This year, our trip was a long-hoped-for, but quickly-planned-for adventure, and we needed to do it on a very tight budget! We always drive, with varying degrees of discomfort (last time Dillon was riding in the 3rd row "rumble seat"in the back of the station wagon), and as you know our kids are experienced road-trippers, so as usual we just crammed the car to the gills and headed south.
We did have a few moments of peace and quiet...
But the ever-present, and always awful L.A. traffic guaranteed that we had a lot more moments like this.
In years past we've stayed at nice hotels and in large, comfortable rooms: Not this time. We all crammed into one queen-queen room which-- as you can imagine-- led to lots of whining, wrestling, and broken sleep.
I had also given myself a challenge for this trip: We would take full advantage of the hotel's continental breakfast each day, we would pack all of our own lunches to take into the park; we would eat all but two dinners in our hotel room. I'll spare you the details of my ungrateful-sounding complaints about our room (Highlights? The terrible location, the insanely small size, the god-awful construction noise literally outside our windows), but suffice to say lots of factors prevented me from meeting that goal. We did eat two dinners in our room, which was fun (if by fun you mean nerve-wracking and messy).
Here is Lawson taking advantage of that lovely continental breakfast!
Because our room was so tiny and the "remodeling" noise at the hotel so disruptive, we ended up staying in the Disney parks ALL DAY LONG on each of our 3 days. Fortunately, Hayden and Lawson are old hands at napping in their stroller, so we managed to keep them from becoming too exhausted, and I even scored a few of moments of peace here and there.
Here we are enjoying a cool, calm lunch inside the Disneyland Baby Care Center. This place was truly a blessing!
California Adventure also has its own baby care center, with little potties just Lawson's size. This was one of his favorite parts of the entire trip. Many times each day Lawson asked to go use the potties and wash his hands in the sinks that he said were "just right for me."
While Kirk and the big boys rode the "big kid" rides during the day, the little guys and I kept track of our FastPass return times, and helped them gather Rider Switch Passes. The setup is too confusing to explain clearly here, but basically, because we had little people in the stroller who were too small to ride certain rides, we were given passes that allowed the parent who had to stay behind to ride later, without standing in line.
These bad boys saved the day!
Once he and the little guys were tired, Kirk would take them back to the hotel, while the big boys and I used the passes I'd collected all day to go and ride all of the awesome "big kid" rides. We closed the park down each night we were there, and those late-night moments were my absolute favorites! We rode the Matterhorn so many times I thought my backside would never recover, we saw all of our favorite animals on Big Thunder Mountain railroad (especially the mountain goat!), we went on Space Mountain enough that Koen could predict the upcoming turns, and we managed to squeeze into the Splash Mountain line at 10:01 on our last night in the park.
We got our Dole Whips!
And our orange soda & rainbow sherbet floats!
And we played the old-fashioned games along Main Street U.S.A.
And we were the last people out of Frontierland on our last night there.
Although they aren't really a huge priority for us, we did have fun visits with some of the characters, and we made sure that the little guys got to enjoy the oldie-but-goody rides that we all love. (The big boys have made sure to remind me several times that I made them miss out on the teacup ride. They wanted to go on it first thing in the morning, and I refused, knowing that it would leave me sick for the entire day. Oh well, next time...)
The "Wild Animals" on Casey Jr.
At first Hayden walked right up to Winnie the Pooh and tried to touch his belly. When Pooh approached him, Hayden was spooked and he refused to get near again!
Waiting patiently for Dumbo.
Riding in the front compartment of the Monorail (the only air-conditioned part of the train!).
I mention the air conditioning because we had the mixed blessing of very hot weather for our entire trip. The daily temperatures we encountered ranged from 94 degrees up to 98 degrees, and we had the added excitement of the Santa Ana winds (gusts were 30-50 miles per hour) on three mornings. In these photos of the boys on Tom Sawyer's Island--er, I mean the Pirates' Lair--you can see from their red little faces how hot it really was!
The heat made it especially fun to head over to California Adventure and get wet at the spray ground in Bugs' Land. Even Koen got in on the fun!
California Adventure actually has some of our favorite rides (California Screamin', Goofy's Flight School, Soarin' Over California), but for some reason I never manage to take any photos there. We did have a chance to see the Pixar Play Parade this time, and both of the little guys loved it. Hayden danced the entire time, and Lawson was just speechless with excitement.
By our last evening in the park, everyone was pretty tired, and we were starting to feel ready to say goodbye. We rode the Jungle Cruise one last time, had one more round at the Shooting Gallery, and before Kirk and the little guys headed back to the hotel, we spent some time in Tarzan's Treehouse, which truly ended up being some of the most fun we'd had!
I know that on the day we left L.A. I told Kirk that we didn't need to go back to Disneyland anytime soon. In fact, I told him we were definitely not returning until Hayden turned 5 (He's 16 months now). Yes, we had fun, but it had also been a very hard-fought kind of fun. I'm starting to think that the agony of a difficult Disneyland trip is kind of like childbirth, though: Soon after it's done, the pain begins to fade and you start wondering when you'll be ready to do it all over again. Okay, maybe I'm just crazy like that. I'm pretty sure, though, that come next spring I'll be feeling antsy to load up the car and head south!
