Disneyland!

Disneyland!!
Of course in going to So Cal we were able to go to Disneyland! We get lucky with our tickets ;) That place really is just magical. We had so much fun!

My aunt Leslie got us in to Disneyland and then went back to California Adventure to get us Fast Passes for their World of Color. Meanwhile, my mom, the kids and I all went on the Buzz Lightyear ride. Then Zach and I ran over to Autopia. The wait was about 20 minutes and he just stood there in line, so good. The kids around were bouncing all over but Zach was so focused on the cars and getting excited. He was really hoping for a green car, and luckily we got one! He got to drive and did a great job.

We had lunch at a space place by Autopia (not the big one by Space Mountain). It had a Mahi Mahi burger that was spicy and so good- I will definitely get that again! Leslie had to get back home, so the four of us went on to the next excitement. Mom and Elizabeth waited while Zach and I went on the Dumbo ride. He loved it!

And we were first in line for our round so we got the green hat Dumbo (phew!). My mom couldn't figure out why we went to a different elephant than the one by her to take our picture, then she realized we were at the green one, of course.
All four of us went on Dumbo's train, Casey Jr. Zach LOVES this part of the movie (he watches it at John's parent's home).


Then Zach and I headed over to Thunder Mountain Railroad. You have to be 40" to ride this, and with shoes on, Zach is 40". We watched a clip online a week before (he didn't know we were going there, I was just showing it to him...I didn't tell him we were going until the day before) and he loved watching it. So we went across the bridge and watched it go by and he kept shaking with excitement (literally.) I took him through the line...but there was none! We walked straight on to our seats. The very beginning is in a dark tunnel with eyes looking at you and spooky noises. Then we went up, up, up....and there was a waterfall at the top. Zach didn't want to get wet, so he ducked his head down to the bar across us. He kept it there the whole time. That is a long ride! I hadn't been on it in years, so I was surprised. He didn't yell or cry or anything, he would talk to me a little so I knew he was alright. When it was over I asked him if he liked it and he said Yes! Then we got off and found my mom and Elizabeth and she asked him if he liked it and he said yes again, but said no when she asked if he wanted to go on it again :) He came home and told everyone he loved the really fast train...so maybe he really did like it.


Then we headed towards the Winnie the Pooh ride. It was closed the week before so I specifically wanted to come on Thursday instead of Wednesday so it would be open. We could all 4 go and they loved it.
Elizabeth can name all the Winnie the Pooh characters and thought it was great!


Then Zach and I had to go all the way back to the New Orleans area to find a bathroom that was open, so my mom and Elizabeth went to the store there. She found a little Pooh that was so soft and Elizabeth loved it SO much.

She wouldn't even let the clerk take it to scan it. She held him for the rest of the day and plays with it all the time! So cute.

Zach and I made it back ("you carrying me on your back Mommy was a great idea!") and we went to Adventureland. Zach was specific that he didn't want to go on Pirates (we went last July and he thought it was OK, Elizabeth FREAKED out and would cling to us the rest of the day on every ride) so we went to Tarzan's Treehouse and then walked right on to the Jungle Cruise!


Then we went over to the Tiki Room (I had done it once as a kid but didn't really remember it.) Zach saw the big rockets back at tomorrowland so we went back to ride those. While he and I were in line, Elizabeth finally fell asleep in her stroller! Zach decided he would rather go on Buzz again. I told him we could do both, but he wanted to do Buzz right away so we did. I got tons of points and he did 10 times better than his first score! Elizabeth was still asleep so Zach and I went on the Monorail. The toy he picked out at the beginning of the day was a monorail and he had been talking about Monorails on our way to Disneyland, so we had to do this for sure! We took the 20 min ride and he loved it.



Then we headed to Toon Town. Zach and I did the Goofy roller coaster (20 min wait, which was funny since there was none on Thunder Mountain). When it was done he said 'That was just a short one, Mom." He saw the Matterhorn earlier in the day after Thunder Mountain but wasn't interested :)
All 4 of us went to Mickey's house and met Mickey! Zach was very excited, Elizabeth was not excited at all. She was a little traumatized.

We decided a great dinner would be the pineapple soft serve we saw at the Tiki Room :) We went, and a good tip is to go inside the waiting area for this to buy it rather than the line outside if the line inside is shorter. You can buy the soft serve and walk out, and the line was half the size. It was so good! I got Zach a fruit cup.

We headed over to California Adventure for the rest of the time. Mom had never been on Toy Story Mania! (She hasn't been to either park for several years). That was by far the longest line of the day but sooo fun. Definitely stand in line for this one! I held Elizabeth next to me and let her play one of the rounds by herself and still had the highest score for the people around us :)

We thought about doing the Ferris Wheel, but the line was really long. We were going to go over to the bug's land area but decided to wait to get into our spots for World of Color. It was an hour before showtime, so they were about to let everyone in. By 'in' I mean- they let you go stand in this big area that is sort of stadium-seating without any seating. It didn't go up high enough I don't think, so I don't know that people in the back got to see much. So you basically had an 8 foot walkway that you stopped in and by standing you held your spot. We had the jogging stroller so the kids had a spot to wait :) I went and got us rice bowls- the trick here was I got 2 kid's meals which was two separate servings of white rice and teriyaki chicken with a side of orange juice, fruit cups, fortune cookies, and something else...can't remember what. It was just the right amount of food and slightly more expensive than one adult serving.
Zach fell asleep while we were waiting, with about 15 minutes to go. He was exhausted! Elizabeth, ever the social one, wouldn't fall asleep. The show started and she was SO into it. I think that and the Pooh bear were her favorite things all day. She watched the whole thing (30 minutes!) and loved it. I tried waking Zach up, even tried making him stand on his own to wake him up...but nothing. He was OUT. The show was really great, the first 10 minutes and the last few minutes were the best. It was tough to wait standing/squatting for an hour and then stand for the whole 30 minutes while trading off a 21 pound Elizabeth, but it was a great show. Basically, if there was seating it would have been REALLY great. Still, really fun to watch.

Overall, we had a great day! It is so fun to see the kids get so excited for everything and for Zach to ask to do things and to be able to answer 'Sure!' for everything. It was so fun. It was so great to have my mom there so I could do everything with Zachary! Also, we picked great food which was nice. I think we could maybe do two days there but really at their ages I think one is perfect. Maybe once Elizabeth wants to do Princess rides and then once they want to do more roller coasters we will do those, but for now we packed the day in and did everything we wanted to! Thank you to the Owen family for letting us come and stay and for taking us to Disneyland!