Today we went to California Adventure.
We got back late and ready to go to bed, and we did go to bed. Thus I'm not blogging this live, but have gone back in time and am pretending the day just ended and I'm giving the full report. Warning: too many pictures ahead. It started off as many days at Disneyland do, with finding a place to park and then finding our way to the park. We parked in the Toy Story lot - Woody parking. Get the stroller and all the people out of the cars. Head count - 11 kids: Check.
Waiting in line... Daniel looks a bit confused.
Riding the bus over - Isn't this exciting, Daniel?
I took all the bags and had everyone else go into the "no baggage" line, by the time the 10 of them were ticketed and ready, I was through the security check with my little boys in the stroller. And then we were into California Adventure! Who's ready for fun?
Family photo - then we asked a nice stranger to take the photo so I could be in it - see the first photo in this post. Yay, let's go have fun. The older kids took off and Corey and I went with the little ones to Bug's Land. Onto Flicks Flyers.
I don't know, do I give the play by play?
Then onto Francis' Ladybug Boogie...
Then onto Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies. And that was where the fun began. Daniel was too short to ride. He was pretty ticked that he couldn't go on the cars. Really, Disney? He can't ride the lame bumper cars?
So I held him, and he squirmed and yelled, then he peed on me. Yeah, it was probably time for a diaper change...
Everyone else is still having fun - they I took him out to change him (didn't bring a change of clothes for me, oh well) and then he saw a balloon tied to someone's stroller, and was mad that I wouldn't let him have that either. I'm just mean.
Still riding the bumper cars...
Abi and Wes crashing into each other
We've got a good representation in this shot below - from left to right - Owen, Corey, Lily, Hyrum, Sophi, Mel, and Natalie
I'm still out with a mad toddler. Are you guys done yet?
Yay, we've moving, off to the next whatever. And that was when I happened to see a familiar face. I had no idea she was here, even though she had left a Marco Polo the other day, but we ran into my sister Patrice from Texas! What a surprise! I couldn't believe it, so funny!
She was there with her husbands family. She's like a pro Disney person and when I mentioned that we got the Max pass, she started telling me how to use it and it was all going over my head, mostly cause I kids yapping and toddlers scattering and couldn't process what she was saying. But I caught a few parts: Use fast pass, you can get them faster with the max pass, and go on the Cars ride, it has a long line, so be sure to get that fast pass asap. And something about free chocolate samples at the Ghirardelli Shop. I didn't process or follow all of her instructions right away but we did get the Cars ride fast passes. We went to cars land. We got to see Mater! Owen loves him, but was not ready to see him in real life.
And this is where we split up again. Corey took the girls on the Grizzley River Run and I took the toddlers and walked them around. (I got over 21000 steps today!) I had wanted to go to Redwood Park challenge trail place and let Owen play while Daniel slept, but I couldn't take the stroller in, and I didn't dare move him, so we walked around until they were both asleep. And then I got an isometric arm exercise going on with my left arm by holding Owen's head while they napped.
After a while I used his stuffed Lion to help me give him some sort of padded pillow.
So I sat there for a good hour or so.
I finally got my hand away from holding his head and I was kinda able to rest for a bit too with them.
Corey found me after a while, we swapped out.
We went on a few rides - Ariel's Underwater Adventure and the Silly Symphony Swings. As we waited in line, I figured out how the max pass fast pass deal works and got some for us to use later. The kids had already had lots of overpriced churros and snacks with their dad, but I hadn't eaten, and I kinda feel like why should I not buy expensive food when no one else cares, so I bought us some a meal at Flo's V8 Cafe.
They're living it up - Nice how Lily eats her fries, like grapes from the vine. Natalie enjoying the chocolate milk.
Ok, that's the last food I'm buying, you guys won't starve today, let's go ride some rides.
We headed to Cars Land to kill time while we waited for our first fast passes to be open -
Waiting in line for Luiji's Roadsters. That was a cute ride.
Taking a picture with Red after -
Then it was time to go to the Radiator Springs Racers. We went in the fast pass lane and there was a huge line in the normal line. As we were speeding past, Wesley and Mel saw us. Wesley started to plead "MOM!!! MOM!!!" and reach his hand out to me, as if to give him water to save his life. I didn't stop him and Mel from scooting under the rope to join us. Luckily they were at a part where there was a rope (aka at the
very end of the line). So we all went on the racers together. I guess I'm glad we were able to save him and Mel an hour of their day, lucky timing for them. One of the highlights of the day for me was hearing Sophi and Natalie squeal with delight on the race cars, it was super cute. I got an upside down video of it - here's a still shot. That was a fun ride, more fun to share it with these cute little girls.
Ok, Wes, Mel... you guys are stuck with us now! We went to go on Flicks Flyers again while we waited for our fast passes to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride to be open. Yeah, Flicks Flyers aren't exciting, but the lines short and it's on the way...
It was just the right amount of time. As we went over to the Guardians ride, lo and behold, the rest of our teenagers! They had used their fast passes earlier and were trying to decide if they should wait in line or go do something else, when they saw us... heading to the fast pass entrance. Again, the pleading eyes from my children, begging for deliverance from boredom and the inconvenience of line waiting. I scanned all our passes on my phone, said I only had 5. Poor Mel and Wes were gonna have to sit this one out too, unless, their puppy dog eyes could work on the Disney cast member guarding the entrance. I was smiling and laughing, they looked at her, she said "Oh, go ahead!" and the cheers went up all around, what joy! I texted Corey "I've got all the kids, we're going on Guardians together" What a treat! Cause most of the time, our Life360 for this "quality family time together" looked like this:
I took that screen shot while I was with the toddlers earlier and kinda chuckled at how not together this day at Disney was, so this is a real treat, hooray! We're all together again.
I took a few shots of the tv screens with my phone, and then learned later that with our Max Pass, we get free pictures! I was able to download it later, cool! Ok, sweetheart, maybe it was a good idea to splurge on the MaxPass. From the pictures I took, it looked like Natalie was really scared, so I was glad to see she actually had a smile!
All together for a family photo before we go to find Corey and I tag him out of toddler duty.
He was at the Incredibles 2 preview. We went and saw that, really fun! That's gonna be a cute movie. We walked over to the Grizzly Rapids - I had more fast passes (I had figured out how it worked) Corey had already gone on that, so he insisted I take the kids on that. We are too many for one boat, so we split up in two.
My boat had these four kiddos -
And not far behind us were the older kids.
I got a few videos of that too. What do you think, Natalie? Pretty fun, huh!
You got wet! Next fast pass on the list - Soaring. Corey took the toddlers again and they let us all in again even though we didn't have fast passes for all 10 of us. Line wait was much reduced thanks to the fastpass.
We had a whole row for ourselves.
Abi kept asking what this ride was, all I told her was that it was cool. I like Soaring, that's a fun ride too. I want to fly. So, I had had my fill of fun and quality family time. With that, I was good for the day. We had one more fast pass for the Radiator Springs Racers. Corey hadn't been on that ride yet, and I told him he had to go. We had fast passes for that pretty late, so we all found a way to kill a little bit more time until that fast pass was open at 9:30 - right before the park closed. I took a few kids and we went to Pixar Pier. (bummer that California Screamin' was closed! They're opening it up in a few weeks, when The Incredibles 2 movie opens.) It was closed to strollers, ugh, so we had to carry the toddlers. And we didn't have a fast pass for Toy Story Mania, so we had to wait... and wait... and wait in line. Hooray when we were finally able to get our 3D glasses!
Does this mean we're close? Are we done waiting?
I sat with Owen.
He didn't get any points, I didn't do that hot either. Oh well.
That was fun, all is well, until... they see all the Woody and Buzz toys. Oh great...
Owen sat down and got to work playing. Daniel soon joined him.
How are we gonna get these boys out of here? I'm not buying a toy. We let them play for a while, then I told Mel and Wes on my mark we needed to just grab them - Mel and I would get the boys and run... Wes, you put the toys back. Ok, ready? Go! Daniel was not happy. Owen wasn't either. But the stroller was all the way at the top of the pier. No way to give Owen his binky/plug until we got there, but once in the stroller they calmed down.
We started to make out way over to the car's land so Mel and Wes could go on the racers again. We watched the parade for a bit and had an ice cream Sunday. Then Mel and Wes went to find the rest of the gang and I kept Owen and Daniel. Mater was there again, so we waited in line for another picture. Owen was still too shy.
Right as we were done with Mater, McQueen came out, so we got in line again. Owen seemed scared of Lightening McQueen. Perhaps starstruck? He wouldn't go near him. I guess we're just getting a picture of you, Daniel. Little D was was petting him like he was a soft kitty.
When Corey and the kids came out, the park was closing. Time to go back to the hotel. Corey put Owen on his shoulders.
Then Joseph put Lily up.
Daniel wanted out of the stroller, so I had Hyrum push it and put Daniel on my shoulders. Ethan picked up Sophi.
Hey, this is a pretty good way to keep track of kids and get our group moving at a faster pace! I was laughing, Hyrum picked up Natalie and Mel took a picture.
To finish off the fun, Wes gave Abi a piggy back ride, and Mel put Owen's lion Louie on her shoulders. He's part of the family. A nice passerby took our picture. A family group photo - a good way to start and end the day at Disney!
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