Disneyland Day #3!

Day three was Monday and we spent it at Disneyland! The first order of business was Indiana Jones. Parker was itching to go on it. This was the first visit he was tall enough (no rolled up socks needed). We walked over there first thing and there was no line - yea! We rode it four times in a row then headed to Splash Mountain. It was already getting warm for the day so we were ready to get wet! Again no line! We went through it once and when it was time to get off the worker asked if we wanted to go again because there was nobody else there waiting to get on. So we rode it several times without having to get out. After that we just wandered around all day riding rides, looking for characters & having a great time! It did start to get a bit crowded later in the afternoon, but not bad. I don't think we waited for more than 10-15 minutes for anything our entire visit. It was great!

Toontown!

Gadget's Go Coaster in Toontown!

Toontown. No fake smiles here! Nope!

Parker loves Pluto! Preston looks so thrilled to be there! He looks like he is growling at Pluto.

A boys trip on the Matterhorn. Another favorite ride of all of ours.

This is outside of the Matterhorn. You'd think after taking so many pictures of myself I'd get the camera angle better.

This is Parker's first time on Splash Mountain. He loved it! Preston insisted on the front seat, and nobody argued with him. He was drenched. Travis was in the back and only got a little wet.

After Splash Mountain trying to dry off in the sun.

These guys hung out by the Haunted Mansion. From October to January 1, they have the Haunted Mansion switched over to Nightmare Before Christmas. Although I love the park all decked out for Christmas, I prefer the Haunted Mansion just the traditional haunting. It is fun to see the characters but these guys were long winded. They took lots of time with each of the kids talking to them and playing around. It got to the point you were like, "I'm only here for the picture. Let's move along". 

 We had two very tired boys at the end of each day. Parker would not take his new Pluto hat off.

Disneyland Day #2!

Day 2 was Sunday. We knew that Disneyland would be crowded so we spent the day at California Adventure. We started our day with a character breakfast at the Grand Californian Hotel. That hotel is beautiful! The food is good, but expensive. The characters at this location are not that great, but we like the food there better than the other character breakfasts.  The hotel has its own entrance into California Adventure for hotel guests. After breakfast we got in line behind some people that were actually staying there and followed them in.  hee hee.

This is the first year that Parker was tall enough for all the rides (well, almost tall enough) and we were all itching to go on The Tower of Terror. The park was empty so we were able to get right on the ride. First timer Parker loved it and we went over and over again. Because the park was not busy we were able to ride just about everything, some rides multiple times, by about 1:00 in the afternoon. The one and only line we had to wait in was for Grizzly River Run. It was hot outside (way too hot for November) and everyone was wanting to get wet. It took us maybe 15 minutes so we can't complain. We rode it twice and got good and wet!  Notice above how I said that Parker was "almost" tall enough for all the rides? He was just a hair sort of the 48" for the California Screamin' roller coaster. He was dying to go on it! He stood under their little sign with his back straight and his neck stretched out. He was flirting with the cute worker and still a no go.  His hair was brushing the sign but his head didn't actually touch it. So we went on other rides until they changed workers. We then took his socks off, rolled them up and put them under his heels in his shoes and tried it again. It totally worked and made him tall enough. He loved it! It is a great roller coaster. One of our favorite rides in the park.

In the evening we watched The World of Color show in the park. I had heard mixed reviews on it. Some people said it was a "must see" and others said not so much. My opinion was that it was terrible. The show itself might be ok, but the way they run it is terrible. You had to go the area an hour early and you where you had a Fast Pass showing what area you could sit in. You wait in line, go to your assigned area then find a place to sit. There are no chairs, no benches, etc., you have to sit on the ground. Then a half an hour before the show they make you stand up so they can cram more people in behind you. So you stand in wall to wall people for 30 minutes until the show starts. Unless you are in the first couple of rows you can't see. We were in the second section, second row. Travis could see fine but had to hold Parker up the entire length of the show, and Preston and I could not see at all. If there was a way we could have turned around and got out of the crowd we would have. However, we were stuck in a sea of people. Basically it sucked! I would not recommend it to anyone, and I started calling it "the stupid water show" for the rest of the trip.

 On our way to breakfast the first morning we were there.

 

I have no idea who this character is, but Parker loved him.

 Our annual joke about these Christmas ornaments has to do with "big balls".

 A visit with Mater and McQueen

 We love Sully!

I think this is about our 5th time on The Hollywood Tower of Terror. We could not get enough of it!

Disneyland Day #1!

We went to Disneyland last week and it was so much fun! Per my usual, I took a ton of pictures so I am going to break our trip down into days. You'll still get sick of looking at pictures, but I'll spread it out a bit for you. :)

We like to vacation there in November. The crowds are usually low, and the weather is usually good. Normally it is in the low 70's during the day - perfect! However, this year it was unseasonably warm  hot. Not my kind of weather! Luckily, the heat only lasted for a few days. Sunday it was in the high 80's and Monday the mid 80's. After that it was great. It was also a bit humid, another thing that I am not fond of. You'll see from the pictures why I affectionately named this vacation "the big hair trip".  Thank you heat and humidity!

We flew out on Saturday afternoon and arrived at our hotel at around 5:00 p.m. Each year we try a different hotel and this year I think we finally found "the one". We stayed at the Marriott Fairfield Inn and we really liked it. It is about a 3 minute walk to the entrance of Disneyland. We never rent a car so we love to be within walking distance of the park.

We knew the park would be crowded on a Saturday, and since we arrived in the evening, we decided to spend time in Downtown Disney. It was the first time we've really spent time there when we were not rushed. It was great to check out the overpriced stores and the fun restaurants. We just wandered around looking & eating until we all got tired & headed back to our hotel.

This is the view from our room. Can't beat waking up to a view of the Matterhorn! I have very vivid childhood memories of staying at a motel (yes "motel") south of Disneyland. At that time, the only part of the park you could see from outside was the Matterhorn sticking up. I remember waking up every morning, looking out the window and seeing it. You can't tell from this picture but we could also see Space Mountain, the top half of The Castle, and the Monorail would go by on that track by the road.

 

Each night there were fireworks over the park. The first night there we just watched them from our room. We had a front row seat! We could see them, hear the music and no crowds!

Time for Pie!

For the kids, the best part of Thanksgiving is that my dad puts water in their hot tub. It is the one and only time of year that he'll fill it. The boys love it and rush through dinner so they can get in.  Parker was in & out of it so many times that he ran out of clean, dry clothes. While his stuff was in the dryer he put on my mom's sweatshirt and my sister's shoes. When he decided he needed a plate to put his pie on he gave us all a show!

Rainy Day Trees!

I am just now posting these pictures, but this was actually on November 12. It was a cold rainy day and the kids could not go outside. They were bored & asked to put their trees up. Normally I am very anti-Christmas before Thanksgiving, but since their rooms are upstairs I thought what the hell. I don't have to look at them for the next six weeks before Christmas rolls around. They both spent all day working on them, Preston placing each ornament very carefully. He takes this kind of stuff very serious. Now maybe I can get them to do the family tree in the living room. I hate decorating Christmas trees!

Notice the dog. Preston put her Christmas hat on her and she didn't move for hours.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey!

This is a very fun first grade project! The kids bring home turkeys to decorate. The only rules are you have to be creative & it should be a family project. You can decorate them with anything you want, but with both of our kids we ended up using food.

Since Parker is a total junk-food-junkie, we went with a junk theme. Not sure how the row of dog bones ended up on it.

My favorite part is the eyeball. It is a leftover Moody's Mad Eye from the Harry Potter Party.

 

Here is Preston's from when he was in first grade. He is a much healthier eater so he has a healthy trukey. I will say that my counter tops have improved since this turkey was created. :)