My trip to Disneyland

We Won the Sweepstakes!

The best part of the day was that my cousin Jon won the Year of a Million Dreams sweepstakes. Every day, one person who enters the park gets the winning admission ticket. If you're the winner, Disneyland employees approach you with a scanning device and announce that you hold the winning ticket. They took us all into a room "behind the scenes" and showed us all the things we won for the day: no wait on line to access to rides, a complimentary dinner at the Pirates of the Carribean restaurant, we got to be in the parade and meet the characters in person! Then we got tostay the night in Mickey's penthouse suite at the Disneyland Hotel. The suite was filled with toys and treats and the kids were so excited! The grownups felt like kids again too, especially when we got to watch the fireworks from the comfort of the penthouse suite balcony. It was a deluxe experience, surely not to be topped, but what an incredible first visit to Disneyland.

Here's a link to see what we won, it was fabulous! Here we are in the trolly right after the parade and before schmoozing with Mary Poppins and Eyore.

>> Year of a Million Dreams





It was fortunate that we had recently been in a Mary Poppins phase at home. My mom got Maia the CD and Aunt Sarah gave her the DVD to watch recently. She had been familiar with all of the songs, as she love music. When Mary, Bert and the Penguin came over to shake hands and talk, I thought she was going to explode with happiness. It was really cool to see. Here's cousin Jon and cousin Keith accepting the honor of being the Honorary Grand Marshall of Disneyland for the day! That was awesome.














Maia ran right over to Mickey to have a nice conversation and get a hug.
It was very sweet and brought back lots of memories!

















Look at these smiling faces! Three cousins are finally old enough to take their first trip to Disneyland together. What a joy it was to make these memories that will last a lifetime.