Hayley had her spring break the week after Easter so we finally took the SoCal trip that we wanted to take during her February break.  No colds or threat of snow on the Grapevine this time!

We drove to San Diego first but stopped, of course, at Knott's Berry Farm for dinner on the way down.  We didn't do any theme parks this trip and opted instead to lounge around the condo's pool and hot tub.  Very relaxing!

Then we drove back north for two days at Disneyland.  Even though this was her third trip there, Hayley is now over 40" tall (43!) which opened up many new rides.  Some "first time" events were: Star Tours, the new and "improved" Small World, Club 33, Jungle Cruise at night, new Toy Story ride, Tom Sawyer's Island, Soaring Over California, and the "Tower of Terror."

That last one was a mistake.  We had ridden the ToT in DisneyWORLD way back but the one in LA is much more, well, terrifying.  No tears, but she didn't approve.  She did like Club 33 (the fancy private club) and the brand new Toy Story ride.  Her favorite ride is still the Monsters, Inc. ride, which we rode three times (no lines).

Small World was renovated recently and is slightly different.  Now there are some Disney characters scattered amongst the regular kids.  They've been "small worlded" so they don't stick out too much.  I got pictures of most of them, but missed Cinderella.  The music is also slightly different in that it doesn't get as "tribal" during the Hawaiian part.

You can hear Hayley's own recap of the trip in this video (9 minutes long).



 Hayley tweets:

• What is that stupid smell?  [said driving past the Harris Ranch on I-5]
  
• No! I never want to stop this vacation!  [closes closet door to prevent Mommy from packing.]
• Do you think the Internet will think this is funny? Do you? Do you?!
• Look, Mommy, the Easter Bunny reused one of our old Easter baskets!