California love {day 8}...

The fifth and final day. We were exhausted and more than overwhelmed by the thought of returning to the park for another full day. Once we made it out the door and got through the gates, the feelings of dread quickly dissipated. It is, after all, the happiest place on earth. 

Many more highlights, and a lot more pictures:

• Meeting Cruella DeVil. She complement Claire on her "good fashion sense" because she was "wearing her spots" that day. The girls weren't quite sure what to do about her. 

• Pixie Hollow! Claire has been waiting all week to meet Tinkerbell. I really thought we would see her fly every night, but that didn't happen, so we had to stand in line to meet the fairies. I have never done this before, and it was a lot of fun. Everything was giant - making you feel like a little fairy. The girls loved it.

• Getting hugs from Iridessa - a light fairy. 

• High fives and hugs from Vidia and Tinkerbell. Vidia is a fast flying fairy, and isn't very nice. And Tinkerbell, well she is a tinker fairy. If you haven't seen the Fairy movies, you should. They are worth watching.

• Claire's dream came true! If only the rest of her life-long dreams would be so easily happen.

• More time in Critter Country for Winnie the Pooh ride and Splash Mountain. Despite the look of the bright pictures, it was cooler today, so Grace and Merrick bundled up in our coats before taking the plunge. 

• Our first time visiting Pooh's friends we didn't see Eeyore. I wanted to bypass the line and just say hi to him (Claire wanted to give Eeyore a high five), but alas I was told that we had to wait with everyone else in the full line. Looking back now I'm glad that we did because Claire shared a few sweet moments with Tigger. If you ask her about Disneyland she will likely tell you that "Tigger kiss me on my head!"

• Merrick and Grace ran off Splash Mountain right as we were walking up to Pooh and Eeyore. Perfect timing for a quick family picture!

• Eventually we found Gary and Margaret and decided to ride the pirate ship with them. I had never ridden on either of the big boats (that I can remember) so it was a fun new activity for us. 

• We got in many, many more rides on Thunder Mountain. I think it gets better each time. 

• No explanation, I just love this picture. 

• We decided to head over to CAA for lunch, and then met up with the Diefs to check off a few more things on our to do list. Monsters Inc. ride - check!

• Pixar Pals mini-show - check!

• Remembering why I should never ask Megan or Scott to hold my camera - check!

• We watched the Bug show, the 3-d muppet movie, rode the Goofy roller coaster, stopped for treats, etc. We also found Goofy hiding out near his roller coaster!

• The Jumpin' Jellyfish ride was open. I think this might be the shortest ride I have ever been on. Kyler and Merrick rode right after Grace and I. Kyler thought it was boring. I asked him if it would be more fun if you fell faster and started higher. Of course he said "Yeah!", but I still couldn't convince him to go on Tower of Terror with me. =)

• Grace wanted an age-order photo in these silly seats, but we were missing Ella. 

• The Aladdin show was a lot of fun - a mini-version of Broadway.

• Yes, more Tower of Terror. This time with our arms in the air. It was horribly fun - even the seventh time. I am not sure how Megan and Scott manage to look so normal while falling to their death.

• The Tiki Room was our last "must do" of the trip. We even woke Claire up so she wouldn't miss it. 

And of course we ended on, you guessed it, Thunder Mountain. It is best in the dark! After stopping in the Christmas store to pick up ornaments for the girls' souvenirs, we headed home. We felt no desire to close down the park and definitely got our money's worth out of our 5-day tickets. 

I can't say enough about how much fun we had with our girls. Grace was great - she was a trooper, walking miles and miles each day with no complaint. She was adventurous and would try any ride we offered to take her on. She was the perfect age for this trip. Claire was really, really good too - especially considering that we were waking her up early, keeping her out way too late, and not really letting her nap. She begged and begged to go on all of the rides, but took disappointment in stride and would patiently wait until we found something she could do. 

All-in-all our trip was a success. We had fun. And though it might be a while, we are looking forward to our next trip to Disneyland.