CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE

 Our second day was at California Adventure. We had had another awesome night in the hotel, which was still an absolute miracle to me. They were just so tired from Disneyland that everyone slept!! We packed all of our food and in anticipation of all the rain that was supposed to come, we packed all of our ponchos and changes of shoes too. Lucky us though, we had an absolutely perfect day. No rain at all. It was beautiful. Everyone was happy all day except one melt down by all kids at parents at once while we waited for the Aladdin show . . . and then it was cancelled. The rest of the day was seriously great! And again, no lines.

Heading into the park. We had to walk around all day with these two yahoos side by side. Everyone we passed had something to say because I would roughly estimate that 1/4 of the rest of the people there were wearing Utah gear and 3/4 were wearing BYU. 

Bug's Land was our first stop. Kate was SO EXCITED about these rides. She would do a half skip and half run all the way to the entrance through all the line area. 

 Kate loves anything that spins. This was not inherited from her mother or grandfather.

This spinning apparatus is what made my stomach spin (and Grandpa's) for the next few hours.

 Goofballs on an under the sea carousel.

 

Lunchtime snacks from our bag o' snacks.

 We tried the 3D Toy Story ride for the first time and loved it. What a cool ride. Zachary especially went crazy for it. I think he went on it 6 times.

 This one went a little crazy as well with the rapid firing guns.

 Scott and I took Brielle and Ava on a "roller coaster" for the first time. Ava was a huge fan. Brielle hated every second.

 Mom and Dad.

 We made it to Cars Land that afternoon. This was a first for us also. It wasn't built last time we were there. It was amazing. It looked like you had just walked into the movie.

And the ride was a really fun one. Once again, Ava loved it, but Zachary and Brielle opted out on going again after trying it once.

 Some of my favorite pictures EVER! Mom and Dad trying to get their tires to move.

 We watched the parade and once again, Kate was totally shocked and amazed at all that was before her! I love her faces.

 Everyone got one more ride. Of course, Zachary was back at Toy Story and the girls ran to The Little Mermaid ride again.

 The World of Color show ended the day. Zachary and Kate had already crashed, but these girls loved it.

DISNEYLAND

As you may recall, Santa Claus brought these kids tickets to Disneyland for Christmas! It was time to cash in. So, the last week in February we all went to Disneyland/California Adventure for three days. We were especially lucky that my parents could come with us, which made it so much more fun AND they could get us their Southern California resident discount. ALSO, Tawna works for Marriott, so we got to stay at a Fairfield Inn directly across the street from the park for $35. Seriously. Couldn't have worked any better. We woke up looking out across the parking lot to the famous McDonalds (where we get our breakfast before a day at Disneyland) and also over to Space Mountain. So awesome.

We entered the park with everyone happy and excited and honestly had a perfect day at Disneyland. The kids were really good. The weather was awesome. There were no lines. And we had four adults to four kids, which made things super easy.

On the space shuttles. Love this.

Taking a Jungle Book cruise. Reminded me of the same thing in Costa Rica.

Check out Kate's eyeballs.

Brielle was tall enough to start riding some of the roller coasters for her first time. We tried her on Indiana Jones and she absolutely DID NOT like it. Never going back. She might wait awhile longer on the others.

We all got on Pirates of the Caribbean. Zachary was really scared of the dark and then dropping down water falls in the dark. Kate laid her head on my shoulder and the boat just rocked her to sleep. I tell you, it was a perfect day. 

We all sat down to have a lunch/snack break. Scott and I had gone to Winco the Friday before we left to stock up on all the food we would be eating for the days at Disneyland. We do not spend a dime inside the park. Nothing. We had a huge bag full of nuts, sandwiches, fruit, treats, beef jerkey, drinks etc. etc. The kids were plenty happy because they had helped choose all the good snacks and because, well, they don't know any better. Not sure if they know food is sold there.

Ava and Brielle headed off to The Haunted Mansion in their matching Frozen t-shirts (thank you Target).

Zachary met Tigger after we rode Pooh Bear's Big Adventure.

"This is the worst day of my life."

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids before getting on Tom Sawyer's big ol' boat.

This is when the waiting started. We had NO lines all day long. We just walked through the mazes they had set up and right onto the rides. Until it came to meeting Anna and Elsa from Frozen. It was 1 1/2 hour wait! And, (just so my daughters remember what a good mother I was to them) the kids went on all the rides in Fantasy Land with Scott while I stood waiting in that line for them. At least I had a Diet Pepsi to help me through.

Cutest picture of the day - the girlies!

Finally, we made it. I guess they thought it was alright.

I don't go on tea cups. I watch and take pictures. Makes me dizzy enough. Kate though found her favorite thing to do in the world! She was squealing and laughing and giggling with all that spinning.

Toon Town

We ended the night with some racing around in the cars and a magical parade.

The princesses headed home to bed.

It was a wonderfully magical day. Time to rest up for more the next day.