Disneyland: Day 4--Disneyland!

On the 4th day of our "Disney Trip" we finally made it to actual Disneyland! :)  Took us long enough!

This particular Tuesday after getting dressed in our bleached Mickey head shirts we ate our breakfast cookies (recipe here) as we walked to the Disney gates.  On Tuesdays, Disneyland has what they call "Magic Mornings" where, if you have a 3 day (or more) Park Hopper ticket you can get in an hour before everyone else.  Not all the rides are open then but it's a good way to try to knock a few favorites off your list before it gets too crazy.  Well, apparently not ALL 3 day tickets have this feature.  And ours actually didn't but I didn't have a clue until they pointed it out to me as we tried to get in the gates.  But the super-nice Cast Member at the gate let the 5 of us squeak through anyway!  Whew!

We headed straight for Peter Pan in Fantasyland.  It's always one of the longer wait rides.  We still had quite a wait.  But we took our traditional picture of Jason holding Autumn in line in that ride.  This year she had a different outfit finally:
April 30, 2013:


November 2011:


May 2010:


We tackled more of Fantasyland including Mr. Toad's Wild Ride which was apparently Jason's favorite as a child.
 

We attempted to re-create a picture we took of Dalton back in 2010 as well.  Here was this trips:


And here was 2010:


Then they all wanted to do it:


Trying to be the one to pull out the sword in the stone:






Riding Pinocchio all together in the front. *melt*

About to enter Snow White:


Yet another re-creation of previous photos. The boys were always big Chip and Dale fans so they've liked posing with the statues right in front of the castle. This year:

2011:


A couple from 2010:




By this point the whole rest of the park was open so we left Fantasyland.  It was a chilly-ish day for nearly May in SoCal but we headed over to Splash Mountain anyway because there was no line.  Autumn was, of course, too short so the boys and I did Splash while Autumn and Jason did Winnie the Pooh.
 

When we got back to unload after Splash Mountain there was still no line. They asked if we just wanted to go again! Yes!!!

Good times. Good times. I hear they turn the "splash" down on those chillier days. We got a few drops on us but nothing too chilly. Just after that it was time for our surprise lunch. 

For Jason's birthday, my mom gave him a hefty gift card wanting to treat us to lunch at the Blue Bayou. 

Blue Bayou is a restaurant that is inside the Pirates of the Carribbean ride.  PotC (if you're a Disney nerd like me) is a family favorite of ours.  I think we end up riding it the most on all our trips.  The boys didn't even realize there is a restaurant inside there on previous trips but we made one of the earliest lunch reservations you can make and asked for a "water side" table so you're right there watching everyone go by on their boats.  What a treat!  The kids, of course, loved it once they figured out we were inside one of their very favorite rides.  The food was excellent as well.  Jason was able to get something fancy and vegan and I got the vegetarian version of my sandwich.  I really really liked it there and would totally go back with another gift card. ;)  Thanks again, Mom!



Of course we rode the ride right afterwards. 








In a twist of total lame-ness....Big Thunder Mountain was under construction (which we knew going in to this trip) but Space Mountain was also closed for some safety violations or something.  No roller coasters?!  Ugh!  Dalton was FINALLY tall enough but it got shut down just a couple days before we got there.  Bum-mer!  Sure there's plenty of other things to do...so we did them.

Tea cups for me and Autumn while the guys did Matterhorn:



Then we rider switched so I could go on Matterhorn too but Dalton didn't want to go again. Just me and E:


Poor E kept trying to get this Storm Trooper's attention but never did:

We all joined forces once again for the classic it's a small world:






Then we headed back over to the other side of the park again. Awwwww, a family of ducklings on our path.


Our Fast Pass time for Indiana Jones was coming around. Only Easton was tall enough of the kids (which he's been soooooo excited about the idea of being 'tall enough for Indiana Jones' ever since he hit 48" awhile back). We got Rider Swap tickets and while Jason and Easton did Indy, the little two and I did Tarzan's Tree House:




And then we had a snack:


Easton and I took our quick trip on Indy but Jungle Cruise was still closed for refurbishment so instead we caught the train to take us back around to Mickey's Toontown:


The kids messed around and we met quite a few characters. We waited for forever for Mickey in his house but the sign outside saying how long a wait to expect was apparently lying and a bunch of us got fed up and walked out. But we had plans to meet Mick soon (the next morning) so we just played around a bit instead:


This cracks me up, Easton's pinching Autumn's bum to try to get her to look at me:


Donald!




I'm not sure if Easton was supposed to be up here in or not.


He claims there was no other way to get up there. Oh well.

We must be waiting for Star Tours (another one poor Autumn is still too short for).


We took in the 7 p.m. parade.






We never used to take the time for parades on our first trip or two but the kids really love them and, honestly, I do too.

We rode a couple more things before the park closed at 8:00. You can get in line up till that exact minute and they have to let you on. Jason got in line for some food to take back to the room and when it was a long line we decided the rest of us would make a mad dash for PotC. I'm not kidding when I say mad dash. We sprinted. Autumn was in the stroller and I told the boys to run ahead (without me!) while I parked it. The guy was just about to rope off the queue when he told the boys, "you can be my last riders" as he saw me and Autumn rushing up to join them. Whew!

We did our final Pirates ride for the day and walked back over to the hotel. The kids had a little picnic in front of the tube with healthy-ish foods from home and Sprouts for their dinner as it was only 7:00 Denver time:


Jason ate whatever weird bulgur salad he got from somewhere on Main Street. I think I wasn't hungry. Probably nerves. Then we got the kids in their p.j.s and put on the Disney channel while they fell asleep.

Strangely, Autumn threw up again a couple of times that night. What in the world???  Tune in for Day 5 here.

Disneyland: Day 3--California Adventure

Autumn made it through the rest of the night without any more yakking. Of course, that didn't keep me from worrying about her all morning. And she wasn't 100%, that was for sure.

We donned our Toy Story-esque bowling shirts I'd made for our Disney World trip in November 2011.  So glad to get to wear them again!!!  We headed down to the poolside breakfast area with a loaf of "clean" banana bread I baked at home.  We use this recipe here minus the eggs.  (Yes, without the eggs.  We didn't have any the first time I made it and in the comments I saw someone else enjoyed how it turned out without them.  We did too and I've always omitted the eggs from then on.)

After breakfast we were excited to head over to California Adventure and Cars Land!!!  The whole point of choosing California over Florida for this trip was to see Cars Land.  We were most excited about the Radiator Springs Racers rides.  Us, and everybody else.  We lined up before the park opened to get in line.  We read how to be among the first on the ride.  We followed it.  We got Rider Switch passes so I could ride later (since Autumn is too short).  The boys headed to the ride, Autumn and I headed to the Fast Pass line to get more tickets for later.  Even the line for the Fast Passes was insane.  We wound all through the park for a good half hour I'd say:


And the boys let us know via text message they were enjoying seeing Radiator Springs but their line was still long. 


After Autumn and I got the Fast Passes we waited for the boys near the exit:


We were actually able to see them zoom by on their ride.  Fun! 

As soon as they got off, Dalton and I headed over with our Rider Switch passes because the ride apparently breaks down a LOT and I didn't want to take it for granted that it'd be open.  Guess what?  Already broken down!  So we moved on to the rest of Radiator Springs.  Like, Luigi's Flying Tires which is like sitting on a giant air hockey table:


It was a fun little novelty ride but totally not worth the wait.  Mater's Junkyard Jamboree was pretty fun, though.

We explored more of California Adventure.  Eastie got to do his very first upside down roller coaster!
 





Hard to see but that's us there with little E's waving hand! :)  He loved it and went again right away with Jason. 

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The little two filled the time on various short rides with whichever parent while we waited. 

Our Fast Pass time for Radiator Springs Racers finally came around and the ride was running again so the boys and I were able to do that ride again.  Soooooo cool!  Loved it!  They did an amazing job.  Too bad it's always breaking down.  That's lame.  Jason and Autumn got to do Mater again. 


We had lunch at Flo's V-8 café just like in the movie.  They had some vegan "tater bake" and I ordered mac and cheese from the kids menu for myself.  The kids ate stuff we brought for them from the grocery store, I think. It's been so long now and you don't really care about what we ate anyway, right?

We did some more California Adventuring:








One of our favorites (that doesn't have Fast Pass): Toy Story Mania:




And more Radiator Springs:


Got to meet Mater! These cars actually roll around and when the park opens, they "escort" you down the road. It's the most!




Dalton texted this to a pal back home whose birthday was that day.

We're in line for "Mike and Sulley to the Rescue!" (the Monsters, Inc. ride). Then we rushed over to take in the Aladdin show which was a favorite on our last trip. Genie's jokes are always unique-ish and relatively current.



We grabbed some random things (from 3 different counter service restaurants!) for our dinner. Jason got some Asian rice bowl, Easton had rice and a "Power Pack" from Disney, plus stuff from the store and Dalton and I got Mexican.  Autumn was doing pretty well but her eating wasn't back to normal.  She nibbled on whatever.

Finally got some Cars Land pics as a family. The PhotoPass photographer took one with our camera:


And then they took their PhotoPass pics and you can see the sign so much better. :)




We're "driving" in this one:


Eventually we parted ways. Jason, Easton and Autumn met Pluto and did who knows what else since I wasn't with them and it was a long time ago now (3 months!!!):






While Dalton and I headed back with our Rider Switch passes to ride Radiator Springs Racers at night with all the lights on. Way cool! He was being precious in line. So excited and sweet:


"You're the best mom ever!" "You planned everything!" "Thank you for taking us here!" In fact, he was being so adorable that the older couple in line in front of us commented on how precious he is and then asked, "Are you guys planning to go to World of Color tonight?" (World of Color is their cool new show on the water. It opened the month after our last trip so we saw them finishing it but missed the show) I told them we were planning on seeing it. Then they asked if we had Fast Passes for it (they have reserved seating areas). I told them we did not. They told us they needed to get back to their room and pack and they'd already seen the show and did we want their passes for some nice area? Sure we did!!!

How nice to not have to worry about getting down to the water too far in advance for a decent spot. The show didn't start till 9:00...10:00 Colorado time!!! But we made it!




How cool are their glow stick mouse ears??? Bought them for 83 cents a piece here.


Autumn made it until just before the show started and then the sweet thing finally crashed:


We are go-go-go type tourists who rarely stop for rests and never stop for naps. There was only one spot in the stroller....I'm so impressed with how the kids did the whole time! As soon as World of Color was over we headed towards the exit with the masses and were snoozing in our room not too much later. Tune in for Day 4 here.