Halloween Fireworks

Here is a clip from the Halloween fireworks show. It gets so loud that it spikes the sound on the recording but otherwise it is a great video.

This is Halloween! Oct. 2011

Jason and I are just thrilled to show our pictures from our spooky night at Disneyland. We had so much fun and we kept saying that we didn't think Disneyland could get any better, but if you add a new fireworks show, costumes, short lines on the rides, and all the free candy you want... it definitely can get better!

Here are some pictures of what Disneyland looks like during this time of year. They do a nice job or decorating the area so that it is still mainly classic Disney, but with a few ghoulish touches here and there.

This GIANT pumpkin Mickey Mouse meets you right when you enter Disneyland and head towards mainstreet USA.

A special treat for this time of year is how they adapt "The Haunted Mansion" so that it becomes "The Nightmare before Christmas" ride. They go all out on the decorations outside of the ride, but it doesn't even give you a glimpse on how well they transform the inside of the ride. It's funny because "The Haunted Mansion" isn't usually busy and is our go-to ride when the park is busy. But since it is a special treat to get to ride it now they actually have a fast pass for the ride and the line is at least 30 mins long. Luckily we had gotten our fast pass and ran through the line in 5 minutes!

This picture is outside the mansion and it has this poster that duplicates the equation from the movie.


Purple, orange, and black bows and decorations are all over the normal decorations outside.



Here's the front of the mansion. My favorite feature is the clock.

Scarecrows dressed as Santa Claus.


I liked this picture because it was taken at night and you can see the Jack-o-lantern glowing under Jack.

Here are the decorations that specifically are out when the Halloween costume party begins at 7:00pm on select nights.

Here is the sign that is everywhere letting you know that you are at a special party.

Normally the pirate ship isn't lit up like this at night, but it looked so eerie on the lake that they filled with fog.
Here you can see how the fog got heavier and heavier as the night went on to the point that it was spilling over the edge. It was kind of fun to go and get lost in it. I'm sure some of the parents were worried of the same thing for their kids.


We were at Disneyland before 7:00 and all of these Mickey ghosts weren't there in the daytime, so I don't know where they came from but suddenly they were all over the park and lit up like this.

They also projected these figures all over the park. It was funny how some people noticed them and how others were too busy scarfing down candy.

They had spooky lights all around the area and the sound of bats, cats, and growling in the background. The amazing thing about Disney is their attention to details, and they created such an amazing atmosphere there that you felt like you were at a haunted house.


There were two of these scarecrow guys that would hang out and answer your questions or comment on what costumes they liked or didn't like. He called out to us saying that if we needed to take a nap so badly we could have at least brought a costume to change in to. He was pretty funny.


One of the best features of the Halloween party: Treat Trails! Basically there are designated areas in Disneyland that lead you down a path where there are several stands like this one and someone is passing out candy to you. Usually there are 2-3 stands per trail. You do have to stand in line, but they moved surprising fast (kids want their candy) and even the adults get their own bag and candy. I seriously haven't gone trick or treating in years so it was so nostalgic to hold out my bag and say "Trick or Treat." The coolest part is that you can go through the lines as many times as you want. By about 11:00 at night all the kids are gone and there is no one in the candy lines so went home with two full bags of candy.

Proof that we got our candy.

Disney was trying to give healthy options for some of the trick or treaters and would hand out bags of carrots with the candy. I caught Jason snacking on some while in line for some more candy.

There were also special Halloween themed snacks that you normally don't see for the rest of the year. This Jack Skeleton caramel apple was... TO DIE FOR!

Now for the pictures of us and our costumes. Here we are at the front of the park. As you can see from this picture we both decided to wear our pajamas as costumes. Really that is what inspired our costumes, because I wanted us to wear something that would be comfortable but also a little bit warm in case it got cold. It did not get cold at all and we were actually a little hot in our pj's. I brought my robe just in case I got cold and wanted something more, but naturally since I brought it I didn't need it.

Since we wore pajamas we had to think of a costume to match the pants. We decided for Jason that he would be a "Bed Bug." See how he is wearing antennas.

And here I am dressed up as "Sleeping Beauty." This costume is complete with crazy bed hair, a sleeping mask, a crown, jewelry.

I couldn't believe the reactions we got from everyone. Some people, especially little kids, would read our shirts and not really get it. Most people would glance at us, do a double take, and then start to laugh and tell us they loved our costumes. I felt that I should have tried to put more effort into them because we were asked to pose for so many pictures. We would be walking along and literally people would stop us to tell us that they thought we were so clever. The worst was when we went into a shop and a group of the employees just started applauding us and saying that our costumes were the most original they've seen. I'm guessing they have probably seen every costume available. Jason was a stud and just bowed when they were clapping for us, but I couldn't think of anything to do... so I blushed and ran away.

Here we are in front of the castle. We had to get just one scary picture in... but it's amazing how hard it is to take scary pictures in Disneyland.

Here we are in line to get candy!

I'm pretending to be asleep and hoping that Jason will kiss me to wake me up. Yeah, my wish came true!
Here are some more pictures of us just around the park at different locations. Every time you turned a corner there was something new and fun to take a picture of.






I loved this tree because it was decorated like so elaborately for Halloween. Here we are in front of it.


On to the character pictures. This is the only time of the year that people will wait in line to take pictures with the bad guys from the Disney movies. Here are a few that we took:

Here is the voodoo guy from "Princess and the Frog." Look how creepy and long his hand looks. I think he is a perfect match for the cartoon character.


The queen from "Alice in Wonderland." Without even asking for permission, she took a hold of my Jason and I had to fight her off. Let's just say I painted her nose (not rose) red! HA!

This is the bad wolf from "Pinocchio." He posed this picture himself, because he read Jason's shirt and wouldn't come within arms length of Jas. Even when we were thanking him he wouldn't go near Jason and then he started scratching all over. He was pretty awesome!

Here is a random picture of our pj's. I think we took this picture while we were waiting for the fireworks show.

In case you were wondering if I didn't match my costume, here is proof that I was very sleepy that night. We went on a Friday and I had a long day at work with meetings and IEP's. It was so much fun to go and party but while we were waiting for the fireworks I did think to take a little nap. Darn Jason and his camera skills!



Here are pictures from the parade that, you guessed it, only happens at the Halloween party.

It was pretty funny because all of the characters were dressed up as something else beyond their normal costume.

For all of you "Monsters, Inc" fans, you will get the significance of this picture with the sock.

Woody and Jesse!

All of the princesses.

In the parade were these big pumpkins that were dressed up in different costumes. Super fun.

Then the fireworks show. I love the fireworks that Disney puts on every night and I don't think I ever get sick of them. It's to the point now that Jason and I can not be watching and cue the fireworks when they are going to happen. So it was nice to have a new show to watch. This one was amazing! There was this huge ball next to the castle that lit up and Jack Skeleton was projected on it. Zero also came out and flew around the castle.

Before the fireworks show they would play Halloween music and project different images on the castle. I seriously could have spent the night just watching that.

These are from the dream that Winnie the Pooh has about "Heffalumps and Woozles."

And now for one of our favorite things we decided to do while at the party: The Costume Contest. So there wasn't really a costume contest at the park, but Jason and I tried to catch the pictures of those that we thought were different and creative. There were so many pirates and mad hatters that they got old after a while. The most popular kids costumes were Rapunzel, Woody, and Buzz. We couldn't decide on a winner, so here are a few that we really liked.

This first one was a group that dressed like the "Up" characters. My favorite was the balloons because the lady holding them had taped them together so they held all together. We went up and talked with them for a bit and the old guy (who wasn't really old) totally stayed in character the whole time. They were really cool.

We liked this costume because it is perfect for Disneyland and Halloween: Ghost Mickey and Minnie Mouse. This couple was standing behind us for the fireworks show and they were nice enough to pose for us.

This family was one of my favorites. The little girl dressed up like Ariel, The Little Mermaid, which wasn't uncommon because there were several mermaids. What made this family cool was the parents going all out on their costumes, too. The mom was Ursula and the dad was King Tritan.

This last one is a bad picture but I wanted to capture this huge family that all dressed up like gnomes from "Gnomeo and Juliet." We really liked this movie and we thought it was cute that all of the guys dressed as blues and all the girls dressed up like reds.
Right as we were leaving the park we saw another awesome costume but we couldn't get a picture of it. A guy dressed up like Walt Disney and had a striking resemblance to him. Then the girl that was with him dressed up like a black and white version of Minnie Mouse. So clever!

I can't believe how much fun it was to do this and I have to say that it was the best Halloween party I have ever been to. We originally decided that we would try Disneyland out this year for Halloween and then try some of the other places over the next few years, but I think we are very happy with Disney.

We can't leave out how much fun our ward party was. We had a blast running the doughnut stand and really appreciated how much work was put in to the party. We have such a great ward!

The only downside to Halloween was that we weren't around for my family's annual Halloween party at Kurt n Shel's. We looked forward to that every year and had to miss it this time. Darn distance between St. George and Costa Mesa!

Also, we have to give a shout out to my brother, Easton, because his birthday is on Halloween. I hope he had a great bday and we love him so much!

We hope everyone else had a great Halloween!