i promise

last week one of my dreams came true.

we bought season passes to disneyland!!!!!

we had been gifted some disney money, 

saved from our yard sale, 

and even cut our cable when we moved here in order to get the passes.

(i really miss bravo.  and my dvr.)

with so many friends and family heading to visit mickey in the next year,

we wanted to be sure we'd be able to see everyone who comes down south.

(and..... we just REALLY wanted them :)

we have had the passes for a week, and i've already gone 4 times.

the beauty of the pass is that you can go for a few hours and then head back home.

i even took the kids all by myself last week.

it was an experience.  i'm sure it will get easier with practice!

with such frequent trips to the magic kingdom,

it would be easy to fill my blog with pictures and stories of our weekly outings.

but that would mean (unless you are my mom) you would probably stop reading.

so i promise....

i'll keep my disneyland posts down to maybe once a month.

deal?

after all...

we bachmans have a lot more to share than just disneyland :)

yesterday late afternoon we took the 9 minute trip down the freeway 

to my favorite place on earth.

they have decked the place out for halloween

and have all their villains out and about.

we walked in and immediately saw cruella de vil

(funny since they had just watched 101 dalmations for the first time on saturday)

they weren't too sure what to think about her.

charlotte decided she'd rather stay in the stroller.

when i take the kids by myself, there are a lot of rides i can't take them on.

the 1 adult to 3 kids ratio is pretty limiting.

jackson really wanted to go on autopia last week, but i couldn't do it alone.

i told him when daddy came, he could go.

so after meeting cruella, he went racing back to tomorrowland.

the girls were NOT interested in autopia,

so we headed over to meet the princesses.

(last week the kids just wanted to ride the rides.  yesterday was our first character-meeting experience)

the princess line takes a LONG time.

but the girls thought it was worth it!

as we were meeting our first princess, jackson came racing in from the side!

just in time to meet cinderella.

she called him 'a little prince'

finally, snow white.

i have always dreamed of being snow white at disneyland.

considering that i'm 32, i think those dreams have probably died.

now i'm aspiring to maybe be a witch.

or a character with a mask.

when we walked out of the princess plaza,

the employee let jackson wear her cape.

so sweet.

we headed over to toontown since we had not yet explored that area.

we ran into goofy.

charlotte was NOT enjoying him.

check out her mean mug.

"why is this hat-wearing-dog holding me????"

jeff and i were ready to ride some rides.

the kids were not.

they spotted minnie mouse and insisted on meeting her, too.

well, ok.

i guess it is all about the kids, right?

jackson & bella are great at waiting in line.

charlotte is not.

she is either picking things up off the ground to eat...

licking the poles, 

running underneath the ropes to the next line,

or screaming when i pick her up.

fun.

i get a lot of this cranky face while we wait.

all the waiting is worth it when we got to meet minnie!

they were so happy.

even charlotte was mildly excited.

after that, we decided it was ride time.

we hit up some favorites in fantasyland

and then traveled over to adventureland for the jungle cruise.

afterwards, while eating our packed dinner,

(frequent trips to disneyland means packing sandwiches for dinner instead of buying)

jackson asked about 'big thunder railroad' which he could see across the way.

i asked if he wanted to ride it with me, and he said yes.

so i got to take my little boy on a roller coaster.

....and i won't be doing that again for awhile.

he was NOT a fan.

(yes, he's smiling through the tears)

jackson was no longer up for a ride after that.

in order to boost his spirits, 

we decided to watch the parade.

currently, they have the 'mickey's soundsational parade'

the kids were super excited.

bella's face when she sees minnie mouse.

be still my heart.

the parade has lots of instruments,

especially drums.

guess who was in love?

even mickey mouse was playing the drums.

(mickey has blinking eyes and was apparently mid-blink in my photo)

i love this little face as he watches the instruments.

maybe jackson will be the one who ends up working at disneyland.

(aren't parents supposed to impose their missed dreams upon their kids?)

it was a great evening.

so there you go.

a bachman evening at disneyland.

we will (hopefully) have lots more of those....

but i promise not to share TOO many of them!

come on down for a visit to disneyland...

we'll be happy to join you!