This won't be so much of a chronological recap but more of a geographical - what we loved/did in each area of the park.
Started our day taking it NICE and easy, opposite of the day before. We didn't get to the park until around 9:00 and walked right on to every ride in Paradise Gardens. The Little Mermaid ride was pretty fun - we were amazed at how well they made the characters move and everything. It was such a beautiful day and such a great spot to have rides that took us up in the air so we could see everything. Having the sun bounce off the water right there gave it such a fun, boardwalk/coastal feel.
There was a ride that I was sure she'd be tall enough to go on while Devin and the kids were riding the Goofy Coaster (one of our FAVORITES at CA Adventure!! so fun). So when I took her to see what the height requirement was we were both pretty bummed and she did this without me telling her. All I said was "aw man you're not tall enough yet!" Now when she sees this picture she says "not tall yet?" :)
BUENA VISTA ST/HOLLYWOOD LAND
My friend
Corina told us how much her girls loved the Disney Jr Dance Party. We got there about 5-10 min after they started so we were in the back but we were thankful they still let us in. The highlights were bubbles and leaves falling from the ceiling and seeing Vampirina and Doc McStuffins on the stage :) The lights and music brought so much energy. My kids will probably be too old to love this the next time we go so I'm glad we went!
The next recommendation from
Corina was the animation academy. My kids love this youtube drawing channel called ArtforKidsHub so I knew they'd love this and the drafting paper and college classroom setting made it feel so official. Even better, when we got in there we found out we'd be learning to draw Goofy - which is our family favorite character right now :)
Ava's
Devin's
Owen's (with a little guidance from Mom)
In the same building as the Animation Academy they had a meet and great line for Ana and Elsa! We didn't even have to wait that long, maybe 15 min. While in line Ava asked me to give her a braid like Elsa's, and Lucy brought her Frozen lip gloss which she showed to Ana when we got in there. After an entire day of hating being near the characters at Disneyland, Lucy was finally happy to go up and talk to/hold hands with these princesses! I wasn't too surprised though...she LOVES Frozen and is constantly telling us in our family which Frozen character we are :)
Later in the day Lucy and I went to get in line for the Frozen theatre performance while Devin and the kids were doing the Soarin ride, which Lucy couldn't go on (another favorite ride at CA Adventure!). We were only there 20 min early for the 5:00 show but we were able to get into the "Orchestra" seating line and ended up on the 4th row! Unfortunately Devin and the kids weren't able to get there before they started letting us into the theatre - I wish Ava could have seen the show, she would have loved it. I would pay good money to see this show again, it was Broadway quality. The singing was fantastic and the special effects were unreal - snow falling from the ceiling, the way they costumed Sven and Olaf were amazing. Lucy was pretty entertained the whole time and Sven and Christoff even came right next to us in the aisle at one point!
Devin and the kids used the first fastpass on Guardians of the Galaxy, which they LOVED and begged to go on again but it made Devin feel queasy (which kind of ruined his ability to love the rest of the rides that day) and I didn't want to have the same experience, haha.
CHARACTERS
Owen's DYING wish when we started the day was to meet Spiderman so I put Devin in charge of finding out where he'd be and when. Sure enough, there was a good spot to sit and eat lunch while we waited. I found this Spiderman action figure at Walmart the night before we went to Disneyland so it was fun to give it to him that morning before meeting him.
Owen asked Spiderman to show him how he can climb up the building and Spiderman said, "Well, if I climb up the building then I can't be down here talking to you!". Cute answer, but not what Owen wanted to hear haha!
Our love of Goofy continued! We have a Disney Visa credit card, which got us a special photo op for free with "one of Mickey's friends", which happened to be Goofy and he was THE sweetest. But of course Lucy wouldn't go near him.
So by mid-day on our second day we STILL hadn't had a churro yet!! But lo and behold, while walking to the Soarin ride, some worker lady just comes up to Devin with 4 churros in her hand and asked if we wanted them, gave them to us, and then off she went! Lucy was asleep so there was just enough for us each to have one. It felt like she fell from the sky! That, or she just had super radar for people who haven't had a churro yet :)
CARS LAND
The Radiator Springs Racers ride was so fun and I'm glad we had a fastpass to get right on - we also did a rider swap. For the first little bit I wondered what all the hype was because it just took us through some scenes from the Cars movie but once we started "the race" out in the open air and red rock scenery it was fantastic!
Another recommendation from Corina - the Chili Bread Cone from Cozy Cone in Cars Land. The chili had big chunks of steak in it, in addition to the ground beef and nacho cheese and fritos and beans. Really yummy. Funny story - Owen found a way to talk to so many random people on this trip, he has no fear/shame. Devin had left Owen with the stroller while he took the girls to get ice cream. When I came back from getting my food Owen was chatting it up with some dad at the table next to us saying "we're from Idaho!" to which the dad laughed (like owen had been talking to him for a couple minutes and he was entertained by his enthusiasm to talk to strangers)
PIXAR PIER
This was such a fun place and home to the famous Toy Story Mania ride. I feel funny calling it a ride because it felt more like a video game :) It really was so fun, especially when we saw everyone's scores. Owen's (about 33,000) was about half of my score and mine was about half of Devin's (Ava insisted on riding in her own car so I never saw her score). This ride was probably our biggest mistake of the day though. We saw that it only had a 20 min wait so we hurried over and I got in line with Owen and Ava, since Lucy was napping but the line ended up being more like 45 min - WAY longer than any line we'd been on in the last two days practically. It really took it out of Owen and Ava to wait that long - Owen was in a bugging mood and no matter what kind of games I tried to play with him, snacks, etc he just wanted to bug Ava or climb on stuff, etc. The wait for that ride really took it out of the kids and kind of threw off the feeling of the day - Owen had a hard time getting that bugging/not listening urge out of his system.
While Devin did the rider swap and went on Toy Story again with the kids I took Lucy (who had woken up) on the carousel and then the kids joined us again. Sure enough, as soon as it was over Ava takes off running toward the exit and Owen does the same. However, when Lucy and I got to Devin we saw Ava but Owen was no where to be found. We called and searched everywhere. I finally found him hanging out toward the back of the ride, near the exit and the bathrooms...I was expecting him to be scared but instead he thought it was funny and tried to run away again when he saw me. Needless to say, he got put in the stroller for a while after that (and this is probably where his future sickness was starting to kick in and could have used a nap).
After that fiasco we headed over to redeem our Fastpass at Soarin Around The World, where we still kind of had a long line. So this is how Devin and Lucy entertained themselves while they waited for us to be done :)
We loved Soarin - the smells were incredible and totally unexpected. Definitely a different experience (and of course Devin analyzed the whole flying thing to the point of not being too impressed, haha. but he was also trying to keep the queasiness at bay). By the time we were all done with this and the Frozen play and dinner everyone was pretty DONE. But, we had one errand to run back over at Disneyland and knew we'd get there in time for Mickey's Mix Magic but the second it was over we were outta there.
Two days back to back is a lot but we feel like we did everything we wanted to and are proud of our kids for doing as well as they did. While I'm already excited to go back, we probably won't be back as a family for about 3 more years when Lucy is tall enough to ride more things and Ava and Owen can ride things by themselves. It will be fun to experience it at a different stage of life!
And so it begins...trying to ease Owen's cough that is now getting a little more frequent. Devin apparently learned this hotel humidifying trick from his dad :) Wet towels over the AC unit. Goodnight!
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