We went to Disneyland for the 2nd day on Tuesday. Our goal for the day was to ride the Finding Nemo ride. The line was always so impossibly long, so we figured if we could conquer this for the day, then anything else we did on top of that would just be a bonus.
As soon as the gates for Disneyland opened, we ran like crazy people all the way to the Nemo ride. The kids understood the plan so there was no complaining about having to run. When we got to the ride, we found that our plan was in vain. Everyone else had the same idea about knocking it out first thing in the morning. The line was enormous (at 8 am) and we still ended up waiting for an hour and 15 minutes! The benefit for us is that the kids were fresh for the day and didn't whine a whole lot in the line. It also wasn't really hot yet.
After an hour, we finally could see what we would be riding. Exciting!
Once we were on the ride it was a lot of fun. We got to go down into the submarine together and see all the neat things under that water. Athena and Samantha really enjoyed this ride.
Nathan didn't enjoy this ride. He was freaked out from the minute it started. When it started to descend he really freaked out, even though there were lots of neat things to see out the little port holes. I spent most of my Nemo ride trying to keep him calm and keep Alexandra from screaming. She wasn't too into the ride, either.
After the Finding Nemo ride we were free and easy again. Free to roam about the park as we please. Here is Alexandra in the Autopia line. She is just the right size to go under all the bars and sneak away from me. I had to dart between people's legs several times to keep her close.
Athena and Nathan are on Autopia with Jeremy as the driver. Athena tried driving her own car on Friday because she is just barely tall enough. The pedal was so hard for her to push down that she barely got her car around the track. Jeremy's car was behind them the first time and he ended up going bumper to bumper with her and pushing her to the end. She then complained about her foot and ankle hurting. So, this second time she chose not to drive.
Open road!
This is the picture that is taken on Space Mountain of Samantha and I. Jeremy snapped it with the digital camera while it was still up on display. Samantha looks a little freaked out.
It wasn't long on this day before Alexandra knocked out. Our trip really wore her down. Poor Alexandra - she would fall asleep just in time to wake up and go on another ride. She didn't complain much about it, she would just fall asleep again in the next line.
This is our first time to ride the teacups. Nathan ended up REALLY liking this ride.
Athena and Samantha got their own cup.
Watch out Samantha - there is a whale behind you!
Minnie Mouse! This is a forced picture. Minnie was just standing there with hardly a line at all, so I hurried to go wait for our turn. The girls did not want a picture with her because they said they don't like her. I told them to get over here anyway because she was available. LOL, at least they look happy!
We stopped to eat our lunch and snacks in Toon Town. It turned out really nice for us on our Disney budget. I packed tons of snacks and drinks each day so we only had to buy one meal each day in the park and we didn't have to buy any drinks there. I would suggest that to anyone looking to save a little in the park. The kids didn't complain about having to eat home-packed food and it saved us some stress about having to spend so much on greasy food.
Nathan had been eyeing these lollipops ever since we got to Disneyland. Today was the special day he finally got to enjoy one.
I saw this cartoon baby sitting in Mickey's house and thought I'd snap a picture.
It was so cute, when we were standing in line to see Mickey Mouse the kids were all eating their lollipops. Alexandra didn't have one, but she could see that she was missing out. Since she can't talk yet, her way of saying she wants some is to say,"ah ah ah ah ah". Every time she would make that noise, one of the kids would pop their lollipop in her mouth. As soon as the candy was out of her mouth, she would do that again and a kid would pop their lollipop in her mouth again. Nathan is sharing with her here.
Now two at the same time! Everyone around us was laughing.
After a 25 minute wait, we finally got to see the beloved Mickey. Alexandra was scared to death of him.
Nathan gave him a great big hug. I was happy that Mickey was so cute with all the kids. Even though we waiting for so long, he gave each kid a chance to talk to him, or hug him, or whatever.
The 3 kids going for a cartoon ride.
We had perfect timing to see Pluto. Jeremy saw him walking and got in line to get a picture before anyone else did. Nathan also went right up to Pluto and gave him a big hug.
We left the kids here awhile and went to get a snack. Our snack was quite peaceful. :)
OK. So we didn't leave them there. Scared you, didn't I? I'm surprised by how much all of them enjoyed being in jail. Didn't expect that.We spent quite a while in Toon Town and it was a lot of fun - more fun than I remember having there before. Probably because the kids were having so much fun. After a few hours we left and boarded the train to visit another part of the park. We ended up getting to the train station at the front of the park just as the parade was about to start! We knew all the seating would be gone down on the route. Then I looked over and saw a bunch of empty seats that were marked off as reserved. I asked a worker who they were reserved for. She said they usually have VIPs sit there to watch, but there wasn't anyone there for today and that we could sit there. So WOW! We were VIPs for 20 minutes as we watched the parade. The view was pretty good from up there.
After the parade, we hopped back onto the train and over to Frontier Land where we visited the island that is now named Pirate's Lair. Somehow we all got trapped in this bone ball cage.
We also found the treasure while we were there. Unfortunately it was all glued together and we couldn't chip off a single piece.
We did manage to get this picture with Jack Sparrow. This was a lucky sighting for us because he is one of our favorite characters. We were actually getting a picture with a different pirate when Jack Sparrow just walked up behind us and we had him stop long enough for this picture.
Samantha is making her own fun underneath the Treehouse.
We decided to get a good spot for the fireworks this time, so we sat down in front of the castle at about 7:30pm and saved our spot until the fireworks started at 9:30ish. We were sitting by some really nice people from Canada who we enjoyed chatting with. He offered to take our picture here.
After the parade, we hopped back onto the train and over to Frontier Land where we visited the island that is now named Pirate's Lair. Somehow we all got trapped in this bone ball cage.
We also found the treasure while we were there. Unfortunately it was all glued together and we couldn't chip off a single piece.
We did manage to get this picture with Jack Sparrow. This was a lucky sighting for us because he is one of our favorite characters. We were actually getting a picture with a different pirate when Jack Sparrow just walked up behind us and we had him stop long enough for this picture.
Samantha is making her own fun underneath the Treehouse.
We decided to get a good spot for the fireworks this time, so we sat down in front of the castle at about 7:30pm and saved our spot until the fireworks started at 9:30ish. We were sitting by some really nice people from Canada who we enjoyed chatting with. He offered to take our picture here.
There was also a group of teenagers from North Carolina that I started talking to. One of them was mormon and he identified himself right away. He must have sensed that we were mormon too. He was so thrilled to talk to another mormon and we talked for about 20 minutes. I thought, "How nice that no matter where you go, if you are LDS, you just have a connection with other LDS people. It makes you feel like you are home again." It seemed to me that he was feeling that as well because he didn't want to stop talking. :)
The spot we had for fireworks WAS really good. It was perfect, so the wait was worth it.
Disneyland was a lot of fun with the kids this time. We had a 3-day hopper, so I'll have a few more pictures to share in a later post.
The spot we had for fireworks WAS really good. It was perfect, so the wait was worth it.
After the fireworks were done the 2 little kids just knocked out. Athena and Samantha got a second wind, so we went around to a lot of the bigger rides and took turns riding with the girls. It was so fun to just have a chance to do what they wanted to do without so much whining from the little ones! We stayed at the park until midnight and even then the girls weren't ready to go.
Here they are pretending to run from the Indiana Jones stone.
Disneyland was a lot of fun with the kids this time. We had a 3-day hopper, so I'll have a few more pictures to share in a later post.
1 comment:
I'm happy to hear of all the fun you guys had at Disneyland. As you know it's one of my favorite places to relax and have fun. You got some really fun pictures.
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