Disney Day 3: California Adventure

We woke up the next day pumped and ready to Disney :). I have a hard time not getting giddy, even when I'm just describing our day. It started out with a wonderful surprise...Dole Whip! I was thrilled to discover that the coffee shop at the Disneyland Hotel offers Dole Whip. I am proud to say that this was one of just two Dole Whips that I had the entire week. Dole Whip is, in my opinion, the single best thing to eat in all of Disney. 

Our first day was spent in California Adventure.

The kids were super excited to see this statue of Walt Disney, who they are each developing a great respect for. I love that they are just as excited about this statue as they are about the rides and characters and treats.

We headed straight for Cars Land, and hung out there for most of the morning. Mater was our first find, but Makenzie wasn't at all interested in meeting him :).

Grandma and Grandpa kept the little kids while we did Radiator Springs Racers for the first time. This cute picture of them was on Makenzie's first ride, Luigi's dancing cars. She loved it, and spent at least the first 6 rides just grinning and laughing the whole time. Such a fun ride buddy!

I was completely unsure of how Carter would react to the roller-coaster type rides, so we made sure that Radiator Springs was his first ride. He has been looking forward to this ride for 2 years, even celebrating a few months ago when he officially measured over 40 inches at his annual checkup.

I shouldn't have been nervous, he totally loved it. Couldn't wait to go again, and tell everyone about the different parts of the ride.

I love that Carter's too small to be seen in the picture.

Pictures from Luigi's Dancing Cars :)

We were lucky enough to see Lightning McQueen on our walk to Mater's Tractor Pull.  Again, one kid wasn't interested in being in the picture :). Carter was so fun, he totally wanted to have a conversation with each car that we saw. This corner of California Adventure is Carter's happy place.

Next, I stayed with the two littles while everyone else went back on Radiator Springs.

We spent our lunch at Ariel's Grotto. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for Makenzie. She had a list a mile long of princesses she wanted to meet, starting with Belle. The lunch at Ariel's Grotto was such a perfect way to knock our way through that list. She was the perfect little model after she got changed into her Belle dress.

We were welcomed to the restaurant by Ariel, and we sat out on the patio where we could watch all the other rides going while we waited.

Hunter definitely loved all the attention on this trip, and loved watching and listening to the new stuff around him. This kid is going to be a great traveler :).

Makenzie was more than a little skeptical of the guy that sang the welcoming song, but she didn't actually cry, so we're calling it a win. I'm pretty sure she was expecting princesses and this guy just wasn't making the cut :).

Belle was our first princess, which was a huge relief to me. Makenzie stared up in wonder as she signed everyone's autograph books, and was too excited to speak or answer Belle's questions. There hasn't been a day since our trip when I didn't hear 'Belle...I meet her!' at least 5 times, and she tells everyone we meet, from parents at Tball games to grocery store cashiers :).

Tiana has spent the most time at the top of Olivia's favorite princess list, so this was an added bonus. Character meals have always exceeded all of our expectations, we just can't wait until there is an Avenger's meal :).

Silly boy...he loved dessert and might have been flirting with the princesses a little :).

Immediately after lunch we headed to Midway Mania, which quickly became Olivia and Carter's favorite rides. I shouldn't say favorite, because everyone on the trip had at least 5 favorite things, but Disney has a way of doing that to us.

I'm pretty sure the grownups went on California Screamin' while Mary and I took the kiddos on King Triton's carousel. Last time we came I felt like we ended up riding this ride constantly, but this time we had a lot more adventurous kiddos, and this was our only carousel ride. Hunter was really happy on his dolphin, and spent the whole ride kicking and grabbing the pole, which made me too nervous to back up for a good picture. He was sliding all around the seat, but didn't seem at all scared of falling off.

I love Carter's smile in this picture...pure joy when he found his dad in the crowd!

These next pictures are from the Little Mermaid ride. It was our first time on it (it was under construction last time we were at DL), and I loved it. I'm always happy for a fun, continuously moving ride that everyone can enjoy. This was our second time on the ride, out of at least 3 times. One time I took just the two youngest on by myself, and that totally worked as well. You can't get better than a ride that I can take a baby and 2 year old on and make it through happily!

I love how engrossed they get in the story, and how real everything is. Old style animatronics or new technology doesn't make a difference, to them it's all magical.

After Ariel, I went with Olivia, Mary, Ashley, Tyler, and Andy to California Screamin'. It was my first time to bite the bullet and go on (I prefer themed rides to pure roller coasters) and also Olivia's first time. I was a little nervous that she would get scared and not want to go on, but I'm pretty sure I was projecting my own reservations. This girl was totally gung ho, and even after was proud of herself for going on it. After the ride I asked her about it, and she said going upside down was great, everything was fine except the straight down sections. She didn't go on it again this trip, but she continued to surprise me with her bravery throughout the trip.

While we went on the ride, Alex took Carter to search out Spiderman. He wasn't disappointed, and was just about to meet him when we got there.

Carter's reaction to just about every character was so sweet. He just stared and nodded, too stunned to speak. I love how his face doesn't change the entire time. Spiderman was an awesome character to meet. He was super chatty with all of his youngest fans, and even made a point to wave to Hunter when he signed his autograph book.

Hunter was too busy flirting with this cast member to pay any attention to Spiderman, but I'm sure that will change in the next few years.

Haha...I think Grandpa is the only one who understands web-slinging :). In his defense, I'm not sure Carter has ever seen a spiderman show or movie or anything like that, his knowledge is limited to books and the Lego video game.

It was REALLY hot all day, so we took a mid-day break inside the animation academy. We gave everyone a choice, and Makenzie wanted to wait in line to meet Anna while the others all went to Turtle Talk. I made the sacrifice of waiting in a character line...anything for your kids! I'm so glad I waited in this line though, because 35 minutes later (I was curious so I timed it) we were led back into the room where Anna and Elsa were waiting. They were so sweet to Makenzie, and didn't mind when she told them that Belle was her favorite. After this day of meeting 7 princesses, the trip couldn't get better. She just sat and cuddled with them while they signed her book and asked her all about her trip to Disneyland. They listened so well, and understood her 2 year old speak way better than I thought they would.

One of my favorite things was her little tongue, which went from side to side the entire time we were in there.

After We saw Anna and Elsa, we met everyone else down in the Beast's Library, which was super fun and instilled a love of roses in Makenzie. Belle is her new favorite princess, but she has only seen the movie once or twice. I'm not sure she realized the significance of the rose in the movie before this, and she now points out every rose (and peony, and rhododendron, and iris) that she sees to ask if this is one of Belle's flowers :).

We went for a little adventure in the Redwood Forest adventure section. I'm not actually sure what this is called but it's a fun break from rides and the kids love climbing up all the ropes and things. Andy, Tyler, and Ashley took the older kids up and around the nature trail while the rest of us stayed with Makenzie and Hunter in the lower section. Carter passed the 42" mark to do this rope swing, and I was so surprised that they let him on (he was only barely 42", if that) that I didn't think about what he was actually doing. After the swing hit it's stopping point and bounced back (you can see in the picture below that Olivia has already bounced) Carter flew off and took a faceful of rubber chips. He jumped right up - thanks in large part to the cheering section standing right next to him - and was off to the next thing. I noticed that he wasn't overly anxious to try again though ;).

We had a couple fast passes or rider switch passes (we made good use of these the entire trip and I don't remember which we had this time) left for Midway Mania, so we split up and just our little family went on the ride one more time. I wanted to try without holding Hunter, so Alex took him and still beat me ... luckily I had Makenzie sitting next to me, so I could still blame my poor performance on helping kids. Alex and I might have a slight competition problem...

We had Italian food for dinner (including an amazing pesto ravioli) from Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta with plans to stay out for another hour or so. I noticed that all of the kids were really tired though, and it culminated in Olivia eating her salad like this...

So I took the two littlest back to the hotel for bed and Alex was going to use the rider switch passes from earlier to take the bigger kids on Radiator Springs one more time. They totally loved this ride :)

On the way back through Cars Land they got sidetracked by some cool sights and lights (and one more ride on Luigi's dancing cars as well) Someday I will post the video of them on this ride...it was hilarious. Mostly I just love how happy they are after a full day of rides and heat and craziness. Disneyland truly is our family's happy place :)

And that was Day 1 in the parks! Day 2 was in Disneyland, so all new rides and adventures :)