Disneyland Part 2

Thursday was another beautiful day.  It started with what is termed a "magic morning" but what is really just insanity.  They only open half of the park, so even though only half the amount of people are there, they are all in the same few places.  

Sylvie and I hopped on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster ride while Mike and Jens did Star Tours.  Then I took Sylvie, Emilyn, and Lucas

 to the carousel while everyone else scrambled to get on one more ride.  I enjoyed thinking about the spectacle I made--alone with a 4 year old, a 3 year old, a baby, and pregnant.  I am sure people thought I was crazy.  We also walked through Sleeping Beauty's castle, which Sylvie thought was scary.  

Then we met up with everyone and headed to California Adventure.  The boys went off to collect fast passes and ride California Screamin' (Jens's favorite ride of the trip, I think--it does go upside down!) While the ladies rode the Ariel ride and devoured a large portion of Sourdough Mickey.  

We ate an early lunch because we had dinner reservations for 5:40 at Ariel's Grotto, then Dad and Jens ran off to ride California Screamin' again while we meandered over to King Triton's Carousel, which was closed when we got there.  We sat and rested while Matt and Kristin used their California Screamin' fast passes, and while we were sitting there, we saw:

 Woody.  This ended up being the day of characters for us.  Sylvie really loved them this year, without the twinge of fear she seemed to feel last time. We rode Midway Mania, which is a fun virtual carnival ride in 3D

Then got on King Triton's Carousel, 

the Ferris Wheel, and headed to Clarabelle's for an ice cream treat.  On the way we tried a corn cheese--a corn dog made with cheese instead of a hot dog.  We do not recommend.  We do, however, recommend the ice cream which tasted good on what turned out to be a hot day.  

While we were in the main square of California Adventure, we realized that there were characters on pretty much every corner.  We got to see a bunch.

Minnie was even out by her private plane.  Sylvie was really hoping to go for a ride in the plane with Minnie, but I told her that Minnie only rides her plane when everyone is gone.  That seemed to appease her. 

The Johnsons took Jens with them on Soarin' over California (Emi wasn't tall enough :( 

And we took the girls back over to the main square, where we saw:

Mickey!  Sylvie asked him to dance with her, which he did.  It was very cute.  Then, the band 5 and Dime, which does periodic street performances drove up and the girls got asked to dance with them.

They dance the whole song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf."  The our family went on Soarin' over California together, which I must say was really great.  Sylvie loved it, and the views are pretty, plus, we somehow ended with seats smack in the center.  We met up with the Johnsons by the Tower of Terror, and while the dads took the big kids on that, the moms and littles watched the parade.  

We got great seats right at the beginning of the parade, which was good because we had to bolt across the park to get to our dinner reservation.  I did pause to take the girls on Flick's Fliers, which gave the dads time to catch up with us. We hurriedly changed the girls into the appropriate attire for dining with princesses.   

 While the food was nicer than Goofy's Kitchen, we did feel that the princesses rushed through us.  We did see five of them, though, so that was great.

 Cinderella's visit was the most fun because Sylvie was so excited about being dressed the same.  The moment we didn't capture was when Sylvie lay on the floor trying to look at Cinderella's shoes after confessing to Cinderella that she had left her "clack" slippers at home so they wouldn't get lost.  Cinderella confided that she, too, had left hers at home so they wouldn't get broken.

 We ended the day in Cars Land, which was really fun at night.  The neon lights look just like the movie and give a very fun atmosphere.  Everyone rode the cars racers (except for me, Emi, and Lucas--we warmed a bench right outside).  We didn't spend time in Car's Land during the day because it was packed with people and extremely hot.  Next time we would love to eat at Flo's dinner.  The Johnson's stayed and watched World of Color, but this pregnant lady was done, so we headed back to the hotel and dumped the kids and ourselves into bed, after observing that we had done a poor job of taking pictures and resolved to do better the next day.

Disneyland, Part 1

We have been planning our return trip to Disneyland for the past six months.  Oh, who am I kidding?  We have been planning it since October 2011, when we got home from the last trip.  And guess what?  We are already talking about next time.  We had another fantastic vacation in Anaheim with the Johnson family.  The kids were all swept up in the excitement of the trip.  Jens loved all the big roller coasters and Sylvie loved everything.  Everything.  The characters, the rides, the parades--she is at the best age for Disney.  

We drove down on Tuesday.  The drive was uneventful except for a dreadful lunch at Wendy's.  I ordered a chicken sandwich, Mike ordered a cheeseburger.  It wasn't until we were back on the highway heading south that we realized we'd been given the wrong order.  There were two meals, which I had checked, but the were both . . .

baconaters.  

It was the foulest lunch I have ever seen.  I had to dry off Mike's bun because it was so greasy.  I also had to remove half of the meat and cheese.  There was no lettuce, no tomato.  Just beef, bacon, cheese, and a greasy bun.  We were both starving and ate maybe half of our sandwich (luckily mine was the small size--Mike's was the huge one) and then we both felt ill for awhile.  We do not recommend.  

We arrived at the hotel within five minutes of the Johnsons and got checked in.  The kids ran around wildly, jumped on beds, and wrestled.  Then we headed to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  Sylvie was not in love with the thunderstorms, but they did love looking at the waterfall, birds, and butterflies.  We were happy to be there and excited for the next day!

After dinner, we checked out the Lego store, which had some amazing Lego statues and an awful lot of kits.  We somehow left without buying anything.  The kids were terrible about going to bed--lots of poking and fighting.  This was the first time we have ever tried to sleep them in the same bed.  We were a little worried we were going to have a miserable week!  But they eventually fell asleep, and so did we.  Sort of.  

Wednesday morning we got up and ready for a big day.  The park didn't open until 10, but we had to pick up our tickets, so we left early and stood in line for a while.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  We were expecting it to be a little cold in the morning, but with the sunshine it felt great.  The girls all wore their matching Minnie shirts.  

After a few pictures at the entry, 

we headed straight for Fantasyland, which was a smart move.  The other mornings seemed extra busy back there, but Wednesday morning wasn't too bad.  We were also happy to ease Sylvie in on the rides.  We didn't want a bad taste in her mouth to spoil the rest of the week, so we started with Dumbo, which was a real hit.  She loved steering the elephant up and down, and the line was very minimal.  

Next up was the Storybook Train, which moved out.  The kids enjoyed seeing all the miniature houses, but they liked being trapped in a "cage" car more.  

Lucas really liked the train. 

 We indulged Sylvie and did the carousel next.  She really loves carousels.  Everyone was very patient about fitting that in!

Then we did Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, which Sylvie hated.  It is dark and has a lot of noise, which is not her favorite thing.  I just kept telling her that Mr. Toad was a very bad driver, which seemed to stick with her.  She referred to his poor driving skills several times during the next few days.  She did not want to ride that again!  We moved to safer territory on the Storybook Boats, although Sylvie did cry about going through the whale tunnel.  Jens and Matisyn got to sit right at the front of the boat!

 The Teacups were next, which everyone loved.

Well, at least everyone pretended to love it.  Mike was a really good sport about going on this one with the kids, especially since they BOTH wanted to spin as fast as they could.  

Planning their strategy:

Go!

Sylvie loved it. 

 Next stop was the Matterhorn, where we realized the one problem that we were going to have this trip that we didn't have last time--Emilyn wasn't tall enough to ride everything!  She rode the Matterhorn last time, but they have changed the cars now and she couldn't go this time.  She was crushingly disappointed.  Sylvie, on the other hand, was tall enough and stood in line, but when it came time to get  in and ride, she refused.  I sat on a shady bench with Lucas, Sylvie, and Emilyn while everyone else rode twice.  There was no line at all.  We headed back to Toontown, and en route discovered that Merida was out taking pictures.  We braved the line and actually got a picture with her right before she went on break.  While the girls were meeting and greeting, Jens and Mike snuck back to the Matterhorn for one more ride. 

Jens and Matisyn were really cute buddies this trip.  They liked riding the rides together and walking together.  Things are so fun with a friend!

Gadget's Go Coaster was a must do for all of the kids, especially after Emi and Sylvie didn't ride the Matterhorn.  They loved every (brief) second of the ride.  

Matisyn navigated us back to the castle

 and we had lunch at the Jolly Holiday Cafe.  The food was good, the treats were fancy.  We especially liked the Matterhorn Macaroon.

 We split up for a while in the afternoon.  The dads took the big kids and rode Indiana Jones and looked into some shops (they swear this picture was unprompted)

 and rode the Haunted Mansion while the moms spent some quality time in the potty, nursing lounge, and riding the carousel again.  We met up in front of Pirates of the Caribbean, where we had our most embarrassing Disney experience of the week.  Sylvie, upon entering the building, began to cry and scream about not wanting to go on the ride, and if you have heard her cry and scream, you know it is not a quiet affair.  It was hard to decide what to do--Mike was sure she would be fine if she could just get on and get going.  I was more doubtful, but as it is one of the few rides I could go on, I wasn't going to volunteer to get out of line!  We sort of forced her into it, and she ended up liking it.  She sat in between Mom and Dad and closed her eyes for about 2/3 of the ride, but she liked seeing the dogs (there are 3--we counted) and the splashing canon balls.

Then everyone rode Splash Mountain while Emi, Lucas, and I hung out on another shady bench.  Sylvie came back from that one thrilled--"I got soaking wet!  It was freaking me out!" she shouted with glee.  We had 3 more fast passes, so Mike ran back through with the big kids while we took the littles on Winnie the Pooh.

 Then we all rode the Jungle Cruise (why is the line for that one so long?) and afterwords I staked out parade turf on a somewhat stinky curb with Lucas, Matisyn, and all three strollers while everyone else ran to find dinner.  We discovered that the Disneyland salads are quite delicious.  The parade was a huge hit. We somehow situated ourselves in a perfect location, and Sylvie bellowed loudly to all of the characters.  

 As a result of our seats and her very loud shouting, she got eye contact and waves from pretty much everyone in the parade, except for Belle, who was on the far side of the princess float.  In this picture, she is shouting "Why didn't Belle wave to me?!" Which we thought was pretty funny.  She really had been yelling to Belle VERY loudly.

 After the parade, Sylvie and I did the carousel and Dumbo one more time while everyone else went over to Space Mountain.

 Mike swung by the candy shop on Main Street and picked us up a chocolate dipped fresh pineapple.  Oh my, it was delicious.  Definitely a new favorite!

We made it back to the hotel by a pretty respectable 9:00 and the kids conked out immediately--a pattern that would continue for the rest of the trip.