Disneyland–Day 3–March 23

On our final day at Disneyland, it was just our family and my parents.  We asked Landon and Davis what they wanted to do again for our last day, and tried to plan our day around that.  We started out at Disneyland, and we did the Buzz ride and Autopia again.  We also rode on the Jungle Cruise again since we had done it before at dark.  My mom and dad stayed with the boys for lunch while Shane and I did a fast ride on Space Mountain again, and then we joined them up for the Tiki room, which we hadn’t done yet.  Probably their favorite thing we did that day was to go over to Tom Sawyer’s island.  I don’t ever remember going over there, but Shane remembered enjoying it when he was young.  The boys loved climbing to the top of the tree house, walking across the hanging bridge, crawling through the caves, and finding the pirate’s treasure.

    

Landon, Shane and James on the Jungle Cruise, and stopping for lunch

           

Pictures on Tom Sawyer’s Island

We also headed over to Toon Town before we left Disneyland.  The boys had fun walking around and seeing Mickey’s, Minnie’s, Donald’s, Goofy’s, and more houses. 

           

I had to put in a few pictures of James in the stroller while the boys enjoyed Toon Town.  They were just too cute, so I had to put all four in!

One final picture of our family before leaving Disneyland and heading over to California Adventure.

Just as we left Disneyland, we started to feel the rain coming again.  We were more prepared this time and got our ponchos on before it really started raining, so we stayed much dryer and warmer.  We went straight to Talking with Crush, which was an indoor activity, so it actually worked our pretty good. Landon and Davis really enjoyed that, and then they of course wanted to go to Toy Story Mania one more time.  The line was outside for about half of the time, and it was raining pretty steadily, but they had umbrellas that kept us covered as we waited in line.  When we finished that ride, we went to get dinner.  We weren’t sure what to do after that because it was still raining a lot, and we had tickets to the World of Color show at 8:00.  We were supposed to be there about 45 minutes before, but we knew that would be too long to wait in line with the boys in the rain.  We finally decided to ride on Toy Story Mania one more time instead.  The line went really fast, and when we came out, the rain had stopped and the World of Color was just starting.  We found the area we were supposed to be in and we were able to catch most of the show. 

 

Shane and Landon in their rain gear again, and Landon and Davis waiting in line at Toy Story Mania.

 

Davis and Shane on one last Toy Story ride, and the World of Color

As we headed out of the park, it was a little sad that last day, not knowing how long it will be until we return to Disneyland, but we all had a great time and it turned out much better than we were expecting.  As you can see, the boys were all quite worn out, and I think we adults were feeling the same way too!  We can’t wait to go again! 

   

Disneyland Day 2–March 22

On Tuesday, we had a “Magic Morning” pass with our Disneyland tickets, so we got to the gates early that day and headed straight for the Finding Nemo ride.  This ride always had a really long wait, and we didn’t feel like waiting for it.  Jake and Stacey didn’t have the early morning, so they stayed home while my mom and dad came with us.  The line moved rather slowly, and Landon ended up not liking the ride (the bubbles in front of the window made him nervous), so we were glad we didn’t wait too long and got it over with!

Jake and Stacey joined us just in time to ride on Alice in Wonderland, and Davis and Kallie wanted to try the tea cups, and Shane and Stacey agreed to take them.  Davis was excited the entire time he waited in line, but as soon as they walked out to go to the teacups, he got nervous and didn’t want to go!  Shane convinced him to get on, and he finally warmed up to it about halfway through the ride. 

   

Notice Davis’s nervousness in the first picture – he gradually warmed up a little bit as the ride went on.

   

Davis and Kallie knocking on the rabbit’s door.  It was just their size!

   

The three cute Mickey-eared cousins, all the grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa, and Davis enjoying a ride on Shane’s shoulders with his new Mickey ears hat on.

We then headed over to California Adventure.  This was my first time to go there, and although it’s not Disneyland, there were a lot of fun things.  We started out by heading over to Toy Story Mania.  This was probably the longest line we waited in, but the kids were good and patient while we waited, especially once they got suckers.

 

Landon and Davis standing by the big Mr. Potato Head while in line, and Shane and Landon just getting on the ride.  Toy Story Mania was one of our favorites!

The kids then hung out for awhile while we each took turns on the California Screamin’ roller coaster.  It was the best roller coaster I have ever been on, and so much fun!  We ended up each going on it twice.  Meanwhile, Davis and Kallie found another carousel and of course wanted to ride on it.  They were able to ride a couple of times while waiting for us, choosing a different sea animal to ride on each time.

   

Kallie was so cute and always wanted to hold Davis’s hand. 

After California Screamin’, we headed over to the Bug’s Life land.  There was a nice little spot where we ate our lunch, and then the kids wanted to ride the bumper cars.  It was the longest line ever for the slowest bumper cars, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.

   

Sitting around eating lunch, Grandpa and Ethan, and the fun clovers that tower over your head in the Bug’s Land.

   

Mom and Stacey sat out with Ethan and James.  Here she is holding them both.  Kallie waving at the camera, and my dad “zooming” around in his bumper car.

 

Waiting in the fun line, and Jake zooming around with Kallie

Landon and I, with Shane and Davis behind us, in the bumper cars.

 

James trying on a Mickey hat, and my dad, Jake, Ethan, and my mom enjoying a snack.  Just after this shot, my dad decided to climb up on that fence he’s sitting on to see a parade that was coming down the street, and then he got in trouble by one of the park workers.  I tried to capture a picture of it, but Dad hopped down too fast.  We all thought it was pretty funny that Dad got in trouble! 

Before leaving the Bug’s Land, we also took a ride on the Caterpillar train.  This was also one of those really long waits for a super short ride, but all the kids really liked it and wanted to ride it again.

 

Some other things we tried at California Adventure that day were Soarin’ over California, Monster’s Inc, the Aladdin show, and the boys did the Tower of Terror.  Landon went on Soarin’ over California with us, and although he got a little nervous as we went up high and swayed as we watched the movie, he enjoyed it and was glad he went.

Towards evening, we headed back over to Disneyland.  This was Jake and Stacey’s last day there before they headed home, so we decided to go and try a few more rides at Disneyland.

By the time we got something to eat, James was pretty tired.  He fell asleep and slept on my lap like this for quite awhile.

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We then decided to stay at the park for the rest of the night, riding again on any rides Jake and Stacey wanted to do.  We did the buzz ride again, and Landon and Davis each picked out one of these spinning light toys (one Lightning one and one Buzz one).  Davis sat down in this stroller, and soon the spinning stopped, started again, stopped, started one more time, then stopped for good as Davis nodded off to sleep.  Landon held in there just a little bit longer, but not much. 

 

We finished off the night with one more ride on the Matterhorn (much more enjoyable without the freezing cold and pouring rain!), and another ride on Thunder Mountain.  Thunder Mountain was especially entertaining with Jake and Stacey behind us, challenging Shane and I to see who could hold a kiss the longest on the curves.  It wasn’t really a fair competition though since Shane’s face was like sandpaper.  My mom was great to sit with the kids while we went on the rides, and she even kept a smile on her face when Davis sat on her lap on the tram back to the car and her lap got surprisingly “warm” as Davis peed on her in his sleep. Good thing it was the end of the night!