Disneyland With Our Besties

We were so lucky to be able to meet up with Sarah, Kendall, and Katelyn on the Monday of our spring break at Disnelyland!  Special thanks to Sarah for bringing her girls down to spend the day with us, and a big thank you to Uncle Rhino for being such a trooper and being our extra set of hands, our fast pass gatherer, and all around good sport!  As you can see from the pictures, we had a fabulous day!

My girls had NO idea that we would be meeting Kendall and Katelyn while we were there.  And, Kendall and Katelyn had no idea that they were going to Disneyland -- much less meeting our girls there!  It was so sweet because a few days before we left, Olivia asked me, "Hey Mommy, do you think we can see Kendall when we go out to California?"  It was so hard telling her that I didn't think we would while Sarah and I were plotting behind our kids backs!  

It was so great to see the girls just pick up where they left off once they saw each other!  Just love these four girls together!  Such sweet friends!  I'm so grateful that we have all kept in touch, and that we were able to spend a fast and furious day together at one of our most favorite places!

* This was the before shot of her riding Big Thunder Railroad... the after wasn't pretty! *

Oh That California Adventure

On Tuesday morning, it was time to get up and at 'em again.  Somehow it is always easier the first day {snacks are already packed, stroller is already loaded as opposed to the second day where you've barely unpacked the stroller from the night before}.  But, we still managed to make it to the park and were in line for fast passes to Radiator Springs Racers before it had even opened!

Our first {and usually second} ride is always the Toy Story Mania ride.  It is my all-time favorite at California Adventure.  While David secured our CarsLand fast passes, we rode Toy Story Mania and then got in line to do it again when he joined us.  It was fun watching Sydney actually play the games inside the ride this time!

We let the guys ride California Screamin' a couple times while we hit up the carousel.  Olivia showed about zero interest in this - and it's something she used to love.  :(  She is growing up.  

After the carousel ride, we made our way into CarsLand where we rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, and grabbed a quick bite to eat before riding Radiator Springs Racers.  Sydney has a new obsession with potato chips thanks to the park. 

After winning our race in the Cars ride, we headed over to the Grizzly River Run.  Sadly, Sydney was about a half inch too short to ride the ride, so instead of getting soaking wet, we did a little hat shopping inside an air-conditioned store.  Olivia loved the ride and actually got to ride it twice. 

Thanks to a lost {and later found} phone, we got to ride the Ariel ride about 4 times back to back.  It's always such a quick line.  After David got his phone back, we headed over to the Bugs Life area and rode a few rides there.  We had enough time to see Sophia the First and ride the Monsters Inc ride twice before the watching the Pixar Parade.  {Thanks, Uncle Rhino, for saving us the best seats!}

After all of that adventuring, we still had three things left on our CA wish list - Ride Radiator Springs Racers at night, eat a sit down dinner {for Ryan}, take a birthday picture of Olivia in front of the Mickey wheel.  Thankfully, we were able to accomplish all of those!

As a bonus, we were able to see even more fireworks on our exit from the park.  Disneyland had closed early so they could practice for their 60th celebration, and we were able to see them!  We even made it back to the hotel in time to watch them from the pool & hot tub.  Such a great ending to our birthday trip.  

The next morning, we headed over to Downtown Disney to let the girls walk around and explore a little before our trip home.  Olivia had gotten a couple different gift cards to Disneyland, and hadn't spent very much in Disney, so we wanted to give her the opportunity to do that before we left.  She was so great with her money, buying gifts for friends before herself.  It made me very proud of her.

➹ The Lego store was SO cool! ➹

As {bad} luck would have it, our car got a flat tire in the middle of the desert on the way home, so we sat by the side of the road for 2 hours before driving home at 60mph with a donut tire on the car.  But, we made it home by 10p, safe and sound with one sleeping child.  I'll call that a successful trip any day of the week!

➹ Turns out we had stopped at this exact McDonald's restaurant when my friend Liz and I took our kids to Disneyland two years ago! ➹

Another Disneyland Birthday in the Books

Even though we had to pull Olivia {and Sydney} from school to take them to Disneyland, I really think this was the perfect week to go -- David, Olivia, and I all got to wear birthday buttons at the park!

We arranged a special surprise for Olivia the morning of our first day at the park with Uncle Rhino flying in that morning and meeting us at the hotel before we left.  She was a little confused as to what he was doing at our hotel, but once she realized what was happening, she got very excited that he was going to join us.

It was really great having three adults to two children!  David and Ryan did a great job grabbing fast passes at the popular attractions {Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ... hello, all the mountain rides!} and so we really didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes in a moving line for any ride.  We didn't do any real meet & greets with princesses, but had to go to Minnie and Mickey's houses for Sydney.  We packed in a full day and got to ride all the rides that we wanted, including two that we had never done before! And, Sydney was tall enough to be able to ride everything!

Want to see a gazillion pictures from our day at Disneyland?  Here ya go:

➹ Heading out to California on Sunday. ➹

➹ Olivia was in bed about to fall asleep when I heard what I thought was gunfire.  Took me a minute to realize that it was the fireworks from Disneyland {that we've never seen}. So, we pulled her out of bed and walked out our back door and got to watch them.  She was obviously amazed! ➹

➹ I was worried about how things would go with this wild child, but both girls were so well behaved!  I was so proud of them both! ➹

➹ We had never ridden the Storybook Land Canal boat ride before, and it was one of my favorites of the day! ➹

➹ My little Alice in front of the White Rabbit's house. ➹

➹ Sydney was goofy-ing it up with Goofy! ➹

➹ The very second this picture was taken was the very second Sydney got scared on the ride.  She did cry for about 3 seconds and then was fine.  This picture is the best! ➹

➹ We were hoping Olivia or Sydney would get chosen for the Jedi training session, especially considering she had on the adorable Star Wars skirt.  It wasn't in the cards for either of them, so we went and got spaghetti to eat instead! ;) ➹

➹ I have wanted to get the girls' silhouettes done at Disneyland for the longest time.  I'm so glad I took the two minutes {seriously, she is that fast} to get them done this time! ➹

➹ I LOVE how they turned out! ➹

➹ Oh man.  The parade is always a highlight for us.  Olivia said it was her favorite part of the day.  It doesn't matter that we've seen it ten times already. ➹

➹ So basically Sydney wouldn't smile for the camera.  This face with her arms out in front of her was her go-to move.  The girl cracks me up.  Also, please note that she wore about 4 different outfits the entire day.  ➹

➹ We finished the night with some Fantasyland rides, the carousel, and a Mickey pretzel! Such a full, fun day! ➹

➹ We ended up walking home thinking it would be quicker than waiting on the shuttle.  It wasn't.  But, it put me over 20,000 steps which I'd never done, so despite pushing a heavy stroller up the overpass, I was sort of okay with it.  {But not okay enough to do it again the next day.} ➹

Stay tuned for lots more pictures from our day at California Adventure!