[Claire]

Tuesday, December 28

We slept in and went to DCA at 9:45 to wait for Tower. The walk over was dry, but just 5 minutes before DCA opened, it poured and didn't stop until we were on the ride. We went twice and got fastpasses for an hour later. We loved it our first ride. I couldn't stop laughing. Our older two were absolutely nuts about it! They would have gone on it all day if they could. After we rode it a few times (Chloe hated it, and needed a break) we went to Muppets, which we hadn't taken the time to do since 2001! We are huge Muppet Show fans, so the girls really really enjoyed it. My husband took the older two back to Tower, and they went on it two more times, while I took Chloe to get Soarin' fastpasses before heading to the Animation Building.

Oh my gosh! We had a blast. Definitely the best character experiences we've EVER had in all my years of Disneyland!!! Pluto plucked Chloe out of line and danced with her to music from Cinderella, they "waltzed" and he kissed her over and over again.....and he dragged her all over the room dancing. She was just giggling the entire time. I was laughing like crazy. Then she saw Mickey and Minnie, Belle, Aurora, Max, Lilo, and the funniest thing ever....Cruella flicked Chloe on the forehead. Chloe was trying to give her a hug. But Cruella wasn't having any of that. I was dying at the look on Chloe's face. Priceless.

The kicker was Stitch. We'd been in line for a while to see him....he was taking people's autograph books and scribbling over pics and other autographs, not looking at the camera....basically being Stitch. When it was almost our turn, he got up off the couch and took off WITH Chloe. He grabbed her and ran. I picked up my backpack and took off after them. He ran all around, crashing into people, got in some people's pics, and headed toward the door where our stroller was parked. He randomly stole our stroller with one hand (no way on earth he knew it was ours, it was completely random!), had Chloe by the other and ran around the entire huge room, crashing into people with the stroller and I was chasing them, laughing like a maniac, while Chloe kept yelling at him, "that's my stroller, you STOLE my stroller!!" He took both Chloe and our stroller into the room where the princesses pose, and ditched both of them and took off. I was sweating, laughing to the point I was in tears, and Chloe was ticked off because he didn't sign her autograph book. My husband and our older two showed up right after that. Can't believe they missed it!!! Funniest thing ever!!

Then Woody walked by with Cinderella on the way to a show, and he stopped to say hi to our girls as we were leaving the Animation Building. Chloe gave him a kiss and he pretended to faint. Made her day.

She talked about Woody and Stitch all day. It was truly the highlight of her little life thus far.

We rode Soarin' (Chloe's first time) and as usual, we loved seeing it through her eyes.....watched her feet fly up over the trees and made sure she smelled the pine and orange scents. She loved it! Then we went to GCH for lunch at Whitewater Snacks. We had french dips (could have shared one and been FULL), the kids had pb&j sandwiches with juice boxes and a Mickey cookie, and our nine year old had a pepperoni pizza. Very filling and peaceful. There was just one other family there. We each had 3 strawberries with our meals, but the CMs, brought more after they watched naughty Chloe snatch one off Courtney's plate. It was very nice of them. We refilled our coffee cups and headed back to DCA.

The older two wanted to go on Grizzly, but Chloe wasn't tall enough, so she and I went to get fastpasses for Screamin'. We got back in time to see our family get soaked under the bridge. They had a blast. We figured why not get wet if it's going to rain anyway? (It actually hadn't rained since 11 am, so we were dry. We had snow coats from Lands End for the girls and they all had hats to keep their heads dry.)

When we got back to Screamin', there was no line, so we walked on it twice.....Cassidy wasn't tall enough by a half inch, so she was pretty heartbroken. We got some switch passes for my husband, and Courtney and I went on it twice, then she went twice with my husband with the switch passes and another time with me with the fast passes. We always enjoy it, and request the front car. I can't wait til all my kids are tall enough for it!!

The younger two went on the carousel several times as we switched off, and we decided to head back over to Disneyland at 4 pm. There were no crowds, so we rode Indy, walked onto Pirates, rode Splash 3 times, Pooh, Big Thunder Mountain, and Small World twice. It rained heavily while we were on Small World apparently, because when we came out, everything was soaked! Luckily, we'd bought a poncho for the stroller, so ours stayed dry. And so were we! The rain drove thousands of people out of the park.....and it stayed dry the rest of the night. We had the place to ourselves!

We went back to Plaza Inn for dinner again....same deal as the night before. There were four princesses there since the 7 pm parade was cancelled, so we got to dine among Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. Chloe was in heaven, and we felt very very fortunate with our timing!!

We rode the Matterhorn, Star Tours, the rockets and watched the fireworks with a few hundred people on Main St. The place was dead! CMs had been telling people all afternoon not to expect fireworks, but they did it anyway. It was wonderful!!!

We really crashed that night.