Disneyland!

So we decided to take a vacation to celebrate both Jessica's birthday and the anniversary of our getting engaged. (In case someone didn't know, We were engaged the day before Jessica's birthday and married the day before mine) We couldn't think of a better time to go than right after the new semester had started. We found a great deal for a hotel and 6-day park hopper pass for both of us. We were glad to have so many days to do everything. To offset the exorbitant cost of food in the park we devised a most clever scheme. The key to our plan was a small microwave that we kept in our hotel room. You can also see how we packed the dresser drawers in our room with food. I think we tried almost every kind of microwave meal available. Not the healthiest choice but a financially sound one for sure. The few things we did eat in the park tasted amazing though.

We did everything we wanted to and at a leisure pace that we both enjoyed. It had a been a long time since either of us had visited Mickey and all his friends and we were surprised at how much there was to do. Some of our favorite events/rides included: The Aladdin Musical, Toy Story Ride, Tower of Terror, The Matterhorn and Splash Mountain. I was sad that the haunted mansion was undergoing post-holiday maintenance. I guess this holiday season they decorated it for the Nightmare Before Christmas (they might do it every year). It's a Small World was still playing all the holiday songs and everything was still covered with Christmas decorations.
There is an area where three different Disney princesses can always be found (and they change every 20-30 mins) but the line was always at least a 45 min wait. Finally on our last day we stuck it out and got to meet Jasmine, Aurora, and Ariel. Needless to say Jessica was very excited.

We had stayed at St. George on the way there but on the way home, when we got to St. George, decided that we didn't want to wake up early and finish the drive home so we pushed on through and completed the trip in one day. The crazy picture of me wearing Jessica's headband is the result of both sleep deprivation and determination to get home. We will miss the sunny California weather and hope to visit again before too long.

Some other clarification for the pictures: the poor quality picture of us on splash mountain was a picture of a TV monitor but if you look closely you can see Jessica covering herself with a blanket to avoid getting wet. The picture of me next to the surgery sign is for both my Dad and my brother John. The picture of Jessica next to the snack machine is to point out her dietetics background (look at the food items). There is also a picture of us holding up our drawings of Tigger that we did at the animation studios. And finally me trying to pull the sword from the stone.