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.