Cali Trip...part dos...

There have been pins and needles that you have been sitting on waiting for this post right? I am so very sure. Ha. :)

Disneyland is one of our family's favorite destinations. We are far from "experts" but we have learned a thing or two in the years that we have gone. The first one...go in February.

Our shuttle driver confirmed our theory. Who would know better than the guy who spends his every day driving families to and from the happiest place on earth day in and day out? February and September. (Although you could not have paid me enough to have gone on leap day this year...I heard it was nothing but lines everywhere) The longest we waited in a line was 20 minutes and that was for the Finding Nemo ride and the Toy Story Mania ride.

So while I type I will stick in little things that we did that made the trip easier for the family. So when you go, maybe something will help you out too!

One day I dream of staying in a Disney hotel (The Grand Californian isn't too shabby :)
We have taken note of several of the hotels around the park and we usually stay at the Portofino Inn. This time we stayed at Embassy Suites and we loved it. We tend to favor hotels that have extra space, you know for kids to sleep and such. :) Both hotels have two rooms, one for kids, one for the parents. These types of rooms also come with the fridges and microwaves so that you can store food and drinks.

Get in line early. In February, early means about 30 minutes before the park opens up. Peak times I have heard you have to get in line earlier than that.

Miss Grace didn't remember Disneyland at all the last time we went. This time was a pretty big deal for her.

I hate overly planned trips. Yuck. Day to day life is so overplanned that on vacation we just like to go with the flow. It makes me wish we were always on vacation! :) We bounced from ride to ride and had a blast.

We did use an app on our phone to check times (Walkee Wait time was the most accurate and it is a free download) to see if we needed to grab fast passes.

While I was waiting for Josh and the kids to come off the Indiana Jones ride I spotted me a celebrity:

Jason Ritter. (You know, John Ritter's son...also on Parenthood and such...)
He saw me looking at him funny cause at first he just looked familiar and then I recognized him. He gave me a wink, put his sunglasses on, and went on his way. My brush with a celebrity. I live a charmed life :) hahaha!!!

Anyway....
One of our all-time favorite rides...Hollywood Tower of Terror. Well, everyone BUT Maddie. One ride in and she remembered she hated it the last time we were here.

So thank goodness for Aunt Ashley who saved her from going with us again...

So note that I am holding on to Grace's leg. For some reason I think my strength would be enough to hold her in if the strap should ever fail. Also note...Austin (Top right) is also not a big fan of this ride. He did scream like a girl at one point. BUT...to his credit he did go a second time when the ride operator said there wasn't a line and we were free to stay and ride again. I can also harass him here, he is leaving on his mission in a few weeks and I need to be able to torture him while he can read it!



So while you are at Disneyland you MUST and I mean MUST get a Dole Whip. They look so good, no?! They taste even better. You won't be sorry one bit. (That is, unless you don't like pineapples...then you would probably regret it)

We always plan a character meal while we are there. We have done Ariel's Grotto twice and since we had free breakfasts at the hotel we decided to try Goofy's Kitchen for dinner.

The characters come and spend time with the kids during the dinner. Minnie ended up being our absolute favorite of the night.  She came back over to dance with Grace when the music came on and insisted on having her picture taken with a very shy Hayden.

Notice...he did get in the picture with Sleeping Beauty.

Dinner is buffet style and there is something for EVERYONE. They even had PB&J pizza. I wanted to take my camera over and take pictures of the food because it was incredible just to even look at. I did draw the line and decide I would look a TAD bit crazy. I should have just done it. :)

We ended up stuffed and made it back to the park just in time for the parade that night:

 Grace about died when she saw her idol:

We also discovered that 2.5 of us do not do well on the teacup ride.

Maybe it had something to do with a certain guy named Josh yelling "we aren't going fast enough yet"...all smiles but man my head was spinning for an hour.

The second day we were ready to get back to it!

PICTURE. OVERLOAD.

One day Hayden will love me for taking these pictures. I have no idea what was with him...maybe he thought that pictures with characters was no longer "cool"...???

The kids saved their pennies for all the souvenirs they would want. No joke...the second we walked in they wanted to drop their chunks of change on the first things they saw. We made them wait. At the time they thought we were horrible, mean, heartless parents but when they found the things they LOVED and couldn't part with they were glad they still had their dollars. Buy your crap on the way OUT of the park for the day so you don't have to lug them around. That is unless they wear them on their heads...

World Of Color is a must. A BIG must. In the summer it is offered at two times. When we went there was only one nightly show. You have to get fast passes over by the River Run ride because in order to get into the roped off areas you have to have the tickets. We were told by a Disney worker that the bridge is an awesome place to watch the show. She was right. However, we met a nice family from Utah while waiting and they had seen the show before. They said to try to get right by the lake because when the water shoots up it is amazing how high up. Where we were was really cool because we could see the entire thing. Guess we will have to go again! :)


The show was at 8:15 and I will admit...by this point in the night we were exhausted. The walk to the shuttle was a LONG one but like I said, the show made it worth it.

The last day I promised Grace that we would go up and meet Rapunzel. The brochure said that Rapunzel was at the Princess Faire during certain times. So we booked it over and Josh and Hayden headed over to Toon Town because they didn't want to stand in the FOREVER long line. I don't blame them. As we waited in line I swear there are Moms that think that meeting a princess means dolling your kids up like Toddlers and Tiaras. Good grief. A woman in front of us was NO JOKE was putting mascara, lipstick and blush on her 4 year old. She wasn't alone, there were others. Us, on the other hand, are on vacation and our messy ride hair is just going to do.

One of the parents in line asked the Disney worker if Ariel was inside and the worker said "we aren't allowed to say which princess are inside, we can only guarantee you will meet at least three."

Guess who wasn't there...
Yup. Rapunzel.

Darn it.

Grace was a good sport and they still had fun. So if you have a little girl wanting to meet a "certain" princess, good luck!

(the princess were so sweet...except Jasmine. We watched as girl after girl got a basic smile and a "you can exit that way" so when we got there she only would take a picture with Grace. Maybe she wanted to just fly off with Aladdin??)

We did get to meet Mickey! (Darn PhotoPass photographer...this was the best we could get!)

We spent the rest of the day making sure we got to everyone's favorite rides at least one more time.

We also made it a tradition to have our family pic taken in the same spot every time we go.

2007:
aka: the year of disgusting "natural wave" hair. someone shoot me if I ever try that one again. Not to mention the hideous sunglasses. I could go on and on...........

2009:

Look how big my littles have gotten!!!

This is our "freaky" eye pic but a pic none the less...

We did talk Josh into going on the Ferris wheel. If you have a fear of heights DO NOT get a swinging cart. We didn't know the first time we went and we all about had a heart attack on that one. We did survive this time around.

It was an awesome fun-filled three days. There is just something about Disneyland. The kids all kept hugging us and thanking us for the fun family vacation. That made it all the more worth it. A chance to get away together and make memories, while they still want us to be around. :)