Tuesday and Wednesday Disneyland Re-cap

I know you were all distraught to not see a new post for Tuesday. Sorry, I was busy with family-related stuff. So here's the Tuesday and Wednesday re-cap, then I'm taking a blogging break for a couple days. I've got 4 movies here at home waiting to be watched ("Guess who's Coming to Dinner?" from Netflix, "Officer and a Gentleman" and "Clash of the Titans" from the library, and I just bought the "Cloverfield" DVD--sorry, Jana, you can't borrow it!)

Our last day at Disneyland. It was also the coldest. In fact, the kids had sweaters with them most of the day, although they didn’t necessarily wear them. It was our second Magic Morning/Early Entry day, but instead of going to see Nemo again, we visited some of the Fantasyland attractions we hadn’t seen yet.
We rode Peter Pan’s Flight first, since that tends to have the longest line of all the Fantasyland dark rides. Then Dumbo, of course (another long-line ride):



Next it was the best/worst double punch of the Alice in Wonderland ride (my favorite of the dark rides) and Mr. Toad (my LEAST favorite). While Alice is full of detail, creativity, and is a thoroughly unique Disney ride, Mr. Toad is flat, obnoxious, and disjointed, and the only thing memorable about the ride is the trip to Hell—rather appropriate, in my opinion.
We had a bathroom break, then took another ride on Autopia. Then it was time for the Jedi Training Academy. We sat down in the seating area at 10:00, ½ hour before the show started. (I took a bathroom break during the wait). We sat up close (you sit on the ground in front of the training area) and when they got ready to pick people, I gave Joel the sign he and Maddy had made before the trip. I wish I’d gotten a photo of the sign beforehand. It was a big, neon-green posterboard with Star Wars Coloring Book pictures taped to it (which the kids colored). I wrote “The Force is strong with me!” on it, and Maddy and Joel wrote some other things on it, such as the names of several characters, “Pick me you must!” “Skywalker rules; Grievous drools,” etc. Joel was the 2nd person picked, and not long after, a Disney employee asked me if she could have the sign because the Jedi Master collects them, or something. Here’s a highlights video of his experience:

As we headed out of Tomorrowland, Amanda spotted a familiar face: Joel’s Kindergarten teacher! We talked to her for a minute, and she mentioned that she saw another teacher from their school earlier that day. If I didn’t mention it before, we saw a LOT of people wearing BYU/ Utah shirts on Monday and Tuesday…and people dressed a lot more modestly too (which I’m sure is partially due to the slightly cooler weather those days).
We rode Pirates of the Caribbean again (in preparation for our lunch at the Blue Bayou), took ANOTHER bathroom break (I should’ve pointed out earlier that we didn’t ALL go at each bathroom break. Sometimes it was just one or two of us that needed to go).
At 11:40 we got in a few minutes early for our reservation at the Blue Bayou. We got a nice table, pretty close to the water and we could see the boats going by really well. Joel and Maddy noticed that this restaurant was a lot quieter than Goofy’s Kitchen. The service was excellent. They were really nice, even by Disney standards, and our waitress somehow knew I’d dropped my fork on the floor and suddenly appeared and replaced it for me. The food was really good. Amanda and I got gumbo with our meal as an appetizer:


SOOOOO good. The kids got carrots and celery, which they didn’t enjoy much. We also got some rolls to eat. For the main course, the kids each got a plate of chicken legs and noodles, which they didn’t eat much of:


By the way, Abe's trying to blow out the candle in the picture above.

I got the Monte Cristo, of course. It came with a raspberry jam that actually tasted pretty good on the sandwich:


And Amanda got the Tesora Island Chicken:

The potatoes that came with it were great, too.
It was a great experience, but not something I’d do very often. First of all, it was pretty expensive, and I’d rather have had my kids actually eat the food we ordered for them. Plus, Amanda and I, being seafood-haters, don’t have much to choose from there.
Another bathroom break, of course, then Amanda and Maddy rode Splash Mountain while the boys rode Pirates AGAIN (Joel decided he REALLY liked this ride partway through the trip, insisting that riding in the 2nd or 3rd row made the waterfall drops shorter…hmmm…)
ANOTHER bathroom break, then we all rode Winnie the Pooh.
By then it was 2:15, so we headed back to the hotel for a rest. During that time, I took a short nap, and for me I guess the combination of the greasy Monte Cristo and laying down for a nap didn’t mix, because I had an upset stomach for the rest of the night. This is something I’m actually used to: whenever I take an afternoon nap, I always wake up nauseated.
At 4:30 we headed over to DCA, where Joel took a bathroom break. Then Maddy and I rode the Grizzly River Run, where we got SOAKED. I sat close to the opening on the raft, assuming I would be blocking some of the water from Maddy. As it turns out, there were a couple times when giant walls of water shot right over the top of Maddy onto us.
At this point it was about time for the Pixar Play Parade to start, so Amanda and the boys picked a spot on the parade route to sit while Maddy and I rode Mulholland Madness. In line in front of us was a girl from our ward, along with her mother.
After being tossed to and fro on that ride, we sat with Amanda and the boys to watch the parade. It was actually pretty fun and Abe especially loved it. But I’ll warn you that each parade float has several methods of squirting the viewers with water (and some of the performers have water guns, too). You WILL get wet if you watch the parade (I cracked up when I saw a guy taking a photo of a float, then the float suddenly got him—and his camera—with a spritz of water). Oh, and there’s bubbles.
Joel, increasing his bravery, said that HE wanted to ride Mulholland Madness now, so he and Amanda and Maddy rode it while I watched (I videotaped it, too, but there’s not much to see of them on the ride).
Another bathroom break.
We rode the King Triton’s Carousel again, tried to peek into the Toy Story Midway Mania building, then Maddy and Amanda rode the Orange Stinger, which seems to be designed for people under 125 pounds.
Then Amanda used the “Single-Ride Entrance” for California Screamin’ and rode that finally, although I’m sure she wished Maddy was with her.
At 7:50 we headed over to Disneyland and Amanda and the kids bought some corn dogs:

I was still not in the mood to eat anything. And the corn dogs ended up making Amanda sick all night.
Yet another bathroom break, then we checked the line for Nemo—it was a half-hour wait, so we decided to skip it. Amanda and Maddy rode the Matterhorn, and the rest of us rode Buzz one more time.
By then it was 9:05 and time to leave Disneyland for the last time this trip. Joel got teary-eyed.
And so we said goodbye to Disneyland for another trip.
Total Bathroom Breaks: 8

Wed. 4/16/2008

And let’s get caught up with the Wednesday highlights (or LOW-lights, since it was a lame day)
(all times in the following are Mountain time)
9:45: Leave Anaheim: 61 degrees
2:15: Leave Henderson, NV(after having lunch at Burger King) 66 degrees- -bathroom break
5:30: Beaver, UT: treat at Dairy Queen (including a banana split for me…delicious!) bathroom break
5:50: Leave Beaver, UT
8:00: Orem, UT: trip to Dr. Office for Abe to get his ears checked and get a prescription for his infection.

Right before Henderson, Abe had been napping then woke up screaming and didn’t stop til we got out at Burger King. Then he had another fit or two during the last part of the trip. I’m sure the changes in elevation didn’t feel good on his stuffed-up ear.

Abe really enjoyed when I would pull up the armrest on my chair, sing into it, then start biting the end of the armrest. Unfortunately, one time I was a little too rough and injured my lip:


Hope you all enjoyed reliving the trip with us!