California trip Day 3

Our first ride of the day "Mr. Toad's wild ride". 

Tea cups. yup. Not a chance you'll see me in one of those. I remember when I was little and my mom wouldn't go on it. I just thought she wasn't fun. Little did I know how sick one spin could make a woman! :) 

It's a good thing they have a Dad who is more than happy to try to be the fastest spinning tea-cup on the floor.

Small world ride. Went on this several times. 

Small world story: While Tyler was napping and Dan was taking the others on a big kid ride, I was checking my e-mail on my phone. I was facing a wall, sunglasses on, and nose close to my phone. I heard some voices and some guy say "Hey, I think that's my cousin." I happened to look up to find my cousin Stetson standing there! It's been probably 10+ years since I've seen him, and I was surprised he recognized me. He lives in Utah, I have MANY cousins on my dad's side, most of who are 10 years or more older than me. 

Anyway, I thought it was pretty neat. :)

Getting into the submarine

"descending" in the water 

Tyler was fine...until it went completely dark. 

I had several friends tell me that the "training to be a Jedi" show is a must. There are about 13 kids that get picked to "train", and I read a tip somewhere that you should wear bright clothes.  So, I made Michael this shirt:

 

He got lots of comments about it, which he acted embarrassed about, but I knew he loved the attention. :)

It worked! He was so excited

 

Chelsea was too. :) 

First they teach the kids how to fight with a light saber. 

Then Darth Vader and Darth Mahl show up and the kids each have to "battle" them. 

Here Michael is in action:

Chelsea's favorite ride was Autopia. I was her passenger and decided that Dan will be helping her with Driver's education. :)

For some reason they wanted a picture with this indian. Notice Michael's kissy lips?

Splash Mountain! 

We hit this ride at the perfect time of day. There was zero line! I think they went on it 4 or 5 times that night. 

They loved it....

well...Brinly....not so much. :)

Chelsea and I were trying to act bored for the picture. 

Mickey's soundsational parade

Look! Belle is blowing my Brinly a kiss! 

see?! It made my princess' day

The costumes were amazing!

Brinly kept telling me to take pictures of all the pretty dresses. What a fun job to have!

Tiana is the only princess we didn't get to meet.

We also didn't meet Tinkerbelle or her friends, so this has to be good enough. :)

Another great day of Magic and fun!

Day 2: California Adventure!

The kids woke up to some "Disneyland kits".

The idea was for them to carry their own stuff, ALL day. Not mom and dad. It actually worked REALLY great! Brinly needed help with her water bottle, but they wore their backpacks the entire time, and were able to take them on all the rides too.

Contents from inside the red bag:

water bottle: dollar store and silhouette fun!

m&M container: we gave them a little spending money, which they kept in here.

autograph book

light up ring: BEST purchase ever! Two for a dollar at the dollar store. We had lots of people ask us which booth we got them at. 

Glow sticks: dollar store

pez candy: for those occasional long lines. 

We're ready to go!

First ride was at Bug's land.

Tower of Terror. Dan went first with Brinly and Michael, then got a rider swap pass. This is basically a "fast pass" and lets on two riders. Chelsea and I went. She hated it. She had her eyes closed the entire time, but I thought that would make it worse, so I was trying to convince her to open her eyes. I'm NOT choking her. :) 

 I loved this set of Monster's University. They had a ride that took you through the storyline of Monster's Inc, but that's it. Supposedly they will be developing this section of the park along the monster's inc theme.

 Mater's Jamboree. This one looked like a lot of fun! I didn't end up making it on, but I heard it WAS fun!

The Little Mermaid ride. 

I actually loved this one. So did Tyler and Brinly. The shells are constantly moving, even when loading and unloading people, so there wasn't ANY line at all. I think I went on it about 8 times. It was a great one to go on with Tyler and Brinly while we waited for the older kids to go on an "older" ride. Tyler was dancing the entire time!

Goofy directing the musical water. :) I'm not sure what it was really called. 

 This was the Mickey Ferris Wheel. 

Yeah, this was BEFORE the ride started.

Here's a close up. We chose the cart that would slide along those rails as the wheel spun. It got us swinging pretty hard. One of the more scary rides, in my opinion!

The Merry-go-round. Notice Tyler enjoying himself?

This was the pixar parade. There were only 5 or 6 floats, but they were super fun. Brinly waved the entire time.

 

She didn't seem to notice she was the only one standing. I love it!

I though "Heimlich" was the hilarious!

We ran over to disneyland to watch Fantasmic, and Minnie was out! 

Brinly was such a trooper and walked the entire day. She just couldn't quite make the trip home and was passed out...on Dan's head...before we even crossed the street.

  That is what you call a fun day!