I'm gonna hammer this mini TR out in this final installment. I think we've given V a nice little break and we can all go over to her TR and run amuck!
LY,MI V!
So.... where did I leave off? Oh, yes. The Wheel of Death. We board our gondola with Maddie and The Enabler on one side and me on the other. As we start to ascend, the gondola does a decent swing and The Enabler starts to freak. I'm talking someone give me a straight jacket and a needle, freak! I tell her, "You see???? I told this ride was bad!!! Why do you think I didn't want to ride?!?!?" She's pulling her hat over her eyes and just shriveling into the fetal position. Maddie is loving it!
She becomes the voice of reason to her Grandmother. Telling her, "It's ok, where going down now. It's just a ride. You're gonna be ok!" I'm laughing and actually enjoying the ride. It's not as bad as last time. The gondola did minimal swinging and the view was fantastic. Of course, my camera is around Andy's neck and The Enabler wouldn't move to take her's out of her bag!
Then it happened.
The ride stops just as we are at the very top, loading people I assume. And the we start to go backward. WTH? I don't remember this.
The Enabler is REALLY freaking out. Then the ride operator gets on the mic mumbling something we can't understand. Something about the ride resuming momentarily.
I look over at The Enabler and she's got tears running down her face, but she's laughing.
I guess she had adrenaline overload and her emotions are all outta whack! She calmed down long enough for us to exit the ride with some dignity.
We meet up with the boys and guess who's awake? Evan looks at me and says "I want sthoda and friesth". He has that toddler lisp that makes understanding him next to impossible. Thankfully we have his translator, Maddie with us. She can decipher all of his words.
It's getting late and we're getting tired. So we head to Burger Invasion, serving overpriced McDonalds food and grab the kids some fries and drinks. Andy and I head over Mullholland Madness, since out FP window is open. We're queuing up at the FP entrance, you know so the CM can check you FP return time and this family just breezes by everyone.
Little do they know that they check your FP's right before you get on the ride. Well, you guessed it, they didn't have FP's. Andy and I start snickering and the family is sent back out the exit and told no FP, no FP line. I love when cheaters get caught!
So we ride MM and it's a blast as usual and meet back with the parentals and kidlets. Everyone's getting a little hungry, but no one really wants a meal, since we had that huge breakfast. Waldo and Andy want hot dogs and beer and The Enabler wants ice cream. Well, I like beer, but I don't eat hot dogs.
So, I go with the ice cream vote. We separate for the moment and agree to meet at the ice shop near the exit. TE and I mosey on to the exit, stopping at a gift shop near the rapids ride and guess what they're selling? Disney jibbitz!!!
I grab 2 Princesses for Maddie and the Mickey glove for me and a Mickey Mouse for Evan. The also have the castle, but I didn't buy it. Which I now find out was dumb, as they only sell those in the park. I think I'll go back and buy a bunch to Ebay.
We make our way to the ice cream place and meet up with Waldo and Andy. They're empty handed. Surely they didn't finish their hot dogs and beer already? Nope, the beer place was closed and they agreed hot dogs and margaritas didn't go. Although in my book, 'ritas go with anything. Just saying'
We get out ice creams and sit and people watch. I didn't get pictures, when I really should have.
Sorry! But let me tell you about this guy. We couldn't figure out if he was a CM or a guest. But really, why would a CM be dressed as he was in DCA? He had on overalls with only one strap attached, the other hanging down, a shirt with somekind of beer logo on it, with the sleeves ripped off, a bucket hat and long hair white hair and beard. And he had the beer belly to match. It was weird. Maybe he worked at the rapids ride? I dunno.
We're all ready to leave, when we decide to get some Mr. Potato Head pieces, for the bargain price of $18.95.
Now the rule is the box had to "close". It doesn't say, perfectly. So I stuff that thing very strategically. And I keep stuffing until the thing is about to burst, but I get it closed and that's all that matters, right?
We get the Mickey cloths, Tinkerbell clothes, princess clothes and pirate clothes.
I don't know if I've mentioned Evan is a huge monorail fan. He loves that thing. When we were in WDW, we bought him the die cast Lime monorail and he still loves it. Well, this toy store had a whole monorail section. And he was in heaven. He wanted to buy "his" monorail. Well, since Maddie got a hat and potato pieces, I bought him Monorail red. He was soooo happy!
Andy shook his head and asked why I'm buying the kids stuff on my birthday. Well, because those toys will keep them occupied and buy me some DIS time!
We left the park around 4ish. Tired. Very tired. We rarely do more than 4 hours at
Disneyland/DCA, so this was a long day.
Ok, so that's it on the mini-trip report, within the PRE-trip report. Back to our regularly scheduled trip report.
Oh, and here's my gag gift from The Ducks:
My first pair of Granny panties!
One more thing: Maddie had to see the eye doctor this week. Apparently she takes after her parents and their shot vision. She's got astigmatism (sp?) in both eyes and is now the proud owner of Pink Ariel Disney Princess glasses.
The down side, is she loves to wear sunglasses and now I have to find those snap on sunglasses for her regular glasses. Anyone know where?
A shout-out from DIS royalty???? We are flattered! 
I can feel the frustration of the poor check out girl and all the people behind us. Now, seriously, $6???
ixiedust: for us!
zonkers....they are asleep 
I have a habit of always wearing sunglasses. Sometimes I forget to take them off after the sun goes down! 
: Maybe the holes will keep it ventilated? 
