waiting in lines!

My favorite was the silly putty I brought for the kids to play with. People around is in line thought the kids were playing with gum because it was so long and stretchy and stringy.

Kirstie was, in her words, "a crazy driver" on Autopia. The video we took of her on this ride is priceless-- she just giggles the whole ride long. We loved the rider swap that Disneyland does-- Kirstie was able to ride twice in a row-- once with me and then again with Brent.

The kids also loved both King Arthur's and King Triton's Carousel.

Here was a classic moment: After trying to pull the sword out of the stone, Ian leaned in and started licking it! How gross is that?!

We were very excited to meet all the Disney characters. I made a special autograph book for them to sign. Snow White is Kirstie's favorite princess, but we were not expecting the Evil Queen to be there with her. Kirstie was so terrified! Brent had to take her far away to try and calm her down. Once again, Ian didn't really seem to mind!

Seeing the queen turned Kirstie against all the characters. She stayed on the stroller and cried while we met Pluto. She did watch him put our autograph book on his nose to write his name-- she thought that was funny and still talks about that.

We made Kirstie come meet Minnie Mouse with us. Although both kids weren't sure about Minnie herself, they LOVED her house!

The Fairy Godmother was the one who changed Kirstie's mind. She was so sweet and kind to both of the kids. Unfortunately, Ian is sitting in the stroller behind the Fairy Godmother so he didn't get in the picture.

Cinderella is also one of Kirstie's favorite, so we were very happy to meet her as well.

Ian is fearless. He had no trouble meeting Sully-- and look how big he is! He gave him five and everything! Kirstie watched from the safety of the stroller.

Another highlight of the trip was meeting Mickey Mouse. We got his autograph, took pictures, and he gave Kirstie a hug and a kiss. She was so excited about it! All the people around us were commenting on how cute her reaction to him was!

Ian and Daddy also met Mickey Mouse-- or as Ian calls him, "Mo Mo." Mickey has become one of Ian's favorite people!

Our longest line of the park was to see the princesses in the Princess Fantasy Fair. The things we do for our kids! We met Tianna...

...Ariel...

...and Jasmine.

He's a ladies' man! He got hugs from all the princesses!

We also ran into Aladdin in Adventureland!

One of the evenings, we brought brought sandwiches to eat while we waited for the parade to start. We had found great seats-- a bench right in front of the train station on Main Street. There was plenty of room for the kids to dance around and entertain us while we waited for it to start. The kids even got to give 5 to some of the dancers!

Another one of Kirstie's favorite things was the shuttle ride. It was a Toy Story bus. Her favorite things was to sit in the back of the bus by herself. She thought she was pretty cool!

I love Kirstie's pose in this picture!

We had to take a whole bunch of pictures trying to get Ian to actually hold still for a moment. Most pictures were of him running away.

We had such a wonderful time at Disneyland! Kirstie has been talking about it non-stop for the past month. Not a day goes by when she doesn't ask if we can go again. Although it might be awhile, we're excited for when we can!