Saturday Morning we loaded up the car and the kids and headed out to California. We stopped in Quartzsite for lunch at Burger King, but it was a pretty uneventful drive out.
The first night we stayed in Quality Inn & Suites walking distance to downtown Disney. We walked over as soon as we got settled and had dinner over at the Storyteller Café.
We like them because they are very allergy friendly for Landon. We ate there the first night last time as well, with Laura and everyone, and really liked it. The food is tasty and the service is great.
Ollie was a little stressful, but not bad. Once I got him to start eating the muffins we were pretty good. He and I played a lot of games.
I took him potty and he had his first experience with an automatic flushing toilet. It freaked him out, and follow on issues with these toilets made it so he doesn’t want to go potty for me anymore.
Once we finished our dinner we walked around Downtown Disney. Landon really liked the Lego store display out front. He built a car and raced it. Landon also found an Agent P hat, which he loved so much and talked about the whole time we were there. In the end, it’s what he chose for his souvenir. I got my Beignets from the Jazz Kitchen, and we went back to the hotel to try and go to bed early.
Sunday was an early morning. We got up at 5AM and from there headed over to the Paradise Pier Hotel for early “Pre-check in” where we dropped off our luggage, got room keys, and parked the car. Then we walked over to the park, and Opened up Disneyland!
Star Tours, followed by Space Mountain, and then Ollie got his first ride on Astro Blasters. Oliver did not like it and cried. But on the bright side, he lived through it. Landon didn’t want to ride the Nemo Subs, because they were too scary.
We went over and hit Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, and the Winnie the Pooh ride. Ollie was nervous on Pirates, and didn’t like Haunted Mansion. As we entered the elevator, Ollie started shaking his head crying, “NO NO NO! NO MAMA NO!” I felt so bad, but once we were on, he calmed down. (When we rode it the second time, he even liked it!)
Then we went over to Tom Sawyer’s Island (er, apparently it’s “Pirate’s Lair” now). The boys really liked this. Ollie had no fear, and was jumping up and down on the bridge.
Landon didn’t like the bridge so much. Too High.
At some point we hit Alice in Wonderland, and then Landon begged to go on the Teacups. Bobby took him, because Bobby is an awesome Dad.
All of that happened before 10AM.
All of that. For reals.
So at 10AM, we headed over to California adventure. We walked onto Ariel’s adventure, and followed that up by waiting almost an hour to ride Toy Story Midtown Mania. For the record, it was not worth the wait. On the bright side, Oliver wore the 3D glasses and seemed pretty okay with the ride. We had lunch at the Mexican place near Ariel’s Grotto, and ran across the Phineas and Ferb Rocking Dance Party. It was pretty neat, but Landon refused to go dance.
We then explored the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. The Boys really enjoyed that, Ollie’s favorite thing in all of Disney was this little slide there.
. We also did this weird rope bridge thing that tried to eat all of our shoes.
Speaking of shoes, Ollie continues to be a nightmare when it comes to shoes. He won’t wear them, kicking the off all the time. But you have to have shoes on to ride all the rides, so we were constantly taking off shoes and putting them back on.
Oliver finally dozed off in his stroller and we made our way back to Disneyland. Once there, we shopped and explored until Ollie woke up. Then we hit Jungle Cruise, It’s a Small World, and visited Mickey in Toon Town. We had fast passes for Soaring over California adventure, but Oliver was cranky and tired. Bobby went back to the hotel that night and got a decent night’s sleep.
Landon and I decided to use the fast passes. Except Landon was tired, so he rode around in my Cinchworm carrier, which we also used to transport Ollie for a lot of it.
Landon and I stumbled into the Mad Tea Party, which was pretty cool, but only stayed for about 10 minutes until our fast passes were good. We rode the ride, then went back to the hotel.
Monday morning we again opened the park, and managed to start out with riding the rocket ships.
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Bobby got to take Landon on Space Mountain, which broke down when they were fifty feet from boarding. Eventually they managed to get on, which was good.
After that we finally headed over to Autopia. Landon and I drove one car, and Bobby took Ollie in the other. Landon enjoyed driving around the track and did a great job of steering. He couldn’t quite reach the pedals though, so I got to take care of that part for us. This was followed by running over to Thunder Mountain, where Landon and I waited in line while Bobby got us fast passes to ride Splash Mountain again. Landon and I got within 50 feet of boarding, when the ride broke. It broke so bad they gave us fast passes to come back later and cleared the line.
So we did Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Splash Mountain again. Then had lunch at the Hungry Bear, as they have the dairy and gluten free bread we all love. We did Roger Rabbit and rode the Train around the park. Ollie was grumpy, so Bobby took him for some shopping, then back to the hotel for a nap. Landon and I got in some more rides, including a third time on Haunted Mansion, where I discovered Landon CLOSES HIS EYES for half the ride. He claims it’s his favorite and always begs to ride it again!
Landon and I also rode the Columbia ship, and managed to get on Thunder Mountain with our fast passes.
Then it was time to meet up with Bobby, and we explored CA Adventure, riding Monster’s Inc and visiting Turtle talk with crush as well as Sorcerer’s Workshop, which was really awesome. In Beast’s library, you can take this test and it tells you which Disney character you are most like. Landon is Shere Khan. I’m Lady (yes, from The Lady and the Tramp). Bobby is Buzz Lightyear.
We took the kids back to Disneyland and did Tarzan’s tree house and rode the Jungle Cruise one last time. The plan had been to stay for fireworks, but both kids were fading fast, so we finally said goodnight and goodbye to Disneyland.
Tuesday morning we woke up and met Uncle Jack for Breakfast with Goofy. The food was tasty, the company good. They made Landon special safe pancakes, and Oliver loved that the pancakes were in the shape of Mickey. Ollie ate like a pig, dipping everything in yogurt.
We finished up with a little shopping before driving all the way back home!
Overall an amazing and fun trip!
All the pictures can be found here on flickr,
The Chronicles of a Henchwoman 