Disneyland & California Adventures

We finally did it! We came out to California for a visit (calling it a vacation is questionable) after at least 4 years of all of 'us' being together on one of our CA trips. We flew into Santa Ana (John Wayne Airport) on July 18th--late! Got to our hotel after midnight! And then we did Disneyland Saturday (bright and early) and California Adventures Sunday (yes, breaking the Sabbath...but it had to be done, there was no other way to cram any more into our already packed trip! I still feel guilty for making my kids run around like animals on Sunday but what do you do?!). We had a blast, it really was fun. I'm hoping we can make a trek out to Disneyworld in a few years. It really was the perfect time for Justin to go--Justin was just tall enough that he was able to go on just about everything. We were really mean parents though (*sigh* More guilt...). The family story goes that as a kid, my dad told me we were going on a "little train ride" and then put me on Thunder Mountain. Anyone who knows Thunder knows it's NOT a little train ride. For years (actually until I was 18, sadly) I was terrified of anything remotely rollercoaster-ish...yes, including the ferris wheel at Roeding Park (how pathetic!). So that being said, what do you think we did to Justin? Yes, it was basically torture for him for the first few hours of Disneyland...yes, I'm feeling more guilt even writing this. Adam took him on Thunder Mountain for the first Disneyland ride (did I mention this was his first trip to Disneyland?). Then, (since they have the child swap thing where they give you a pass for the child to go on the ride with the other parent who's out waiting with a child who isn't tall enough (Spencer) to go on the ride and you skip right up to the front of the line) I got to go on with Justin right after...although he didn't want to go on it again, but of course I did! So we just kinda talked about the ride while walking to the front of the line, talked about "looking" at the ride. Until I did the worst thing a mom can do to her kid. I picked Justin up, set him in the seat next to me, pulled the lap bar over us and away we went...all the while the old couple behind us in line looking horrified at us..uh, I mean me (did I mention Justin was screaming like a mad man at this point?). Yeah, oh well, I did it, what can I do now. So such continued for the next few rides. Next we went on Pirates and then the Haunted Mansion. The fact that Spencer was able to go on these rides didn't help Justin much like I was hoping it would. But at least I have a good memory of things long ago...I was able to give Justin a heads up about both dips on Pirates, told him about stuff in the Mansion to beware of, etc. But poor kid, anything we went on from then on for the next two days the question before it was, "Is it scary Mommy/Daddy?" I think the funniest thing is that if asked what his favorite ride was, he says "Star Wars" referring to Star Tours. He loved that thing, and that's probably my least favorite because it makes me motion sick. BLEGH! I was excited that they didn't completely do away with the light parade; I knew Justin would think that was cool, which he did and we watched at California Adventures the second night. I was also excited that Adam was able to experience some of the things I enjoyed at Disneyworld 10 years ago that they put into California Adventures, like A Bug's Life. He didn't think it was going to be anything special and then was impressed. So impressed that while Justin and I waited to go on the new Toy Story 4D ride (that was our longest wait, 40 minutes...pretty good considering it was the smack dab middle of summer!), he took Spencer and went to go see it again. Cute to see my Adam being a kid for once! Anyway, here are some of the pictures from those two days...don't worry, there's about a thousand other posts/pictures I will posting from our 10 day trip...as I said on one of the last blogs, 600 pictures to sort through is A LOT!!!! This is the best I can do for a journal these days so you've been warned and feel free to skip ahead...it's more for our family to remember anyhow!:)

The feared Thunder Mountain ride with Mommy...we'll have the picture forever (we're in the front!):

The Jungle Cruise:

Daddy and Spencer on the Jungle Cruise:

Our own Indiana:

Another "torture" ride, Jumpin' Jellyfish: