golden birthday

David has been giddy for about a week over his plans for my birthday, but on Monday I thought he might explode with excitement. He came home from work and was about to tell me what we were going to do, and then decided not to at the last minute.  When do I need to wake up? What do I need to wear?  I asked him tons of questions, but he sidestepped all of them and said he'd wake me up when it was time and I could figure everything out in the morning.

6:30 AM Tuesday morning:
David: "Carly, wake up!  It's your birthday!!!"

I have to admit.  That was a little earlier than I had anticipated, but I have no qualms with starting the celebration earlier rather than later.  After giving me his (very thoughtful) gift (which I love, love, love.  Mine has a little 'N' on it) - he pulled out his phone, opened an app and gave it to me.  "And," he said, " we're going there today."  The app was MouseWait - he got us tickets to Disneyland for the day!!  If that's not the best birthday present ever, I don't know what is.

The park doesn't open til 10:00, but Dave was so excited (okay, I was too), that we hopped in the car at 8:30, grabbed some McDonald's breakfast and hit the I-5.  We really had some birthday luck with us, because somehow we didn't hit any significant traffic, and we made it to Anaheim by 9:50.  That must be some kind of record.

First things first, we ran right into California Adventure and hopped in the line to get a fast pass for the new racers ride in Car's Land.  That's right.  We waited in a 20 minute long line to get our passes to move ahead of the line later in the day...it sort of made sense.  Now that I think about it we ended up waiting in line for 40 minutes for that ride...we just split it up between the morning and the afternoon.  Good thing it was worth it.  The ride was way fun, you know, when we rode it at later that day at 4PM.

After getting that out of the way, we ran to start riding actual rides!  California Screamin' did not disappoint (as seen by my rockin' windswept do), and we rode Toy Story Mania for the first time.  We mean business in those 3D glasses.  Please let it be known that I almost beat David playing a video game!  This may be a first.  But he blew past me in the bonus round of the last game.  Didn't somebody tell this boy it was my birthday??  I don't think that should be allowed...

To be honest, the lines were so quick in California Adventure that we were done with everything we wanted to do by 1:00!  So we ran over to Disneyland and got me a birthday badge, because, hey, it's only your birthday once a year right?  Everyone might as well know it!

It also ought to be mentioned that we didn't have to wait for any ride more than 35 minutes the whole day.  Happy birthday to me.  Thanks Disneyland.

Right about this time our fast passes were up for the racers ride in Car's Land so we jetted back across to California Adventure.  I have to say, I've never utilized a park hopper pass as much as I did yesterday.  We hopped between parks 4+ times!  Yes, both our feet are very sore today.

P.S. Car's Land was kind of incredible.  Definitely worth going to see.  We were very impressed.  And the racer's ride?  SO much fun.  Not worth standing in line for an hour for, but using our 20 minute fast pass line?  No brainer.

Mom and Brooke showed up around 4:30 (having dropped everything to come hang out with us last minute!  We're so glad they did), so we jetted back over to Disneyland to ride a few of our favorites with them.

 Hats were tried on:

The Tea Cups were ridden:

Dave creamed me on the Astro Blasters (as expected):

And, of course, we had to check out the Matterhorn's new bobsleds - you're not (as) squished anymore!  Woohoo! :

We ended the night by meeting up with dad and going back to California Adventure for dinner (because, let's be honest, their food is way better):

And we called it a day!  And what a good day it was.  Thanks Disneyland.  Contrary to previous conclusions, you are, indeed, the happiest place on earth.