The Hixsons Do Disney

Okay, I'm not updating this as often as I should, but we can blame Facebook for that. Honestly, a daily blurb is much easier, and I can post more photos. Therefore, I must beg those of you who are not on Facebook to get on Facebook. Yes, even you my teacher friends (I'm speaking to you Dorothy). You don't have to post anything, you can just reply to your friends comments and basically spy on us....it's fun......really.

So......as some of you may know, I enjoy

Disneyland. One of the things that makes me saddest, is that when I was a girl they did not sell dresses modeled after Sleeping Beauty, for me to wear to Disneyland. In my dreams, I wear that dress, then live in Disneyland and split my

time between living in the castle, and in the Pirates of the Carribean ride. What can I say, like most girls, I like bad boys. But life moves on, and I have a kid now. Finally, after 4 1/2 years of waiting, my child has finally shown that he can wait in long lines....so off to Disneyland we go.

Of course, living in Switzerland, our only real option was to go to Disneyland Paris (no they do not call it EuroDisney). Now as much as I like the French language, and my friend Isabelle who is French, I have to say that putting Disneyland in France was probably not the best choice. The French are not known for their friendly service or they're ability to keep things sparkling clean, and Disney isn't about to change thousands of years of French culture. The people working there did not have their Disney smiles plastered on their faces, nor were they done up with perfect hair and makeup. Main street was looking a little shabby (though they were fixing it)....and of course people were smoking all over the place. That said, having built it 40 some years after the original Disneyland....it was better thought out. Each land had a real decor theme that was consistent throughout the land....and I thought it was nice. My favorite was Adventureland. Here they really did up the Pirate theme.....with a huge Skull Island in the middle....it was awesome.

My advice to anyone who is considering a trip, to any Disney park, if they have small kids is to go in October. I have been to more than one Disney park in October and I can assure you that this is when the lines are the shortest.....not to mention when hotels are the cheapest. I think this is important because you don't want a child's first trip to Disney to be full of hour long lines, and to be honest....you don't want to wait an hour for the

Pinocchio ride....it's not worth it.

So.......how did it go? Did Cameron love it? Did he become over sugared, over tired and cranky? Did David and I argue and annoy each other the entire trip?

Well....to make a long story short....Cameron had a wonderful time, and wants to live there, and David and I may have had more fun than Cameron. It's funny how when we go on adventures that are purely about entertaining Cameron, he turns into the most wonderful child in the world. As long as we are completely focused on him having a good time, he never cries, whines, pouts, becomes obstinate or defiant. I'm not saying he does these things a lot anyway (except maybe the obstinate part), but it's a big enough change that you take notice. We gave him a few treats, but not tons. We bought a few toys, but again....not a lot. Yet, there was never an argument or tear....he was truly angelic.

Of course, Cameron is a thrill seeker. He's always been a fan of rides, and the wilder the better. So we went on the Fantasyland rides, and those were okay and all......but it was the big stuff that got him. To say he loved Big Thunder would be like saying I'm fond of ice cream ( I would eat nothing but ice cream if I could). But the real thrill seeking adventure was not at Disneyland's Magic Kingdom park, but at the Disney Studio. I should mention here that they have updated Space Mountain and Cameron was not tall enough to ride on it (which says something because Cameron is crazy tall). But I digress.......at the Disney Studio park they have a ride called Crush's Coaster. It's based on the sea turtle from the movie Finding Nemo. Imagine Space Mountain, with an underwater theme, where the car you ride in ocassionaly spins.........it was wild. At the end Cameron was sitting with a look of shock on his face. I asked him if he liked the ride... to which he responded " That was the best ride of my life!"

It was fun to see Cameron sing along to It's a Small World and shoot the evil aliens with Buzz Lightyear. Dave and I thought it was funny that he was nervous about the fire in Pirates of the Carribean. We discovered he isn't ready for 3-D movies when we took him to Honey I Shrunk the Audience and he totally freaked out.

The only thing that makes us sad is that we ended up with 0 pictures of Dave with Cameron. But, that just means we will have to go to a different Disney park and try again right?