Disney Day 4 & 5 (DL, CA)

I still haven't decided if this should be day 2 or day 4. The 4th day of our trip was the 2nd day in the parks, and our first in Disneyland. This day started out a little interesting. The grownups left before we had all the kids dressed to go get some breakfast. After they left, I was brushing kids teeth in one bathroom while Alex was sunscreening kids on the balcony. I noticed Hunter crawling off towards the adjoining room and didn't think twice when he went in and closed the door behind him. For a minute he was happy, and then when he started to fuss I had Olivia grab the room key to open the door from the outside. When she came back and said it wouldn't open, I finally got involved a little. I went to try the key, which didn't work. I then went back and grabbed the rest of the stack of keys. None of them would work, and Hunter was now hysterical. I had Alex call the front desk, which was the typical phone tree and hold time before he spoke with someone. I was getting anxious as he assured me that maintenance was on the way. We kept trying to open the door, and called through the adjoining door to Hunter, trying to calm him down. After five minutes of waiting and no one showing up, Gary went down to the front desk (which was in a different building and a 5+ minute walk away) while Alex got back on the phone. We got the same assurances that someone was coming, and I tried to not freak out. Hunter was still screaming, so he wasn't in any real trouble, but that did very little to make me feel better. A few minutes later (approximately 12 minutes after our first call, which was a little disappointing) maintenance showed up. Unfortunately, after trying the master key, the maintenance guy was able to deduce that the dead lock on the outside door was still locked. Andy, Ashley, and Tyler had left through the main suite and left the adjoining door open, so no one even realized that the dead bolt wasn't unlocked. The maintenance guy couldn't unlock it, so he called security. I wasn't very nice to him as I told him that we explained the problem over the phone and I expected it to be solved in a more timely manner. I had Alex leave with the other three kids so that they could get the day started in a better way, and I waited for security. After he got there, he was able to use an emergency card to get the door open about an inch, then use a different card to slide the lock open. Both men were pretty quick to leave after I had Hunter and they saw that all was ok, so I sat in the room with him and tried to get both of us calmed down.

Lucky for us, that was the biggest disaster of the trip. And hopefully it wasn't enough of a traumatic memory to stick with Hunter for very long. After giving myself and him a 10 minute cuddle session, we headed downstairs to join everyone else. We didn't take full advantage of the Magic Morning that day, but we were looking forward to a great day regardless. 

This first picture is proof that I'm not the only one who loves hand holding pictures :)

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After walking through Tomorrowland and getting fast passes for Space Mountain later, we happened to walk by the Storybook Land Canals right when they were opening for the day, so we hopped right on. We took up an entire boat, which is one of my favorite parts of the ride. I will never forget squeezing all of the Johnsons into one boat that was floating mysteriously low in the water :)

 All of our kids are so entranced by these miniature castles. Olivia and Carter were chatting the entire time trying to figure out how the 'Disney people' found and shrunk all the castles to bring them to Disneyland. So fun!

Carter and Tyler were special buds that morning, and I love this picture because it also shows Andy with the backpack. I arranged our stuff so that we could ditch the strollers at any point and just take the backpack with us, but anytime we left the strollers it left a lot of kids that also needed a hand to hold. I am so grateful for all the help that all of our family gave to us. Alex and I truly couldn't have done the trip without them (and wouldn't dare try!)

Kenzie's dancing face :) she was getting her groove on to the 'It's a Small World' music while we waited in line.

Hunter was super excited about being able to be free in the boat, and we could tell early on that he was going to love the ride.

Jealous? I get to go home with this guy :)

Both Makenzie and Hunter were completely enthralled once we got into the building. Eyes dashing from one fun sight to the next, Makenzie pointing out all the princesses, and Hunter officially gave his first wave :). Their little faces were so cute throughout the entire ride. IASW has always been one of my favorite rides, so I was so happy that everyone enjoyed it this time, especially the two littlest, who were probably overwhelmed for much of the trip.

More hand-holding as we headed away from It's a Small World toward the Teacup ride.

And Tyler noticed me taking a picture...

Once on the teacups, we split into the no spinning cup, the super fast cup, and the almost fast cup :) My energy was all put towards keeping the kids sitting, but we had fun finding all of the others as they spun all around us. Carter just wanted to spin and spin like Olivia (of course) and O is all about being an adult and spinning as fast as possible :)

We headed next over to Toon Town and put Ash in Jail. We considered leaving her there, but Olivia wouldn't have been able to ride anything without her :).

The tongue made another appearance ...I just had a hard time not taking her picture every second throughout this trip, she was having the time of her life :)

Next we recreated my favorite picture from our last trip to DL. Last time, Carter, Alex, and Gary were accidentally wearing the exact same outfit one day. I didn't even realize it until I took this picture of them all walking together (Carter was about 18 months old). This time, red shirts and khakis made the packing spreadsheet so we could get this shot again, with one new almost-walking addition.

It was hot, and we were almost ready for a lunch break, but we decided to hit up Autopia first. This is another of the kids favorites, because they get to actually drive the cars :). Alex stayed with Hunter, who was asleep. Kenzie and I were in front, and I tried to get pictures of everyone behind us, but the driving was a bit erratic...to say the least.

In another of my favorite Makenzie moments, here she is giving us a double thumbs up for the morning's activities :). This was the first time I had ever seen her try thumbs up, but we have been encouraging it ever since :).

After lunch, the 'big kids' went on Space Mountain. I tried to explain to Olivia (who was afraid of the dark in Pirates of the Caribbean) that she probably wouldn't like it, that it was dark the entire time, etc. In truth, I haven't been on it since I was 10, so I might have been projecting... Regardless, she decided to join them, and was sitting behind Andy in this picture. Apparently she was so hyped up after the ride that she almost collapsed as she said 'That was the BEST RIDE EVER!'. They used the extra fast passes from the rest of us to go on it again right away, which is how we got the awesome picture of Tyler below :).

While they were all on Space Mountain, Gary and I took the younger kids to Adventureland to see Tarzan's tree house, and we happened upon a short line for Moana. She was super fun, but she made a mistep which I found hilarious. Makenzie asked her specifically if she knew Belle (which was so cute by itself). Moana responded that she does know Belle, and she sometimes borrows books from Belle's library to take on her longer journeys. Makenzie responded, which typical 2 year old indignance 'No! You no friends with Belle, me friends with Belle. Me read with her and hug her. Me meet her' and then she stomped off...  Thank you Moana for your good attitude toward my stinker of a toddler :)

After that we met up for the Jungle Cruise! I know I say favorite ride too many times, but here's another one. Every time I go on, I hear a new joke (and a bunch of old ones :)) and it's another ride that is so fun to ride as a parent when I can remember my childhood feelings of the same ride. In typical fashion, Makenzie's favorite parts were the elephants and the zebra that was being eaten by a lion (she said they were friends), Carter wasn't a huge fan of the hippos (and gunshot) but he thought the rhino corralling the people was hilarious, and Olivia was quite concerned about the head-collecting man and piranhas, but she loved seeing all the animals and pointing out all the babies.

We headed back early that day because we had promised swimming to the kids (who has time for the pool when there is Disneyland!!??) and this was the best day to make it work. We had dinner by the pool before swimming a bit. It was actually surprisingly cool at 7, so we didn't swim for long, but we got all the kids in bed reasonably early and ready for the next fun day.

Day 5 we woke up pumped and ready for our 2nd day at California Adventure. This day we had more of a plan, because our list of things we hadn't seen yet was looming over us. We started by going straight to Soarin' Around the World (with no wait!) Here are some pictures that Mary took while she kept the littles.

After that amazing ride (the movement and smells are amazing...this is a must see for sure, even if you've seen Soarin' Over California before) everyone wanted to go back onto Midway Mania, so I stayed with sleeping Hunter and took a few pictures outside the ride.

I feel like we really made great use of our extra hour this day. Right about the time the park opened, we were getting in line for our third ride, Mickey's Ferris Wheel. The 'big kids' went on one of the swinging gondolas, but I was happy with our non-swinging choice.

Everyone enjoyed checking out the park from the sky, and it was fun to be able to point out many of the things we had already seen throughout the week.

We split up after that. I took the littles to ride Ariels' Underwater Adventure and everyone else went on Radiator Springs again.

We had a strict time to meet up for the Frozen show, and I'm so glad we did. It was kind of a zoo getting in, and after bathroom breaks and diaper changes, we were still able to get in on time. I may or may not have gotten in trouble for changing a diaper on the floor of a hallway inside the theater - but there was no bathroom close and I didn't want to miss the beginning!

The show was amazing, as we have heard from everyone who has already seen it. All of the kids were entranced the entire time, and I especially loved how they made Olaf and Sven. It reminded me a lot of the Lion King Broadway show, with the people inside the animals. So creative, and the faces that Olaf made were amazing.

We grabbed lunch on the Wharf before the kids crashed. I don't remember if we did anything else while they were sleeping, but A Bugs Land was next on our list, so I was glad they were getting the rest they needed. One difference that we made this year is that we didn't go back mid-day for a nap. This meant that we didn't stay out quite as late as last time, but with half the kids not napping anymore, it was just easier to stay in the park. Luckily, Makenzie and Hunter both seemed to get the sleep that they needed to get through the afternoon, and we didn't waste a bunch of time walking back and forth. Yay for older kids!

This picture was taken about 20 minutes after Makenzie woke up. For the longest time she refused to talk to anyone, look at anyone, eat anything, or move. She just sat like this while I chatted to her and sang to her, not responding unless I tried to touch her, then she would swat me away. She was still sleeping I think :)

While we were waiting for Makenzie to respond, Alex took the older kids on the ladybug ride. I will let you guess who enjoyed it more :)

After everyone rode on the ladybugs and the bumper cars, we walked over to Grizzly River Run. It was the perfect weather for this ride, and almost everyone decided the risk of getting wet was worth it :). Olivia was really attached to her poncho, and I only took mine off at the last minute. It really was great weather, and this is one of the most fun rides in the park, in my opinion. We rode once, then jumped on again with Alex. I was ready to ride it over and over for the rest of the day.

I can't remember what everyone else went to do during this time, but Alex and I took our little family on Heimlich's ride, which was a big hit with Makenzie especially. All of the kids like guessing what the next smell will be, but I think only Olivia connected the smell with whatever we were riding past. Some of Carter and Makenzie's smell guesses were very creative :).

We ate dinner at Flo's garage (the kids loved the fact that they were getting fuelled up at the same place that Lightning McQueen and Mater use) and the kids joined a Cars dance party, but they were all reaching the end of their rope. Alex and I took our kids back after that, and everyone else rode a few more rides, but weren't far behind. Here's some group photos from right as we were leaving.

Sadly, we were about to have our last day at Disneyland before flying home, but it was a great one, with the perfect ending. Next up: Day 6-7!