On March 1, we secretly loaded our car, picked up Michael from school (Rachel had already come home), picked up Lea, and drove to the Provo Airport. We told our kids we were going on an adventure. They had so many questions and were super confused. This is our first time flying out of Provo, so they were not expecting to fly somewhere. Lea kindly drove our car back to her house to let it hang out for a few days. The Provo Airport is so small that we walked out the doors and up the stairs to get on the plane--no jet bridge!
When we got to LAX, we gathered our luggage, grabbed food (which took way more effort than writing this little sentence), and caught a shuttle to the metro. Then, we took the Rails metro to a bus stop.
At the bus stop, we switched to a bus that's destination was Disneyland. Michael and Rachel were starting to figure it out by then.
We were a very tired crew by the time we arrived at the main gate, much later than we had planned, thanks to our struggles finding food. The fireworks started a few minutes after we got off the bus, and I couldn't help but say, "Look! Disney is celebrating our arrival!"
We pulled our bags and pushed our kids through Downtown Disney and to the Paradise Pier Hotel. Then we all went to bed.
The next morning, we got room service with Mickey Waffles.
We learned that none of us are really up for eating THAT early in the morning.
Then, loaded up with plenty of ponchos (because as per the norm, I brought the bad weather with me to California), we headed to the park. Since we were staying at a Disney hotel, we got to go into the park an hour early each day we were there, and that was pretty awesome.
In all our trips to Disneyland, I think this was the first time taking a group picture in this spot:
The first ride of the day:
Since it was raining, there weren't really any lines for anything. It was amazing! It was supposed to be a busy day since it was Saturday, but the rain deterred most of the guests. With our ponchos, we were able to stay mostly dry.
Michael went on a ride all by himself this time. First time ever! How is he getting so old?!
Rachel loved going on Smallworld. Michael was patient the first time and then started to get grouchy about the whole thing. We tried to emphasize to him that this was a family trip, and we needed to spend as much time as we could together. To help him out, we started making up backstories for all the puppets. It's probably my favorite memory from our trip.
Brian took Rachel and Michael to Star Tours while I hung out with Gabe at Buzz Lightyear.
We did Autotopia, which incidentally had the longest ride of the day,
We explored Toon Town
And since it started raining again, we decided to duck inside Mickey's House and wait in line to see him. This gave us a half an hour to dry a little and thaw out. Plus, we got to met Mickey. I'd NEVER met Mickey before.
When we got out, there wasn't really a line for Minnie either, so guess what we did?
Since we got to dry a little, we headed to California Adventure instead of back to our hotel, which we were tempted to do since we were so cold and wet. I'm so glad for that break out of the weather.
We loved how the made the California Screamin' coaster the Incredicoaster. It made it that much better.
The next day, we had intended to get ourselves to church, but we couldn't figure out how to get all five of us there without walking, so we had church in our hotel room and learned how to do animation cells at the hotel.
We headed to Downtown Disney for some food and to have something to do. We couldn't resist this hat photo op.
We loved the view from our hotel.
For dinner, we went to Goofy's Kitchen.
Natalie, Michael, and Jacob met us there, and it was so fun being able to catch up with her and to finally meet Michael and Jacob!
The kids LOVED Goofy's kitchen.
Even Michael. I was worried he'd think he was too old for such things, and then Dale came over and was drawing with him on his placemat.
They'd play this Mickey Mouse song, and all the characters would start dancing. All the guests waved their napkins around, and it didn't take Gabe long to figure out what to do when the music started up. Here he is waving his napkin around. He was very upset that he had to leave his napkin there.
It made me pretty happy when Michael asked if we could go eat there again the next day...Uhhhh, sorry. That was a little too pricey to do more than once in a--well, at least once a trip.
Looking at California Adventure from our Hotel.
After dinner and getting our kids in bed, Brian and I headed up to the roof to watch the fireworks. They even had a broadcast of the music. We felt like VIPs.
The next morning, we were at it again. This time, we bought muffins for breakfast to eat throughout the morning. We had our magic morning at California Adventure, and we got there just a little after the park---nope, we got there almost an HOUR before we could go in. We didn't realize that the park opened an hour later that Monday than it had on Saturday. Oops. Well, we were right at the front of the line to make our mad-dash into the park.
Brian took the first round with Gabe
and Michael, Rachel and I got right onto Radiator Springs Racers, my favorite California Adventure ride. Rachel was finally tall enough to ride!!!
Then it was my turn with Gabe while Brian rode Radiator Springs Racers.
We enjoyed Carsland.
We loved going to Midway Mania.
We rode Radiator Springs Racers again.
Gabe met some cars.
And eventually, Gabe conked out during our walk back over to Disneyland Park.
It was a good opportunity for Brian to take the kids on the Tea Cups. I can't handle that ride with all the spinning.
I took Gabe on his first rollercoaster!
He absolutely loved it, and he was really mad that he had to get off.
We ended the night in California Adventure.
And we finally went on Soarin'
The next morning, we slept in an hour since now we knew what time the park really opened. Rachel got to meet Alice.
And the boys did Autopia again.
We went back to Gadget's Coaster
And I got to go down Splash Mountain with Michael and Rachel. This was Rachel's first time.
The ride got stuck at the end, so we had a minute to take a picture.
It was so fun that Rachel was tall enough to ride everything except the Incredicoaster and Indiana Jones. She loved Big Thunder Railroad, Radiator Springs Racers, and even Guardians of the Galaxy (formerly the Hollywood Tower of Terror). We made her and Gabe go into Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. I loved going on Indiana Jones with Michael, and then playing in Tarzan's Treehouse with Rachel and Gabe while Brian went on it with Michael. Really, I just loved being in the park with my family and watching little moments like this:
Rachel wanted to meet Anna and Elsa, so I stood in line with her while the boys went and met Captain America. Brian and the boys made it back to me in time for all of us to meet the famous princess and queen.
Michael watched from the sidelines. Apparently he's too old for Disney Princesses.
At some point, Gabe got to meet Lightning McQueen.
And we rode Radiator Springs Racers some more.
We also rode Ariel's ride. A lot. Like a couple of times, they didn't even make us get off. I think I have that whole thing memorized. Rachel and Gabe adored every second.
Our final family ride at Disneyland/California Adventure was Toy Story's Midway Mania, so Rachel, Gabe and I headed over to meet Brian and Michael there. (They'd been riding the Incredicoaster).
I happily took Gabe after that so they could ride Guardians of the Galaxy one more time.
Gabe and I posed for pictures
and then Brian joined us since Rachel REALLY had to go to the bathroom
Gabe finally got to meet Spiderman.
After pictures, they headed back to finish out Guardians of the Galaxy, and Gabe and I rode the Monsters Inc ride until they closed for the night. Then, we started making our way out of town. We had to stop by town hall to get pictures that didn't load properly to our Photo Passes from Spiderman, and Gabe had fallen asleep by the time we got there. He was so cute that they gave him an honorary citizen pin.
We took one last photo with the Goofy statue at our hotel,
and then headed back to our room
and put the kids in bed and got ready to go home the next morning.
This time, we took the hotel shuttle to the airport
and we flew back to Salt Lake via Southwest Airlines.
Newly potty trained Gabe did great, and we only had to leave two pairs of underwear behind, one of which WASN'T Gabe's. Next time we go, we'll have to buy all three kids a ticket since Gabe turned three just over a month after this trip. We had an amazing time! I can't wait to go back!
