Sunday, May 4- Day One
We left the house at 8:15 on Sunday morning! Off to
Disneyland!
It was an uneventful drive, with 0 traffic getting out of the Bay Area. The kids are always really good in the car and we listened to a Ramona Quimby book on the way. We stopped at 11:30 in Kettleman City for gas and food. We were planning on going to In & Out, but it was too crowded so we decided to go to Carl's Jr and it was deserted! Ryan had a little tantrum about his hamburger so we ended up getting him another as we were leaving through the drive-thru. After one bite he declared "All Done". 3 year old's are so fun, aren't they?
We got to the HOJO at 3:30. MIL was already checked in... Grandpa dropped her off on their way home from a Las Vegas/Zion trip they had been on the week before. We checked in our room (which was connected to MIL's) and about 30 minutes later we were crossing the street to go to Disneyland!!!
Disneyland was crowded. SOOO crowded. SOOO many strollers. But the weather was nice and we were in Disneyland, so...
We decided to start with Winnie the Pooh since there's never really a line. The sign said 20 minutes.. "Ugh, 20 minutes for Pooh?" I thought. It actually only took 10 and Ryan loved it.
After that we decided to go check out Fantasyland because Ryan has been obsessed with Pinocchio and especially Monstro the Whale. We got to Fantasyland and it was just packed. Everything had a 30 minute+ wait. We did manage to get a few pictures of Monstro at Ryan's request.
We decided to bail and have dinner at the French Market. All the adults had the French Quarter Chicken and the kids had the Mac and Cheese I think.
We also stopped at Tarzan's Tree House before leaving for DCA to get away from the crowds!
So because we purchased our annual passes online we had to get them at the ticket booth in the Esplanade. This was the longest line we had to wait in ALL trip. It took over an hour to get them... and there weren't any issues. The line was slow... took 45 minutes just to wait our turn and then when it was our turn it was another 30 minutes. It was annoying because we already paid for them online, gave them all of the information,etc... and it still took FOREVER to get. Disneyland really needs to expedite this process because it was maddening... it shouldn't take 30+ minutes to get your passes when you've already paid and everything should already be taken care of. Ok.. end of rant.
We got into Disney CA, and it was crowded, but not as bad as Disneyland. We did the River Creek Challenge so the kids could run around and work out some energy.
And then went over to Bug's Land. The first ride we did were the Bumper Cars. It was the first time Ryan was tall enough to ride them! He loved it and it was fun. Casey was upset because she wanted to try to drive a car by herself. It was harder than she thought, so she and Dave went again while Nana, Ryan and I did Flick's Flyers (no line!!) Next, Ryan wanted to ride Heimlich's Chew Chew Train so we met up with Casey after their bumper car ride and Casey had a churro. It was her first Churro and she fell in love. I think she asked for one every single day after that, but only ended up getting one more. While we were waiting in line (15 minute line) we saw a rat run next to the line, up the bamboo and over the wall. Ewwwww.
I don't like Rats!
We did the Ladybug Spin Cup thingy and then we decided to say goodbye. Dave and I were going to go back later and wanted the kids to get in bed.
Ryan was funny and was all ready to get in his jammies, brush his teeth and say goodnight. I was a little worried he wouldn't go down easy. He must have been tired though, because he went down WAY easier than at home. He barely fit into the porta crib we got for him. He's in a twin sized race car bed at home but didn't mind the smallish crib at all.
After we put them back in bed, Dave and I went back to Disneyland...
I bought the annual passes today. After thinking about it I decided to do the monthly payment plan and use the money I had saved up for it to pay down my credit card. It seemed like a no brainer since it's interest free and no finance charge.
