4th Day!

Wednesday was our 3rd day at the park. This was the day the members of Owen's family were going to be at the park. We didn't really make any specific plans to meet up with them, we just figured we would call or text and figure something out after getting to the park. We were waiting in the line to get into Disneyland when Owen's niece comes from towards the front of the line! It was quite coincidental. His sister had spotted us :) This day we had a definite plan and that included running straight to tomorrow land and grabbing fast passes for Space Mountain! So me and Evie and Owen's niece took all of our tickets and ran back there to get our passes. Once the rest of them caught up to us, they waited in the standby line for the ride because the wait was only 10-15 min. Owen grabbed a rider switch for me and I waited with an already napping in the stroller baby. Owen rode with Zayne as pictured:

(Owen's brother in law and his nephew are in front of them in this pic)

...and Evie rode with Torri, as pictured:

(Owen's sister and the rest of her kids are behind Evie in this pic)

We then headed over to Thunder Mountain Railroad and rode that again. We really liked that ride. It was one of the only rides that Zayne rode multiple times. The kids got to ride it twice in a row thanks to the rider switch passes :)

At some point we had gotten fast passes for Star Tours. Here we are waiting in line for it! The kids REALLY liked this ride. We only rode it once the whole time we were there. It always had a super long wait....

We met up with Owen's parents in Tomorrow Land and the kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa! They were able to take the kids on the carousal as well as the spinning teacups while I sat with a napping baby, again :)

There was an elderly worker standing by the exit of the carousal while I was taking these pictures. She told me that Walt Disney named each one of the horses. The one Evie was on was named Feathers. She also said that each of the horses were in motion, none of them looked like they were just standing. That was important to him for some reason. It was a nice little background on the ride :) 

We never made it onto the flying dumbo ride. Fantasy Land was crazy busy! The Peter Pan ride always had close to an hour wait time. And some of the other rides would be pushing a 30 min wait. We did ride the Casey Jr. circus train and the kids, especially Zayne, really like it!

Its hard to see in the 3 pictures below, but I was trying to get a picture of the back of the castle....

I had read on somebody's blog that the Mickey beignets over in New Orleans Square were as good as the ones you could find in the actual New Orleans. When Owen and I went back to New Orleans 2 years ago while I was still working for the foreign exchange program, we fell in love with beignets! What's not to love? Deep fried bread sprinkled with powdered sugar?! Yes, please!! So we headed over to New Orleans square....after much searching, we finally found them!

The kids loved them! I don't know that they were as good as the one's we had in New Orleans, but they were tasty and messy ;)

We had another fast pass for Space Mountain. So we headed back that way. Zayne had no desire to ride again so Evie and Owen rode it....2x in a row! Apparently the wait wasn't very long when they got off the 1st time....

They got me a rider switch ticket both times.....so while they rode that, I took Zayne to Super Hero headquarters which was right next door to Space Mountain. 

We happened to get there while they were having a meet Spider Man. We didn't know that's who was back there at first because he was behind a big wall. While we waited in line, Zayne peeked behind the wall and spotted him. His face was priceless. IF I hadn't have been holing a 20lb baby, I would have snapped a picture ;) Anyway, Zayne covered his mouth in complete surprise and excitement and then revealed to me that Spider Man was back there :) He was in complete Spidey Shock when he met him! Spider Man tried to show him how to shoot webs out of his hand, but Zayne was pretty shy....

After Evie and Owen finished riding Space Mountain, they met us at Super Hero Headquarter and we switched off. Evie and I got to ride Space Mountain - 2x in a row! Thank you, rider switch!

Evie ABSOLUTELY LOVED this ride! She kept pretending to put on her space helmet and boots. It was really cute!

After the first ride, we went to look at our picture and Evie looked at it and said, "HEY! I didn't know daddy was in front of us!" Owen has that exact same sweatshirt and he's been wearing it through out our trip! It was pretty funny!

I think Evie rode this ride a total of 6 times this day! Here was another time. Owen's sister and Brother in law offered to stay with Colton and Zayne so we could ride it together :)

 While I went to nurse Colton, these guys decided to hit up Splash Mountain. Another one of Evie's favorite rides! Zayne chose to come with me - he wasn't interested in riding this one again ;)

This was one night that we headed back to the hotel a little bit early. I'm talking we left the park an hour earlier than closing. The kids were SO exhausted! Here is sweet Colty- bear in his cute Mickey Mouse Jammies :) He was such a good baby on our trip!

3rd Day!

On Tuesday we went to California Adventure. I wish I would have gotten pictures in front of both of the parks. Photo Ops are kind of hard to come by when you have 3 young children that you are dragging around everywhere!

We were on a mission that morning! We were told by a nice family on our shuttle bus to go straight into the park and grab fast passes for Radiator Springs Racers (the Cars ride) So the minute the gates opened we basically ran back there to get our passes. Then Owen and the kids got in line right after. We got a rider swap for me (because I had to stay with Colton, who happened to already be sleeping at this point). I think there are definite advantages to taking  a baby to Disneyland -Evie and Zayne got to ride all of the rides more than multiple times with the fast passes in combination with the rider swap (we had it figured out by the 2nd day ;) It's a good thing we took the advice we were given. I watched as the stand by wait line went from a 15 min wait to a 60 min wait really quickly. No doubt about it, it was the hottest ride over there! We ended up riding this ride 4x that day! 

It was super fun as well! We all loved it!

Cars Land was so fun! The different cars from the movie would come out and drive around on the street. They would have fun little dance type shows in the middle of the road every so often! One of the kids favorite rides was Mater's Junkyard Jamboree! It really was a fun one :)

After Cars Land we headed over to the Pier part of the park. I loved the atmosphere of it! The old time music playing, all of the buildings and pictures. It was very fun! The first item of business was California Screamin' roller coaster. I sent Owen and Evie on it while Zayne (who was too short to ride and I think he might have died of terror if he had been able to go on it) myself and Colton waited on the pier. The tracks for the very beginning of the roller coaster go right be this spot. It was a little loud for Colton. He hated it and would cry every time it roared past, but Zayne loved it! We kept trying to see if Evie and Owen were on it. It was a really short wait. I think only 10 min or so. They got a rider swap pass for me.

So Evie got to ride it 2 times in a row! I was kind of surprised she loved it so much! She would always get a little nervous before it started, but she told me "it's SO much FUN!" I think her and Owen rode it one more time this day....

She was too short so you couldn't see her face in the pic! 

This is one brave girl!

There was a really fun Little Mermaid ride in this park that we all loved! Sadly, I didn't get a picture, but it was one of the highlights of this park!

I took the kids on the Zephyr. It was a short wait and not real thrilling, but the kids had fun :)

Right next to the Zephyr was the Jumpin' Jellyfish ride. It pulls you up to the top and then slowly floats you back up and down a few times. The kids really enjoyed this one as well. 

 Owen was more than happy to be the one snapping pictures of us before the ride as opposed to actually going on this ride ;)

Zayne wanted to go on the Silly Symphony Swings ride. Oddly enough, Evie took one look at it and declared that it looked to be too "wild of a ride" to go on. Yes, the girl that just road a big roller coaster opted out of the swings! Owen and Zayne had fun  :) I'm going to be honest, I don't really care for those swings either. I have a fear of heights so those actually do freak me out....

Speaking of heights, I absolutely refused to go on the Ferris Wheel. So I took advantage of the baby care center they have in the park (they also have one in Disneyland) and went to nurse Colton and feed him his lunch. It was still pretty chilly that day so it was nice to have a little break from the chill. Anyway, the baby care centers are awesome. They have rooms where you can nurse your baby, they have padded changing stations, little potties for those kids that are potty training, high chairs, and baby food, diapers, etc if you need to purchase any! I'm telling you, this place is awesome for families! When Owen called me after they were done he sarcastically informed me that I would have loved that Ferris Wheel ride. Apparently they got one of the rocking compartments and it felt like you were going to fly off into the little pond below. YIKES! Owen said the kids were slightly terrified during the ride!

Evie and I happened to see Jessie while Zayne and Daddy were on the swings :) We didn't make it on the Toy Story ride this day because the wait was crazy long. But we did make it into one of the souvenir shops next to the ride where we were able to try on these cow girl/boy hats  :) 

These kids love a good carousel ride! This was King Triton's carousel ride and they thoroughly enjoyed it!

By late afternoon the park was starting to get really busy. The kids were starving and we had been promising them ice cream for the better half of the day. So we decided that we would head back to Disneyland and get some ice cream - and Zayne REALLY enjoyed his!

We decided to get a spot for the Paint the Night Parade. It wasn't going to start until 7 but people were already saving spots for it and it was only 5:30 - so thats what we decided to do. And let me tell you, we got an awesome spot! There was lots of waiting to be done :)

I found some awesome rainbow light up toys at the dollar store and packed them with us! $1.00 sure beats the price they wanted to charge for their light up stuff :) We even had one of the employees comment on how cool it was (he was being serious, too, by the way!) 

Colton LOVED these! He would just laugh and laugh when we would swing it around! While we waited we decided to eat dinner in the park. We knew it would be too late to go get something after the parade was over and by the time we got on the shuttle and back to the hotel. The food was, meh and basically only ended up eating one more meal in the park the rest of our vacation.

I'm not much of a parade person, but Disney changed all of that! This was well worth the 1.5 hour wait! 

The kids were loving it! It was SO fun to watch their faces and hear their reactions! At the end of the parade when Goofy, Donald, Mickey, etc were coming our way Zayne exclaimed- "GOOFY! NO WAY!!" He was waving so much I thought his arm might fall off! 

We got out of the park late that night. The kids were exhausted. We had to wait what felt like forever for our shuttle bus to come. Zayne made friends with one of the green cones. Evie got cold and borrowed daddy's beanie and Colton was out cold! It was an excellent and fun filled day!

First 2 days of our trip!

The kids were SO excited to ride in an airplane! I think this was one of the most exciting parts of the trip. Here the kids are ready to fly! I think their faces say it all :) We didn't have to leave insanely early. Our flight left at 3:40 pm and we arrived in LA around 4:40. Evie, mommy and Colton sat in one row, then Zayne and daddy sat right behind us and right behind them Grandma and Grandpa Johnston sat. 

How Owen ended up with no one in the seat next to me is baffling, seeing as how almost every other seat was filled. He decided to put Mickey and Minnie next to him ;) the kids thought that was pretty funny!

Colton did amazing on the plane. He slept for half of the flight and was content to just sit and play with his toys :)

Once we landed at the airport we got our rental car; that was quite the experience. Owen is an excellent packer and was able to make our sit and stand stroller, 2 large suitcases, the kids backpacks, and 3 children and 2 adults fit in a mid size car (although the rental company claimed it was full size). We checked into our hotel, which I didn't take any pictures of because we rarely spent any time there, and then found a Walmart neighborhood market. We bought sandwich stuff, lots of snacks, water, baby food, etc. to pack into the park every day. Our hotel room had a mini fridge and it worked out perfectly :) Did I mention it was really cold when we got to LA? The wind was really bad. I was worried about the first couple of days. It was really cold the first day, I'm not going to lie. It was like a high of 55 degrees and there was quite a breeze. But the sun was shining and we were excited, so we didn't let it ruin our day!
The kids were SO excited that first day! Here we are in the hotel lobby waiting for the shuttle to pick us up and take us to the park. I got each of the kids a sling back pack and little autograph book from ebay. Then we found those giant pens from the dollar store. They were ready to get some autographs :)

Our first item of business was to get some Mickey Ear hats! We got one for each of the kids. We had some silver Minnie Ears that I found at a second hand kids store a couple years back. They still had the price tag on them from the Disneyland park and I snagged them for $1.99! Anyway, we packed those and Evie and I took turns wearing them :) She mostly loved her Minnie hat :)

We didn't have much of a plan that first day. We went on Pirates of The Caribbean first because that is my favorite ride. The kids really loved it. I don't think Owen was super impressed. By the end of the trip he grew to like that ride :) 

We stumbled upon  this Frozen play half way through the day which was a welcome break. We figured we walked about 10 miles a day while we were there. If felt good to sit down and the play was really fun. Colton was super tired and passed out in my arms while we rested. 

Right around the corner was where you could meet 3 different princesses. Zayne refused to meet any of them, although he was standing right there next to me while I took this picture. Evie was in heaven! Sadly, we didn't get to meet Ariel or Tangled (one princess she REALLY wanted to meet). But she was able to meet Belle!

And Snow White and Cinderella!

We were so excited when we found Mickey!! Zayne was hesitant at first, but once we encouraged him, he was pretty excited :)

We spotted the castle a few times ;) 

Both Minnie and Mickey made Colton cry ;)

This was one of my favorites! Zayne was REALLY excited to meet Donald Duck! I'm sad half of his head was cut off in the main picture :( I was busy feeding Colton on a nearby bench so I was getting pictures from the side and Owen was in charge of getting pictures from the front.....

Sometimes it's hard to see the pictures in the collages. I loved this picture so much I just had to share  a bigger version of it!

A few other character encounters! While we were in Toon Town, We somehow ended up in a meet Mickey in his house line. We couldn't get out and the kids were tired of waiting. We persevered the long line and ended up being able to meet Mickey 2x in one day :)  

Remember that cartoon, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers? I loved that show as a kid, so Santa brought the kids a dvd of the show the Christmas before last. Anyway, in Toon Town they have a little kids roller coaster called Gadgets Go Coaster. The kids were SO excited to ride on it because the know who Gadget is :)

Here is Evie in front of Daisy's boat house. There were tons of other photo ops there, but there was an insane amount of people and the kids were getting really tired by this point. We never made it back to that part of the park, but it was fun.

Here is a bigger picture of us meeting Mickey in his house :)

This girl was so brave! She didn't even think twice before going on Splash Mountain! She went once with me and then 2 more times with Owen. There was no wait because it was really cold, the sun was going down and I don't think people were interested in getting wet. But Evie didn't care! She LOVED it!

Ok. Can we talk about this picture for a minute. Owen took Zayne on all of the rides first because Evie really wanted to ride with mommy on all of them. I was surprised he went on Splash Mountain to begin with. And then when Owen showed me this picture, it just makes me laugh so much every time I look at it, even a couple weeks later :)

His face is the look of pure terror. I love it! Just yesterday he was trying to tell me about Splash Mountain. It came from out of nowhere. He was saying something about going up and up and up and then looking down and its a big drop and it was so scary. Poor kid - scarred for life!

He was really brave, though. He went on almost everything he was tall enough to go on except a few things. And he went on it all at least once. In fact that was his response to me every time I asked him if he wanted to go on a ride again (especially the scarier rides) he would respond matter of factly and with a hint of terror - 'JUST ONCE!' We did get him to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad more than several times! He actually didn't mind that one. 

Owen opted to skip out of the spinning tea cups and stay with Colton. So I rode it with Evie and Zayne! After that Evie decided she needed a Mickey Pretzel and guess who was hanging around?! Alice in Wonderland :) Zayne was playing around by the tables and what not and she kept following around after him, and always in character, asking him where he was going and saying what a funny little boy he was. Zayne LOVED it! He was laughing pretty hard - he thought she was hilarious :)

We finally made it to the castle at one point during the day!

Like I mentioned before, we didn't really have a plan that first day, so I felt like some of the day was kind of wasted. BUT we were content to just kind of wander the park aimlessly and get a feel for the layout and where things were. We managed to ride a lot of the rides and meet a lot of characters. We got stuck on Haunted Mansion, in the pitch black; I don't think the kids were a big fan of that ride so we only rode it once. 

Colton started the day out with such high hopes! This is him, on the left, at the beginning of the day. The bottom right picture shows how he ended the day at the park. Tuckered out and ready for bed. 

We foolishly decided to find a nearby Applebees because we had some gift cards from Christmas. By the time we got back to our hotel from the park, got into the car and drove to the restaurant, ordered our food and waited for it to come, the kids had had enough. Luckily we left the restaurant without any major melt downs, but I think we had several close calls. We didn't make that mistake again! 

This is how we ended every night on our trip. The kids would pass out almost immediately.