Pajama Day!

Disneyland!

Well, we just got back from an awesome weekend in Disneyland!  We went with my brother Jeff’s family and my sister Stephanie’s family.  (A smaller group than normal, but we still had 15 people:)  The kids were SO excited, especially since the first day (Thursday, September 20th) was Halle’s birthday.  Happy Birthday, Halle!  What better way to spend your 5th birthday than at Disneyland with your cousins?

James just LOVES the “horsie ride!”                                                                                           

Meeting Merida!  Don’t you just love her hairida?  (There was a cheesy Disney worker dressed in a kilt that was just a little too into jokes like this while we were in line:)

Toon Town!

James loved seeing the characters, but there was no way he was giving them a hug, or even a high-five!  He was so nervous around them.  This was as close as he was going to get to Pluto!

I was really excited to take James to see Mickey.  He LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  And his Mickey Mouse doll.  And he really did love seeing Mickey, just from a little distance:)

He also liked the little roller coaster in Toon Town!  He says, “First it goes slow, then it goes fast and gets in my tummy!”

We spent the 2nd day (Friday) in California Adventure.  With the new Cars Land first on the agenda.  I cannot believe how crazy it was!  We got there a little before the park opened to the general public, and lined up at Bug’s Land.  As soon as the park opened, we ran through Bug’s Land, and merged in with the crowd of hundreds and hundreds of people that had lined up at the entrance of Cars Land.  We became a giant herd of cattle, being led down Route 66 by Lightning McQueen, Mater, and a whole crew of Disney workers, right to the new ride – Radiator Springs Racers.  Somehow Jeff and I ended up in the line with the 5 older kids and we only had to wait about 20 minutes to get on the ride.  Much better than the 2+ hours the line quickly grows to.  We definitely loved Cars Land.  They did an amazing job on it, and it’s a great addition to the park.    

Here’s Scotty and Annie on the new ride.  It was awesome!  Check out that wait time in the picture above!

And while we were doing that, the others waited in line to see Lightning McQueen!  He was revving his engine, so James plugged his ears:)

This ride is called Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree.  It was actually more fun than I thought it would be.

And this one is Luigi’s Flying Tires.  A little bit of a disappointment.  Not worth the hour line.  But we really wanted to try all 3 of the new rides in Cars Land, so we’re glad we did it:)

Checking out the map . . . . figuring out where to go next:) 

Toy Story Mania is always a hit!

This was Leah and Emily’s first year on the Grizzly Rapids ride.  Oh how we love this ride!  We brought the kids’ swimsuits to wear onto this ride, so they wouldn’t mind getting wet.  Great idea:)  Funny story about this ride – Our group went on this ride 3 times in a row (thanks to fast passes) and all 3 times, we ended up getting the yellow #8 raft.  It was so bizarre!  I mean they have tons and tons of rafts circulating through, and we ended up getting the exact same one every time.  We got it twice in a row, and the 3rd time we were in line, Annie said, “That would be so weird if we got the #8 raft again!”  And we all said, “Oh, yeah . . . .”  And sure enough, when we got to the front of the line and the worker said, “Ok, go to raft #8,”  we were all like, “WHAT?  That’s crazy!”  I would love to know the odds of that:)                                                                 

The magic of fast passes:)  

Day 3 (Saturday) was back at Disneyland.  This was the first week all their Halloween stuff was set up!  Kind of fun, but I am definitely not in the Halloween mood yet.  It’s hard to get in the fall spirit when it’s still in the 90s.  It’s kind of funny, because when we planned this trip a few months ago, we were saying that it will be nice to go in September when the weather is kind of cooler.  Nope.  Not at all.  It was so hot.  And humid!  Dan said it was the most he’s ever sweated at Disneyland.  Haha.

Had to get in the traditional family pics!

Jungle Cruise:

Tarzan’s Treehouse:

I love these pictures.  Sometimes when James is giving a fake smile, Dan will tell him to frown first.  Then smile!  And it’s a much better smile:)

Our traditional “climbing the rope” pictures:)                                                                            

Tom Sawyer’s Island:

Teacups!

And I just have to throw in a Splash Mountain picture!

We came off Splash Mountain and discovered a new member to our group.  This was so hilarious.  He just sat there, right in the middle of all of us, with the kids climbing all around him and everything.

Leah finally gave in and decided to give Splash Mountain a try on the last day.  I just love these pics!  The one on the left was her first time, and look how scared she looks!  The picture on the right is her second time on the ride, a lot more confident, and excited to make a face for the camera this time!  Check out that awesome fishy face!  At the bottom, she said, “I made that face the whole way down the hill!”

I like that our kids are in the stages where they are all still trying new rides.  It’s just so fun.  Annie went on California Screamin this trip for the first time, and she LOVED it.  So, actually, that means she has now gone on every ride!  She is always up for anything and just loves going on rides over and over again.  She is a diehard.  She was up til midnight on the last night, hitting up all the last rides with the adults.  

Favorite rides this year:

Annie – California Screamin, Matterhorn, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Goofy’s Flight School, Mickey’s Ferris Wheel, Radiator Springs Racers, Toy Story Mania, the Grizzly Rapids, and the Teacups (um, yeah, she pretty much loves them all:)

Leah – Splash Mountain, Matterhorn, the Grizzly Rapids, all of Cars Land, Alice in Wonderland, and Autopia.  (She also went on Space Mountain for the first time this year, but did not like it:)

James – Peter Pan, the “horsie ride”, Autopia, and the Toon Town roller coaster.