The Girls....and Mitch: Disneyland Fun!

I know in my last post I said that more would be coming. Who knew it was going to take me weeks to get this post done. Mostly because we have been super busy trying to get our yard cleaned up and ready for grass seed. As well as planting our garden. That is a totally different post. Plus I have to get pictures and all that jazz before I get that post done. So on to the fun stuff. This might be pretty long, if you don't know want to read the whole thing no worries. Just enjoy the pictures.
We had the chance to go with Mitch's parents and "little" brother Cole. It was a blast and I am sure we will never forget the chance we had to go. The girls had a lot of fun as well. We flew out late Sunday which was perfect. Marly ran around the airport screaming and freaking the people on our flight out ( I heard a woman as we were boarding say,"oh we get the crying baby on our flight"). Just to prove that woman wrong Marly fell asleep as soon as we were in the air. Maddi was pretty excited so she didn't fall asleep right away. We got up Monday morning and got busy. We started off with a little Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we had lunch and got busy again with a Carousel ride, the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and our last ride was the Finding Nemo Submarine Adventure. We tried to make it in time for the parade, but missed getting inside the ropes so we couldn't see very well. Maddi still liked it. Maddi decided she didn't like the rides very much. She spent the whole Carousel ride screaming that she wanted off. The picture of her smiling is before the ride started. She loved looking at things, but after the Carousel didn't want to ride anything else.

Marly was so tired at this point but still having fun.

Tuesday we went over to California Adventures and did just about everything you could do there. Our favorite was probably Soarin' over California where you sit in a seat and they lift you in the air over this screen and it makes you feel like you are hang-gliding. The boys did the California Screamin' roller coaster, but I was too chicken to ride. That evening, however, they talked me into it. I remembered why I don't like roller coasters. Plus they take your picture on the ride and make you look like an idiot. I really liked the Grizzly River Run. Although I didn't get as wet as the boys did. We also did the Ariel's UnderSea Adventure, Bugs Life bumper cars,and the 3-D show It's Tough to be a Bug. Maddi hated the 3-D effects and Mitch had to take her out of the theater screaming. In her defense it was kind of scary. They have little puffers in the seats that are in front of you that spout water and air at certain times, as well as the mean grasshopper sending spiders down from the ceiling. They also poke you in the back. Poor kid thankfully she hasn't had any nightmares from it. Mitch, Debbie, Maddi, Marly and I were also able to go see the Aladdin show. It was funny for adults as well as very entertaining for the kids. Our last ride of the night was The Tower of Terror. I did that one mostly because I didn't want to miss out, but now that I have done it I don't ever think I need to again. That night we stood in the same spot for hours to save our spot so we could all see the World of Color show. It was awesome what they can do with lights and water, and I guess totally worth all the standing.

Maddi before the ride started

Wednesday we were going to try and make it to Universal Studios, but we didn't have enough time to drive there and back before our special dinner. So instead we spent the day in Downtown Disney trying to find some sweaters (I don't know how it happened, but we forgot to bring ours from home). Then that night we went to Medieval Times. It was a lot of fun for the girls. They loved watching the horses.

Debbie and Cole enjoying the Carousel

The girls would have been happy to stay here all day

Thursday was a bright and early day at Disneyland. We got there early enough to have pretty short rides. We started off with Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters then on to Space Mountain, and finally Star Tours. We really lucked out on getting into lines early without lines. From there we hurried off to try and catch more rides early and get some FastPasses as well (those FastPasses are amazing!). We did Splash Mountain, then all the girls went and did The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and then met up with the boys to do The Haunted Mansion. After lunch Mitch, Debbie, Maddi, Marly, and I went over to the It's a Small World ride and got to see some drummers doing a performance there. We did the ride and decided to take a little break on the road where the parade was going to go down. We set up the strollers had some cotton candy and waited for the parade. We decided we probably had time to do one more ride so Mitch and I took the girls down to Alice in Wonderland. We headed back to our resting spot and waited for the parade. Maddi found some girls her age and had fun playing with them. The video below is Maddi's reaction to the start of the parade. She definitely got more excited when the princess float came by but she was still pretty excited here. After the parade we decided to do Indian Jones another time and after that we pretty much were done. We did some shopping and found some comfy sweaters. We spent way too much on souvenirs, but the it is hard to turn something down when the girls got so excited over it.

Friday we decided to switch gears and go to Universal Studios. It was pouring rain when we got there so we stopped for lunch and by the time lunch was over it was drizzling. We started by going to Shrek in 4-D mostly because it was still raining and that was inside. Maddi didn't like it very much but once she took off her 3-D glasses she was fine. Debbie and I took the girls to Curious George's play area while the boys went to The Simpsons ride. After the boys got back they decided the ball room was too much fun to pass up so we stayed there a little while longer. It was pretty fun because there were vacuums that sucked up the balls and other things that shot the balls out. After that we did the Universal Studios Tour. On the tour we got to see some of the studios where they shoot different TV shows and different movies. Sorry there aren't any pictures of Universal Studios. It was still raining so I rarely got out my phone. We also got to see Jaws and War of the Worlds sets. The thing Maddi keeps talking about is The 3-D King Kong thing they take you on inside the cars. After the tour Mitch took me on the Simpsons Ride and from there we all went down to The Mummy and Jurassic Park rides. There were no lines for anything so the boys did the rides like 3 or 4 times each. I was so motion sick I couldn't take any more rides, but it was so much fun and the little bit of rain made it great because no one else was there.

Maddi was so excited to see Rapunzel

Our last day Saturday we went back to Universal Studios and watched some of the shows that we didn't see the day before. Thankfully we did all the rides because the lines were horrible. We watched the WaterWorld show. It was pretty awesome with plane crashes, explosions, and gun fighting. We also went and watched their Animal Actors. The girls loved all the animals. They had dogs, cats, rats, hamsters, and birds. They all did really fun tricks. The highlight of Maddi's trip was that she got to meet Dora. We were on our way to a show and there she was we jumped in line and were second. Dora gave Maddi a big hug and a kiss. I was shocked she let Dora touch her because when we were at California Adventures she wouldn't have anything to do with Mickey Mouse. We had the girls' picture sketched by a really talented artist there and called it a day. We transferred to a hotel closer to the airport and stuffed our bags as full as we could fill them with all of our loot. It was a great trip and I am so thankful that the girls had a great time. Our flight was pretty early that next morning and the girls slept through the whole thing. I even had a little girl next to me use me as a pillow. I am truly thankful that the girls did so great on our flights because you hear horror stories all the time of kids crying the whole time. I am also extremely grateful for Mitch's family taking us with them. Debbie was always great to stay with the girls while I did some of the rides with Mitch. We will forever be grateful for the experience we had. It was a blast!