While this was Emma's 3rd time, this was the first time she was asking to see all of the characters, especially Mickey and Minnie. As soon as we got to the park, we first went to California Adventure. Once we enter, the first thing Emma sees is Goofy taking pictures with the kids! She gets soooooo excited! So naturally I take her to stand in the line to get her picture taken. And naturally, we are denied because he is going on "break". BUT he was returning in just 30 minutes and would be available for pictures then. Okay! Perfect. Or so I thought. I tell Emma, "Okay sweetie, he has to go eat, he's hungry, but he'll be back soon and we'll take a picture with him then." I proceed to walk forward to the next destination and Emma is crying into Matt's leg! Talk about breaking my heart! Poor girl... I bend down, reassure her we will see him but in the meantime we would go find a ride! Turns out, she isn't sad about Goofy leaving, she is sad because she hasn't seen Mickey yet... and it's only been 10 minutes since arrival.
I tell her we will be here all day and she needs to spot him and let me know so we can take a picture. This goes on, and on for the first couple hours of our trip. I was able to distract her with a ride while we waited for Goofy's return. And the distractions continued until we successfully got a picture with Pluto, Jake and none other than Mickey himself! After Mickey, I thought, "Awesome! It's only 11am and we've met her expectations.". Not so much... tears over Minnie and her lack of appearance began. Let the distraction method commence ten fold!
After all of this, it was a pretty fun day. We were able to go on a few rides in California Adventure, then halfway through the day head over to Disneyland and go on a few more rides. Emma and Kaelyn both did amazing. Being a Saturday, lines were long, but Emma waited patiently and even opted to go on a couple of rides a second time, willing to wait in the line again.
Here are some pictures. And yes, I had to jump in on the character pictures, because as eager as Emma was to see and take pictures with them, she was absolutely terrified of them up close! ;)
