Birthday Boy!

Disneyland Day 3

Okay, last Disneyland post and then we can all get on with our lives :)

We definitely made up for leaving the park early the day before and got our money's worth on our last day at Disneyland!  Tuesday morning was a "Magic Morning" (which we got and entrance ticket for since we bought a three day ticket) meaning you could get in an hour before the park opened.  So we left our hotel a little after 6am to get into the park at 7am!  Crazy, I know.  Sadly, when we got to the parking lot that we had parked in the two other days, it was closed!  We tried to find signs for another parking lot but were having zero luck!  Google maps wasn't finding anything either.  I searched on line and we finally found one.  We parked, grabbed all of our stuff, and rode a tram to the park entrance only to be completely disappointed to see long long lines to get into the park.  By the time we got in it was 7:45.  Our Magic Morning ended up not being so magical after all :(

But I'm not complaining because this ended up being our most fun day of all the three :)

Outside Cinderella's Castle

I spotted Prince Charming :)

Our goal for that morning was to ride all the fun little kid rides in Fantasyland.  Some were super cute, but others were beyond creepy/weird!  Creepy/weird ones included:  Alice in Wonderland (the movie is weird, but this ride was far out.  We got off and thought, huh, what was that?  A bad dream?  Which is probably what they were going for?  We rode on a caterpillar through scenes in the movie with characters and psycho music and lights.  NOT a fan of that one!).  Pinocchio's Daring Journey was pretty psychedelic too.  Black lights, neon lights, creepy music, the works.  I guess I'm not really a fan of the older Disney movies anyway.  Andrew spent that whole ride with his head burried in Robert's lap.  Who comes up with that stuff?  Then there was Snow White's Scary Adventures.  The lack of a line should have been the first sign, but I went on it anyway.  Luckily Robert had taken Andrew to go on Dumbo again because this one would have scarred him for life!  Alex was luckily oblivious :)  There were dungeons, skulls, the creepy witch, and lots of other voodoo nonsense.  NOT a good kid's ride!!  This was in another part of the park but it ranked up there with the bad rides for the day, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.  Long line, black lights, creepy music and scenes.  But enough being a negative Nancy, the fun rides more than made up for the bad ones!!

The teacups were soooo much fun!  We could have gone on that one over and over and over!  Andrew and Robert loved Dumbo too and went on that one several times but my all time favorite was Peter Pan's Flight!  I don't like that movie either, but the ride was so well done!  We all rode together in a ship and I was totally not expecting it but after we sat down and pulled the bar down over our lap, the ship took off and sailed through the ride!  We sailed through Wendy and the other children's bedroom while the dog barked at us, we sailed over London (we didn't see Sam, but we did see Big Ben :), then sailed into the night sky with the moon, stars, and clouds.  Then we flew down to Neverland and over a volacano and waterfall, then sailed through scenes from the movie and saw the lost boys, indians, pirates, captain hook, and then back to London.  We were in awe the whole time and so sad when we realized the ride was over!  So fun!

Another great one was Casey Jr. Circus Train.  I'm not sure if it was from a TV show or what but we all enjoyed the ride on a miniature train, through the mountains, with music.  I think that one was one of Andrew's favorites!

And what is a trip to Disneyland without meeting princesses?!  There was this cool little castle thing that we went inside of with guards, people dressed in cool court attire.

Aurora!  She was so friendly and nice and Alex kept staring at her and grinning.  So cute!  Andrew wanted nothing to do with the whole thing, as you can tell by his death grip on Robert!

Then we walked to the next area and met Ariel!

Then Cinderella!

I know these pictures are all out of order but I'm so sick of sorting through them that this will just have to do!

The boys fighting over the steering wheel outside of Mr Toad's Adventure.  We rode on a car like that one through the ride.

And King Arthur's Carousel!  I lost track of how many times we rode this one.  Maybe I'm just a kid at heart but I loved every time we rode it just as much as Andrew did!  That's pure joy on his face right there!

A glimpse at what the lines were like.

Riding dumbo with Dad again!  There was a control stick inside of each one and you could make your elephant go up and down.

Riding in the monkey cart of Casey Jr.'s Circus Train, how fitting :)

Tea Cups!

I wouldn't let him spin it, because it made me sick, but he still enjoyed it

Merida!

We went back to Toon Town and went inside of Mickey's house to meet him!

Andrew loved all the silly little things to play on.  It was super cute and fun to walk through all of the cartoony rooms in the house.

Then we got to actually meet Mickey!  Andrew was so excited to have him sign his book.  He gave him high five and just stared at him in awe.

Then Andrew asked to go on a little kid roller coaster that he saw.  I'm a wimp and was more nervous than he was.  It wasn't too intense but it scared him a little.  But he was so proud of himself for being brave enough to go on it and has told me several times since that he is a big boy and went on the roller coaster with mom.

Catching a glimpse of the Tangled show during the "I Have a Dream" scene

Hey Robert, say, "I love princesses!"

oh the cuteness!!

Having so much fun was exhausting!  So we found a shady place to sit and eat and feed the ducks.

We walked to another part of the park but were still too tired to do much of anything (we did get up at 5:30 that morning!).  So we went inside a building and watched a western show, snacked, drank water, bought Andrew some french fries, and rested.  

The park just kept getting more and more packed so we left the park and walked to downtown Disney (a bunch of stores, restaurants, and the disney resort hotel).  It was so nice to get away from the crowd.  We had packed all of our food but planned to eat one meal while we were there (boy that saved us a TON of money).  The boys had fallen asleep and we found a nice restaurant attached to the super nice Disney Resort Hotel.  We chugged and chugged ice water and enjoyed the comfy seats and air conditioning and sleeping children while we ate.  

Cool stuff made out of legos outside the legos store

all legos!

We rode the mono rail back into the park and were rested and ready to go!  We felt super bummed about missing out on our magic morning so we decided to stop by the guest services building and whine.  We were kind of embarrassed to complain but we dropped a lot of money to go so we figured it was worth a shot.  It was worth it and they gave us a couple of passes to go to the front of the line on which ever rides we wanted.  Score!

We chose to ride the Finding Nemo Submarines again as well as Peter Pan's Flight.  Awesomeness!

Alex was mesmerized

Andrew found Nemo again!

Pizza Port.  Kind of like Pizza planet on Toy Story

Riding the carousel...again!

That night we watched Fantasmic, a huge show with Mickey Mouse, fireworks, tons of disney characters and lots of music.  We had planned to watch the big fireworks show after but they cancelled it because of wind so we rode...you guessed it, the carousel again and then watched Fantasmic...again.  Andrew loved watching Mickey save the day!

The castle was so pretty all lit up at night.

The only picture I took during Fantasmic.  We didn't leave the park until well after 11pm.  It was such a fun day that we weren't ready for it to be over.  

oh, and we ran into the mad hatter :)

Disneyland Day 2

I wish I would have written about this sooner but now that a month has passed, we will see how much I can remember!  On Monday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, packed our bags and headed out for another day at the happiest place on earth.  The park opened at 8am so we left the hotel at 7am to give ourselves time to drive, park, ride the bus, and wait in line at the entrance.  There was so much to see and do at Disneyland that I did a super lame job of taking pictures that day.

This sign was in the bag inspection area and it cracked me up.  Andrew loved hanging on the ropes in line!

When we got there things were pretty dead so we were able to ride lots of rides.  We had  a lot of beginners luck that day too and ended up in just the right places at the right times and avoided some major long lines!  Robert went on Splash Mountain and then we switched. 

He screamed like a little girl too, I heard it with my own two ears :)   Then I rode on it and understood why!!  You got in a log thing (atleast a lap belt would have been nice, in my opinion) and wound through this river with music and anamatronics.  There were a few drops that made your tummy turn but the one at the end was a real pants wetter!  Luckily there was a splash at the bottom so you had something to blame it on!  We were able to walk right onto this ride, but later in the day there was a 2 hour wait!!

Winnie the Pooh ride.  Alex sat next to me and had a great time!  There was music and lots of scenes from Winnie the Pooh.  It was cute and Andrew liked it too.

Waiting in line for Pirates of the Carribean.  This was a fun one that we were able to all go on together.  We got onto a pirate ship that went along a river with lots of pirate scenes and music.  Andrew got nervous a couple of times but just "rarred" the pirates.

We had gotten fast passes for Indiana Jones when we first came in so we were able to quickly get on that ride too.  I really liked that one!  You rode in a jeep through a cave while bugs came out at you, you screeched around corners, and dodged a huge rock.  It was super fun and really cool while you waited in line weaving through a cavern and watching videos that built up the ride.  

While waiting for Robert to go on Indiana Jones, the boys and I rode a barge to a little island that Andrew had fun exploring and climbing all over.  Then we all went on a little canoe ride in the water around the island.

I held Alex and didn't have to paddle in the blazing hot sun :)  It was a fun little ride with lots of fake wildlife, Indians and scenery set up through out.  The worker that was in charge of our canoe was hilarious and had a cool Davey Crockett get up.

Then we went on a train ride around the whole park.  It was fun to see everything without all the walking :)  It even passed through a tunnel that was full of dinosaurs (which Andrew rawred).  Alex was fussing a little and some fat guy sitting next to me made a comment under his breath about unruly children.  It was all I could do not to kick his fat legs out from underneath him as walked in front of me to get off the train at the next stop.  But I decided that wouldn't be very Christlike and instead took my response as a good sign that it was time for lunch :)

After looping around the park again we got off the train and it just so happened that Micky's Magical Map show was about to start so we went into the outdoor theater and got awesome seats!  We were so close to the front!  While we watched we opened up our cooler and ate some lunch and chugged some water.  

Andrew loved Mickey Mouse and I loved seeing all the Disney Princesses singing and watching the dancers in their pretty costumes.  Alex had fun downing his weight in yogurt and Robert watched me and Andrew being giddy with excitement.  I kept thinking about how that would be such a fun summer job to dance in a show at Disneyland all summer.

We walked to another part of the park and I found a shady spot to sit down and feed Alexander and Andrew zonked in the stroller.  Robert went to get fast passes for Autopia and rode the Matterhorn ride.  The line was crazy long but he was able to go as a single rider and hop right on.  Then we swapped and I rode it.  It seemed so wrong to be able to go right to the front of the ride but I guess that's the trade off for riding by yourself!  That ride was another favorite of mine too!  You were in a single file bob sled that climbed up the inside of this huge mountain.  Then you twisted all the way back down.  So fun!  It was pretty jerky and bumpy though, which I was the right size for the ride so I didn't mind, but Robert had to stuff his 6 foot 5 inch body into the seat and got bruised and beaten.  It was his least favorite.  I also saw a little kid get turned away because he was too short.  You would have thought the worker also told him the Easter Bunny was dead by the sad sad look on his face.  The parents were pretty ticked too considering they had already waited in line for a long time.  

We weren't too sure what to expect from Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters and didn't know if it would be worth it to wait in line for 45 minutes for this ride.  After 15 minutes of standing in the sun in line I was ready to give up but I'm glad we stuck it out.  This one was super neat!  Plus Andrew's obsession with Buzz added to the excitement.  We got to ride in a cart together and shoot lasers at evil emperor Zurg.  Andrew was in Toy Story heaven and Alex loved holding the toy gun.  The giant Buzz Lightyear before getting on the ride was a huge hit too!  That was a ride that I could have gone on over and over and over! 

Then it was time to use our Autopia fast passes.  Robert and Andrew went first while Alex and I, you guessed it, found a shady place to sit and sip our icy water bottles.  Such a hot day!  This was another fun ride that was perfect for Andrew.  You got to ride in a little two person car through a little course.  Then we swapped and I got to ride with Andrew.  He was grinning ear to ear while he sat in the driver's seat and "steered" us all over the place.  My job was to hold down the gas pedal.  I had to keep switching feet because it was sooo hard to push down.  Talk about a work out!

By now it was time for the parade to start and all the side walks were filled up with people.  We didn't know how we were going to get to see it with all of the people but we walked all the way to were the parade was going to start and they just so happened to open up a new area so we got a front row view of the parade in the shade even.  Score!

The parade had all of the Disney princesses, lots of dancers, and other Disney characters.  It was super cute!  Then we lucked out again and It's a Small World was reopening after being shut down for a while and we were able to jump right in line!

The boat went along a little river inside (air conditioned!) through scenes of little dolls throughout the world while "It's a Small World" played over and over in several different languages.  It was cute and Alex had fun bouncing along to the music.

We wandered through Mickey's Toon Town and Andrew had fun looking at all the silly buildings and cars.  There was also a big tree house that he got to climb around in.

Ready for his driver's license!  

Next we road Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a fun little kid ride that we all got to go on together.

Then we rode Dumbo!  Andrew and Robert loved it!

Jill and Alex?  Not so much :(  How lame am I that it made me feel sick to my stomach.  Alex was happy to be along for the ride though.

At some point we went back and watched Mickey's Magical map again.  We were so tired and just wanted to sit down!  Andrew loved it just as much the second time around.  We sat behind three little girls and when Flynn rider came out and joined Rapunzel in singing "At Last I See the Light" they all about died. It was so funny!  They were squealing like crazy and giggling over how he sounded just like he did in the movie :)

By this time the park was super crowded and we were so hot and tired that we decided to call it a day at around 6pm.  We went to target and restocked our snacks, went back to the hotel to warm up some dinner and crashed for the night.  I dreamed all night that I was back at BYU-I but hunting all over campus for hidden mickey mouse symbols.  Talk about Disney overload!