Sissy, the 4 Boys, & the Fairy Grandparents Visit Disneyland

[djmeredith]

Monday July, 28 DISNEYLAND (continued)
The kids had been begging to ride Space Mountain and it was finally time.

We all LOVED it! I definitely prefer DL’s Space Mtn over WDW’s version. It’s so much smoother.





We finished our Space Mtn ride just in time for the Jedi Training Academy. All 4 boys wanted to participate, but only 3 were picked. I felt so bad for Aiden since he didn’t get chosen.

Drake fought and defeated Darth Vader.



Drew fought and defeated Darth Maul. My parents and I were cracking up because he kept that hood on the whole time he was up there, despite the fact that it felt like it was 110 degrees that day!



Nico fought and defeated Darth Vader.



They all had fun fighting the Dark Side! By this time we were all hot and tired and ready for an afternoon break so we headed back to the condo for a swim and rest time.

When we returned to DL, we rode Haunted Mansion and Splash Mtn. We all had fun on Splash Mtn.



Meeting Captain America and Thor was a priority for the younger boys. There was a long line for Cap, but it was worth it to see the boys’ faces when they met him.



The Thor meet and greet was very elaborate and the boys enjoyed it.



My memory is a little fuzzy here, I think we rode a couple of other rides. At some point we headed over for the late Fantasmic show. I thought we were getting there early, but it was packed anyway. I used the “light tower trick” to snag a view near the control station, but the view wasn’t great. Nico and Drake both fell asleep during the show. My parents and I both thought the WDW version was better, but I fully admit I think that was because we were tired, my feet were killing me, and there was no seating.

It had been a long, fun day as evidenced by this photo of my dad and Nico on the bus ride back to the Toy Story Lot:

 

[pepe3penelope]

I LOVED your pictures!!! Everyone looked like they were having such a blast!!! DH and DD don't like roller coasters. DS is only 3 & he says he wants to go when he's big enough

I had to show everyone in the family your pictures. I can't wait until DS is 4 & can do the Jedi Training Academy. DD is easily intimidated by Darth Vader, Darth Maul, & the Stormtrooopers.

I loved your pictures with Captain America & Thor. Soooooo cool! We will definitely do it next time!

BTW, I loved how well coordinated your family is, especially the boys!

 

[crystal1313]

Ahhh! Loved the Splash Mtn photo! SO darn cute! And the Captain America one too, you can see the joy in the boys faces

 

[petals]

Great photos. They really capture the excitement

 

[djmeredith]

I LOVED your pictures!!! Everyone looked like they were having such a blast!!! DH and DD don't like roller coasters. DS is only 3 & he says he wants to go when he's big enough

I had to show everyone in the family your pictures. I can't wait until DS is 4 & can do the Jedi Training Academy. DD is easily intimidated by Darth Vader, Darth Maul, & the Stormtrooopers.

I loved your pictures with Captain America & Thor. Soooooo cool! We will definitely do it next time!

BTW, I loved how well coordinated your family is, especially the boys!

I can see how the "bad guys" could be very intimidating for some kids! And thanks for noticing the coordinating outfits, I planned for weeks to make sure we all coordinated, lol. My dad is a professional photographer/videographer so he has always taken lots of photos when we are on vacation. My sister and I decided several years ago that our vacation photos would be so much better if we coordinated our clothes, so we always try to do that now.

Ahhh! Loved the Splash Mtn photo! SO darn cute! And the Captain America one too, you can see the joy in the boys faces

Thanks! Are your boys into the super heroes?

Great photos. They really capture the excitement

Thank you! The boys love seeing themselves in ride photos. As you can see in some of the photos, they now think it is hilarious to make silly/crazy faces in them.

 

[RHMH]

Wow!!! The pictures are so neat.. Makes us miss Disney all over again..

Its so nice the group is together still.. Thanks for sharing.

 

[djmeredith]

Wow!!! The pictures are so neat.. Makes us miss Disney all over again.. Its so nice the group is together still.. Thanks for sharing.

I think so too Bob. Has Midori gone to Homecoming yet? If so, please feel free to hijack this thread and share some photos.

 

[RHMH]

I thought you'd never ask.............

It was a super evening.. The Kids had a great time...

We took the group to the Fort Worth Water gardens for pictures, Macaroni Grill for dinner and off to the dance..

Midori's heart was pounding with joy and a little bit if puppy love..











What a night.... NOW!!! Midori and Will are going steady... Wait a minute, it was steady in my days...now it's called BAE pronounced BAY.. What does it mean?? Before Anyone Else..

Things sure have changed since my high school days.

 

[crystal1313]

Midori looks beautiful Bob!

 

[djmeredith]

Midori looks so pretty! And how sweet that she has a new boyfriend. You taught me a new term, I'd never heard of BAE either, lol.

 

[RHMH]

Thanks everyone and thanks for letting me Hijack the thread.

Appreciate your kind words about Midori.. everyone knows how I feel about my almost grown up daughter..

 

[djmeredith]

Thanks everyone and thanks for letting me Hijack the thread.

Appreciate your kind words about Midori.. everyone knows how I feel about my almost grown up daughter..

My pleasure to share my thread with you. It's amazing how quickly the time flies when watching kids grow up. Drake is my oldest nephew and he's only 11, but I know in the blink of an eye he will be going to homecomings and dating.

 

[djmeredith]

Tuesday July 29 – Disneyland Day
Despite our late night in the park the night before, we managed to make it back before the gates opened. We didn’t have to wait too long for the gates to open, but the lines moved very sloooowly after they opened. It took about 20 minutes from the time we arrived until we got through the turnstile. That really wasn’t too long of a wait, but Drake was having a grumpy start to his day so that made it more difficult.

We stopped for a traditional photo in front of the train station since we hadn’t done that yet.



There was another PhotoPass photographer there who did magic shots. She was fabulous! She took us off to the side and offered us all the magic shots she had: Pascal, Tink, Chip, and Olaf. I kept asking her if we were taking too much of her time, but she assured me several times that we were fine and she appreciated the chance to do so many magic shots. The kids enjoyed doing them. The Olaf one is cute, but it would’ve been even cuter if I had known what it looked like first. We look kind of dorky in those, lol.























After we passed through the tunnel, the boys noticed the double decker bus. Aiden, Drew and I decided to hop on and ride to the castle.



My Dad snapped this photo of the castle on their way to meet us.



Wow, I hadn't realized how crowded it already was by the time we entered. I remember our first day in DL seemed so crowded, especially in Adventureland where I was overwhelmed by the wall to wall people. Looking back, I think I quickly got used to the heavy crowds. But I never got used to the heat! It was brutal.

I think the first ride we rode that day was Indiana Jones. Unfortunately, it made my Dad sick. I felt so bad for him! He is prone to motion sickness on spinning rides, and for some reason IJ got him. In hindsight, I think the heat and the go go go pace of the trip played into his not feeling well because he ended up feeling worse a couple days later.

Since my Dad wasn’t feeling well, he didn’t take as many pictures so I don't have any photos to help me remember exactly what all we did that day. I do remember having lunch at the Hungry Bear. I was looking forward to trying the fried tomato sandwich, and it was super yummy! I'm pretty sure we rode Haunted Mansion and BTMRR.

I remember we took the train from New Orleans Square to Fantasyland so that we could catch Mickey and the Magical Map. Dad still wasn’t feeling well, Mom was tired, and Drake was still grumpy so they all decided to head back to the condo. Aiden, Drew, Nico, and I stayed for the show and a few more rides.

Drew took these photos of the show with his camera. I thought they were pretty good considering he’s only 8 and was using my old point and shoot camera.







I had read such good reviews of this show that I wanted to be sure to see it. I'm glad we did, we all enjoyed it.

After the show, we were able to ride IASW. I’m so glad I got the chance to ride it. The Disney characters incorporated into the ride was so cool! When we came out, we caught the parade going by and got to see the Anna and Elsa float.



Nico loves Frozen, but even he didn't want to wait in line for Elsa and Anna during our trip. So I was glad he at least got to see them during the parade.

I think we headed back to New Orleans Square at this point because I do remember that we tried the Mickey beignets. The boys had never had beignets and they all loved them. I didn't want the rest of the family to miss out, so I bought extras for us to have the next day for breakfast.

We headed over to Tomorrowland to catch the Monorail so my Dad could pick us up at Downtown Disney. Of course, the boys couldn’t pass the Lego store without stopping in.



Drew spent his souvenir money, and I purchased a Lego set for my youngest nephew Ethan who stayed home with his mom and dad. It was a good end to another fun day, but we were all tired. Luckily, we had a relaxing day at the beach planned for the next day.

 

[pepe3penelope]

What FABULOUS pictures!!!!! I love the special backgrounds they placed in your photopass pics! Soooooo cool!

I am in LOVE with the shirts you got made for the family! Where did you get them? I especially love the one NICO was wearing... loved the combo of backgrounds with the superheroes.

I'm sorry that your father wasn't feeling well. That's too bad.

Our family loves watching Mickey and the Magical Map. DD is like me and she always wants to do a lot of things when we get in the parks. Because doing a show/parade (Mickey and the Magical Map, the DLP Soundsensational Parade, or CA's Pixar Parade) is time consuming, I tell her she can only choose one thing. Last weekend she choose the DLP parade because she wanted to see the Anna/Elsa float. It was pretty nice to see it.

 

[pepe3penelope]

Bob, thank you for sharing the photos! Midori looked so beautiful and genuinely happy! How fun for her to have such a fun experience with such a large group. At first when you said she was having a bit of puppy love, I thought, "Wait! Don't say that! What if Midori sees that comment and says that they're 'just friends.'". Then I saw they're actually BF & GF!

 

[djmeredith]

What FABULOUS pictures!!!!! I love the special backgrounds they placed in your photopass pics! Soooooo cool!

I am in LOVE with the shirts you got made for the family! Where did you get them? I especially love the one NICO was wearing... loved the combo of backgrounds with the superheroes.

I'm sorry that your father wasn't feeling well. That's too bad.

Our family loves watching Mickey and the Magical Map. DD is like me and she always wants to do a lot of things when we get in the parks. Because doing a show/parade (Mickey and the Magical Map, the DLP Soundsensational Parade, or CA's Pixar Parade) is time consuming, I tell her she can only choose one thing. Last weekend she choose the DLP parade because she wanted to see the Anna/Elsa float. It was pretty nice to see it.

They added the character for the magic shot, but the extra borders around the photos are actually the ones I added using PhotoPass. I pre-purchased the PhotoPass photo CD so that I had the option to add borders and would also have all our photos.

I made all the shirts, thanks. Several years ago I learned how to do shirt designs from all the great Disigners over on the Disign board. It's pretty easy to do if you know how to use one of the editing programs like Photoshop Elements.

And you are exactly right about the shows and parades taking a lot of time. As you'll see in my next post, we ended up having to add an extra evening at DCA just to fit World of Color in. It's always tough to fit in everything when you're on a "once in a lifetime" trip but only have a few days. I scheduled 4 park days thinking that would be plenty of time based on what I read on here. However, I wouldn't recommend less than 5 days for anyone who wants to do it "all" because they won't be back for a while. Especially during the busy summer period.

 

[RHMH]

djmeredith

---- Your pictures are so much fun to look at... Love seeing the smiles on everyone's faces...

 

[crystal1313]

Love all the PP photos! So cute!!

 

[djmeredith]

Tuesday July 29 – Beach Day
During the planning for our trip I decided that we would spend one of our days at the beach so the boys could experience the Pacific Ocean. I also thought it would be a nice relaxing day in between our park days. I researched beaches and decided that Huntington Beach would be the perfect place for us to spend the day. Then I found out that the U.S. Open surf championships were taking place while we were there. So thanks yet again to all the great people on the DIS, I discovered Salt Creek Beach at Dana Point. It was further away, about a 45 minute drive, but sounded like a great place for our family.

We slept in for the first time, which felt great. We had hoped Drake’s baseball friend and his family could join us at the beach but it didn’t work out. Luckily, the condo where we stayed provided all the supplies we needed for a fun day at the beach: coolers, beach towels, beach chairs, sand toys, and even body boards. By the time we all ate and loaded the van it was almost 11:00 when we got on the road. Traffic was heavier than I expected for a weekday morning, but perhaps it’s always like that.

We found the beach with no problem, but were in for a surprise when we got there. The descriptions I had read explained that the beach was down a hill but that there was an access road which vehicles with handicap parking permits could use to drop off passengers. Since my mom has a permit I figured it wouldn’t be a problem to drop everyone off at the bottom of the hill and park at the top of the hill. Boy was I wrong! The beach access road turned out to be a long, fairly steep drive which did not provide direct access to the beach. There was still a short walk on a portion of roadway and a set of steps to the actual beach.

This photo shows the part of the road that has to be navigated on foot. That's the Ritz Carlton on the hill. The parking lot is up near the hotel.



I dropped everyone at the bottom of the hill and parked the van at the top. It wasn’t easy for my mom, but she made it to the beach. Of course, it didn't help that they had to carry all the beach stuff down there as well. By the time I made it to the beach they had set everything up and Drake and Aiden were already in the water with the body boards. We were in for surprise number two when we found out that the red flags were out and the current was stronger than usual. We often joke about our family’s bad luck and this day seemed to be no exception.

I called all the boys over and applied sunscreen. Drew was freaking out about the sand, which he HATES. The beach is Drew’s worst nightmare. He hates it so much he asked not to go on his last two family vacations. Poor thing, he always dreads the beach but manages to have fun anyway. I can relate because I’m not a huge fan of the sand either.



He and Nico began playing with the sand toys while Drake and Aiden went back in the water.





The waves were huge and the current strong. I waded in up to my waist and the boys and I were jumping around in the waves. I realized then how strong the waves were when I almost lost my bathing suit bottoms!



Even though there were lots of lifeguards, I was going to have to keep a very close eye on the boys while they were in the water to make sure they were safe.







Even Drew managed to dip his toes into the chilly water.





Although his expression in that last photo sums up his feelings about our trip to the beach.



The boys started asking to leave about 30 minutes after we arrived. After a lifeguard grabbed Drake’s board and pulled him toward the shore because he said Drake was about to get caught in a rip tide, we decided to call it quits. We had been on the beach a total of about 45 minutes!



It took another 30 minutes for us to pack up and cart all the stuff back up to the end of the access road. I hiked back up the hill and brought the van down and got everyone and all the stuff loaded back up. And don't get me started about trying to get the sand off of everything. So much for a nice relaxing day at the beach, ha ha!

Since we were returning home much earlier than expected and we hadn’t caught World of Color yet, I decided to add an extra day to our tix and head over to DCA for the evening.

 

[pepe3penelope]

Awww! You tried so hard to plan everything, too! That was so cool and convenient that your condo was so well stocked!

I'm a local and I have never been to Dana Point (although I've gone to other beaches). Your beach trip itself was so short but you could never tell by looking at that last photo! Everyone really looked so happy.

That's great that your family was able to add another day of tickets. Can't wait to hear what you thought of WOC.